Education level at the BFC

[svizzerams]

In reading over the various posts I am feeling a bit like off in left field. I went to high school in a very poor school district, we didn't have anything extra. But I got the basics, and my parents had a ton of books laying around the house to supplement my interests as well as the local library. But then I loved school and the possibilities it represented even if it wasn't perfect. I loved university, being a total bookworm (read: no fun) but I was putting myself through and maybe I appreciated it more. I was always a bit mystified by the people around me who drank themselves silly every weekend, showed no discipline toward studying or failed to recognize what was beyond the surface of this particular opportunity.

My education has been my greatest gift to myself. I like my work, but it is simply a means to the things i really want to do with my life. I've been to graduate school...and I want to go back...again. I just like to know "stuff". I think education is what you put into it. I never regarded my brain as an empty vessel that someone else was to passively fill up with knowledge. For me it was the jumping off point to explore more ... on my own with a nudge in the right direction. Its all about choices and attitude.

I know this might shock all you have perhaps percieved me as a raving liberal, but I think schools need more discipline and less individualism - like uniforms to lessen the social discrimination inherent to the environment based on the superficial (and it might be good to have closed campuses, no soft drink machines, and forbid students to drive to the school). Going to school is partly a business like endeavor and should be respected as such - you can express your individualism outside of the classroom environment. Tracking students according to interest and abilities to technical or academic tracts might be useful - however I wouldn't like to see such a rigid tracking as in Germany where kids at a very young age are pigeon holed without taking into account that some people develop academically at different rates.

[Buzzsaw]

I loved school and the possibilities it represented even if it wasn't perfect. I loved university, being a total bookworm (read: no fun) but I was putting myself through and maybe I appreciated it more. I was always a bit mystified by the people around me who drank themselves silly every weekend, showed no discipline toward studying or failed to recognize what was beyond the surface of this particular opportunity.

But ironically, you wind up hanging out at the BFC.

I know this might shock all you have perhaps percieved me as a raving liberal, but I think schools need more discipline and less individualism - like uniforms to lessen the social discrimination inherent to the environment based on the superficial (and it might be good to have closed campuses, no soft drink machines, and forbid students to drive to the school).

Throw in separating the genders as well. It's a proven fact that girls perform far worse when there are boys in the room. If your girl is having trouble at public school, get her out and get her into a girls only school. You know how silly teenagers can be.

[sorcerer]

Great ideas Svizz! I feel that school today is too much about looking like someone on MTV and too little about real knowledge. I live in and help support a very rich school district, in which I am on the low end of the pay and prestige scales which is fine for me but sheer hell for my step daughter, who came from Colombia with her mom and went from an all girl catholic school to a suburban central school and adopted a very snobbish attitude almost overnight. I think the kids are being taught that everything they need to know is in those books and that experience means nothing.
I went to a 2 year community college and got an associates degree in the late 70s when there were still a few manufacturing lobs left in the northeast us. About mid carreer, I had to learn design on a computer and after some initial misgivings, I have never longed for the bad old days. I’ve spent almost 24 years in the turbine and compressor field. I’m content (not rich), I don’t want more toys, I don’t have time to play with all the toys I have now (maybe if I learned to type faster.)

[Dim]

All the teachers I've talked to say that the single biggest difference they'd like to make to the school environment is for junk food to be banned from cafeterias. It's hard to teach kids when they're bouncing off the walls on sugar highs.

[DawnC71]

I loved university, being a total bookworm (read: no fun) but I was putting myself through and maybe I appreciated it more.

That is probably true for you Svizz....Although I did put myself through my schooling up to this point....I just always wanted to read otehr books besides what was required reading...I also got a little jaded when I never showed up for any lectures in MicroBiology or Astronomy and still ended up getting A's in the courses. I figured what the hell am I even paying for a class for if I dont have to go to the class to learn anything and can just read the book?

I admire anyone though, as i said in my earlier post, who has managed to have the staying power to continue to pursue their education goals.

So kudos to all of you who have finished school but if you are like me and cannot sit still too long I recommend that you get a good book called "Investing for Dummies" and start investing a little of your hard earned blue collar income to mutual funds or whatever risky areas you feel comfy with investing in. That way you might not be rich right now, but at least you will have something to retire on in the future!

cheers,
Dawn