Quote: (10-22-2016 05:49 PM)polymath Wrote:
Quote: (10-22-2016 04:54 PM)Matsufubu Wrote:
So yes, go to university to do something the economy actually needs such as STEM courses; otherwise learn a trade and laugh as these overeducated idiots look down on you for being 'working class' while you drive off in your Audi while they struggle to get their 20 year old shitbox started.
Hear, hear. I remember learning this in high school when my chemistry teacher, a professional engineer with a master's degree, told me that a machine shop owner in the US may make just as much as any other businessman, and not to be fooled by the lifestyle stereotypically associated with a career path.
I do have an issue with the above. CLASSIC liberal arts is important (western literature, English composition, philosophy, history, critical thinking, etc.). The rigorous teaching of such has been stricken from the curriculum of our higher institutions of learning.
I am a STEM guy, but more of my time is spent writing reports, explaining proposals, to people who are not STEM, than I do on banging out calculations. Classic liberal arts gives a man the power to communicate his ideas.
In an almost prophetic sense, it also gives him the power to understand future implications by having a deep understanding of culture, and the past. A case in point: Our Founding Fathers were very deliberate in setting up the checks and balances in our government. Why? Because they knew history and philosophy. They understood the nature of man (strengths, weaknesses, lust for power) and history (how pure democracies committed suicide).
No STEM course can give a man that. This is where liberal arts comes to play. We don't respect liberal art now days, because in reality, it no longer exists.