I was talking to my wife the other day. We one day want to send our children to a top University. The one's in the area include University of Pennsylvania and Princeton. Boston has Harvard or MIT. Pittsburgh has Carnegie Mellon. It's something I aspired to but was not able to have for myself. We're putting away money every month but it surely will not be enough. From this predicament comes the need for a project. The project is this... in 13 years, how can we give our kids the equivalent credentials and experience they would get from a bought and paid for top education? My wife and I both have advanced degrees. We have friends who have graduated from top universities such as Penn and Stanford and Cornell. Right now, we're trying to expose them to things like chess, piano, the internet. I think they have to experience different cultures, ethnic cultures and the arts. Chess is important because at an early age they need to know how to manage resources and form winning strategies. They should also be well versed in popular culture. Also, my children will have to learn the art of programming at an early age. I see video game summer camps at Penn State Great Valley in their future. If they can't have a top notch education, I intend at the very least for them to have discipline in software development by age 15. Music and art are other skills they need (especially if video game programming is in their future). Dungeons and Dragons is another thing I want to expose them to. It's because of the structure of 'experience levels' , running through adventure campaign scenarios, and the understanding that part of the game is left up to chance, the role of some dice.

All parents want to give their kids the best. No one out their has a project plan that seeks to define what 'the best' means. What can Harvard, Yale, Princeton give them in 4 years that we can't start to instill in them over the course of 15 years from birth. Although I didn't come with this background, I can ask people I know who have and articulate this in a requirements document that leads to a project plan with milestones to meet over a 15 year plan.

Anyway, I think I will muse on this some more in the future. I don't want to think that if I send my kid to Rutgers rather than Princeton I will have ruined their potential to be what they could be. By 15, they will be people of influence. They will be children who are still kids but have seeds of greatness in them, planted in well manured soil, ready for them to sprout whenever they are ready and not a minute before.