Tuesday, September 22, 2015
College as vocational school?
I read an article the other day about how few people really work in the field they studied in college.
And, after I stopped laughing, I realized that this article must have been conceived and written by someone quite young. It wasn't until post WWII that college was ever supposed to be a "vocational school."
Oh, there were nursing schools, and teachers' colleges. and postgraduate "professional" schools for engineering, art, music, medicine and law, but a bachelor's degree was designed to prepare you for LIFE. To provide you with the background and language to solve problems, lead others, and become contributing members of society. To see the world in a larger perspective so you could understand and adapt to change. Ask any lawyer and they will tell you that law school doesn't teach you how to be a lawyer. (Or, you could just watch My Cousin Vinny) A degree in Medicine doesn't make you a working physician--- residency and internship does. A degree in music does not turn someone into a composer.
Then, in the post WWII era, we began offering mainstream degrees in Business. Oh, Wharton has been around since 1881 (the US' oldest b-school) and Harvard Business has been around since 1908, but, according to Forbes, he number of MBAs issued has jumped 623% since 1970; (education master’s degrees increased only 103% during that time.) Suddenly, there are lots of MBA's out there, all shooting for the same jobs. And suddenly, all those MBA's said, "well I have the credentials now, so I must be ready for the corner office and the golden parachute."
But an MBA isn't-- and shouldn't be thought of-- as a vocational certificate.
The business world is changing faster and faster every year, and, if you treat your degree as "one and done" vocational education, your education cannot keep pace with demands.
When my grandfather was a young man, he learned a vocation-- he was a baker -- and he went through an apprenticeship and perfected that skill and became more competent, but, when he retired, the way he did his job was pretty much the same as it was when he was 20, or 40, or 50 or even 60. The best cinnamon buns ever made still took flour and sugar and raisins and yeast.
When my father was a young man, he learned many different skills--(so many, my grandfather despaired he would never find a career) He worked in restaurants, he learned to hang wallpaper, he was a salesman, he worked in a jewelry store, and he worked in a steel mill. Then he went into the army, and discovered he had another set of skills-- he was a great leader, strategist and planner-- and when he came home from war he took the steel mill experience and the military experience and he took some GI Bill money and went to college, and he became a manager for a multinational company.
He worked at that job until he was fully vested in his pension-- 30 plus years-- and then he retired. He grew bored with retirement, and he took the people and logistics skills he learned in his corporate life and spent another 10 years trying to make government run like a business.
The world my grandfather and father worked in was not bequeathed to my brothers and I.
EJ started out studying engineering, then realized his calling was the law. He became an attorney, and has been practicing for very long time, but though his title remains the same, the nature of the practice has changed as technologies and markets have changed. If he hadn't adapted and contunued to learn and grow as the world changed, he would not have been even a fraction as successful as he has.
My other brother began in the Telecom world, when that meant a landline phone in your house or office and offices still had switchboard operators, and everyone got their service from Bell. If you think he didn't have to grow and change to remain viable, remember that when my brothers started college, there was no NASA, there was no internet, and even IBM didn't know why on earth private citizens would ever want a personal computer. (let alone one a wireless one you could carry in your pocket)
I am a bit younger than they are Bill Gates and I are contemporaries. Do you think the work world has changed a bit in OUR working lifetimes? I was in the computer bay today, waiting for my new laptop to be imaged. I handed the technician a 512 GB flash drive about the size of a tootsie roll midget, and watched him insert it and hit "run." At times like this I am reminded of the 3GB hard drive I replaced in my SOTA IBM desktop PC with a 12 GB drive, and wondering how I would ever come up with enough information to fill it. Changes? Constantly. Not just
Do you know anyone who is still working for the same company they were hired by right out of college? If you do, is the company still doing the same thing? Probably not.
We typically hear that people will make 3 to 7 major career shifts over the course of our working lives. Personally, I've made about 4. Did I imagine this is how I thought I'd make my living when I was 20? Are you kidding me? The career I have today didn't even appear as a separate option in college catalogues or HR manuals at the time.
So, if you (or your kid) are about to "complete" your education and are out in the job market, stop thinking of education as a thing you complete in order to prepare for a career. It hasn't worked that way for a couple of generations.
And, after I stopped laughing, I realized that this article must have been conceived and written by someone quite young. It wasn't until post WWII that college was ever supposed to be a "vocational school."
Oh, there were nursing schools, and teachers' colleges. and postgraduate "professional" schools for engineering, art, music, medicine and law, but a bachelor's degree was designed to prepare you for LIFE. To provide you with the background and language to solve problems, lead others, and become contributing members of society. To see the world in a larger perspective so you could understand and adapt to change. Ask any lawyer and they will tell you that law school doesn't teach you how to be a lawyer. (Or, you could just watch My Cousin Vinny) A degree in Medicine doesn't make you a working physician--- residency and internship does. A degree in music does not turn someone into a composer.
Then, in the post WWII era, we began offering mainstream degrees in Business. Oh, Wharton has been around since 1881 (the US' oldest b-school) and Harvard Business has been around since 1908, but, according to Forbes, he number of MBAs issued has jumped 623% since 1970; (education master’s degrees increased only 103% during that time.) Suddenly, there are lots of MBA's out there, all shooting for the same jobs. And suddenly, all those MBA's said, "well I have the credentials now, so I must be ready for the corner office and the golden parachute."
But an MBA isn't-- and shouldn't be thought of-- as a vocational certificate.
The business world is changing faster and faster every year, and, if you treat your degree as "one and done" vocational education, your education cannot keep pace with demands.
When my grandfather was a young man, he learned a vocation-- he was a baker -- and he went through an apprenticeship and perfected that skill and became more competent, but, when he retired, the way he did his job was pretty much the same as it was when he was 20, or 40, or 50 or even 60. The best cinnamon buns ever made still took flour and sugar and raisins and yeast.
When my father was a young man, he learned many different skills--(so many, my grandfather despaired he would never find a career) He worked in restaurants, he learned to hang wallpaper, he was a salesman, he worked in a jewelry store, and he worked in a steel mill. Then he went into the army, and discovered he had another set of skills-- he was a great leader, strategist and planner-- and when he came home from war he took the steel mill experience and the military experience and he took some GI Bill money and went to college, and he became a manager for a multinational company.
He worked at that job until he was fully vested in his pension-- 30 plus years-- and then he retired. He grew bored with retirement, and he took the people and logistics skills he learned in his corporate life and spent another 10 years trying to make government run like a business.
The world my grandfather and father worked in was not bequeathed to my brothers and I.
EJ started out studying engineering, then realized his calling was the law. He became an attorney, and has been practicing for very long time, but though his title remains the same, the nature of the practice has changed as technologies and markets have changed. If he hadn't adapted and contunued to learn and grow as the world changed, he would not have been even a fraction as successful as he has.
My other brother began in the Telecom world, when that meant a landline phone in your house or office and offices still had switchboard operators, and everyone got their service from Bell. If you think he didn't have to grow and change to remain viable, remember that when my brothers started college, there was no NASA, there was no internet, and even IBM didn't know why on earth private citizens would ever want a personal computer. (let alone one a wireless one you could carry in your pocket)
I am a bit younger than they are Bill Gates and I are contemporaries. Do you think the work world has changed a bit in OUR working lifetimes? I was in the computer bay today, waiting for my new laptop to be imaged. I handed the technician a 512 GB flash drive about the size of a tootsie roll midget, and watched him insert it and hit "run." At times like this I am reminded of the 3GB hard drive I replaced in my SOTA IBM desktop PC with a 12 GB drive, and wondering how I would ever come up with enough information to fill it. Changes? Constantly. Not just
Do you know anyone who is still working for the same company they were hired by right out of college? If you do, is the company still doing the same thing? Probably not.
We typically hear that people will make 3 to 7 major career shifts over the course of our working lives. Personally, I've made about 4. Did I imagine this is how I thought I'd make my living when I was 20? Are you kidding me? The career I have today didn't even appear as a separate option in college catalogues or HR manuals at the time.
So, if you (or your kid) are about to "complete" your education and are out in the job market, stop thinking of education as a thing you complete in order to prepare for a career. It hasn't worked that way for a couple of generations.
Sunday, September 13, 2015
I must be a trial to my right-wing Facebook friends.
Get Your Facts Straight!
- I can usually restrain myself from correcting grammar and spelling on line, but errors of verifiable fact (who, what, when, where) make me insane. So if you list President Park as the leader of North Korea, I'm probably going to post a one-liner saying she's the President of South Korea. If you confuse Saudis with Iranians, or Samoans with Hawaiians, or say everyone who lives in Asia is Chinese, I'm probably going to say something. I might even post a map. If you say that Donald Trump is the richest man in the world, I might post a link to the Forbes list, Yes, it is annoying. But not half as annoying to you as ridiculous inaccuracy is to me.
Church and State
- I firmly believe your church should stay out of my government and my government should stay out of everyone's place of worship.
- I don't care if you worship Allah or Zenu or anyone in between, if it works for you, it works for me.
- But if you make a secular commitment to do something and take taxpayer dollars for doing it, then later decide that it conflicts with your religion, just quit. No one should attempt to make you violate your beliefs, but we also shouldn't pay you to not do your job.
Marriages
- I think any two adults otherwise qualified to do so should be able to contract a civil marriage.
- But I don't believe any bona fide house of worship should be compelled to perform or host the ceremony if it violates the tenets of their religion.
- I think caterers and bakers and videographers who make a big stink about not wanting to service clients whose beliefs are different than theirs are self-serving attention-seekers. We all know that there are better and less antagonistic ways of discouraging clients you prefer not to service. Trust me, once the gay community discovers that you do a lousy job when you don't feel comfortable with the client, no one will be lining up at your door begging you to service their same-sex wedding.
- OTOH, folks, all couples have every right to ask their wedding vendors, "Have you ever provided services to a __(Black/ same-sex, Hindu/ Islam / Interfaith/ whatever) ___ event before? Did you have any problem providing your standard services for that event?"
- And if they anticipate issues, just say TYVM and leave.
- No harm, no foul, no lectures, no lawsuits, no headlines.
- Don't feed the trolls.
- They WANT you to give them money, and they want the attention for being "heroes and martyrs"
- Don't give them the satisfaction.
- These rules do NOT apply to non-religious venues, only professional services. Sorry catering halls, restaurants, and hotels. You open your doors to the public, you have to serve the public. Been the law for 50+ years.
Medical Matters
- I think the only people whose voices should have sway in a doctor's office are those of the doctor and the patient, assuming that patient is an adult and mentally competent.
- I think it is not only right, but VITAL for people to have a clear understanding with their next of kin and physician of their thoughts and desires when it comes to issues of end of life and advance directives. It's not morbid, it's practical and kind to the people you love.
- One can be pro-choice without being pro-abortion. I know categorically that I could never have chosen an abortion for myself, but I will fight anyone who tries to legislate away my right as an adult citizen to make that decision for myself.
Saturday, September 12, 2015
8th Grade Boy Charged with Sexual Assault for Kissing Classmate
A friend sent me a link to this story today on Facebook.
http://www.keprtv.com/news/national/Boy-faces-assault-charges-for-kissing-14-year-old-girl-on-dare-326756321.html
She was really upset that people were "excusing" his behavior as a childish act, when it was clearly a case of sexual assault and taken seriously. As a Mom of 2 boys, and a grandmother of three, I responded. We're usually on track _______________, but with a 13 year old kid, prosecution may be a bit of overkill. "No one was injured during the incident, police say," At 18, old enough to know better? prosecute his butt. At 13? Since it happened on school property, perhaps this could be effectivelly handled in other ways. I'm a mother and grandmother....I had two of the best kids on the planet, BUT KIDS DO STUPIDLY IMMATURE THINGS .....BECAUSE THEY ARE KIDS. If no one was hurt, it deserves apologies and discipline, education and maybe some community service to teach him and his friends why what they did was wrong, not a juvenile record and time in juvie. Ever seen what happens in there?
Her resonse to me
It frustrates me that when 13 year olds murder other people, the public comes running with torches and pitchforks to try them as adults. When 18 year olds murder they are sentenced to death and everyone says they are adults and should know better.......13 is an average age for people to be conscious of sexuality and personal space. But when a 14 year old girl is sexually assaulted people come to the boy's defense and says it is just boyish fun. It isn't.
The girl clearly is upset about this and she shouldn't be robbed of justice or invalidated because other people do stupid things too. Survivors of sexual assault are afraid to come forward because people won't put the blame on the perpetrator.
I wanted to take a bit more space and time to understand and validate her feelings, but still respond from my vantage point. a few decades further down the road.
I hear what you are saying, And I appreciate your sentiments, but the world is not always as black and white as we'd wish it to be. The current environment is the only one you've had the opportunity to observe firsthand. I was a kid. . Then I became a Mom, and now I have a nearly 15 year old grandson. I just think about the hypersexualization of children today-- in dress, in attitudes, in behavior-- all of which parents support, willingly or unwillingly, by means of their acceptance. Today, the line between kids and adults is blurred-- and not in a good way. 8 year olds have smartphones and instagram accounts, and are posting things to the internet they do not have the maturity to understand. 7 year olds deescribe themselves as transgender--- I didn't know I HAD a gender at 7, or that gender identity could BE different from physical anatomy. Sure, there were girls in my school who preferred never to wear dresses and liked playing football more than Barbies, but that was perfectly OK-- it didn't make you not a girl, it made you a girl who liked football. Your mother probably got a little annoyed around Easter when she wanted you to put on the pretty pastel dress, but no one was signing you up for hormone treatments and/or surgery. The boys in our neighborhood chased us on our bikes, but we didn't charge them with sexual harassment or assault. .
http://www.keprtv.com/news/national/Boy-faces-assault-charges-for-kissing-14-year-old-girl-on-dare-326756321.html
She was really upset that people were "excusing" his behavior as a childish act, when it was clearly a case of sexual assault and taken seriously. As a Mom of 2 boys, and a grandmother of three, I responded. We're usually on track _______________, but with a 13 year old kid, prosecution may be a bit of overkill. "No one was injured during the incident, police say," At 18, old enough to know better? prosecute his butt. At 13? Since it happened on school property, perhaps this could be effectivelly handled in other ways. I'm a mother and grandmother....I had two of the best kids on the planet, BUT KIDS DO STUPIDLY IMMATURE THINGS .....BECAUSE THEY ARE KIDS. If no one was hurt, it deserves apologies and discipline, education and maybe some community service to teach him and his friends why what they did was wrong, not a juvenile record and time in juvie. Ever seen what happens in there?
Her resonse to me
It frustrates me that when 13 year olds murder other people, the public comes running with torches and pitchforks to try them as adults. When 18 year olds murder they are sentenced to death and everyone says they are adults and should know better.......13 is an average age for people to be conscious of sexuality and personal space. But when a 14 year old girl is sexually assaulted people come to the boy's defense and says it is just boyish fun. It isn't.
The girl clearly is upset about this and she shouldn't be robbed of justice or invalidated because other people do stupid things too. Survivors of sexual assault are afraid to come forward because people won't put the blame on the perpetrator.
I wanted to take a bit more space and time to understand and validate her feelings, but still respond from my vantage point. a few decades further down the road.
I hear what you are saying, And I appreciate your sentiments, but the world is not always as black and white as we'd wish it to be. The current environment is the only one you've had the opportunity to observe firsthand. I was a kid. . Then I became a Mom, and now I have a nearly 15 year old grandson. I just think about the hypersexualization of children today-- in dress, in attitudes, in behavior-- all of which parents support, willingly or unwillingly, by means of their acceptance. Today, the line between kids and adults is blurred-- and not in a good way. 8 year olds have smartphones and instagram accounts, and are posting things to the internet they do not have the maturity to understand. 7 year olds deescribe themselves as transgender--- I didn't know I HAD a gender at 7, or that gender identity could BE different from physical anatomy. Sure, there were girls in my school who preferred never to wear dresses and liked playing football more than Barbies, but that was perfectly OK-- it didn't make you not a girl, it made you a girl who liked football. Your mother probably got a little annoyed around Easter when she wanted you to put on the pretty pastel dress, but no one was signing you up for hormone treatments and/or surgery. The boys in our neighborhood chased us on our bikes, but we didn't charge them with sexual harassment or assault. .
