There are a number of areas in my life where the issue of education keeps coming up. How important is it to have a degree or diploma? Does it really mean anything any more to graduate from college or have a doctorate? It is one of those questions that has the frustrating answer of “It depends.”
Education is vital. Don’t confuse that with saying formal education is vital. In some cases they are the same animal. Usually they are not. Education means learning. Formal education means fitting into a templet.
Let me give you a real life example. The men who came together and wrote the Constitution of the United States were giants. What they produced is unique in history and has stood the test of time. Midgets today are trying to pervert it into a tool of oppression but that is a story for another day. There were 55 men who served as delegates to the Constitutional Convention. Only 28 of them had college degrees. I think it is safe to say that that all 55 were educated. Okay, maybe only 54. How? Because they sought wisdom and knowledge. Because they learned to think. Because they did think.
Consider the people you know who are educated but don’t have formal education. The janitor at my school who cleans my room every day probably is as qualified to teach my class as I am. Maybe more. I have told him that. You meet people like him every day. Often they get blown off by those who have a piece of paper that declares they are educated. It isn’t necessarily so.
My father “only” graduated from high school. He attended a small country school. He was very well educated. Keep in mind that a high school education meant something in those days. If you doubt it Google for some of the tests that were taken a hundred years ago. Here is one sample of an 8th grade graduation test of the 19th century.
If you are still not convinced consider the CBEST. I think it is still being used, or at least something like it. In order to teach in California you needed to pass this test. The reason it became necessary was that a college degree had become meaningless as a measure of basic skills. The test was about on the 10th grade level. 20% of the college graduates who take the test fail. Colleges have taken to giving a similar test before they will allow students to graduate.
So get an education. While you are at it, get the piece of paper because we live in a world that doesn’t really care if you know anything, just if you have jumped through the approved hoops. You never know when you will need that to get past the road blocks erected by the Progressives.
homo unius libri
My father had an eighth grade education in a one-room country school. No high school or college for him. He was needed to help work the family farm. But he was one of the most knowledgeable men I knew. He said the most important thing he learned in school was to read.
ReplyDeleteMy father and my uncles were that way but I was too immature to appreciate it until I was older. At that point I began to really enjoy talking with them. So many wasted years...
DeleteGrace and peace.
Sad, but true.
ReplyDeleteBut the people with the diplomas don't care and they are in control. I wonder what would happen if we started defunding their ivory towers.
DeleteGrace and peace.