December 8, 2005
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Topic: Education…huh, what is it good for? Absolutely everything, say it again, y’all. (sung to the tune of Edwin Starr’s anti-war song, “War”)
I had an interesting comment from pidot regarding college degrees. And I have to agree with her, that in today’s society, college degrees are necessities for many professions. In order to be a doctor, lawyer, professor, psychologist, social worker, teacher, etc. you need a masters degree, which you can only obtain if you have first obtained an undergraduate bachelors degree. So…although Will Hunting was a genius janitor, without the college degree he was severely limited in what he could do professionally (although i wonder to what extent extreme knowledge and personal experiences can be considered the equivalant of a bachelors degree?)
All this makes me think a bit more about the connection between college, college degrees, and life after college. As I wrote in my last post, I feel that most of what a person gains from college, can be gained independantly. I will admit, however, that for most people learning is like going to the gym. We can all do it on our own, but it becomes a lot easier to motivate ourselves and stay focussed when we are part of a larger community.
The relationship between a college degree and a person’s professional life is an interesting idea worth exploring. Let me just ask all of you these two questions:
1) How useful was your college education in terms of obtaining your job and in terms of doing your job well?
2) How necessary was your college degree in terms of obtaining your job and in terms of doing your job well?
I’ll go straight ahead and offer an answer for myself. Starting with number 2, I found that having a college degree was pretty necessary for getting my job, as it is for most entry level jobs. That tends to be the minimum requirement of many. Some will ask for specific majors, but at the end of the day, you could have a major in ancient sanskrit, but as long as you finished college and have a good head on your shoulders, you can get a decent first job. It’s interesting to note i have a friend who went straight to work after high school, and is now in a situation where he has a great wealth of practical working experience, however they’ve opted to go to college now for no other reason than the belief that obtaining a college degree will allow them to move-up professionally and make more money, while getting more practical real world knowledge might not have. I personally don’t hold that belief, but felt again that it’s more about the head you have on your shoulders than the degree).
The actual job I’m doing, I could have done when I was 17. It’s a lot of common sense, and the rest is just picking things up every day. What I bring to this job is certainly my 4 yr. experience at Wash U., but more so to social skills and the personal stories, than anything specific I learned in the classroom. However, I have to say, that were it not for that experience, my whole chain of life events would be very different…but that’s a different idea for a different time.
Comments (4)
1. Vaguely helpful, only because I worked in an office during college. Now? I’m an office bitch. I make coffee. I get mail. I buy stuff. My lovely romance language degree isn’t worth a damn here.
2. Entirely unnecessary. Most of the staff doesn’t have a degree. There are 3 of us here with degrees, and none of them have anything to do with what we’re doing.
Now. Let’s say that it’s a year from now, and I’m teaching.
1. I’m going to say helpful. Like you said, a degree is sort of seen as a badge of honor. You have one, you’ve got a gold star on your resume.
2. Entry level, as you said, generally requires a degree. For teaching, it’s mandatory.
Sorry if that sounds disjointed….
the focus seems to be on content, ie acquiring pieces of knowledge…what about form and method? Perhaps the form *is* the content?
Unrelated:
“the Left has been undone by its own “activistism,” an ideology combining “moral zeal” with “political illiteracy.” The antiwar movement, for example, understands “success” to mean that “actions take place, conferences are planned, new people become activists,” even though “it’s no longer clear what war we’re protesting.” Details, details”:
the excerpt is from
http://www.claremont.org/writings/crb/fall2005/voegeli.html, posted today on http://www.aldaily.com/ …left-leaning with a conservative sensibility, ie. http://www.bartleby.com/24/3/1.html
to answer your question: it was necessary for me to obtain a degree in order to get my current job. as far as higher education, it was my choice to do so, it was neither a requirement or a necessity. i am the type of individual who moves on when i feel like i have done everything i can and because of the experiences, feel i have more to offer but in order to do that and be taken seriously have that paper. graduate education was definetly easier though because i didn’t have the same pressure as undergrad. i needed the undergrad degree to get a job, but the grad degree was both for personal gratification and growth.
Imagine you were the employer. You needed to fill up an office position in one week. Now you got 500 applications. How would you set up the criteria?
Colleges are not just places where you get degrees. For example, think about all the readings and papers. Through them, we practice our reading and writing skills which are very important. Not everyone has the motivation to learn by themselves. A lot of us have to be ‘forced’ to learn, or we would just sit at home and flip through the 300 TV channels.
My answers to your two questions are: useful and necessary. The training I got from college helps me to learn faster at work. It’s like the amount of experience one gains in one year, while others may have to spend 5 years.