[quote=Rhett]I find all of this school stuff frightening and confusing. I grew up in a relatively small town in the midwest, and we had *no* choice. Well, that’s not exactly true – there were 3 grade schools, and sometimes one got shifted from one to the other for special programs (usually Special Ed) or if they got in so much trouble in one school that they thought a change of scenery was good.
I ended up sailing through high school, mostly. The valedictorian and I had nearly identical GPAs, so we pushed each other for 4 years, so that kept me from getting too lazy. Wasn’t challenged, though, and my breadth of coursework was not nearly what it would have been at one of the suburban city schools. I probably wouldn’t have been at the top at my class at such a school, but I would have been so much more prepared for college.
Or not. Got to the state college (renowned for its engineering program), and that went all out the window. Oh, I didn’t get to test out of a few Calc classes or physics classes, after a year or two that didn’t matter. In fact, a lot of those kids burned out a bit, and I ended up pretty near the top of the class in my degree program in college.
So, Flu, it didn’t make a damned bit of difference. And my college achievement didn’t make much of a difference in my career (or lack thereof), either. I don’t live in halcyon world and think that things haven’t changed in 30 years, but I think a lot of this school stuff is overblown.
Edit: and yet I worry about it some of the time![/quote]
Yes, it seems totally overblown to me, too. The conspiracy theorist in me thinks the higher-education meme is the “New Message” for the masses — the corporatists can get more for their money if everyone believes they have to have advanced degress for their $15/hour jobs.
From everything I’ve ever seen, the most important ingredient for success is finding one’s niche and becoming one of the best in whatever field you feel passionate about. It doesn’t have to require any college at all. You can be a skilled tradesperson (even more difficult to outsource), or artist, or salesperson, or programmer. Many, many successful people are self-taught, because they wanted to pursue their passions, and were allowed to do so.
