gnothi seauton
I am trying to finish up a degree in computer science. With working full time and a family of eight to take care of, this is proving challenging to say the least! I am currently taking twelve credits.
I am coming to the conviction that the best way to learn to hate what you love is to formalize it with a college education. Not that I am against education or discipline (we home educate our six children), just the college system. I am fully convinced that apprenticeship is the best route. Yes, it is much more difficult to verify the education that way, but then so is quantifying the true validity of a college education.
What does it mean when someone says that they obtained such and such degree from a university? I remember taking some courses from a college in northern New York and discovering, to my irritation, that many of my fellow students were going to parties every night of the week and still passing their classes. I, on the other hand, studied like there would be no tomorrow in order to get B’s. Am I to believe that the nation’s pool of geniuses migrate to upstate New York every year? Not likely! Maybe I suffer from some sort of metal retardation. Perhaps there was a rift in the space/time continuum and I was on the wrong side.
On the other hand, I am discovering that I can work 40+ hours a week, spend time with the family, friends and Church, go to school full time and still pass (Just try to ignore that vicious tic). So why am I getting the degree? Well, because it is expected, of course (you big silly). When I go to an employer for a job, I can walk in with 10+ years of experience, wearing a suit and tie, wowing them with my expertise and brilliance, and still the twenty-something (I am thirty-nine) with the four year degree will get first dibs.
There was a time when having a degree didn’t matter much. If you could program, you could get a job. Then 911 happened and the bubble burst.
I have a friend who has his master’s in engineering. He is currently a farmer, but when he worked in corporate America he said the only reason he ever looked at a person’s college experience was that it demonstrated to him that the person was willing to complete something they didn’t really want to do in the first place. It is hard to think that that may be the only really good reason to get an education from an accredited college, but there you have it.