Probably gunnu get a lot of hate for this. But you know how everyone in the fandom argues over whether or not Dipper excepting Ford’s apprenticeship was a good thing or not? I have proof on why it a bad thing. For starters, schools isn’t just important for education. It’s where children learn and develop most of their social skills from interacting with other kids. If Dipper had become Ford’s apprentice he would have become more emotionally and socially stunted then Ford. Further more, their are regulation when it comes to home schooling for it to actually be counted. I believe it’s different from state to state. But the gist is that you have to register your kid as being home schooled and they have to pass state testes threw online learning. Ford has been away for 30 years. Schooling regulations are way different then they were when he was a kid and he couldn’t even remember weather or not you could give kids weapons in this universe. I doubt he’d even think of looking into the proper way to homeschool a child. You can’t just take a kid out of school, educate them however you want and expect them to have it recognized based on your word alone. What was Dipper going to do? Walk into West Coust Tech with a signed note from Ford saying he was smart enough to be admitted and just expect to be excepted on the spot? On top of all of this, the government doesn’t know about the portal incident and Stan taking Ford’s identity. From their perspective Ford was a promising scientist with 12 PHD’s, who used his talents to got into the woods and chase ghosts and fairies. Then went crazy, harassing the public and attacking cops. Then around the time his brother died he forgot about science entirely and opened up a tourist trap. Proceeding to rap up every crime under the book. Even inventing one. It would look like those religions nut jobs who homeschool their kids to teach them that evolution is evil and the earth is flat. So Dipper would be a middle school dropout, raised by his crazy uncle, chasing ‘mythical’ creatures, instead of getting a proper and recognizable education with 0 social skills what so ever.
Also Dipper could have just gotten a summer internship. That way he could still learn from his uncle while getting all the legally recognized education and social development. Turning Ford down for Mable DIDNT ruin his future. It saved it. Anyway thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. Please don’t be to mean to me in the comments (spent my entire work break typing this out)T^T
