Education revisited, why you should get it
I wrote recently about how much education you need to be successful. In my opinion it’s not much. Not to re-blog what I’ve blogged, but I have friends with no college education making north of 65K. Donald Trump devoted a season of his famous show, The Apprentice, to a battle between educated and uneducated people. Surprisingly, the uneducated dullards made something like 33% more money than the educated ones. In the interests of full disclosure, I do have a Masters degree. I am not so sure that it’s really benefited my career to date. I do work in the industry to which my degree applies, software engineering, but I don’t know that I needed it to be working where I am.
Now, I think we’ve established that in my opinion, don’t get a degree to improve your career. You may require education for your chosen career, doctors and lawyers, but you do not require a college degree to work in software engineer for instance, or a lot of others.
So, what in the world is the meaning of this post then? The title seems to be in direct conflict with what I’ve said in previous posts and above. My opinion on education is central to my opinions on life. For every situation there is a unique answer. For every circumstance there may be a different stance to take. At times I feel education is not something to focus on and others I think it’s very important to.
So, now to the point of this post. In my opinion, education is very valuable. Education can expose you to a world of information, opinions, insights and views of the world. It can broaden your horizons and show you that the world is far greater than what you thought it was. If you have the option, go back to college. Got a degree already? Get another one. Learn, learn, learn. Yes, it is expensive but real value isn’t one based on money. It is based on the richness of knowing and all the benefits that come with it.
What benefits? I actually went to school late in life. I spent several years after high school working various jobs. I learned life from the view of the blue collar worker. I worked construction, food service, retail, you name it. I then decided that it wasn’t enough to simply work, I had to grow as a person as well. I went back to school and earned an A.S., B.S. and M.S. I earned all three partially because I thought it may help my career but mostly because I wanted to learn. Going back to school exposed me to a wider world. That really is one of the greatest benefits that education brings. You get exposed to so many ideas and cultures that it enriches your own life.
Why formal education? Why not just learn it from the Internet? That is a great question. In today’s information age, just about everything is available including classes on the web from leading universities. I do feel that learning in that manner is beneficial and should be done, however, it’s the interaction between you and other students that will benefit you the most.
Bottom line here, if you get the oppurtunity to return to college, go for it. But do so in a subject that you enjoy. Don’t just get an MBA to have an MBA. If you love astronomy, go for that! Why not? Education can be a tremendous life altering learning avenue to go down and it can also be a money sink if you go for a degree you aren’t really interested in.
