We do?
JThunder, there are one or two states that require that your gas be pumped for you. (I learned this the hard way a few years ago while attempting to gas up in New Jersey.) I think Oregon is the other one. I’m fairly sure these laws are still in effect.
College us great if you want to work for an employer the rest of your life. I’m more interested in becoming an entrepreneur, thus I teach myself all necessary skills.
That reminds me, my very first direct boss in the Government started out as a GS-1, the lowest rung on the ladder. GS-1s are those who never finished high school; all high school graduates are automatic GS-2s and college grads are at least GS-4s.
Necessary? No. Useful? For some. Absolutely bad idea? For some.
Count me in the third group. Although I studied and got the grades, high school was a trial for me. The classes I really enjoyed and excelled in went too slow, like French and English. Math, on the other hand, (with the exception of 1 year out of 4) I dreaded everyday. I understood it, but that’s not the same as enjoying it.
I went on to college, because I felt it was expected of me. My parents never pushed it, but I felt the pressure all around. After 2 years of complete misery in classes, I made the decision to leave school, and have never truly regretted it. Once in a while I think, “If I had finished college…”, but it never lasts for more than a few seconds.
Of my relatives that are old enough to have graduated from college, which at last count was 27, I am the only one who hasn’t finished. I always get questioned about going back to school everytime we have a big family get together, but to avoid the arguement, it is easier to say that I plan to go back eventually, even though I have no intention of ever doing so.
However, none of this means I don’t enjoy learning. I love to learn, and learn every day. I will be taking an electronics class in a few weeks, just because I want to, and my company is sponsoring it. It has nothing to do with my job, but they feel any kind of learning is good.
Had I finished college, I would have been miserable for 2 more years, and I couldn’t see putting myself through that.
Well, I wanted to be an engineer, so I had to. It’s neat working with older people who got into the field just by experience and not schooling, though. There’s something to be said for both approaches. Although, unfortunately, everybody requires the piece of paper nowadays. And I’ve heard that in CE, they’re planning to make a master’s the entry-level requirement in the future! sigh
I do wish, though, that the idiots who slacked off and slid by on just-barely-there grades and took classes twice and dropped classes at the last minute so they were able to pass because they’re here because they’re supposed to be didn’t get the same piece of paper as me. Seriously, people who go to college and don’t mean it annoy me. I’ve met a lot of people who are here for the paper instead of the education, and that makes me sad.
IMHO, the reason jobs require a college degree even if the degree is not related to the job is because people who go to college tend to be more well rounded. You get exposed to people and subject matter that you might not get exposed to by cherry-picking books you are interested in.
Not to mention that it shows a commitment to setting a goal and achieving it.
If I was an employer and saw that a person couldn’t commit to completing a 4-year degree, why would I assume they wouldn’t get sick and quit after a few months? Or worse, not quit and just float along doing the bare minimum?
That’s fine and a lot of people do that but what do you know or do well enough to sell to other people? And why do you think that you wouldn’t benefit from going to a college of like minded people where you might meet other entrepreneurs who you can share ideas with? Those classmates may become future business partners or investors.
Problem is that you don’t know what you don’t know.
My friend Austin Millbarge joined Government service as a GLG-20
I went to college my first round just cause there was no other choice at the time. Just not going wasn’t even in my frame of reference, but I dropped out about 2 years in. I spent the next couple of years working and figuring out what I wanted to do. I’m now in college again and I’m a little more prepared, but I still don’t like that I have to have a piece of paper to get CONSIDERED for most jobs.
I did the high-school-to-college route because I thought I wanted to be a French teacher. I got to college and hated it. So I dropped out and joined the Navy.
Three years later, I was selected for a Navy program that sent me back to college to get my engineering degree. While I wasn’t a Dean’s list student, I did much better because I had a goal as well as a little bit of life outside of high school. Anyway, college was definitely wrong for me in 1973, but it was a better fit in 1976. Three of my sibs never went to college, and they’re doing OK. Although my brother, the CPA with the MBA, is doing better than all of us combined.
So, to answer the OP from my point of view - no.
As a college teacher, I can tell you most definitely no. Not everyone is cut out for it, as many posters above have mentioned. And having worked as drywaller, a framer, and a ditch digger, I know that you can support a family without a college education (well, maybe not with the latter job).
I don’t believe that college is for everyone, especially for those just out of high school. Although I and my family are very academically inclined, we have a number of intelligent and articulate friends who never went to college. They work in high skilled occupations, and most are very happy with their lack of college.
For some reason, we tend to devalue the talents and skills of folks like cabinet makers, auto mechanics, and so forth. What nonsense! Those occupations and many others require high levels of dedication and long years to master. And, BTW, many of those pay more than many college based educations.
I personally think that the statement “everyone should go to college” is very superficial, and if colleges were actually structured to serve all potential students, there would be a drastic lowering of standards. The result would be a non-college system that we call college for PC purposes.
How about skilled labor? We will always need, for example, bricklayers, electricians, carpenters, and plumbers. Those are jobs that require training, but not a college education. I think that experience is pretty important in those endeavors, as well, and I don’t think you can count on those who are picking something up to do before they go on to college and their “real career” to completely fulfill that role.
My sister joined the military out of high school. She said that it was an invaluable experience to her, but it’s certainly not for everyone! I think college is the same way.
Unlike say, 6 years in the Navy, living on both coast of the US, in Italy for 3 years, and visiting 4 other countries in that time period. Working with member of foreign military organization, as well as interoperating with different branches of the US military. Right, I can see how that would make me close minded, and under exposed.
Again, committing to a year long military technical school, and upon completion, committing to another 3 years in the Navy. Granted the military doesn’t allow you to “quit” the same way you can in a normal job, but then you do have a lot of opportunity at the beginning of your enlistment where you can back out, with no harm done. And in all honesty, how many people with a family to support can just up and leave their jobs?
This is (obviously) a bone of contention with me. While I agree that the ideal of higher education is good, the reality is that it’s a piece of paper that allows discrimination against those that earned their knowledge through experience.*
- I’ll caveat that by stating that there are many many fields that do require that structured classroom instruction. Medical/Law/Engineering/Chemistry just to name a very few.
I don’t believe anyone was talking about you or the Navy, Mr. Sensitive. My comments were really addressed to people who elect to just go join the workforce instead of college.
I guess my opinion is that college is a means to an end and that end being a high paying job in an interesting field. So unless you are going to study one of the many fields that require structured classroom instruction, there’s not much of a point to go.
Problem is that there is no quantitative way to measure “real world” experience unless it is related to jobs held.
I’m curious, what fields do you feel should not require a college degree?
What happens when all those jobs are being performed by automated machines?
They all ready have fully automated gas stations.
I feel like I wrote a post and then submitted it under Fretful’s name. That’s precisely what I would have written, except to say that I just recently became an EX-PhD student.
My oldest sister never graduated high school, although she was released from HS early so she could attend college. She dropped out of college and started traveling in Europe and the Mid-East. She married my B-I-L when he was stationed in Germany and she was living there. They came back to the States and she got a job as a secretary in the international transportation department of a major national retailer. Within 3 years she’d worked her way up from secretary to head of the department. She presently heads up the international transportation for PetSmart, directing all their international imports, customs, etc. Her boss is thinking of putting her over the buying, too, so she can maximize savings in that area. Again, she doesn’t even have a HS diploma and she’s making a great salary doing a job she enjoys. One of my other sisters is a college graduate, and she’s sitting on her butt letting her twin support her. The first sister is far smarter, well-read and motivated than the second sister. So, no, I don’t think a college education is a necessity.
StG
Let’s not forget there are skills that are best learned outside of college. Not all jobs that do not require a college degree are unskilled labor. There are artisans of all sorts that get skills by working with other artisans, and even those that are largely self taught. There are also jobs that one is best trained in on the job rather than in a class. I think it is wrong headed to force all learning and training into a college mold.
I think a college diploma tends to make an employer assume a certain base level of skills, like a high school diploma used to–even if you drank all the time, never went to class, and barely got that diploma.
The thing is, college does have a profound effect on your life. Especially considering that it’s only 4 years. People see my college name on my resume and they assume a number of things. I have an instant bond with anyone I meet from my school or fraternity. Much of my dress and mannerisms and taste in music is the result of where I went to college. Many of my closest friends who I keep in touch with no matter where they live are people from college. Oh yeah…and there’s the education too.
The only other thing I can think of that would have such a huge effect in such a short time would be military service (which has it’s own pros and cons).
So to sum up - college - not necessary but probably a good idea.