Hi, I'm Forsher, you might remember from various previous versions of this thread. Because I want to maximise your deja vu, I've even stolen the poll options! And the explanation for how to vote:
How to Vote in the Poll: Select poll option that you have finished. If you're still at college/high/secondary school you are in the "at high/secondary school" option. High/Secondary school indicates that you have finished with some form of secondary school qualification, e.g. some GCSEs, NCEA Level 1, a GED. Some High/Secondary school means you have been to high/secondary school but received no qualification from it.
I do have one addition, though... if you have an Associate's Degree it's either an "other" or "technical qualification" depending on how you see it. Just for clarity. (Also, I should reorder these... I was talking to an Education Masters the other week and they reckoned apprenticeships should be higher up in this than they are. As it stands the poll ordering implies a elitist/university = best ranking.)
EDIT: a second addition. This may help Americans trying to decide where to place their qualifications. I say may since it seems to deal only with degrees.
I'm technically an other. You see, I technically have what's called a Post-Graduate Diploma (in statistics) but I haven't bothered graduating with it yet so officially I don't have that. It's basically like taking an extra year to study harder courses. I didn't do very well at it, actually. Which you'd think would explain why I'm doing a master's now (not in statistics) except that was the plan back when I thought the PGDip would be a doddle.
But we need a topic for discussion, right? And I'm going with: is education investment in human capital or signalling? That is, does it make you smarter/better/more productive/more intelligent/etc. or is it more that it shows other people that you're one of those things relative to people who have worse qualifications than you? If that doesn't make sense, try this article out for size. (Alternative reading I haven't read.)
My inclination is that there's a huge difference between people who've forgotten [concept] and people who are learning it for the first time. Which is to say, education is investment. And, sure, sometimes all it does is expand minds through exposure to new ideas... which doesn't require a qualification (hell, I couldn't tell you where my degrees are physically beyond "the garage") but there's a reason coherent programmes of study exist: otherwise you end up... well, either you know the threads I'm thinking about or you don't, needless to say everyone with a formal education in the subject disagrees strongly with the poster.
Oh, by the way, if you're sitting there thinking "I'm self taught and I'm just as smart as..." you're probably wrong. Sure, you might be a genius, but what do you think university lecturers/PhDs actually are? The research they do is self-learning... the difference is that it's evaluated and checked. And, yeah, lecturers are often horrible teachers (generally lacking training in the field), but that just implies that when they create a syllabus they're providing an overview of the subject/field rather than a structure conducive to student learning. (Solution: find the syllabi and self-teach yourself using them as a structure, amirite?)
So, what about you NSG? How educated are you? And are the poll options really measuring that? Or are they just normative structures created by the Man to keep the free thinkers down?
