Thanks for the feedback on this stuff.
It has been one of the first times I have laid it out for anyone.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Glenski
sukotto,
Have just read a few of your more recent posts. Sounds like you are against getting a college degree, yet you want to come to Japan for work. Is that it?
Well, let me enlighten you on a few things.
3) You think college is for the rich. Wrong. It is for people who can afford to go, and that means people with money or the means to get it (in the form of loans, grants, scholarships, etc.). I was in the latter category. Poor family but got through college with assistance. I'm not the first or the last.
Well, yeah. It's for anyone who can afford it, or who wants to enslave themselves with years or worse of indentured servitude called debt.
When I speak of poor, I was thinking of poverty. Like living in a neighborhood in which dropping out of school in the 4th grade is the smart thing to do because it is too dangerous to keep going, or whatever reason really.
There is class in the US, despite that every sitcom on tv attempts to paint
the world (excuse me, only the US) as all "middle class". And making lots of money makes you a good person, really... it does.
4) You wrote this:
This was how i felt when i first entered college at age 20.
Perhaps I should have added that i do not believe everyone
that acquires schooling is a shmuck. Nurses, doctors that don't
cancel their appointments just to play golf, social workers that
care, are a some that might aquire beneficial skills at a college.
Quote:
Are you suggesting that college graduates are experts and tell others how to run their lives? If so, think again.
When I was at college, someone I knew was going into social work.
Work with youth in trouble with the law. I told him I could never do
that. There's probably some stuff they are in trouble for I'd feel
like a real hypocrite doing a job about. Smoking pot for example.
The laws around this are total b.s.
While I have not smoked it in many years, it is less harmful than
alcohol or tobacco, and should not be illegal.
5) You also wrote:
But you left out comments about what knowledge base is deemed
valuable. The private colleges such as Yeel, Harvord, etc... set the
standards for the entire country. If these places want 4 year foreign
language high school requirement, than other colleges and universities
follow suit. I happen to agree that more 2nd languages is a good thing.
But the point here is who sets the agenda. The wealthy.
Quote:
College graduates don't always get more money. Learn who does, if money is that important to you. It's not about power, no matter how much you think it is. Look how much money carpenters, plumbers, and electricians make, for example, and compare it to what a social worker makes, or a government employee at the DMV. If you are here just to dis on the "ruling class", then talk politics, not academic qualifications. Look at the ruling class in countries where there are military dictatorships. How many of those guys are college educated?
Money IS power.
And money is not important to me.
A couple years ago, I would have gone to Japan to "teach" English with only my dictionaries and text books. And since I rarely drink (never got drunk until I was 25. no "straightedge" cult, just didn't) I wouldn't have been one hitting the bars or clubs that I imagine many people are into.
Someone asked me why I did not want a degree, so I responded.
That is why I have written such stuff in this string.
Schools are a major institution in which a society recreates itself.
That includes privileges that also existed.
Including class, which even the mighty land of equality has never
been free of. And in fact today the US is more divided by concentrations
of wealth than a place like Britain, with its monarchy.
I guess schools are really 2 1/2 things,
job training, and also education.
Falling under education would also be indoctrination.
Myths told here might be: the US won the cold war.
There is now, in the year 2007, a "clash of civilizations" (teaching er, cough, racism). And maybe taken less serious these days: before Europeans
arrived in Africa and brought with the institution "the state",
Africa was uncivilized.
Maybe even taught, that a corporation is as natural as the rain from above.
Or that all "Americans" really can have one common interest.
Quote:
6) And, another quote:
Not all foreign workers in Japan are white males. You have a lot to learn.
Well, yeah.
I hear there are a lot of "Asians" doing construction jobs in Japan.
I meant the "white males" thing in a wider historical context.
But, still, if someone, anyone wanted to go live in another people's
area, shouldn't they respect the local customs, traditions, and even
modern rules, regulations, and laws?
One guy suggested to me:
With globalization, maybe one good thing that might come from it is that at least among the ruling class (finally) we might eliminate racism.
Despite backwards hicks, I believe it to disappear quicker at the bottom,
when people need their paychecks and can't fly away on a jet. White flight for the 21st century. ha! ewe. sorry, bad joke.
7) More:
well, the reality of fascism coming to the gosh darn ole us&a.
yup. that's a pretty ugly reality we might be facing sooner (if not already)
than we expect. some of us have been seeing this coming since well before Bushjr (who didn't invent empire for the us either, btw)
Quote:
If this is the case for you, I suggest you buy a ticket, plan a vacation, and spend time here as a tourist first. See what you envision as that "escape" vs. "reality". If you think the USA is a "trash heap", wait till you have started to live and work here. It's not all roses.
And, admittedly, some of this is carry over language from earlier years.
"trash heap" stuff. Now it is a bit more evolved, naaw, pretty much the same: today it is fast food and American Idle.
Parts of me have come to realize that it is the same every where.
At least in the consumer societies. And referring to human interactions that is. Everybody wants to be loved and there is no such thing as "evil". Yes there are evil deeds, which are caused by ignorance and a lack of empathy (thank you Aung San Suu Kyi)
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8) If you want a job here, you'll need it. If you don't have it, you'll need the experience. Pretty straightforward. That "privilege" opens a lot of doors, though.
You said it right there: "opens a lot of doors".
aka privilege.
Quote:
It is your prerogative to look at college education any way you like. Sadly, IMO, you choose to look only at the negative side. I think there is a stronger, hidden reason other than the political ramifications and sociological philosophies you spout here, though.
I agree. I happen to believe that there is hardly ever, if ever, a single reason for anything. Or even a mere two reasons.
I'm not saying learning is not a good thing.
Whenever I criticize school in general, people
always get on my case about this.
They think I am against learning.
Learning, one does not need to attend an institution for this.
Quote:
With all the mumbo-jumbo you type here, why not just go back, sleep through a few political science classes, and get a degree in that, then apply to the JET programme or an eikaiwa? Personally, with your attitude here, I think you'd fail the interview miserably, though.
Political science? ech.
As far as what our rulers do, in the name of our pain and their gain, it's just my opinion that people in the US need to pay more attention. Pretty much the rest of the world knows more about history and what the US gov't does than US citizens do. (But I've heard recently Japan has this problem too. ?)
I'm not trying to claim I am all caring or any such b.s.
Don't get me wrong.
I probably care no more about the stuff I've listed than any randomly selected
person living in the US.
I have thought of this stuff before.
I actually do highly doubt I care.
Afterall, if I really did care,
maybe I would volunteer to teach ESL
to Central American & Mexican immigrants or
tutoring for 7th graders that read at a 4th
grade level. Maybe that would just be putting
a band-aid on the dyke; treating the symptoms
rather than the disease? Still, that stuff does
need to be done.
I didn't mean to sound mean while typing my original post.
Sorry.
I just happen to have a bleak world view.
With "terrorism" being the new "red scare", it seems there might
be new cointelpro-style stuff for our generation.
Arundhati Roy describes perhaps similar stuff going on in India.
Maybe there will be a global "operation condor" among the so-called
"free democracies" of the world.
Sure, I could "get mine" while I still can.
...sigh.
and 28 other reasons as well.
Anyway, thanks for the feedback.