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Journal bethanie's Journal: How Have You Been Wasting *Your* Education? 32

Journal by bethanie
With the changing of the seasons, I have found myself spending more and more time outside, communing with nature and with Kiddo.

A couple of weeks ago, I broke down and hauled out the finger paints. Kiddo was hesitant at first -- ever the prissy girl, she didn't relish getting her hands all goopy (in this, she does NOT take after me -- I'm all about the goop). I persisted and gave her a thorough introduction to the joys of shmearing, and she really got into it after a while. Then we stripped down and hosed off -- because while goop is good, tracking it through the house is NOT.

Last week, we headed out into the nature preserve that is our ~13 acre spread here and hiked down to the creek. She's still a *little* too rickety to handle serious hiking like that, and I have to admit that I worry about the scorpions, snakes, and spiders... so I carried her most of the way. We stopped on our back way up the hill to collect a couple pockets full of acorns, though, and selected a nice piece of bark upon which to glue them. Yes, we glued acorns to a piece of bark. It took two days to dry, and then I sprayed it with an acrylic sealer to keep it from disintegrating in the house. But it was an enthralling "art project" (for both of us!!) and I plan on hanging it on the wall as soon as I procure the appropriate hardware.

Speaking of Art... last evening, Kiddo and I created a rather stunning depiction of a jack-o-lantern using glue, pasta, and glitter on a large piece of black construction paper. We worked on it together, and I swear -- you can't tell the difference between "my" parts and "hers." It is sitting on the kitchen counter right now, drying. But it is *quite* striking, and will be going up on the wall, as well.

A lot of time while I'm enjoying these projects with Kiddo, I wonder if I'm really fulfilling the potential that my Ivy League Education(TM) prepared me with. I mean, for ~$75K+, you'd think that I might be doing something a *bit* more dynamic than macaroni pictures and finger painting. And then I look at my daughter, I listen to the stories she tells me, the ideas she's thinking, and the clear-as-a-bell reasoning she engages in, and I wonder what could *possibly* be more important than this?
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How Have You Been Wasting *Your* Education? More

How Have You Been Wasting *Your* Education?

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  • Well, lets see. Started out in a graphic art program (2 year) finished that but it was decided (by my parents) that I needed a 4 year degree... and a 4 year program in design was not appealing (for many reasons)... so I go to Syracuse Univ, get my 4 year in Public Relations... heh yeah... PR. Good folks, good classes and a SHIT LOAD of work, a very tough program to get through... but I did it.

    First job during college: graphic designer (school's art department in the PR office)

    First job out of college: gr
  • I got a lot more bang for my buck on my education. Considering I only made 7 days into my junior year in high school.
  • He once said that if you haven't made your mark on the world by 30, then you probably won't make any mark at all. Perhaps he was wrong though. I mean almost nobody knows who Adolph Hitler's mom was, but she most certainly made a mark on the world without ever planning to. So did Geoffrey Dahmer's mom and this guy named Osama that a lot of people seem to have forgotten about. :) What is it that people say, behind every great man, there is a woman? That's almost certainly on the mark if you count moms.
  • My BA was in history. I'm employeed. At above minimum wage. I beat the odds.
    Oh, and I argue politics/philosophy on /.
    • A BA in history, huh? Same program I'm in now. Doesn't look like too many jobs open in this field though, so I will probably have to find something else to do.
      • See Bethanie's sig for marketplace hints.;->

        Seriously, below the PhD (or at least Master's) level, There is NO market, other than the "we want our employees to have a BA, 'cuz it's leet" entry-level management jobs. OK, there are, you can be the third assistant night-time curator of of the sumarian exibit, if that guy recently died. OR if you pick up a teaching cert at the same time.

        Don't get me wrong, I think it is a very USEFULL and worthwhile degree. Just not all that hot for getting a job.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • You can't waste an education. There's always room to apply it. I started in mechanical engineering, migrated to business, then philosophy and finally made it into computer science. I hope to graduate in a year and a half with over 250 credits in my name. I find use for all the little bits of knowledge every day.

    A lot of time while I'm enjoying these projects with Kiddo, I wonder if I'm really fulfilling the potential that my Ivy League Education(TM) prepared me with. I mean, for ~$75K+, you'd think that I
    • Funny, I got my B.A. in Philosophy and, after Teaching Philosophy and Law, Comp Sci is the next biggest profession.
      FWIW, I only took a general class in college concerning Lotus 1-2-3 (1.0), dBase III+ and WordPerfect 5.0.
      Had a programming class in high school, but grew up around machines.

      And yes, helping your child discover the world is the most important thing you'll ever do.
  • I didn't make it to college. I didn't take my ACTs in time, and never followed up on it. I was burned on school at that point. Don't give me the "College is so different!" speech - I've heard it no less than fifty times.

    I think about what I lost by not going to college. My lack of formal education prevented me from obtaining a position twice, even though I had real-world experience and my competitors were just starting school. That hurt, but not as much as the bullshit excuses I got the second time.

    I make
  • Plenty of time to craft ways to waste my education. In fact, I already have a few ideas... lack of jobs may force me to work for an Evil IT Consulting Firm. I think you all know who I'm talking about. Or I could just sell what's left of my soul to the Devil and use the proceeds to sip margaritas on the beach.
  • Let me say this first. I love programming. I love creating something cool out of nothing. But, I have not had a programming job since I graduated in Dec-2000. My first, and current job has been tech support. Now, I have moved up the chain, so don't think I'm that poor guy that answers your calls.
    But, it is frustrating, knowing that I could do so much more not being able to. I feel like that Chevy commercial where they have a Corvette in a parade. The Corvette is only going 5 miles an hour, and the guy say
  • 1997, the internet was booming, and I was still in school. I landed an 'internship' at an accounting firm doing helpdesk, and became addicted to the powers of being a BOFH [ntk.net]. I dropped out of school and hit the job market before it dissolved. Now, I have 6 years of various system administration experience under my belt and am looking at going back to school. Honestly, I think this is the way most people should have to do it, on the job training is much more useful in the 'real world' than acedemic learnin
    • Careers don't make you happy; YOU make yourself happy. Work doesn't "fulfill" you... relationships fill you.

      Working is a means to an end. The end is to go home and "live your life."

      Don't get trapped into thinking that what you to do make money defines who or what you are. You are not a "teacher" or a "lawyer" or a "software engineer." You DO those thing... you ARE you, nothing more and nothing less. To put a label on yourself is to limit yourself in ways that limit your potential as a human being uni
  • ...literally, i'm afraid. And i'm afraid that the quote about not making one's mark by 30 might be true... I finally took the SATs a couple of years ago, though. I was all set to go to school but wasn't well enough yet last year, and now we've gone from 'deferred' to 'indefinitely postponed.' On the other hand, i'm using the education that i didn't get to:

    keep up my lowest middle class full time job;

    study for my minister's license, a task which gets longer every time i get sick;

    click pretty widgets on sl

    • Arthur: Tiii-iick... you can't fight Evil with a macaroni duck!!!

      The Tick: ...I'LL be the judge of that!!!

      • heheheh... I love the Tick. I wish it still came on. Of course, if it did, it wouldn't matter as I don't have sat/cable, and I'm never home. :-( Oh, well, I guess fulfilling your purpose in life (and enjoying it) is more important than cartoons... :-)
    • cheap plastic beads and buttons

      *eyes perk up*

      Oooohhhh. I can think of SOOOO many things to do with those! :-)

      ....Bethanie....
      • i'll send them in a box if you think they'll be useful! give me some time to clean out the collection!i save them just for kidlets... the buttons make great story strands for events. You know, the kid picks one that's one aspect, one that's another, like how she felt when you got to a place, one for each of her favourite things that she did there (and mommy secretly writes them down with a description) and the story can be retold later, using the buttons...

        sol

        • I know a doula who has done that exact same thing with beads on a bracelet. I saw it and asked her about it, and she was able to tell me about each and every birth she had attended by recounting the beads. What a wonderful idea!

          I think that we will definitely start that when Kiddo gets a *bit* older -- she's still a little young for something that abstract... Another few months to a year... or maybe more. I never know what to expect, I'm just trying to go with the flow.

          The amazing thing is, sometimes sh
  • As you say in closing....

    You are modeling and framing the world for another human being. You're making a life. You're constructing Kiddo's context through which she will filter her entire life. Your education can be *just* for her. You have no idea what the ramifications of that might be. It's arrogant for anyone to consider themselves capable of deciding whether or not raising Kiddo is an important enough use for your education, don't you think?

    Malcolm X said "drop your buckets where you're standing
  • The point of education is to learn. Perhaps to impart wisdom.

    Nothing anywhere says you actually have to use the education and knowledge you have.

    FWIW, I am in school. Started last year, moving on this year. Not in school this semester though.
  • I work in IT, but I have a BS in Chemistry. That might seem a waste, but I use chemistry every day. I use it in cooking, and I mix a mean drink. ;-)

    Seriously, I use all the analytical tools I refined in chem lab working with PCs. I didn't learn how to analyse a chemical reaction in college, I learned how to analyse a SYSTEM. Any system. Chemical, computer, relational, etc.


  • I'm in 'IT', or rather, in console games development. I think i'm on the better end of the scale, because I love what I'm doing on an intellectual level. But I never felt like I learned a lot that's usefull in the real world. I mean, all the fluffy stories about people's managment and motivation seem a hoax, everything seems like a scam, or in any case, fake. A lot of the theoretical stuff is just that. Theoretical stuff. Good to know and understand, but that's it. A lot of the more preactical stuff I

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