In case you have forgotten, just last week primary candidate Rick Santorum called President Barack Obama a snob. Whereas this would usually be old news, I beg to differ.

Santorum brought up a fascinating point; one Obama has yet to defend: the worth of going to college.

If you are reading this there is probably an 82 percent chance you are actually attending this university in order to get a bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree, much like myself.

However, I don’t think this path we have chosen is for everyone. I don’t believe that standard ways of living are for everyone.

I don’t believe we all fit into the same narrow bubbles, with the reign of scantrons, hours of lectures and note taking so that eventually we will have a little piece of paper that says we learned some material.

This is the point Santorum was making. (Might want to mark this one down in the history books — a Daily columnist is agreeing with a Republican.) Not everyone in the world needs to go to college because we are a diverse nation with different personalities and learning styles.

Simply put, hands–on apprenticeships might be better for people with learning differences that make studying difficult.

For example, I have a sister who has been in college for about four years. Every class she takes, she struggles through tutoring and lectures — hours more than her peers — and with all of that effort, she gets by.

But she’s not thriving.

On the flip side, she has dipped her toe in the waters of paths that don’t necessarily require a college degree. I’m not just saying this because she is my sister, but she really rocked those things.

She has done make-up art, professional photography and even taught herself fondant decorating without any specialized training.

Yet, what society keeps trying to tell her is that she doesn’t matter without a diploma. She has made and sold high-quality wedding cakes by herself.

Yet, she still believes that she has to go to school. She has to get her degree in something — anything — because that is what is going to get her a good job and earn her the money she desires.

What is so wrong with her, and people like her, skipping college and going straight out into the work world?

She can integrate herself into the business world and become a member of mainstream society that probably will not have to be living off food stamps. Is that not the point of a college education: to ensure people are equipped with the tools to get a good career and support themselves without leeching funds from the U.S. government?

At least that’s why I thought people went to college.

Now I feel like our parent’s generation, and in turn our generation, has turned college into a little box you check and then you can move on with your life and pop out your 2.8 kids, own a home with a white picket fence and a puppy, and die happy.

I grew up in a household in which neither of my parents attended college. They tried, but ultimately they did not have the time, money or learning style to be in that type of environment.

I say with all humility that I turned out all right. What they learned without a college degree was work ethic, people skills and how to deal with anything that is thrown at them. I applaud them because, as they will tell you, it was a tough route.

But they wouldn’t take it back.

Now, Obama might feel so strongly about his stance on going to college because his mother struggled through every sort of battle to get her diploma, and eventually her doctorate degree. His mother is not the rule.

But the reverence and respect he has for her makes him believe if there were just more money or more this or more that, then people could all be like his mother.

What Obama was saying is everyone should have the opportunity. What he doesn’t realize is some people don’t need it. Some people don’t want to go to college because it is not the most encouraging environment available to them.

Not everyone has the desire, the tolerance and the passion to pull those all-nighters for a class that has nothing to do with their major.

This does not make people who chose not to attend college worse or less human. It makes them American, because being American means freedom of choice to be educated through classrooms or just through the school of hard knocks.