education

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Being good at school is not exclusive.

October 19, 2009 | No comments

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Not exclusive of being good at anything else.  One grows tired of people treating you like you can’t do anything “practical” right because “of all that college.”  In many instances (some lately), certain folks have actually gotten bossy with me in the context of us being peers because they assumed that I could not accomplish the task at hand because I spent my 20s studying philosophy.  Hmm.  Turned out that I knew how to do it better in several instances, and it was completely unrelated to school.

I want to smack everyone who throws around the term “Book Smart.”

Usually such folks are either not “book smart” and feel the need to justify their inability to understand books, or they are only “book smart” and feel the need to justify not being good at other things.

Guess what?  If you can ONLY do one thing, you’re not SMART at all!  Animals and machines can be good at one thing.

That said, I don’t actually know more than a handful of people who are only good at one thing.  Folks just pigeon-hole themselves into not exploring other things they might be good at.  A lot of the “book smart” people I know could probably master outdoor skills if they went camping and, well, had to.  And a lot of the people I know who do not consider themselves “book smart” but can rebuild things and who understand how things work would probably understand Aristotle better than some of my less giften classmates over the years, if they tried to read it.

Maybe we need to redefine what we mean by SMART as a culture?

Gonna kick em.

April 5, 2008 | 7 comments

I declare to myself today: The next person to make fun of me for not having a job or to make a remark about my long education. Yes. This person.

I am kicking them in the junk.

Why is it Okay to make fun of me for not having a job just because the Mrs. has one, and the bills get paid? What? Oh? It’s not. Yeah. It’s rude at best. Mean on average. It’s not as if I like not having a job.

And the education: making fun of. “All that education and…” Can you mask your jealousy and/or insecurity a little thinner? Yes, I went to a lot of school. Yes, I have a lot of non-practical knowledge. Yes, I read a lot. Yes, I think about things a lot. You know, this might be more of a good thing than a bad thing. I would be a jerk to make fun of people who didn’t go to college. But I don’t have a chip on my shoulder wherein I have negative thoughts about people without stupid letters behind their names. So I would have to fake it to make it up. Maybe I have anti-higher-ed tendencies at times*, but those come from experience, not insecurity and/or jealousy.

Of course, there’s the defense when someone calls me “college boy” that they are just kidding. Joking. That I’m too sensitive and can’t take a joke. Like insensitive people’s required standard of sensitivity means anything to me.

Well, fine. My kick in your crotch is a joke, too. Don’t be so fucking sensitive.

[* I am told.]