Wednesday, February 08, 2006

A University Education

I often wish I had the chance to get a University Education. I would have majored in something like the languages, sociology, psychology or the classics. These types of courses or majors or whatever you want to call them will not teach you how to put together a building or how to design a ship. Those types of skills will definitely make you money out in the real world. But is life all about money? Of course not. Life is so much more and to experience it you must learn about how it works - not how to work it. So that is why I would want to experience a university education. It would teach you about life. Not necessarily skills for life but about life in general.

The reason I did not go to University was:
A) The cost: I could not afford it and still would not be able too. I never made as much money on my summer jobs as my University going friends. But I never needed to make more because God always provided the perfect amount. My bank account was always at something like $0-25 when I started my next job. And if I had been requiring more money for something like university I am sure it would have been there.

B)The pressure: I never did all that well in High School. I got average marks quite consistently. I did quite well throughout the year especially on assignments where I found that the harder I worked the more marks I received. What ended up bringing my mark down from a high 80 / low 90 to a more average sounding 70-75% was always the exam. I was never good at studying and it showed. The other thing I disliked was writing essays. I have been told that I wrote decent essays (that is what the marks said) but I think I got the marks by making the title page look fantastic. Either way I disliked organizing my thoughts into a clear, concise and coherent 1000 words as I am sure anyone who reads my blog can agree.

Both of these reasons turned out to not be valid. First of all money is not a big deal when you are young. You will have plenty of time to make it back once you start working. And when I look at half of the idiots in university now I can definitely say that "If they can do it, so can I." Also one of the things you learn in university is how to organize your thoughts into a clear, concise and coherent manner. If that is not a useful skill for any job I don't know what is.

So to sum this whole blog up I just wish I went to university and then to college. I find college teaches you to be too logical. That is a great quality if you are building a house or designing a ship but not so useful when debating the war in Iraq or the effects of so called “freedom of the press” in Denmark etc. I guess what I am trying to say is I really respect those smart people in universities even though most of them are too idealistic for their own (or anyone’s) good. But that is what makes a university education so good. It makes you more ready to accept change and to incite it (or to know why it should or should not happen). But look at all the good changes that have happened because of what was started in a university. Obviously this is a very debateable point but really where would we be without universities and the issues they have been dealing with since the renaissance.

4 comments:

Irene said...

I think you make a good point!

Anonymous said...

What you say about the "idiots" who attend university is definitely true...believe me, there are plenty of them.
University and college both have their advantages, obviously. I think in many ways college prepares you better for the "real world" of work. At least in the Humanities, it's very easy to get too theoretical and abstract.

Anonymous said...

This is Tim...that last comment was mine.
You should get Haloscan so I don't have to login/be anonymous.

Reuben said...

whats haloscan?