Tips for advancing your education

[CarMichael Angelo]

As I have been on this, and other forums for several years now, those that have read what I have to say know that I'm somewhat conscientious about what it is and how I say it.

It struck me today as I looked up another word (to be sure that I didn't use it out of context) that w/ the advent of GOOGLE, there is little reason for any further education past the 10th grade.

Now, even sitting around in a group discussion the answer to the words "I wonder if?" are never left to the unknown now that we have Google. Big assed, deep words like epiphany and transitional lift are no longer relegated to conversations in circles of rocket scientists and helicopter pilots.

But at the same time, I can't talk to my wife in a bar w/o her snagging her iphone to look up something we just "wondered about" anymore,....it drives me nuts.

I have to admit. On this ship, w/ regard to education, I am a passenger in3rd class. (One of those rooms below the water line, that have no windows) I barely got out of high school. Before the introduction of a search engine, I was the "Radar O'Reilly" of my unit in the Army. I can't count how many times I took a paper that I had just finished typing into the Cpt., just to Hear "Matkosky!,..come here and get your letter" 2 minutes later. With my original version in hand w/ a whole bunch of "corrections" made by the commander, I got to re type the new correspondence minus the misspelling and grammatical errors the first version was full of. (sometimes more than once). Yet, now that I have Google and spell check, I can write a letter, or carry on a conversation as if I had actually invested in some form of 4 year degree beyond the 12th grade I so desperately wanted to get out of.

Bottom line, before any of you start slamming me, I'm not really endorsing dropping out of high school in the 10th grade. I'm just amazed at how easy it is now days to be literate and an "expert" at the same time.

Thank you,.... Al Gore, for inventing the internet.

 

[1991notchbackLX]

I have six years of college behind me and I'm seriously considering a PhD or second Masters. When all is said and done, your resume gets you into the room for the interview, but your personality and work ethic keep you there. I don't advance my education for the small net gain in personal wealth. In fact, I'm currently working in an arguably unrelated field. I do, however, enjoy school and crave intellectual conversation. If, at any time, I feel like I've stopped learning, I suddenly get the creeping feeling that I'm treading water and not making any progress. I know people with GEDs who will out talk, out think, and out perform a PhD five days a week and twice on Saturday. It all comes down to the individual, in my experience.

I understand that you're not necessarily advocating going to school, or otherwise. I see what you mean about accessibility. Nowadays, knowledge that used to be the privilege of a few scholars is now available to anyone at any time, regardless of intelligence or pay grade.

 

[Bullitt347]

And yet, despite Google, spell check and the vast information available on the internet at the stroke of a key, you have people who refuse to use that information when trying to form a sentence or thought when communicating on a forum such as this.

 

[S&B]

i learned everything from TLC, history channel, G4 and true TV to name a few spend some hours watching those and you will be caught up to speed.

 

[hoopty5.0]

You know, I understand not everybody has the resources to go to college that would like to. And yet, there were people in my senior level classes at Texas A&M writing papers seemingly at an elementary level because they "would just use spell check later" or "type it into Google and see what comes up." What?!? you have a golden opportunity here at furthering your education, but refuse to take advantage of every opportunity to learn? Yes, we know you think you can speak English and that college English classes are pointless, but if you don't know/care where commas and periods go, your science major is now worthless.

/end rant.

Sorry if it was off topic from the OP, but it bothers the sh*t out of me.

 

[NIKwoaC]

I remember when my wife first got an iPhone. We said we'd never have an unaswered question about anything ever again.

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

My mother didn't get past 9th grade. She's one of the smartest people i know. Some people just have it and others have to work at it.

 

[txstang84]

Mike you bring up a pretty salient conversation related to today's society. I'm also a product of public education (Texas) and I share company with dozens of folks who hold degrees-to include pilots...please notice I did not say "earned" a degree. Sometimes I wonder, as I share conversation with the aforementioned company, if they just did the minimums, or if they were actually attentive in their classes. It's been nearly half my life since I stepped foot in a real classroom apart from PME (Professional Military Education). Despite my lack of concurrent academic freshening, I rarely find myself in a place where I believe my written or verbal communication is unintelligible to anyone...not bad for public ed IMO.

Some of the new kids sent our way though...wow...no child left behind? You sure about that?

Edit: not sure if it's relevant, but-no, I did not attend any higher learning prior to my entrance into the USAF...

 

[txstang84]

Pretty funny you mention the CO's bleeding of documents. During my 4 year hitch at QA, we had a Chief (E9) bring us in on a weekend because our writing skills were not commensurate to the AFI requirement...at least, not according to him. Go figure, that bugger wasn't in there with us mentoring what we apparently fell short of.

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

You know, I understand not everybody has the resources to go to college that would like to. And yet, there were people in my senior level classes at Texas A&M writing papers seemingly at an elementary level because they "would just use spell check later" or "type it into Google and see what comes up." What?!? you have a golden opportunity here at furthering your education, but refuse to take advantage of every opportunity to learn? Yes, we know you think you can speak English and that college English classes are pointless, but if you don't know/care where commas and periods go, your science major is now worthless.

/end rant.

Sorry if it was off topic from the OP, but it bothers the sh*t out of me.

Your rant wasn't off topic Hoop, I was kind of bashing the fact that people (like myself) can now get by using what current technology has to offer . On the other hand, if someones' lack of understanding the English language is so acute, spell check will not correct the the usage of the wrong word even if it's spelled right. There, when it should have been their, or they're got me every time. That was 30 years ago, on a high speed box they called a "word processor," and even though I could check what I had written, I didn't know it was wrong in the first place.

 

[N8Dogg98]

I agree with most of what you say Mike, but regardless of the information available to us one still must have the "intelligence" to take that information and use it in the appropriate context. Spell check, for example, is not enough to overcome one's inability to form a coherent argument.

I have a bachelor's degree in math/stats and I can tell you I use the skills I learned in my high level college math classes on a daily basis. Most of the coursework we did involved writing 2-4 page math proofs, and in order to write a math proof one must have a very clear understanding of the meaning of words in the English language. In fact, I can read any legal document and have a clear understanding of whether or not there are loopholes in the document because of these skills. I'd probably make a decent lawyer because of these skills. They've allowed me to progress quickly in my career in the insurance industry, especially when it comes to letter writing to a policy holder.

I think the internet and modern technology has provided everyone at every intelligence level an opportunity to reach higher than they would have in the past. The "scholars" of the past are now able to deliver the same argument/thought with objective evidence in a more rapid manner, and the HS drop outs can now type up a coherent document quickly without referring to a dictionary or reference manual to check spelling and grammar.

 

[Bullitt347]

and the HS drop outs can now type up a coherent document quickly without referring to a dictionary or reference manual to check spelling and grammar.

And yet they rarely do.

 

[srtthis]

as much as i support going to college we do have some younger people on here and just dont want them to get the wrong idea... just because you DONT go to college doesnt mean you'll never do anything with your life worth while. only reason i never finished is because i was able to land a pretty good internship in high school with a great company. and ive worked my way up and im now a designer for that same company.

but dont get me wrong also... i'd also have an engineering degree now and be much further along in the company.

BUT i do plan to return to college once everything in my life settles down. the weddings over the house is just about done so it should be soon

 

[stang&2Birds]

And yet, despite Google, spell check and the vast information available on the internet at the stroke of a key, you have people who refuse to use that information when trying to form a sentence or thought when communicating on a forum such as this.

IMHO, more importantly, you have people that will spend HOURS stupidly arguing over something instead of taking 10 mins and do some reading from `Google searches on ".edu" sites/etc.

As for the "need for education", that depends on what a person does and if they can make a living for their whole life doing that. Many people can!


As for the desire/want for learning, today it's simple and free! So, no excuse if that's what some one desires.
MIT, Standford, and many other Universities have tapes of actual courses on youtube and their own websites.
MIT OpenCourseWare Site:
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm


For people with a Roku, there is an MIT OCW channel. There is also a Khan Academy channel. So, it's easy to watch and learn stuff right on your TV!. A Roku is under $100 and no fee, so now what's your excuse for not watching courses? I found it interesting that one of the videos on the MIT/OCW Roku channel (Intro to Control Theory?) was from the early 70s! Yet even today, you get the "Internet Experts" that give such bogus info on stuff like engine control/control theory, that I either laugh or sigh when I read many posts.

So again, it all depends on what a person wants/desires.


Note that I see a lot of very poor and sometimes potentially harmful advice giving on the forums. So, always take any advice or any Internet Info with a grain of salt. There is a ton of bad or poor info on the Net. There is also a lot of info that is meant to be a basic high-level intro into very complex subjects. It's very easy to take that type of info the wrong way. But, if an explanation is over 2 paragraphs or requires anything above a grade school understanding of things, 99.9999% of the people will pass it by. So, people get what they ask for - very basic info on very complex subjects.



I think that the MIT OCW videos are among the best for a true University-level course.
Disclosure, I have affiliations with MIT.

 

[txstang84]

You mean something like this? A member here asks for help on how to fix a seemingly normal problem (like alternator not charging), then fails to complete the easy to follow checklists set forth by a reputable and trusted source in the manner they were prescribed (like ohhh, I dunno-jrichker), then have the gaul to come back and state their frustration when the part/system/process is still broken?

 

[tannerc91gt]

I can agree that things like google GIVE you all the information you could ever need. But your own education is what gives you the ability to USE that information. I can read about quantum physics all day, doesnt mean im going to know what the hell im doing at the end of the article

 

[85_SS_302_Coupe]

College degrees IMO are a buy in for a better job. Some people will go to school for particular things and they'll learn a lot, like biology and science, but most people go and get a business degree which is like a BS'ing degree. I've spent most of my life in retail management and the people directly above me have a college education and i don't. The only difference between us is they talk a lot of and don't do any real work. At one time a few years back it was my job to train these people on the job so they could turn around and tell people just like me how to do the job that i just taught them to do. In other words, college education really only educates you in a specialized career.

 

[NIKwoaC]

For those not convinced that post-high school education is valuable...

 

[Boosted92LX]

College degrees IMO are a buy in for a better job. Some people will go to school for particular things and they'll learn a lot, like biology and science, but most people go and get a business degree which is like a BS'ing degree. I've spent most of my life in retail management and the people directly above me have a college education and i don't. The only difference between us is they talk a lot of **** and don't do any real work. At one time a few years back it was my job to train these people on the job so they could turn around and tell people just like me how to do the job that i just taught them to do. In other words, college education really only educates you in a specialized career.

Sounds to me like if you plan on continuing in your career field, you should maybe consider night school. Sounds like if you are training the degreed ding a lings, but had a sheepskin you could jump a step and make chit loads more money...You already have the know how, it's just that piece of paper holding you back. I see it all the time where I work. A bunch of slack jawed mouth breathers from Texas A&M who can't pour piss out of a boot, getting coached by the blue collar guys... Every once in a while one of the crafstmen will finish up night school and they shoot up the ladder real quick. I've considered it, but I've done two years in tech school already, and the politics of management here make me wanna puke...

EDIT: plus I'm to the age that I wouldn't really gain any money, as lower management makes about what we do, because we make overtime, and they don't. So, If I were to pursue it, I'd wind up with more responsibility for the same money and ultimately never get higher because I'm too old to have time to advance.... So, If you are going to make your move, do it soon!

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Strange how things mutate. It's no wonder lawyers feel the need to put fine print at the bottom of the commercial "professional stunt driver on closed course, do not attempt", because any thing said now a days is open to interpretation unless it is painfully obvious.

My fault.

Other than a casual, light hearted observation on how easy it had become to look up the correct meaning and spelling of a word,I was not in anyway implying that doing a Google search would be an adequate substitute for a college education. I've said it before, and now again that I really like the diverse group this forum attracts, You'll have to forgive me, but out of the 20 some odd people I know personally, The job description of professional and Fox Mustang don't exist in the same sentence. After living down here for the last 25 years, I have just taken for granted that "Gear head" meant 10th grade education. ( or HS grad, that challenges me for what I mean when I say deterrent, reciprocating assembly, or the big one, "pushing the envelope"). In my group of friends and fellow racers, I can't tell you how many times I've been chastised for using words that are "too big". I only pointed out my lack of a formal education so as to be clear that I was not preaching from the pulpit w/ a "I'm better than you because" message to the thread.