Raining day thoughts

On education.....I got a job the summer I was 14 working with a home builder,I enjoyed it so much that I never went back to school. When I was 30 I passed my GED test on first try. Didn't feel any smarter. My wife and I have owned our own business for 18 years and made a good living for our kids. I don't regret not finishing school. And I'm not pushing our kids to go to college. Oldest daughter went for a while and doesn't lack much being a teacher but she decided that being a stay at home mom was what she wanted to do. Next daughter is 6 months from graduation as a surgical tech. Both funded their own schooling. Our 2 oldest boys are out of high school and working. One is married. One is engaged. Got 2 boys left at home. Still don't know what they plan to do. How important is education?! I read at least a book a week plus anything else I can find. Never have stopped learning.

Gramps--your post fits in with this cartoon someone sent me this morning--Wow---Tee

(quoted from post at 07:20:58 02/25/18) On education.....I got a job the summer I was 14 working with a home builder,I enjoyed it so much that I never went back to school. When I was 30 I passed my GED test on first try. Didn't feel any smarter. My wife and I have owned our own business for 18 years and made a good living for our kids. I don't regret not finishing school. And I'm not pushing our kids to go to college. Oldest daughter went for a while and doesn't lack much being a teacher but she decided that being a stay at home mom was what she wanted to do. Next daughter is 6 months from graduation as a surgical tech. Both funded their own schooling. Our 2 oldest boys are out of high school and working. One is married. One is engaged. Got 2 boys left at home. Still don't know what they plan to do. How important is education?! I read at least a book a week plus anything else I can find. Never have stopped learning.

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Good for you!!

College is not for everyone. We still need home builders, electricians, plumbers, etc., etc., etc.

Too many people in today's education system don't get its about marketable job skills. In the end it doesn't matter how you got them as long as you have got them.

Some of the smartest people I know are uneducated. I did not say they were stupid; I said they were uneducated.

A carpenter I worked with could add fractions in his head and he did not complete elementary school. He could not do it with a pencil and paper, but he could in his head. He did not know what a numerator or denominator was.

Another carpenter's boss would show off one of his uneducated workers. This employee could add numbers with fractions in his head faster than a person standing there with a calculator as the boss called out the numbers..
Neither needed further education.

The key is to never stop learning like you said. I don't want to start an argument here but I am concerned with todays educational system. To me it is becoming [or has become] a vessel or tool for politicians and high placed school admins to build their careers with. That said, I still believe strongly in higher education. To me that means vocational school as well as college. What our problem is {at least in Tn.} is we try to cram all students in the same mold. My idea always was we are the alleged adults and professionals so we should be able to adapt to their needs. Many of my former students have done at least as well and some better by attending vocational school. In Tn most can graduate vocational school debt free and make as much and sometimes more than college grads.

my son never finished school he is 32 and the foreman for a company he makes close to six figures collage is not for everyone

What Copperhead said reminded me about our math programs. In Tn high school students are required to take 4 years of "higher math" and pass a state mandated test on it. When they do this most still cant read a tape unless they learned it in a vocational class or at home.

The trouble is going to be that they need marketable skills that they can PROVE they have. There are lots of jobs that require a college degree to just get past the front door. I usually argue that a college degree is not worth much but you will start working at the bottom of the ladder in most places. In bigger companies you will never advance very far without some type of degree. So your children may do very well in life without any kind of degree but they are sure limiting their choices. This is really true in the south where wages are generally much lower for regular "labor" type of jobs.

My older four children all have degrees of some type. My youngest barely got through high school. I did manage to get him to take a welding coarse that enabled him to get his certification. With that he ahs been able to get pretty good jobs. The only trouble I see is he going to want to be still just a welder when he is 40?? or 50???

My second oldest works for a fortune 500 company that requires a minimum of a BA degree to even get into any position over grunt at the bottom pay scale. He started out with just his BA and worked towards his masters. That degree coupled with hard work got him the job he has now. His base pay is $125K a year. He usually adds another $25K in bonuses.

So realize that not having a degree will put an upper limit on what your kids will be able to make in their life times. Is that fair?? NO but it is the truth in today's society. Those that run the majority of the companies and almost all the politicians have degrees of some sort. They use it as a measuring stick to sort people into jobs.

Big Tee cartoon is funny but, with less than 30% of the country having union jobs, it is not based on facts. High wage jobs with good benefits are not very common these days for people without provable skills.

A "union" type of job does not necessarily mean are you are a union member. In fact, most of the folks today who are engaged in a "trade" type of profession do NOT belong to any union.

Well college is like anything else its what you make of it,only thing these days and I don't agree with it but that's the way it is,is that a person has to have a certain level of education to even be considered for many jobs.I'd say graduating from high school and some type of technical school would be a good way to start.I went to college and then when I started my job at the concrete company they paid for me to go to about any related classes I wanted to go to and I went to a bunch on welding,electrical,hydraulics,block making equipment,concrete classes.It all served me well and I ended up making a lot more $$$ because of the education much of which I use farming too.

My nephew was a classic example - masters degree in performing arts. (Music) Went back to school and obtained a law degree. Music wasn't putting food on the table.

So true as to what you said about having a degree. At least where I am concerned having or not having a degree is a hard barrier. I've been encouraged to apply for jobs where I did not have the specific qualifications that the job called for in terms of education. I was told each time that the job would never make use of most of those educational requirements. That they were only concerned about basic skills and common sense. Each time I never got called in for an interview or even an acknowledgement that I had applied. Yes, I do have a degree in agricultural economics and even when I was applying for something specific as to my degree I was playing the "not what you know but who you know" game more often than not.

I barely graduated from high school, flunked out of college, enlisted in the NAVY the day I got the letter that my school deferment was revoked and life goes on. I wish I would have attended a vocational school that would have taught me a trade, wish I knew how to weld for one thing. Only 3 jobs in my after NAVY life and that was in the fastener industry, Bolts and Nuts I know. I get it that education is a plus but I know a lot of people my age that went to the "School Of Hard Knocks" and came out of it in good shape.

I got my first job at age 12 as a pressman's helper at a newspaper place in Athens TN and also delivered newspapers. We move from there to Cleveland MS where I again got a newspaper job of delivering and as a pressman's helper. I did graduate from high school but just. I had my draft card come up 1-A so I took the test for joining the navy and scored well and was told I could have any job title I wanted and or go to the Navel academy or ROTC. I did not want any more school so I became an electronics' Teck and spent 6 years in the navy. Since then I have worked a good many different jobs. I tend to get bored with jobs so about every 3 or so years I switched to a different job due to lay offs or other such thing

NY 986 I have been on the other side of the hiring table. If you have a lot of applicants your going to use things to sort through them. Your going to narrow the field down to 3-4 people and then LOOK really hard at them. The biggest sorting gauge is education level. It works both ways too. If the employer is looking for a general labor person they will turn away people with degree as they usually would be short term hires while looking for a better job. If they are wanting a person that can manage supplies and/or employees then they are going to throw out anyone without some type of business management degree. It is just a fact of life. Do they use their actual degree in their job?? Most of the time they do not.

Part of a higher education is the growth most good students gain while in college. They usually mature and learn how to adapt to changing goals. They need to learn to manage time. This carries over into work well. Most learn have to research for answers. Usually better reasoning skills. Life will also teach people these same things but it usually takes longer.

That is why you see jobs advertisements requiring a degree or so many years of experience in the field. I would say on average a college degree and 3-4 years of on the job experience are about equal. In this case the only advantage the degree would have is you may have broader outlook on things as you could easily have a wider range of personal experiences to draw on.

In smaller, owner ran, businesses a lack of a degree can be less of a hindrance but there are fewer small businesses that are higher wage employers. Experiences usually means more to smaller employers. They usually can not do in house training very easily.

Do not think I am saying everyone should have a degree. I am saying you will need job training of some sort to get a good job. That can easily be skilled trades such as plumbing, electrical or carpentry work. I would get training towards certification if it is available. Examples would be plumbers and Electricians usually are certified. Usually they have journeymen requirement before your certified. Truthfully carpentry can easily be a low paying job these days. The immigrant labor has keep the wages down for that trade.

The long and short is you have to learn skills that are marketable. If you do not your going to be making $10-15 an hours for a long time.

Common sense and hard work will never go out of style and people who posses those traits will always be in demand.

I have a degree, but I am the first to say all people do not need a college education. I have cousins that make as much or more money per year than I do with their trade skills. They are welders, pipe fitters, electricians, plant operators, and such. Some as yourself never completed high school. I believe in the future trades will be in high demand and will produce many good jobs to those willing to work with their hands. I probably would not have gotten my degree if my dad hadn't not just kept on bugging me to get it. And even at that it took almost 15 years from start to finish. (I was not in school for 15 years.) But I made good money working working with my hands and felt better at the end of the day than I do now. But I come from a highly educated family, my grandfather and my dad both graduated from college, dad with three degrees, my mother has three degrees, my sister has two degrees, and my wife has a degree and is working on here second. I did and still do not like school that much. I would rather learn hands on.