Hi swamp dweller:
You wrote:
This person, who carries the title of 'Rehabilitation Manager", states that" college is more than just job prep" and 'with so many boys opting out, it is wrong to present this as be a doctor or be an electrician.The only reason trades pay as well as college degree wages is because they are male dominated,unionized and friendly with politicians"
Yeah, this clown is blowing smoke, and it's a troubling sign that so many are swayed by this sort of shit.
Here's my take on education, taken from another post I wrote recently:
"Hi jhov:
Interesting points about formal education you bring up.
I can speak on the subject with some experience; I too spent many years in university.
I spent 3 years toward a BFA in art history...utterly useless and was mostly a circle jerk but it DID have cute girls in it and I got laid, so it wasn't totally wasted.
I spent another three years to get a BSc in physiology...better, but still not very practical.
At least I did learn something about how our bodies work and a bit about critical thinking.
I did 2 years of medical school...fucking meat grinder that cared more about whether you survived it than whether you learned anything.
I did a degree in dentistry (and actually finished it)...better than medicine but not much.
When I graduated from dental school and went out into the working world, I and all of my fellow graduates were fucking menaces, some better, some worse.
Those that didn't kill someone in the first years gradually learned the ropes and a few became excellent dentists I can recommend with confidence.
The rest are hacks of varying levels of competence...they can be graded on a bell curve, just like anything else involving humans.
I also did an apprenticeship as a toolbreaker (plastic injection molds), and it was a FAR more practical education with a much smaller proportion of wank in it, and almost all of that was at...you guessed it, apprenticeship school, where the exam questions covered such useless topics as the tooth count on a bastard cut file, and the CORRECT complement of gauge blocks to make a 1.032" gauge block stack."
It speaks more to the utility of it all, which, of course is not the same as its power to impress, and sadly, in this society, the power to impress correctly leveraged can still net you a helluva lot more cash, but it seems your willingness to be a dick, unconstrained by any sense of decency is an even more powerful tool...you just have to be willing to be a dick, so by that logic, fuck the university and the degree...learn to be the biggest dick on the block.
Sadly, rags like "The Economist" deride the trades as occupied by "metal bashers" to which my inclination is to respond with a "fuck you and the horse you rode in on", but that's not a very useful way to fight the fight.
Instilling the confidence to pursue that which interests you and absorbs you rather than tolerating that which will net you the most cash is a hard lesson to learn when your buddies are driving Mercedes and you are driving used Ford, but I made the choice and it was a good choice for me in the long term.
I have no regrets at all, especially when I take my dentist buddies out for lunch and all they can do is bitch about their sad, boring little lives.
Another tidbit from my life experience that is more apropos to your question:
My kid is a computer geek
He was triggered to take it up by a high school teacher...he loved that teacher and loved the challenge of learning that stuff too.
He started university in computer science with high expectations but dropped out after two years...the regimented cookie cutter learning seemed pointless to him.
ALL his university friends said he was a failure...he'd NEVER amount to anything.
He beat himself up pretty good for a couple of years and then he found his place in a company that loved his unorthodox approach to computing and craved what he has (he can make all kinds of software talk to each other that's not supposed to be able to because he mucked around with it so much as a kid).
All these sniffy "friends" of his...well they make less than HALF of what he makes, and they're jealous as hell.
Stories like this one are a reassuring testimony to the enduring value of creativity, and that comes in spite of the university degree, not because of it.
There are PLENTY of supremely talented and creative individuals in the trades...no less than any other profession.
Cheers
Marcus
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