The Quonset Hut

The thing is, working life isn't only about using your particular talents to their best advantage, it's also about being able to communicate your brilliance and get along with others, and a whole host of other things.

IF you can be bothered to turn up every day and sit through a three year course without taking an axe to your coursemates and learn a load of shite that is unrelated to your specialist subject, and can then deign to answer some questions maybe even write a few essays, that surely is an indication that you are more likely to work as an effective member of a team, than someone like me, who MAY work very well in your enterprise or may not bother to turn up at all, depending upon how I feel on the day.

That's a big part of why paper qualifications matter. They show that you can put up with crap in order to get what you think you want. Nowadays with the student loans thing it shows that you are so keen to "work for a living" that you will even indebt yourself whilst undergoing this process..

OF course, that makes life really sucky for some of us, but them's the breaks. Of course how you personally deal with the joy or disappointment of grown-up life speaks more about who and what you really are, than whether you did or did not pick up a bit of paper, or "get the money" etc.

FB.

TheTraveler wrote:If I may..

The problem with all the above, is that while I agree that education should be and is about the process of learning how to learn, the established standards in society today is that without that "paper education", one is not qualifies to be smarter or excel further than one who is not.

In our society there is little room for the uneducated to hold positions of power and rank, for they never went to school and learned the way to learn. To me, the truly educated person has nothing to do with going to school. Can it help, and is it necessary; in most cases yes. But just as with our scientific community, who are most often closed minded to many new thoughts and ideas, the public in general consider those who are uneducated to be somehow inferior, for after all, they do not have the holy paper.

I could go on here with stories about the many people I have hired over the years, but this is one of my hot spots for I have seen many individuals over time, who for whatever reason, did not or could not receive a "proper education" but in some mystical way were in fact the real reason that their superiors succeeded instead of failed.

Anyway, that is just my opinion.

So called "proper education" is about left brained sheep been taught how to be parrots , and thus good little repeaters.

Little boy BLUE come blow Your horn,The sheep's in the meadow the cows in the corn.
But where is the boy who looks after the sheep?
He's under a haystack asleep ( more likely spaced out of His head)
Will You wake Him?
No not I-for He will surely cry.

Kevin

Sorry FB, and no offense, but you comment just further proves what I am saying.

There are many people that work damn hard every day of their lives, many from a much earlier age than someone who had the pleasure of sitting in a classroom for a few hours a day. The type of people that I speak of in many cases either picked a different path in life where education was second to earning a living, or did not have the means to attend a "proper paper school", and there are many paths in life where a technical education is just a valuable.

So, does that make them less smart, or less able that a "paper boy" to successfully elevate themselves to a high stature in life? It shouldn't, but the truth is that they would never be allowed to advance to the top over someone who has a degree.

I can tell you this for a fact. I have worked in the business world (scientific, technical and business) all my life, in some of the largest (and smallest) companies in the world and the vast majority of those with a "proper education" exhibit no better (and often worse) work habits and decision making abilities than those who never received that education, but none the less worked hard and smart every day of their life.

See, the gift of intelligence that we are given, and how we use it are really what set one person apart from another; not a stupid piece of paper that says we spend numerous years and tons of money to learn many things what have no practical use in life.

With that said, do not get me wrong here either. Most people need that education to learn to be a productive part of our work force, and the scientific knowledge our higher learning institutions produce is irreplaceable. But the problem is that our society does not recognize that not everyone needs that path to be successful at a high level.

Our site founder T.T. Brown had a high school and maybe some college level learning at best, yet he may have contributed more than most to the future of our scientific and technical future. So, in todays society could you honestly say that he would allowed a post in the scientific community that many of feel he could easily excel in?

I for one do not think they would.....

Actually, I have a copy of Brown's transcript, he did not graduate High School.

Mikado

Mikado14 wrote:Actually, I have a copy of Brown's transcript, he did not graduate High School.

Mikado

Neither did my Grandmother who was also born in the early 1900's. The educational system was far less structured then.

After Mama finished the 8th grade, she wanted to become a nurse. Her parents refused. Nursing was a scandalous profession in their eyes and she ended up going, instead to a "Normal School" for her teacher training.

Normal Schools were created specifically for Teacher Preparation, a la John Dewey style. The training program was one year long. When Dewey's educational methods fell out of fashion In the late twenties, most of the Normal Schools changed their name to 'Teachers' Colleges and implemented a stronger curriculum.

I imagine that it was about then that high school credentials became an expected prerequiste for higher education.

rose

You have missed the point entirely.

My Father only went to the 10th grade but was given a High School diploma because the curriculum and credits were equivalent to the State's requirement. I have seen it in Brown's own handwriting that the did not graduate and that is from 1938.

Do your Due-Diligence and not make excuses as to why it was reported that he did.

Sorry for the rant but I am weary of individuals making excuses as to misreporting of the facts, including NA337, that Brown purportedly jumped out of over Germany when the airplane never saw German airspace...and the list goes on.

Mikado

Mikado14 wrote:You have missed the point entirely.

Sorry for the rant but I am weary of individuals making excuses as to misreporting of the facts, including NA337, that Brown purportedly jumped out of over Germany when the airplane never saw German airspace...and the list goes on.

Mikado

No worries, many of us share that frustration!

Perhaps you need more sleep, Mikado.

The name of this thread is building bridges. I posted it in the Open Door section, as an example of the need to expand our understanding of what is and is not possible in the physical world. The thread had wandered to high school and college level education.Reporting what I know from my own study of higher education and my Grandmother's experiences in 1920 is appropriate. However, if you wish to make this a thread about Townsend, I will bow out and leave you with it.

rose

Who/whom needs the sleep?

The Traveler wrote:Our site founder T.T. Brown had a high school and maybe some college level learning at best, yet he may have contributed more than most to the future of our scientific and technical future. So, in todays society could you honestly say that he would allowed a post in the scientific community that many of feel he could easily excel in?

I did not bring up Brown's High School diploma. I merely commented upon the fact he didn't have one and was countering what Traveler said as a correction.

You my dear, went on to make an excuse as to why he didn't have one.

I came back and countered with a bit of frustration in that excuses are always being made when it comes to what facts are out there versus the fiction that has been told when it comes to Brown.

In my view, by continuing to perpetuate and make excuses is the quickest way to burn the bridge instead of build it.

The thread is exactly what you want it to be and I am merely pointing out some foundational data of a comment made. If the truth hurts and you wish to "bow out"...your choice.

Mikado

FWIW, Education is not synonymous to having degrees. It could even be, in many cases, its antonym. So that is not, as I see it, worth the time talking about. So I won't.

But subjects under this thread’s title, are.

My point with speaking about the Power of Education and the Principles of Teaching Education was not directed at college degrees, much less at misusing the thread.

But at our own capacity to Teach and Better each other, and at we doing it with Excellence.

Meaning, with unmitigated attention to Information, even if – or precisely because - not fully understood, employing a strong Will to overcome that deficiency to the best of our capacities, and while at it, reflecting a sound Character interaction.

Is this possible ?

Yes, it is.
Up to each one to so will it.