"When I see young people wandering around in a daze with $60K of student debt on their backs, I see a welder who never was."
Moving from LOVE to EDUCATION tonight
Food for thought: Do we over promote education ultimately to our detriment?
This article – albeit slightly obnoxious – makes some valid and humourous, points. It suggests that we’re forcing people into colleges and universities who simply don’t belong there. And in the end, it hurts them as individuals, and hurts our economy as a whole. The author of the article basically suggests that we would be better off letting the smart be smart and the less smart be, well, less smart.
Here’s an excerpt to tease you to read the whole article:
“What’s the matter with not being smart? As Hemingway put it, “Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.” Have you ever seen a genius at a water park? He’s miserable. The only time people with an IQ over 120 are really happy is when they’re at work. They’re basically our slaves. Dumb people ride ATVs with their sons, go bungee jumping, and laugh their heads off when somebody farts. Many of them are also rich.”
READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE: A NATION OF WORKING CLASS DROPOUTS
Here are a couple more excerpts if you don’t want to read the whole thing:
“When my dad was a kid in Scotland, Britain was practicing a very successful exam system called 11-plus. Dad came from a huge working-class family and as is often the case, one of them had an IQ much higher than the others. They all took their 11-plus test at age 11. His brothers did fairly poorly and he did incredibly well. The brothers were then diverted from academia and put into trade schools, whereas my father got scholarships for private school and eventually got a degree in physics from Glasgow University. The brothers did very well working at a printing press and now lead fulfilled lives as proud tradesmen. My father went on to develop sonar equipment that called the Russians’ nuclear-submarine bluff and helped lead to the fall of communism. This was all thanks to the 11-plus system and it worked beautifully for over 30 years until 1976 when the egalitarians decided it was cruel to admit that some kids are simply not as smart as others.”
“The controversy that destroyed 11-plus is long and complex, but the CliffsNotes version is that some clueless politician saw educated siblings do better than uneducated siblings and thought, “They should all have the opportunity to do as well as their brother.” But the educated sibling didn’t thrive because he was educated. He was educated because he thrived. If you think his brothers got ripped off, tell it to God. He was the one who doled out the lower IQs. 11-plus recognized that some people are smarter than others. Getting kids out of school early also means less government, which is another big reason it was abolished. Only an idiot could truly believe we’re all equally smart.”
This might be my favourite:
“When I see young people wandering around in a daze with $60K of student debt on their backs, I see a welder who never was. Forcing everyone to become smart is like a countrywide affirmative-action plan. It doesn’t work.”
Thursday’s Lesson Plan:
Warm-up: Start with a couple of lengths of the gym mobilizing the hips and shoulders then go for 3 rounds of this partner warm up
10 med-ball sprawl ball 1 footed chest pass
10 med-ball sit-up
WoD: 2 parts
1. EMOM for 10 minutes- wall balls- choose your own number
2 minutes rest
2. EMOM for 1o minutes- ball slams- choose your own number
Finisher: Guided stretching or rolling. Give some love to the shoulders as they’ve worked hard this week.
p.s. Complex coming tomorrow. 
Bill
11 Comments:
By Wendy 28 Aug 2013
He may not be a genius, but the Panda was at the waterpark a couple weeks ago.
And nothing makes a Panda happier than waterslides. Nothing.
Except maybe bbq meat.
And naps.
By bill 29 Aug 2013
Must start hanging out with Panda more!!! Also my happy places!
By Nathalie 29 Aug 2013
Interesting post Em. As an engineer I work closely with very skilled construction workers and definitely find myself envious of them sometimes. I’m pretty sure they’re making the same amount of money as I am (or more) since they actually get paid overtime. This probably wouldn’t be as annoying if I actually enjoyed what I did for work!
I am by no means saying I’m a genius but I do enjoy waterparks…and recently found myself highly entertained at the PNE on a Saturday night…
By Reto 29 Aug 2013
I agree that not enough youth are looking at trades as an option. However:
- I still think there’s a benefit to society of having a generally more educated population.
- I don’t think you can really judge whether a kid should become a physicist or a pipe welder at age 11. When I was 11 the only thing I was interested in was playing baseball & gambling at marbles after school.
- I don’t really believe that some kids are just born with lower IQs and so should be destined to become garbage truck drivers; I think nurture has a lot to do with success in the education system, not just nature. Plenty of “dumb” kids will thrive if given the chance…Patty, for example.
My solution is to encourage a new route to employment:
high school -> useless but educational university degree -> tradeschool -> high-paying union job to dig yourself out of debt
By Meagan 29 Aug 2013
Very interesting article, I agree with many points. It’s all about options in my opinion. I think in Germany they give kids an option at 16 to either leave school and get work experience or continue on in their studies, many choose a trade and a lot even go back to University after a few years. They do something similar in Ireland and I think it works well. They also have testing in both countries, which although might hurt some peoples egos, it may still be a good way to guide young people.
By Lars 29 Aug 2013
Do what makes you happy and do your best! Don’t let people tell you what to do! But also listen to your dad.
By Lars 29 Aug 2013
BTW, Italy and Germany are on very different economic paths…. So maybe the real lesson in all this is not to listen to Megan.
By Pig 29 Aug 2013
I would have been way happier as a welder
or a bird house maker
Or mowing lawns
By Pig 29 Aug 2013
I could be out bashing ATV’s with the Duke
By Lumber 29 Aug 2013
I think you can be a pretty smart person and still love ATV’s and waterslides.
I particularly related to Woodchucks point about trades people getting paid for all the hours they work. Getting paid for every hour that you work seems like a pretty smart move to me. That hasn’t happened to me since I was in Uni. Ha ha.
By nads 30 Aug 2013
Fully agree on most parts.. except the part about dumb people loving motorized sports.
I know way too many overly educated ski bums who gave up their high paying jobs to work in trades or as bike/ski techs or coaches and work as little as possible (enough to get by) and then play outdoors as much as possible. Escapism.. wooooo!
The first thing I do when I get home from Uni on a friday night is rip up to pemby and shoot a few packs of shotgun shells then tear around on a moto or dh bike to de-stress from the city. Maybe I should just go back to banging nails…