Entrepreneurials

> My disagreement is with your objection to
> history and science. As Edmund Burke put it,
> "Those who don't know history are
> destined to repeat it!" We are seeing
> that lived out in the US every month lately.

> As for science, the more we know ofthe
> mechanics and laws of the universe, the more
> we can understand of the world around us.

In my school, Modern History meant WWI, League of Nations, WWII, Korean War. To study Ancient History I would have had to take on another module of Modern History - dropping one of my other subjects - and thus get one module of Ancient History which ONLY covered Greece in the time of the Spartans.

I never said history was not important. Just that I was forced to study it in preparation for entrance to university to study science. (I have learned more history since leaving school than I ever learned at school. I actually like the subject.)

Science? Love science. Physics and Biology - both deal with how things work. That's why I chose to do a science degree.

But even this had flawed logic. As I said... why was a science degree needed to be a pilot? Heck, I went and got my license privately. So much for a degree.

As I was also studying teaching... the mind boggles more so. Why study university level science to teach highschool science? And why do three years of that higher level science - getting higher and higher?

My friend is a "Fed." Aussie version of an FBI agent. His "training" was 12 weeks. To become a statey in my state - our police our divided by state and not locale - requires six months at the academy PLUS one year studying science at university. That's 18 months of tertiary education - six of it at the police academy - so they can pull someone up for speeding and whatnot. Go figure.

That's what my beef is... more and more "positions" require higher and higher qualifications which do not add to the performance of the task.

I've seen jobs require a diploma of science. Thing is... those who get the job - and thus have the diploma - needed to be taught everything about the job because the tasks of the job were not taught during the diploma. I have seen unqualified people doing those same tasks - as a fill-in when the diploma holder was unable for a variety of reasons.

Anyway. Better stop now. Before I get carried away. :o)

Michael Ross

> I've seen jobs require a diploma of science.
> Thing is... those who get the job - and thus
> have the diploma - needed to be taught
> everything about the job because the tasks
> of the job were not taught during the
> diploma. I have seen unqualified people
> doing those same tasks - as a fill-in when
> the diploma holder was unable for a variety
> of reasons.

That's because what is needed for the job can't be taught.

Take my job. I'm a computer geek.

When I was hired in, PCs were just beginning to be used as business tools. So there was no course for me to learn from and I had to know how to teach myself and then teach others. This is not a skill you can train anyone at, but a broad educational background gives you the skills and tools (good old scientific method plus some education courses) to develop new things.

When my company wanted a website, they did so early on. I'd never seen a webiste and the only thing I did on Internet was chat. I'd been employed for 10 years and there was no way my education could have taught me something that didn't exist. However, because I had art courses and some literature courses, I could put together a credible website.

When we needed to ensure our host against hacker attacks, there were no courses in 'dealing with hackers.' Again, I had to use my background to decide where the greatest problems lay and how to get the information to deal with it.

Scientific method.

I have used everything I know in coming up with creative solutions to situations in my job. You could never have trained anyone to do this nor could you have ever figured out the required skill set I need today some 20 years ago when I was hired.

Now -- this MIGHT be true if all you did was type and answer phones or run a sales register or work in a factory or drive a truck (and those are good jobs, by the way.) But for white collar jobs (such as technical jobs), those are actually rather important and will be used in some measure or another at sometime during your career.