I have two Masters degrees from elite schools. I am proud of them. They hang on my wall and tell me that I did something most will never do. They are probably the most expensive pieces of artwork I have in my home. But they are not an indication of my intelligence, they are an indication of my accomplishment. Far too often, employers, employees, and common citizens confuse the two.
I do not weigh an individual’s intelligence on the basis of whether or not he or she has a college degree. I weigh it based on intellectual curiosity. What you achieved at 19, 20, or 21, while admirable, does not define intelligence. It defines a type of discipline, often at an early age.
If you got a degree from a prestigious university, I applaud you. Such a distinguished accomplishment is worthy of praise, assuming it was not a genetic or monetary gift that granted you such a privilege. But please keep in mind, the fact that you went to a prestigious university means you were a great High School student. You were excellent between the ages of 14-18. If you come to me at 30, 40, or 50 and tell me which schools you attended and that which you studied, I will ask you, “What are you reading today? What are you learning now?“
I appreciate the fact that you completed a paper in biochem, business, physics or any other the subject at 20 years old, prior to attending a frat party. But can you point to a book, a subject, a recent degree, or a skill that you have mastered today? If you cannot, then you are no better than the old guy that sits around talking about how great he was on his High School football team – except your achievements were slightly later. The mark of intelligence is a curious mind that constantly seeks knowledge, not a piece of paper that sits on a wall and says, “This paper proves that I once cared to learn.”
More importantly, what skills are you bringing to the table? I know hundreds of tradesmen who have skills most college graduates could never conceive. From the automobile mechanic to the electrician to the plumber, these skilled individuals have something that is far greater than most college graduates will ever have: job security. You can outsource your accounting team to India; you cannot outsource your broken toilet.
I much prefer the carpenter who is still reading biographies to the college graduate who is sitting around watching Netflix. The plumber who reads periodicals is far more intellectually worthy than the MBA who gets his news via snipets from Yahoo. The trucker who does his own research to determine the accuracy of a talk radio program displays a level of intelligence that a gender studies graduate, now working as a barista at Starbucks, will ever know.
No one needs a piece of paper to prove they are smart to me. They should not need that to prove it to you, either. Rather, set aside your judgment until you have gauged the intellectual curiosity of the man or woman before you. Assuming one is unintelligent or lesser because he or she does not have a college degree is foolish. It is the mark of an inferior person who hides behind his degree – an accomplishment made in one’s twenties – to claim some mantle of mental supremacy in your thirties.
That which is learned today is worth so much more than anything that can be framed from an era that has long since passed.
The son of a recent Irish immigrant and another with roots to Virginia since 1670. I love both my Irish and Southern Nations with a passion. Florida will always be my country. Dissident support here: Padraig Martin is Dixie on the Rocks (buymeacoffee.com)
In my experience, most folks with college degrees seem to think that having achieved a degree, their learning is at an end. That there is nothing more to learn, especially from simple, practical observation and experience.
Quite a few of them believe that they no longer need to think, either. Or that common sense plays any part in the various proceedings and endeavours of Life.
@James Owens, my sentiments exactly. Matter of fact, I had a response typed out this morning and got interrupted and it was almost verbatim of everything you said.
https://youtu.be/TrXaQu_qGeo
You fellows will be interested to read, in this connection, Prof. Smith’s recent Orthosphere essays on this topic titled The Three Powers and Spoiled by a False Education respectively.
See here: https://orthosphere.wordpress.com/2019/06/20/the-three-powers/#more-20407
and here: https://orthosphere.wordpress.com/2019/06/24/spoiled-by-a-false-education/
What we call “education,” and those we deem to be “educated,” in modern America is highly highly overrated, and in fact dangerous and self-destructive. We are told by the powers that be and their mouthpieces that “educated” persons support the latest greatest liberal initiatives and innovations; that “educated” persons tend to be much more “progressive” in their thinking, whereas the “uneducated” among us tend to be more “backward” in their thinking by comparison to their “educated” counterparts. This is all true of course, broadly speaking and as far as it goes. The problem with this conception of things is the idea (stated or implied) that “progress” and therefore “progressiveness” or “progressivism” is necessarily good, while its opposite is necessarily bad. This is the idea that turned America into the Clown World Hell we live in today, and it was bound to happen over time.
The Boston Brahmins continue to rule it over us through their “eduation” apparatus to this very day, spoiling each successive generation of Southron with false education. There is no Constitutional prohibition against voluntary servitude of this sort or any other, so I suppose we’ll continue to ‘get what we pay for’ so long as we continue to accept the Prussian/Yankee education model and happily turn our kids over to the wolves we call “professional educators.”