A powerful discussion. I have so much admiration for Gray's son for telling the school to go to hell. I wish I had that attitude when I was his age -- I certainly felt the same. I always hated school, even though I did very well through grade school, junior high, and high school. Made it into a Ivy League college, where the wheels fell off and the depression was unbearable and I developed a bad drug habit. By some miracle I managed to graduate, only just in time for the great recession. I had a hell of a time finding work, despite my degree. Even 'just a job' kind of work. When you think about it, if a hiring manager at Starbucks puts out an ad for a part-time floor-sweeper position and gets hit with over 200 applications for that one job, that's harder than getting into Harvard. So good luck earning a living, millenial. In that situation, despite all my better judgement and natural inclinations, I let myself be convinced that the key to getting ahead in today's tough economy was... more school. A master's degree! That's the new bachelor's degree! Well, a few more years later and the master's degree has proven to be totally worthless. All those very few, very specialized jobs I apply for have about the same acceptance rate, because of all the thousands of other idiots just like me who went and got the new degree and are now flooding that job market. I'm competing against people with multiple master's degrees, multiple phD's. You just can't win. I'm now in my late 30s still scuffling for even part time work, internships, anything that looks productive that I can put on a resume in hopes that maybe, someday, somehow, I will actually get a 'career' job and actually be able to support myself. There's not a day that goes by that I don't consider putting a bullet in my head because of my student loan repayments. Fuck school.