Does having a college degree affect the way we think? (ethics, Whitehouse)
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I would NOT join you in supporting social programs that would better society by sending them to college. I personally believe that too much emphasis is put on attending college, and not enough emphasis is put on getting an education and/or learning a trade. I WOULD support programs that give EVERYONE more opportunity to learn a skill that translates into a career.
I agree that you won't do well in college without some intelligence, you can also be intelligent and do well in life without attending college. I think critical thinking skills can be developed anywhere.
I also think that colleges foster an environment that allows a certain type of "intelligence" to excel. It's about grades, and there are people that just have the ability to get good grades. I attended 3 years of college before dropping out because of lack of money, and knowing that the education that I was receiving wasn't going to help me in the career I was pursuing (I ended up in a trade school, and learning on my own.) I got excellent grades in college because I am very good at taking tests and writing papers. Those things are very easy for me, and if I had the financial means, I would have graduated with very little difficulty. Am I less or more intelligent because of a piece of paper? No. Is my brother, who struggles with tests and writing papers, and never attended college, less intelligent than me? Not even close.
And I strongly disapprove of programs that only target poor and minorities for college - that is unfair and racist.
My oldest son would be able to talk with you about this subject and you would find too much agreement. He graduated from high school 10 years ago and was being pushed by his counselor to go to college. He didn't know where the college that would give him what he wanted was so he went to a community college sponsored trade school. Two years of mostly only the trade he was interested in with none of the garbage that he would have to take in college. The only outside things he had to take were English classes and he needed that very much.
My son wanted to be a diesel mechanic. Do you know any 4 year colleges that offer that kind of program? He has been very successful in the area and has used his ability to understand mechanical things so readily to get ahead. College just isn't for everybody, no matter how much intelligence they have, but some people just can't understand that.
Let me voice my agreement with you about the targeting of poor and minorities to college because of who they are. They need to be helped and college just isn't the answer for everyone.
I think you are able to see what you said but then I wonder how many of those schools there are. When I went to college in the early 1950s nearly all of them were like that but then most of our people were like that back then, too.
There you have it in a nutshell. You grew up and were in school and in college during the era of McCarthyism.
From reading your many posts, it's obvious that your beliefs were influenced by your education...
I hate to say this, but I never did know a whole about Senator McCarthy until the early 1960s and back then I disagreed with what he did because I read mostly what I consider liberal things since I was a young liberal. It is only in the last 5 years that I have come to the realization that I was wrong all those years and McCarthy was right.
I hate to say this, but I never did know a whole about Senator McCarthy until the early 1960s and back then I disagreed with what he did because I read mostly what I consider liberal things since I was a young liberal. It is only in the last 5 years that I have come to the realization that I was wrong all those years and McCarthy was right.
I don't believe you just stated that you believe that McCarthy was right...
Too bad we don't encourage the old apprenticeships system where a young person would be matched with a skilled tradesman to teach them how to do a particular job. The tradesman got free help and the help got free training.
This makes me very happy. The sooner we get rid of fairy tales and book of myths from schools, the better.
When you get a degree, you are educated. Most of them know there is no there is no danger in same sex marriage and MOST IMPORTANTLY you realize just how silly religion is. I know I am and I am going through university. To do what? I am going for education and eventually hope to become a professor to put more logic into students. Yes, conservatives. I will be there to brainwash your children with my liberal beliefs.
Education has nothing to do with a reasoned position. This angle is rather a fallacious one.
Many people have degrees (or multiple ones), are highly educated in very complex topics, and are extremely intelligent and yet they have views on issues that some are attempting to claim are borne of a lack of education and developed out of an irrational fear or hatred.
In my education I have met all walks of "educated" people who held positions that ranged from irrational, fearful, or simply ignorant. Having a degree does not make one intelligent, nor does it make them informed on the topics they might have an opinion on. It simply means they went to school, learned basics in the subjects and then specialized in a single or range of fields.
College just isn't for everybody, no matter how much intelligence they have, but some people just can't understand that.
Let me voice my agreement with you about the targeting of poor and minorities to college because of who they are. They need to be helped and college just isn't the answer for everyone.
Well, well, we agree on something.
College is not for everyone. All students should be allowed to achieve their full potential via whatever means is available to them. For some that would mean college, for others trade schools or apprenticeship programs. No one should be denigrated for their choice of vocation or the path they take to achieve it. Likewise, those who choose college and graduate degrees should not be constantly bashed by those who made other choices. The anti-education trend in this country is truly alarming,
I don't see how calling one person with obviously backwards, hateful, homophobic views a Neanderthal makes me a hypocrite. It's not his religious views that make him a Neanderthal... It's his views towards gays and other marginalized groups. Nice try, professor.
The presidency is put on a pedestal in most schools-- No matter who is president. Just cause you don't like the current president doesn't change that. The first political figure that children recognize is the president-- Before the mayor, governor, etc... I'm pretty sure you didn't have that complaint when Bush was president.
I didn't have to complain about Bush - there were no school children singing the praises of the man, George Bush.
Learning, honoring and recognizing the president of the United States is VERY different from singing the praises of the person that is the president. Just because you love the current president doesn't change that.
I didn't have to complain about Bush - there were no school children singing the praises of the man, George Bush.
Learning, honoring and recognizing the president of the United States is VERY different from singing the praises of the person that is the president. Just because you love the current president doesn't change that.
I think you are taking a rare occurance-- an anomaly and pretending its a national trend... again to paint the conservatives as somehow crucified...
I bet if we went to 100 elementary schools randomly throughout the US at least 99 of them would not be singing songs about President Obama. But if your misdirected thinking on the issue makes you feel more victimized.. go for it.
It's always terrible when people become educated and move away from hatred and fear drummed up by those playing to emotions instead of reason. Even relatively reasonable people can see through most pleas to fallacies, lies, and misleading statements.
The only way to get around it is to brand anyone with a modicum of intelligence or education as thinking they are better then everyone else. It is an anti-intellectual ad hominem attack that used for centuries that never seems to get old. It just plays to people's frustration of childhood, frustrations of inadequacy, and fears of loss of control. Especially when playing on education is some unattainable goal for their followers, when it is really more effort then some innate quality. Those who play it off as an innate quality are those who want to make themselves look as victims instead of lazy.
The sad thing is often the same people who label and rant about those thinking they are better then others are the same ones that act pedantic and disparaging to those in their own fold when they ask tough questions.
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