IGX

I now want to go back to college very badly.

Grandpa's Spells wrote:

WildGorillaMan wrote:

Pinky wrote: Fuck this progress shit making us have to learn things!

For the most part, and with the obvious exceptions, post-secondary education has nothing to do with learning things and more to do with getting a piece of paper that allegedly entitles you to certain types of job. Actually learning something is your own responsibility.

There's a strong correlation between de-prioritizing formal education and sucking at life. Except for the people who are at the far right side of the bell curve when it comes to career self-direction, the vast majority of people would be better off having more schooling than less.

That doesn't mean *any* education is OK, which seems to be what some people are objecting to. I remember watching some "news" show where a woman with an "Ivy league education" was dumpster diving and working in a coffee shop, and this was proof of how bad the job market was. The fact that she had a women's study degree from Brown was thrown in towards the end as an afterthought.

Well, exactly. Post secondary institutions have been padding their degree offerings for years with increasingly abstruse fields of studies. How many gender studies or communications grads does the workforce need?

WildGorillaMan wrote:

Pinky wrote:
Fuck this progress shit making us have to learn things!

For the most part, and with the obvious exceptions, post-secondary education has nothing to do with learning things and more to do with getting a piece of paper that allegedly entitles you to certain types of job. Actually learning something is your own responsibility.

Actually learning something is always your own responsibility.

Along the lines of what Spells said, the value of an education does not (and never has) come solely from what you learn. It also comes from the signal it sends employers. They need to know who's smarter, more forward-looking, etc. because hiring a person with the wrong set of hard-to-observe characteristics can be very costly. Requiring a certain degree can make that process a lot easier.

I wonder if an IQ test + a stable work history wouldn't serve employers as well as the typical BA, at a much lower cost to the parties involved.

WildGorillaMan wrote:

Shafpocalypse Now wrote: This is ridiculous but so true.

Couple this with the disappearance of local trade schools, and no wonder people get fucked. You can't find any plumbing, building trade, etc schools around here at all.

Here, due in no small part to the oil & gas industry, the trade schools have been recruiting hard for the past five years. Even now the trades still face a labor shortage. Too many kids think being a welder, gasfitter, etc is beneath them somehow.

If you are willing to travel some you can make six figures welding. I was looking at this option at one time.

kreator wrote:No? Is "better off" more syntactically correct or something?

"Happier off" is not something either of us had ever heard before.

My theory is that you were, on the surface, appearing to discuss happiness but were in fact thinking in purely material terms. You said yourself you didn't enjoy college. Fair enough. You're better off now as a result? Great. But are you really happier? Or "happier off", if you will? That's a good question. Perhaps you still resent the "partiers"? Perhaps you feel cheated of the college japes and jinks? Perhaps your relative material wellbeing does not fulfil you as much as you thought? Or perhaps, for you, happiness is truly the same as being well, or better, off. Just throwing it out there. Clues to our true feelings and motivations can be found in such slips.

Like when Proto was talking about a particular MMA star and instead of saying he'd like to see him "submitted", he said he wanted to "have sex with him and get married to him in The Netherlands".

Mickey O'neil wrote:

WildGorillaMan wrote:

Shafpocalypse Now wrote: This is ridiculous but so true.

Couple this with the disappearance of local trade schools, and no wonder people get fucked. You can't find any plumbing, building trade, etc schools around here at all.

Here, due in no small part to the oil & gas industry, the trade schools have been recruiting hard for the past five years. Even now the trades still face a labor shortage. Too many kids think being a welder, gasfitter, etc is beneath them somehow.

If you are willing to travel some you can make six figures welding. I was looking at this option at one time.

I'm sorry, were you saying something, Mickey?

Pinky wrote:

WildGorillaMan wrote:

Pinky wrote:
Fuck this progress shit making us have to learn things!

For the most part, and with the obvious exceptions, post-secondary education has nothing to do with learning things and more to do with getting a piece of paper that allegedly entitles you to certain types of job. Actually learning something is your own responsibility.

Actually learning something is always your own responsibility.

Along the lines of what Spells said, the value of an education does not (and never has) come solely from what you learn. It also comes from the signal it sends employers. They need to know who's smarter, more forward-looking, etc. because hiring a person with the wrong set of hard-to-observe characteristics can be very costly. Requiring a certain degree can make that process a lot easier.

Which is why the federal government prefers people with advanced degrees-- and gubmint productivity > private sector by leaps and bounds.

Higher education is good when it gives you real practical skills, not so much when it doesn't.

WildGorillaMan wrote:

Mickey O'neil wrote:

WildGorillaMan wrote:

Shafpocalypse Now wrote: This is ridiculous but so true.

Couple this with the disappearance of local trade schools, and no wonder people get fucked. You can't find any plumbing, building trade, etc schools around here at all.

Here, due in no small part to the oil & gas industry, the trade schools have been recruiting hard for the past five years. Even now the trades still face a labor shortage. Too many kids think being a welder, gasfitter, etc is beneath them somehow.

If you are willing to travel some you can make six figures welding. I was looking at this option at one time.

I'm sorry, were you saying something, Mickey?

Hell if I know.