DR. WALLACE: I quit school when I was just 17. Even though I was a good student, I had to get a job to help pay the family bills. My mother worked full time, but my dad couldn't hold a job because he was drunk most of the time.

I got married when I was 19 to a wonderful man who was 25. He is a good man and I love him a lot. He has a good job and we are not hurting for money. We also have a beautiful little 17-month-old daughter. My husband has a college degree and my goal is eventually to also get my college degree. I want to go to night school now to finish my high school education so I can get my diploma. I checked into it and I can earn it in one year.

My husband doesn't really want me to go back to school because he says he can easily support our family (he can) and that my diploma won't help me, other than to make me feel good. Fortunately, it's not a major disagreement, and he says he would back me 100 percent if I do decide to go back to school.

Please give me your honest opinion. Would I really be wasting my time going back to school when I probably would never need a diploma or a college degree as long as I live? — Tina, Garden Grove, Calif.

TINA: Pursue your high school diploma in night classes and when the time is right, go after that college degree as well!

Education is valuable not because you wind up with a diploma. It has value for its own sake. When you broaden your basic skills and learn to better understand this complex world, you are accomplishing far more than idly making yourself "feel good." You are achieving your full potential as a wife, mother and citizen. Good things happen when you open your mind to learning!

YOUR BEST FRIEND IS INSECURE

DR. WALLACE: This girl and I are best friends and have been for over seven years. Whenever she has a boyfriend, I tell her the guy is really cute and a nice guy. Whenever I get a boyfriend, all she ever says is, "I wouldn't go out with your boyfriend if someone paid me a thousand dollars. He's a nerd." But, this is simply not true, Dr. Wallace.

I have asked other friends if a particular boyfriend looked nerdy, and the answer is always no. Why does my best friend do this to me? — Curious, Rock Island, Ill.

CURIOUS: Habitually belittling others is a sure sign of an inferiority complex. Your friend is so insecure that she has to bring you down to what she perceives to be her own level, as someone who can only attract "nerds."

Do not retaliate by calling her boyfriends nerds. That would be playing her game. Simply ignore her comments to the extent possible, and look to other friends for genuine support.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. E-mail him at rwallace@thegreatestgift.com. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Ben Seidelman