Job Discussion Forums

[Deicide]

[FuzzX]

Have to agree with you London. I have yet to travel to a country and teach (4 so far) and not meet some degree or CELTA nut who proceeds to tell me I'm unfit to teach and to take the first flight home to enroll in university (ya you know who you are). coughcoughthelmadhattercoughcoughPAULHcoughcough...

I don't sweat it though, because my father owns a fairly large radio and television business which he built from the ground up and he never made it past grade 10. My mom never completed high school either and she has been an in-charge with Air Canada for 30 odd years. My girlfriend came from the lower class, was rejected by the universities in Mexico but still managed to establish her own entertainment company and has taken frequent trips to Canada to learn English. Funny enough their nay-sayers have always been university and college grads. Academia doesn't mean your smart, it just means you've been able to sit in a classroom for 4 years and listen to lectures.

Most people I know that went to university are working for minimum wage but on the up side have some snappy title like Assistant Gas Bar Manager, Fast Food Preparation Attendant or D.O.S.

Oh btw I've taken both TESOL and CELTA and I have 5 college diplomas, one of which is a 3 year associates degree. Does it mean I'm more qualified than you to teach? No, it means I spent 40,000 on what I could have got for free at the public library.

Lesson Learned.

[cangringo]

nice....

[Jetgirly]

What is "lachs"?

[SueH]

I think it's marinated salmon; known in Scandinavia as 'lax'.. I stand to be corrected...

[Jetgirly]

We spell that "lox" in Canada. I looked in the dictionary before asking and didn't see "lach" or "lachs".

[movinaround]

Just my opinion ofcourse...

1) It is never harmful to suggest people get more education. It may not be within their means, but the suggestion itself is not harmful. It should always be a suggestion and not an attack though.

2) Those of us with degrees should never lord them over someone without one. We are all lucky, yes, even the poor kid from the poorest school in New York who worked incredibly hard throughout all their life to get one. We were offered the opportunity to study, even if we had to work really hard for it, or daddy bought our way into Yale. There are so many reasons why people don't have degrees, most of which not really being that person's fault, it's sad to see people talk down to or lord over degree-less people, whom can be incredibly smart and contribute more to society (even in academia) than an educated person.

3) Arrogance and obnoxiousness are human traits and have nothing to do with the degree. It just happens that the people who are like this and have a degree find it easier to be this way using their degree. If they didn't have one, they would find something else. It's sort of like saying porn causes rape, when every major, well done study so far has absolutely shown the opposite. Assigning cause to a problem when it is actually just a symptom of a more underlying cause is normal, but not right. These people would be arrogant and/or obnoxious with or without a degree. Still, it does seem like I have met a lot of people with Masters that believe they are God (though in my experience, people with PHds never seem to be that way... ??? ).

4) I disagree completely with the people who say post-secondary education is completely useless and "always" a waste of money.

[denise]

I'd add point 5:

People without degrees should not automatically assume that degrees are worthless.

Sure, there are other ways to gain experience, and sure, you can get a job without a degree, but please don't tell those of us who value degrees that they are worthless or that we are snobs.

d

[Jizzo T. Clown]

I'll second that, denise. Those of us who have gone through the trouble to earn a degree know what it's like not to have one. Can those who haven't earned one possibly know what it's like to have one?

[movinaround]

[Jizzo T. Clown]

[Gordon]

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[Jizzo T. Clown]

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