4u2spoil -> Is Education Overrated? (4/7/2009 8:41:44 PM)
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This is a nod to Popeye (sorry, I can't remember the numbers) who brought this up in a different thread. Do you think education is overrated in today's society? My short answer: no. My long answer: no, but degrees are, and the educational system in place in much of the world doesn't guarantee that educated means smart. I should say that while I know some class A idiots with advanced degrees, I also know people who are quite smart, skilled at what they do and talented. But I think there are equal numbers of smart, skilled and talented people who may not get the same opportunities because they don't have the same letters. Particularly in the US where education beyond high school is not free, often not subsidized by the state/government, and for many not affordable, I think the myths of degree=life's golden ticket and no degree=not qualified (in certain industries) needs to be shot down. Colleges and universities have this infallible reputation as the gatekeepers of knowledge to succeed in life, and that's just not true. They can introduce concepts, introduce new ways of thinking, provide historical context and theories on a wide range of subject, and provide the fundamentals of understanding many industries. In most subjects, they don't teach experience or how to be good at something (beyond coming up with an appropriate response to prepared questions). With no other widely accepted standard for certifying talent or ability in a certain area, degrees have become equated with skill. That's in general. For law, or medicine or even architecture a degree is not enough. There are tests of skill and ability in applying knowledge to real world situations before someone can practice. For many other areas, it's just a matter of increasing knowledge without demonstration of an ability to apply it. I work in business, so my experience is mainly dealing with MBAs, and that's the category a lot fall into. They were good enough to pass tests, but often fail when trying to put the ideas into practice. I remember one woman who used every buzz word she could find to cover up the fact that she wasn't that good. For all of the degrees, and late hours, her projects never performed well. The company I was at rewarded her because "she always puts in long hours" and she never failed to remind you that "I've got an MBA!" but at the end of the day it didn't make her any better at her job. Similarly, I remember getting an email from a recent college graduate that couldn't have been above a 6th grade level of English. He wasn't a journalism major, but still - if you have a degree and can't write above an elementary school level there's a problem. I also know many people who have degrees and still can't find jobs beyond Starbucks, or those who have completely unrelated jobs that they had to grab just to make their student loan payments. I sometimes wonder if the difference in lifetime earnings between a high school graduate and a college graduate is smaller than reported once you factor in all the years many students spend paying the degree off. There's a different type of education, and it often comes from just doing something. You always hear about the billionaire dropouts, but no one ever focuses on the fact that just because those people left college doesn't mean they stopped learning. I'm sure Bill Gates and Michael Dell went through more hours than any college degree would have required while they were working on their projects. The fact that those hours weren't in a classroom doesn't make them any less valuable. Actually, the fact that those hours came without getting tied down to some lifelong debt probably makes them more valuable.
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