Darryl:
Well, thanks I guess? I don't think I see formal
education the same way you do. I absolutely loathed school as a kid and
dropped out for a couple of years when in highschool. But during those two
years, spent working in a sawmill and achieving a high level of teenage
debauchery at an art school, I came to realize I had to beat the system
from the inside or it would beat me. I didn't find, as you put it, a
"living, caring world" out there. I went back to school with the
rather angry attitude of 'just tell me what crap you want me to learn and I'll
learn it, OK!!?' And learn it I did, and I then went on to
university and into professional life. Even though I may have compromised
what I, as a teenager, thought were principles, I can imagine, with adult
hindsight, what would have happened to me if I hadn't gone back. In
the sawmill and as a summer-time logger while a student, I worked with lots of
guys who had quit like I did but never went back. Some of them were really
smart, but they never got anywhere and never would. I think that's what
would have happened to me. Keep logging as long as you could and then
what?
All the way through school and university, I can count
the courses I really liked on the fingers of one hand. The rest was cram,
cram, cram - get marks, get marks, get marks! I don't know if it
diminished me, but I rather think not. If anything, it built up my
capacity to handle a lot of crap quickly and under pressure, something that
proved very useful in my career as a public servant.
I guess what I'm saying is that while formal education
may be a rather brutal part of the system, it is nevertheless a necessary
part. You really can't get very far without it. And, if anything,
it's gentler than the system as a whole. Two of the smartest people I ever
knew got absolutely nowhere because they couldn't go the academic
route. They both came from way out in the bush, and that's probably
where they've gone back to - if they didn't wind up on skid row.
Ed
|
- Re: [Futurework] Riots in Riyadh? Ray Evans Harrell
- RE: [Futurework] Riots in Riyadh? Karen Watters Cole
- Re: [Futurework] Riots in Riyadh? Ray Evans Harrell
- Re: [Futurework] Riots in Riyadh? Ray Evans Harrell
- RE: [Futurework] Riots in Riyadh? Lawrence DeBivort
- RE: [Futurework] Riots in Riyadh? Karen Watters Cole
- RE: [Futurework] More nuance, less fur... Karen Watters Cole
- Re: [Futurework] Riots in Riyadh? Darryl and Natalia
- Re: [Futurework] Riots in Riyadh? Ed Weick
- clarification Re: [Futurework] Riots in Ri... Darryl and Natalia
- Re: clarification Re: [Futurework] Rio... Ed Weick
- Re: clarification Re: [Futurework... Ray Evans Harrell
- Re: clarification Re: [Future... Ed Weick
- Re: clarification Re: [Future... Ray Evans Harrell
- RE: [Futurework] Riots in Riyadh? Cordell . Arthur
- RE: [Futurework] Riots in Riyadh? Cordell . Arthur
- RE: [Futurework] Riots in Riyadh? Cordell . Arthur
- Re: [Futurework] Riots in Riyadh? Ray Evans Harrell
- Re: [Futurework] Riots in Riyadh? Ed Weick
- Re: [Futurework] Riots in Riyadh? Ray Evans Harrell
- Re: [Futurework] Riots in Riyadh? Ed Weick