How did you educate yourself if you couldn't go to college?

I failed every class in the tenth grade. I quit school before the next school year began. I had read many books by then, on my own, and I had no trouble passing the GED tests, four years later, when I was in the Navy. In my life, anything I learned, I picked up from books and life experience.

Edgar, do you think Abe Lincoln set a good example of self-education?

BBB

Abe worked much harder at educating himself than I did. I had too many issues to apply myself that way.

Edgar, in my not so humble opinion "education" is the bridging of the gap between concrete and abstract reasoning. That bridge has little to do with years of education. I'm guessing from knowing you is your reading of such writers as Wylie led you across that bridge allowing you to incorporate abstract knowledge/information. More formal education just adds to your data base and exposes you to a greater variety of ideas, it doesn't make you more educated.

A friend, who went to the same high school and college, but a year ahead of me, said that she might have been able to educate herself, had she known which books to read.

Of course my "family" could not send me to college, they had no plan to, but I had been reading books since about 4th grade. I joined the Book-of-Month Club at age 19 and always read the book they chose. First books like This Hallowed Ground. Peter the Great. The Crusades. A Distant Mirror. Paris in the Terror. Rise and Fall of Third Reich, and dozens and dozens of others, plus all the books I purchased from bookstores, begged or borrowed. I also was fortunate to have some mentors.

I married at age 22, raised couple boys, then started college in 1972. At some point I raised kids, worked and attended college. Husband was a big help, always has been. I studied Communication Arts and begin working in that field in my 40s as a newspaper reporter/photographer. Also wrote a column.

I probably learned just as much from my experiences, my friends and neighbors, couple bosses, living in about 5 states.

Edgar, Dyslexia once told me that I was not educated, I was trained. That really hurt me because I had tried so hard to educate myself. His response to you demonstrates that you, too, are not educated, just trained, is his opinion. Most working class people don't have the education opportunities that some others have.

BBB

You and I had similar efforts to educate ourselves. Congratulations for your success in your goals. You never gave up!

BBB

what a load of crap.

I don't know a thing about the rest of your statement, but I thought dys was highly complementary re my own attainments.

Dyslexia wrote:

"Edgar, in my not so humble opinion "education" is the bridging of the gap between concrete and abstract reasoning. That bridge has little to do with years of education. I'm guessing from knowing you is your reading of such writers as Wylie led you across that bridge allowing you to incorporate abstract knowledge/information. More formal education just adds to your data base and exposes you to a greater variety of ideas, it doesn't make you more educated."

Edgar, You know I admire your self-education efforts. Please tell me the difference between the education you and I struggled to achieve and Dyslexia's education. Is his elitist, and our's are inferior?

BBB

I don't have the equipment to argue these points, BBB. I can't say much without seeming foolish.

Edgar, I've never known anything you've ever said that would make you look foolish. I share your difficulty in trying to understand or explain why an elitist education is superior to what you and I achieved.

BBB

what exactly is an elitist education...?

(I am simply uneducated, for the record)

That's what I'm trying to understand, too. Don't underestimate yourself.

BBB

ya think?

I'm going to say something that will cause many to have agina, and/or wish me dead.

I think most people overestimate the importance of college, and that nowadays a lot of people feel they must send their children to college, because it's what they are "supposed" to do.

I won't have an angina attack, Chai2, but you opine some truth. Today, so many employers require college degrees to get a job. It's tough for families who cannot afford to pay for a college education. However, I wanted to go to college because I was such a curious child growing up. I was interested in so many topics and wanted to learn more.

In my forties, I managed to attend the University of California at night while I worked during the day. One reason was that I couldn't get the job I wanted because I didn't have a degree---and that I was just an "office worker". I started with the classes that would overcome that. Then I was successful in getting the job I wanted, representing the Union of American Physicians and Dentists. It was the first union job I applied for because I finally had a paper that said I could do the job. I had been teaching new employees how to do their jobs in the Union I had been previously been working for. Because I didn't have a college diploma, I was not considered. My new job required a lot of traveling. As a result, I had to drop out of college and never got to take the traditional college classes that would have given me a degree.

BBB

absolutely. we (the USA) has produced millions of uneducated but degreed unskilled morons, we do need skilled workers to maintain a working middle class, perhaps a rebirth of trade schools.