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Thread: The Purpose of Education

  1. #31
    Senior Member razz's Avatar
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    I got my diploma in dental hygiene from university program that included about a third of the credits towards a BA. When we moved around with DH's work, we finally reached a location where I could complete my degree. I had said so often that I wished I could find a way to complete it that my DH gave my the option - do it now or be quiet about it. I completed it at night school working 8am-6pm and class from 6:30pm-9:30pm three nights a week graduating with an English major. I had such fun exploring life with the electives that were offered - cultural studies, Great Lakes environmental legislation, accounting, philosophy, organizational behaviour... I have used the knowledge gained in so many aspects of my life that I developed a whole new appreciation for the value in studying the humanities.
    As Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”

  2. #32
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    Although lack of a degree may have cost me that job, so yea it's one negative and it is pretty much ALWAYS better to get a degree, I really don't think that's my main problem job wise at all. The field and the expectations and etc. just seem weird and bad now mostly at least here.

    me <-- will be doing something else in 5 years

    eh well enough job rants for now, I'm unemployed and bored and stuff.
    Trees don't grow on money

  3. #33
    Senior Member SteveinMN's Avatar
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    ANM, every instance you point to of the necessity of a degree assumes working for "the man". Certainly education and certification matter for professions like doctor, architect, nurse, engineer,...

    But nobody cared that Bill Gates was a college dropout when he wrote the first operating system for IBM's personal computers and started Microsoft. I've never grilled the woman who owns the flower shop I like about whether she's got a degree in horticulture, and I wouldn't switch shops if she didn't. The woman who runs the local coffee shop has a ServSafe certificate, but I couldn't tell you if she has any more certificates/degrees on the wall. The shop has been there for six years regardless. Does anyone give a rip if Logan Paul (of YouTube fame) has a degree? Yet he makes a bundle of $$ from YouTube. My 30-year-old son-in-law has had sales and training jobs at A Big Bank; he has been told they will require a degree for him to move into management (if he wants that) but he makes a good salary at the jobs he's had and his work is in little danger for the foreseeable future of being farmed out to a worker from off-shore or to some artificial-intelligence algorithm.

    My point is that there are all kinds of ways to make money that don't require a degree. An increasing number of those ways, though, call for not working at organizations which establish rules like having to have a degree for jobs in which having one is of marginal value. Do your own thing and it's results, not diplomas, that count.
    Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. - Booker T. Washington

  4. #34
    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    Many states have job centers that will help you find a job or get some short term training to get back into the work force.

  5. #35
    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    State employment agencies used to help you find jobs--used to match you with prospective employers,etc. Now they just advise you to spam your resume everywhere. That was my experience circa 2000, anyway.

    A friend's husband is the vice president of sales for an IT company. He has a high school diploma.

  6. #36
    Senior Member catherine's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SteveinMN View Post
    Do your own thing and it's results, not diplomas, that count.
    Amen.

    Although I have to admit that it's easier if you have already built contacts OR you are a real hustler. Not everyone is good at selling themselves. In my case, I have a BA vs almost everyone else I work with with at LEAST a master's. But I worked my way in slowly--if I had to hustle my way in, I'd be homeless, since I'm the world's worst salesperson--especially when it comes to selling myself.

    In lieu of contacts and having the personality of an influencer, you often do need academic credentials as the foot in the door.
    "Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
    www.silententry.wordpress.com

  7. #37
    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    Jane, not in my state. They have more than 1 office locally and help with finding jobs and short term training for skills you don't have. They are a great asset.

  8. #38
    Senior Member JaneV2.0's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Teacher Terry View Post
    Jane, not in my state. They have more than 1 office locally and help with finding jobs and short term training for skills you don't have. They are a great asset.
    That's the way ours used to be, in the early days. I've had no experience with them lately; they may have improved.

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