Chris Lowe's Post

Five stars.
Love and light,
As always,
Jane

The subject of formal education vs. self education has been perplexing to me since I met my husband. When I was young I always made a good living and promotions to management seemed to follow as a reward for hard work and team consciousness. Through the years I attended college but my education came in spurts. I worked full time but I was able obtain a few credits per semester through the Junior College Systems.

My husband was able to attend MIT where he obtained his Doctorate. He not only makes reference to the degrees people hold, but also, to the status of the Universities they attended.

After Junior College, I worked almost night and day to graduate from Ministerial school to become an ordained, licensed minister. I wanted to become a Chaplain, and I did! It sounds easy. It wasn't. It was "the hard way." One semester I was working full time and managed to carry 17 units. Does this sound familiar to any of you?

My husband is an Agnostic so not only are my places of education less than outstanding but the subject matter of my studies could be a constant irritant, if I didn't have enough sense to keep quiet and "do my thing". (He is an Economist and we never discuss his current endeavors, so it works out just fine.)

I am impressed with the vocabularies and the intellect of the people on this blog. I could do better with my spelling and grammar but sometimes I don't edit. I always blush when my errors appear. I see the same on some of the other blogs but I really don't dwell on the small stuff. I think you are all first class! The point of this whole comment is, I would like to congratulate all of you. What ever path you took, it was the right one. What ever source you used as a means to nurture and train your outstanding intellects, you have made very wise choices. Well done!

It doesn't matter whether I fed my mind with plastic spoons or silver spoons. Shakespeare is Shakespeare. It doesn't matter if I checked his books out of the Harvard Library or the Public Library. As a matter of fact, some second hand paper back books seem to contain the same words as leather bound first editions. Well, how about that? Love and Light.

As always,
Jane

Hi Chris,

Thanks for another stimulating blog.

I have come to see that all my informal and formal learning, both involuntarily and voluntarily conditioned -- from the time I, as a timeless soul with my incarnation development objectives, entered my biological mother Dorothy's womb up through the present time -- has been vital to my psychospiritual progress toward becoming a more aware, empathetic, healthy, competent, cocreative self-manager in doing my fair share of the work of an evolving cosmos.

In retrospect there is nothing I would change for I grew as a result of all my experiences.

Yours with empathy, probabilistic scientific guidance, understanding, integral health, and joy!

Bob

I'm one who has a curiosity bump on my shoulders. I built a cabin to learn how. I've done plumbing for self and others, and am quite smug about being able to sweat a pipe (useta smoke one, too - mebbe that's where the cancer of the tongue came from?). I rebuilt a VW engine, just to see if I could do it (and it did run!). I built my first computer, wiring the motherboard and all, after first building a logic probe (never did figure out what the purpose of that was!) and a volt-ammeter. As I recall, that Z-80 had a 16 MB hard drive! On the academic side, I've dropped out of three PhD programs (International Relations, Psychology and PsyD), and completed one BS (148 semester hours) and one MA (60 semester hours). I've visited over a hundred countries, can think in Arabic, Italian, Spanish and sometimes English (and can read a double handful more languages).
As a psychotherapist, I'm more comfortable working with the ex-con biker with PTSD from VietNam than with the neurotic dude who has low self-esteem. When I was drinking, I liked my booze straight up, or maybe a little branch water when dehydrated. I prefer jeans to a coat and tie, and would much rather talk to a waitress than to a college professor.
Anomaly? I guess that's the bottom line?
Maverick. That's a good term.

Peace and Love
Glenn

Right then, Chris, we're on the same page, yet again.
I'm a guy who wears an apron at work, turns wrenches, and is pretty happy about it. There are a few in my environment who seem to look down on me, or are puzzled by my lack of credentials, and I understand.
They are dimwits.

If shit hits the fan, I can clean up, fix the fan, and implement preventive strategy to forestall recurrence.

Since I work for an engineering firm, I do get some respect, and my wordcraft was recently acknowledged in an awards banquet.

Elitism is deeply embedded in American society, no doubt about it, from Native-Bashing by EuroAmericans to Ivy League snobbery and Old Money Skull-and-Bones cliques.

East Coast looks down on West, North on South, and I am guilty of elevational elitism, feeling quite smug when low-landers come to visit and struggle to cope with our thin mountain air.

That said, the people I enjoy hanging out with are all multi-talented realists, some with degrees, some not. The brightest among them are largely self-educated. Most can handle a variety of tools.
Not an Al Bundy or Homer Simpson in the lot, but several could be characters in a novel by Robert A. Heinlein or Frank Herbert.

You ask: "Is education confined to school?" I say no, but most indoctrination is. That's what upsets the authoritarian mob, the prospect of trying to cope with an unindoctrinated intelligentsia.

Heaven Forbid!

Have to retrofit that theology, too.

Unencumbered

Right on brother! The great USA thinks everyone can go to college. Not so...not so. Nor, can I build a house, or lay a sewer line. It takes all of us to make a balanced world. Luckily, in a small town, the elite are forced to stand near the "common person".
Barbara