All this debate lately about funding for education sometimes gets me to thinking about the educational system. I should know a little about it after all I went through 12 years with the DISD and managed to snare two diplomas from what was then East Texas State University. I still can’t spell worth a flip but I can read like a son of a gun! Of course the blame for the reading really falls on my mother. You see, she was for all practical purposes illiterate. However, she felt it was a mothers duty to read to her only child (me) so she did. She would carefully point to each syllable of every word as she struggled to sound it out while I sat all warm, cozy and content in her lap with my eye’s following that finger and my ears listening closely while my mind absorbed everything about this strange relationship between those squiggles on the paper beneath the story pictures and what my mom was sounding out.
Yep. My nearly illiterate mother (she dropped out of third grade I was told, to baby sit her younger brother while everyone else went to work during the depression) actually taught me to read. More she taught me that reading just plain felt good and was fun. True she didn’t read much but my dad did and his reading habit resulted in plenty of reading material being in the house at all times. Plus I often saw him sitting down and reading. The up shot of that is that the DISD in all it’s power was never able to convince me that reading WASN’T fun and I’ve been doing it ever since. They were able to convince me that the so called “classics” were, for the most part boring as all get out and I’ve read only the ones I was required to read in school.
But on to my point. Considering my high school and university degrees I should have been raking in the dough while I was working right? HA! Whenever I’d apply for a job dealing with my education level I was told that I didn’t have enough experience. On the other hand when I applied for jobs that would let me work up to that level I was told I was over educated. Bummer all the way around and that was with just one degree. With two and living here in beautiful Hunt County I was told the same thing. I finely realized that if I wanted to be gainfully employed in this county, perhaps even in Dallas County, what I really should have obtained was either a nursing degree (not possible with my allergy to sick people!) or a welding certificate.
Having neither I’ve worked most of my life at low paying, factory floor type jobs that have just about destroyed my feet, my knees and my self esteem from being constantly underemployed.
With that experience I can only ask: just exactly WHY is it absolutely necessary for young folks to get a higher education if they don’t have a specific goal in mind? And if that goal can be reached with out the all mighty degree why should they go in debt to get that silly piece of paper. None of the ones I have ever did anything but decorate a wall.
I’m just saying, why the emphasis on the paper or the fancy letters you can put behind your name if you can get the skills and knowledge you need to support yourself without them?
In case you are wondering, I'd likely have learned nearly as much about the Earth Sciences on my own just reading for the fun of it. I must admit I'd of rubbed up against much less math or chemistry but then again who knows! I'm a glutton for the stuff lots of others think is 'boreing!'
On a personal note. Good bye WCR. You will be missed. Who’ll keep me straight now?
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