Your educational level?

[Queen]

What is your educational level, and did you find that it helped or hurt you in the course of your working or personal life?  Jr. high, high school, college, grad school, trade school, a professional degree?


For me, I tried to go to college every chance I got, but work schedules interfered greatly.  Went back to college in my mid 30's, needing to find a job that would slow the destruction of my body.  Found I had an affinity for working with the mentally ill so I pursued that, although a history degree was the dream.  I have a bachelors and some grad school under my belt and it bought my passage into the field I was interested in, so in that sense it was worthwhile.  

I also learned a lot in school that I hadn't had the time to learn on my own, but I think if I'd had access to the internet, I'd have made a great dent in that since I was ridiculously motivated to "know stuff".  Bought a used encyclopedia set when I was just out of high school and used to spend hours reading those, and the dictionary.  More than anything I wanted to be educated, I wanted to be able to intelligently discuss all the things running through my head.

How about you?

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

Got a two year degree from the local community college, majored in history and political science, I often refer to it as having the equivalent of a European high school education.

Transferred to a four year school, but dropped out my junior year.  Truth was, I didn't know WHAT I wanted to do with my life.

Bounced around various low paying, dead end jobs until I was 40, then finally wised up and took civil service tests until I landed a job with New York State.  Put in 25 years with them, ended up with a good pension and great health benefits.

Can't really say my education helped me any professionally, although I certainly enjoyed the subjects.  Still read a lot of history as a hobby.

 

[lenny flank]

Two years college, dropped out. A degree in English and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee. Did freelance writing instead, which led to a job in publishing.

PS--The Internet is a blessing and a curse. It gives everyone everywhere access to the entire sum of human knowledge. But, alas, most of the Internet is crap. Today, any goober can put up a blog or website with any cockamamie crackpottery he wants, and reach as many people with it as a best-selling author could just thirty years ago. And most people are too uninformed (and, in our idiotically polarized political times, too ideologically motivated) to separate the wheat from the chaff. People have always tended to pick and choose the information that allows them to keep believing what they already want to believe (psychologists refer to that as "confirmation bias"), and the Internet just makes that easier.

Sadly, I think the overall effect of the Internet has been to make us, as a society, dumber.

 

[Queen]

Working at university I was often asked if getting a college degree was "worth it", I usually replied if you wanted to immerse yourself in a subject, yes, if you wanted training to get a job, then a very qualified maybe.  Plenty of other opportunities to get job training besides spending a fortune at a U.

 

[ArtW]

I your goal is simply 'median income' regardless of the type of work, no, trade school gets you median income jobs, quicker, cheaper, and with fewer politics
if your goal is 'the college experience' maybe, depending on your definition of 'the college experience'
Honestly even a HS diploma still gives you a pretty good chance of upward mobility, you just have to work hard at it
Hell, I'm a HS dropout, and I've managed to pull myself out of below poverty income up to working class wages
I also know folks with degrees (my own Aunt is a prime example) who are slap stupid
Educated, but still slap stupid

 

[BradKW]

I graduated to dumbest guy in the room and due to the Peter Principle I feel secure in my position...

 

[WalkaboutTed]

Got a useless BA in history. Ex said "Take what you enjoy, you'll never have to work for a living". HAH! After a miserable decade, hitching my star to somebody else's wagon, I went back to school and got my RN license. I learned the hard way that I could never depend on someone else, that I was it. And I got to do something I was passionate about.
Ted

 

[Queen]

^
After I got hurt as a firefighter (with medic certs) I regret allowing myself to be talked out of nursing school.  I think I would have enjoyed it, and probably would have ended up working with the same population... just for a lot more money than a mental health clinician makes.

 

[Gunny]

I graduated to dumbest guy in the room and due to the Peter Principle I feel secure in my position...

One of my favorite Books..Every man rises to the level of his own incompetence.

Rob

 

[waldenbound]

I have an associate's degree. Graduated from college at age 52. Whew, age discrimination is real out there!

 

[SoulRaven]

my education is non existent i made it to 10th grade and then started living in my vw Westphalia and worked odd jobs and stuff like that and saved money parked in my dads driveway and slept there and did chores for my dad .  i got married in 1995 for 18 years and i have learned how  to be a survivalist

 

[SoulRaven]

An Associate In Applied Science (2 year degree from a technical college), also had 3 semesters of secretarial/accounting just out of high school at the community college. I didn't want an education beyond high school, but I was pressed, you know "potential". I did very well in school, but hated every minute of confinement. Everything past 6th grade was worthless, well, except typing class. People think I am more educated than I am, not sure what that means although, like Queen, I crave "input" of all kinds, so much to know, so little time. Sometimes though I envy "ignorance" and understand how it would indeed equate to "bliss".

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

. . . like Queen, I crave "input" of all kinds, so much to know, so little time.

Are you guys familiar with the Great Courses?

http://www.thegreatcourses.com/

 

[Queen]

^^^ I am, and also the Khan Academy, both good open learning opportunities.

 

[minimotos95]

Well I dropped out, got my GED and enrolled in a technical school at 16 but before anything came of that I saw the numbers on the financial side of the paperwork... Immediately realizing I was going to get more in debt than my "dream home(stead)" at that time would cost me, the whole reason I wanted to get that education in the first place, chasing that dollar to buy land. So I opted to change my path.

 

[SoulRaven]

I have the brochures on the Great Courses and been tempted, maybe when I reach of my goal of "aloneness" I'll pursue a couple in the quiet that I hope to have. With my younger son with Down syndrome, school was a mess and I learned about "unschooling", that was awesome, make it available, things that are interesting and they will take the lead, kind of like being an adult rather than a prisoner. Kind of like someone leaving the mainstream to pursue, oh, a life of adventure!

 

[ArtW]

OMG I'd like to get that across to the idiots running our education, um, i mean, indoctrination, system
I was one of those kids who aced tests, ignored school and homework, and considered school 'jail'

 

[XFILE36]

I graduated from the school of hard-knocks in life.

 

[ArtW]

well hell that'd be my alma matter too

 

[AbuelaLoca]

I went to college for 3 semesters and partied all my mom's money away, so I quit. I still have no clue what I want to be when I grow up! I went back to school for electronics, but fell in love and quit that too. I've worked a myriad of jobs, the longest was 11 years at the IRS. Yes, my "some college" got me hired at a few jobs, but no, it hasn't gotten me a profession. I toy with the idea of taking a few classes every now and then, but I hated school then and I'm sure I'd hate it now. I still learn all the time from people and books and life and I like this way better! LOL