Introduction
In today’s world, students do not always manage to get to university right out of high school, and many families simply cannot help with the costs. Some university students do not even realize that they need or want more education until they are older, wiser and more encumbered. Therefore, many students wind up going to school part or even full time while juggling the responsibilities of a job and a family. Keeping up with school and a job is a daunting prospect, but adding in family responsibilities, especially for single parents, makes this a lifestyle requiring extreme organizational skills, an iron constitution and powerful motivation.
Main text
With many families requiring that both parents work in order to manage a middle-class standard of living, a family must be judicious with investment, economical with resources and have a little good luck, or at least not a lot of bad luck, to manage to send one child through college. Most families have 2-3 children, and this becomes more difficult with each successive child. In addition to this, many kids in high school are simply not getting the right kind of encouragement to motivate them to pursue a university degree.
Some kids merely want a little break before they go right back to school, and some discover much later that they should get more education. Many of these kids wind up married, and possibly divorced, with at least one child before they decide to extend their education. Many are single mothers, though there are rare single fathers also.
For students with families, a job is absolutely necessary. In addition, they have family responsibilities, like school functions, child care and homemaking, which also take time. Time management is probably the most difficult, yet important, factor in this instance. Even if the student works part-time, we have to factor in at least 30 hours per week for work and transportation. If there is a spouse, then maybe this will work, because the husband or wife can take more of the child care, providing they do not also work.
If they do work, then maybe they can handle half the child care or finance outside help. Even so, there are another 3 hours per week for each class plus an additional 3 to 4 hours for homework and study for each credit being sought. If the student is full time that is 3-6 hours per week for classes and labs plus between 9 and 24 hours per week for homework and study. If the student sleeps 7 hours per day, works full time and goes to school full time, there will be less than 20 hours per week to spend with the family.
So how do people do this? Generally they get some help. If family or friends cannot help, sometimes there are resources at the university to help. They should consult an advisor to learn about resources. Planning is essential, such as meals. If the student is a single parent, then meals must be planned so that they provide maximum nutrition with a minimum of preparation time. If the children are a little older, such as school-age, then preparation can be a family time also, shared with the kids. However, the children of school age will also need help with their homework, or at least some discussion for support. Cooperating with parents of the children’s classmates can help with extracurricular activities, and leave more time to attend important functions, like sports or performances.
In addition to minimizing the wasting of time, the student with a family and job must maximize study time. There are some excellent strategies for this. First, picking classes: choose a mix of easier and more difficult classes, so that it does not become an overload. Then cooperate with other students: joining or creating student study groups is an excellent strategy, but one must be careful in selecting members. In such study groups, each member takes responsibility for part of the reading and research and then they meet to share and pass out copies of notes etc. Another function of this kind of group is testing knowledge before studying.
If students test each other for the material, then no time needs to be wasted studying what they already know. Tapes that can be played while traveling can help with memorization or sometimes reading materials are recorded also. It is important that the student keeps up, since there is no time for cramming at the last minute with so many responsibilities.
Summary
Many students go to university later and already have jobs and families. Juggling the responsibilities of a job, school and a family is difficult at best. However, a truly motivated student who is healthy can do it. It requires planning, strategy and stamina, but it can be done. If the student plans time-consuming activities, like household chores and meals, cooperates with other parents and fellow students and maximizes study time the students can successfully manage a job, a family and a successful education.