Health, Then Wealth
When our two collegians were sent home in March due to COVID, they did what hundreds of thousands of other students were required to do: sequester themselves in their bedrooms for the balance of the spring term. And as the promise of on-campus summer jobs at their respective schools deformed into remote research hours conducted from southern New Hampshire, they simply continued their daily ritual of sucking up the wi-fi bandwidth, generating an inexplicable volume of dirty laundry, and only appearing during feeding time.
My wife and I had enjoyed the empty-nested life for over two years, and there’s a lot to be said for the simplicity of a child-free household. But even though we ache with our kids for their lost time and bonding experiences with their tribes on campus, we will confess (privately) to being thrilled for this bonus time with them that was never supposed to be. The highlight of this good fortune happens every day around 7pm with the re-discovery of the family meal.
It’s a re-discovery in our case because we fell out of the habit of full attendance at mealtime when the kids were in high school; too many dance classes and sports team obligations to ever count on a regular dinner time. But now that we’re captive with no place to go, every dinner has become a full-contact two hour discussion and debate on the hot topics of the day: international trade balance, election politics, dysfunctional social behavior, and what’s wrong with Dad. Since each of their schools has announced their re-opening plans for the fall (all remote classes for our daughter, mostly remote for our son), the questions of “would you consider staying at home for the fall?” and “what about taking a gap year?” have hit the dining room table.
On this topic, there was no discussion, no debate. “We’re going back to campus” said both, with the conviction in their voices that always triggers parental paranoia. You know the feeling: even though your kids have been model citizens regarding hand-washing, physical distancing and mask-wearing for the last five months, you fear that the minute they hit campus they will go from zero to frat party in under six seconds.
Not to worry, they said. The sole motivation for returning to a devastated school offering is to get on with their lives. The quarantine has already cost them personal growth and a gap year only would further delay them from achieving their priority goal of getting their degree, hitting the job market and becoming official salary-earning adults. When weighing the risk of potential exposure to coronavirus against the reward of staying “on track” to the start of their careers, they are essentially choosing wealth over health. Not that they have great faith in the job market or a bounce-back in the economy —they are indeed quite worried about May 2021. Yet they show the confidence of today’s young adults by betting on themselves and trusting that they can get around and over any the health risk obstacles.
Benjamin Franklin authored the quote “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” Note the order in which he lists these attributes: healthy before wealthy. Among his many vocations Franklin was a mathematician and a philosopher, so let’s assume that he was used to being precise and intentional in his language. Coincidentally Franklin may have been responsible for the first instance of re-opening a school after a national crisis (a.k.a. the Revolutionary War) when he re-branded and re-chartered the University of Pennsylvania in 1779. Add public health expert to his list of professional credentials.
There’s plenty of evidence that the rush to re-open businesses in many states has contributed to the record surge in COVID-19 cases. In financially desperate times it’s understandable that struggling business owners have to push for wealth and pray for health…and ignore the morality of the choice. Regardless of a person’s politics, there can be little disagreement that a blip of economic growth is hardly worth the overburdening the health care system, sacrificing teachers and professors, and extending a life of quarantine for several months longer than necessary. The European and Asian countries that decided on a Health Before Wealth strategy this spring are opening their schools without restrictions this fall. More from me in future articles about the impact of a compromised Higher Ed experience on the competitiveness of career seekers graduating in 2019 and 2020.
I could also remind my son about the “early to bed, early to rise” part. To him 8:00 am classes and breakfast are hypothetical concepts. Hey, he’s 22 and gets to make his own choices. I need to keep remembering that as parents our job is to stay in our lanes, which basically means showing unequivocal emotional support, stroking the checks, and conducting hours of online research on the best filtration masks.
Tim Guen is President of CareerMap and blogs frequently about starting careers and finding success.