[lit-ideas] Re: Sunday waffle...
- From: "Steven G. Cameron" <stevecam@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 02 Jun 2005 09:11:11 -0400
Paul Stone wrote:
> ...The guys who own the local HVAC
> companies all have nice big houses and shiny cars while the doctors,
> engineers and professors live in a bungalows and drive 8 year old compact
> cars.
>
**It's quite true -- my town is filled with them. But shouldn't the
ideal be a where earnings and respect are derived from abilities and
well accomplished, effective work (meritocracy), rather than based
solely on inherent intellectual talent??
> Now, ironically, a lot of those who perhaps should have gone into a trade,
> are back in exactly the place they "belong" [by their own admission in many
> cases] -- factories/trades -- having wasted themselves tens of thousands of
> dollars and four years of gainful employment. I know many classmates from
> University -- even post-grads -- who are now working in factories and
> doing trade jobs. I say that not because they are inferior, it's just that
> they were fooled into believing that university was where they should be,
> and it wasn't. Some people just simply don't belong, but you can't say that
> today.
**Yes. However, society should not only be able to say it -- but also
redirect youngsters into an appropriate career path (whether that
includes university education or not).
>
> The really sad part is not so much that they wasted years -- most of them
> are probably more well-rounded for having been through the experience; but
> it's that they took up spots for people who really DID want to go to school
> and couldn't. It was the proliferation of these dozens of people going
> through the motions, getting degrees, which on paper, said that they were
> my Academic equal, and then basically throwing them aside because they
> never wanted to go to school in the first place. It sure as Hell cheapens
> my degree's worth. This is what made me quit my quest for a PhD: the place
> -- Academia was full of people who didn't want, and in many cases, didn't
> deserve to be there. My graduate degree is basically worthless.
>
**No, not worthless -- just cheapened. Undergraduate college has become
a mere extension of high school -- frequently continuing learning that
should have been accomplished sooner.
> a bitter quitter,
**You may wish to start again. It's not the comparison to others that
might inform you, but perhaps the learning and achievement for you,
yourself.
TC,
> p
>
> ##########
> Paul Stone
> pas@xxxxxxxx
> Kingsville, ON, Canada
>
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