Posted on 08/01/2016 8:49:02 AM PDT by servo1969
Here's what I was told during my freshman orientation at Haverford College: Ask for help when you need it. Speak up when you feel uncomfortable. Place your own well being above all other concerns.
In short, the school was ready to protect me from any personal slights or hurt feelings I might suffer. What counted as a personal slight or similar offense was up to me to define.
This surprised me.
It surprised me because at McDonald's, where I worked before I started school, acting in this way would have probably cost me my job, a job I needed in order to go to college.
The most important thing at McDonald's was not how I felt but how my customers felt. It was my job and the job of everyone working there to make others - namely, the customers - happy.
I worked at the front counter. That meant that if there was a problem with an order, I had to deal with it.
The issues weren't complicated. It was usually something like a missing piece of cheese from a McDouble, or whipped cream on a milkshake when they hadn't wanted any. Whatever it was, I had to listen patiently and mentally take notes so that I could report the relevant details to someone who could actually correct the problem.
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
Could have saved a helluva lot of money...; )
People should not be led to believe that college is a place where you show up , they unscrew the top of your head and pour knowledge into your brain. Learning is not a passive activity. Some people love to learn. For other people, learning is very painful. College is not for everyone.
Worked at a McDonalds during High School, and attended a technical school after high school.
I have talked to people who have received masters and bachelors of useless degrees and have come tot he conclusion that most all colleges are complete and total scams and that the average schmuck who ends up in college are listless dupes who go there to get a useless ribbon that gives them bragging rights.
So many people with degrees that I meet have a sizable lacking when it comes to common sense.
I say that about 1/2 of college is learning information.
The other 1/2 is learning to survive, manage time, and make unpleasant decisions.
With the knowledge, an employer can train you for what he needs.
The other gets you to the job on time, gets bills paid, etc. Kind of like a stint in the Military.
But I am old school.
People shouldn't go to college if they don't enjoy learning and people shouldn't go into the military if they don't like the military. Some people might be happier at McDonalds.
“I reflected in my Mind on the extream Folly of those Parents, who, blind to their Childrens Dulness, and insensible of the Solidity of their Skulls, because they think their Purses can afford it, will needs send them to the Temple of Learning, where, for want of a suitable Genius, they learn little more than how to carry themselves handsomely, and enter a Room genteely, (which might as well be acquir’d at a Dancing-School,) and from whence they return, after Abundance of Trouble and Charge, as great Blockheads as ever, only more proud and self-conceited.”
-S.Dogood 1722
As it was then it is now.
It depends-
Some people go to college to ‘find themselves’, or just because that’s what they are supposed to do.
Others go to learn specific technical skills. For the latter, it can be an excellent investment. I know people who went to college of EE, petroleum engineering, accounting -all are doing fine.
Thank you! The media loves to denigrate “flipping burgers” at Mcdonald’s. I worked there as a mom with young children in school during their school hours. Was promoted for working hard to assistant manager within a few years. Excellent training and good pay. Skip college, go for the min. wage job at Mcdonald’s, and shine within a few short years.
In the mid-80s when the oil crash occurred, for a time I had to deliver Popeye’s fried chicken for about six weeks.
I must say that it was an “education”.
The people who worked there, except I, were all minorities and were the happiest people I have ever known. They were always upbeat, smiling and laughing.
I asked one man who always worked a double-shift why he worked two shifts. He said, “I have to feed my family.” I then said, “Well, given the circumstances”, I asked why he was always happy. His response was, “Because I gots me a job!”
He was obviously not one of the leeches.
We notice that some people who went to college without a desire to learn come away from college not having learned much. But, I don't permit that to influence my view of the college. I know that if a student enjoys learning and wants to learn, he/she will learn much in college.
Everyone is different. Anyone who spends four years in college and then blames the college because they didn't learn anything just doesn't know much about themselves or why they didn't learn anything.
I’ve always told my kids that if you are going to work in food service, be a server. Tips bring you over minimum wage-way over on a good night. It’s changed though, since I was 16. You must have experience before you can be a server. Our oldest works at DQ-he was a shift manager before he was old enough to drive because he works very hard and is pleasant to customers even when they are difficult.
Twenty years after graduating from college I am back to waiting tables. It’s a way I can homeschool my kids and still make some money. It’s often intense and I’m sore at the end of the night but the money is good and it teaches me to “die to self” every single night. Between that and motherhood my path to sanctification must surely be accelerated;-)
Correct, college is not for everyone. College is what you make of it. You want to know where this country is headed. Look at its Universities. Where the students completely lack basic skills. They no longer know how to think critically, how to form arguments, then support those arguments with facts, They want to know what key points the Professor expects in an essay, they expect exams to either be multiple choice or take home if the questions are essay based. I am relativily young at 34. However, in the past decade since I’ve graduated undergrad, the expectations have become that of an 8th grader. I can only imagin how older generations feel, seeing the level of education and discourse plummet in this country. The most pathetic part of this decline, is how younger generations have easier access to information and better technologies. It is a sad pathetic state. This is why I hope to steer my own childern towards skilled trades.
We didn’t have to work at McDonald’s to find out these things. In fact, there weren’t any fast-food restaurants when I was a kid. Growing up, we were taught to think of others first, before ourselves. Also, to always put ourselves in the other person’s shoes before even thinking of making fun of anyone. We were told to ask ourselves the question of how we’d feel if we were that person? The Golden Rule was taught in school. Politeness and consideration of other people’s feelings was drummed into our heads from the beginning. My mother always told us that we had to have respect for our elders, and say hello to them first. Also patriotism was a big part of our lives. My Dad was an immigrant from Holland as a little boy with his two brothers, and their parents in 1912. This country meant a great deal to him, and he instilled that love of country into his four kids.
I don't think that there is anything that any college can do to correct the deficiencies in individuals. These students aren't 14 years old when they attend university. Students who want to learn do learn. Students who don't want to learn don't learn. It really is that simple.
Colleges cannot just shovel experience and growth into a young man or woman. The young man or woman must be seeking education and growth and then they can use college as one vehicle for that process.
Once again, you are right. The ones who want to learn belong in college. Those who do not should be in the workforce. Howver, College is now part of the progression of life and everyone attends. Graduate school is becoming the same. We know the lack of basic skill comes from two sources. The federal governments involvement in lower education and the lack of supplementation of those skills at home. Let the teachers teach.
Your last sentence is the reflection of a wise man.
Consider a moment that the concept of college/university is a relatively modernist fad. Think how deprived Pericles, Aristotle, Euclid, Sophocles, Julius Caesar, Cicero, Virgil, Aurelius; among hundreds of Ancients were w/o degrees, the poor things. Despite this, they managed to create Western Civilization.
The Scholastics of the High Middle Ages were self taught natural philosophers and logicians; our first scientists.
Shakespeare, Michelangelo, Mozart, among other geniuses,
managed just fine w/o degrees.
We are in thrall to horse manure and malarkey, as if a credential equates to achievement. It never did.
Cold reality is real simple. We stand of the massive shoulders of the giants of the past which allows us to see as far as we do.
A university should be a place where students can grow intellectually, a place where they can safely mature. There is no need for physical assaults, verbal abuse or epithets. I know that there isn't many good places left for people who want to be abusive to engage in their destructive conduct, but there never really were many good places in this world for such people. They've always been unhappy.
When given the opportunity to go to high school, they took these cherished memories of what life would look like without that education, so that they had a little better appreciation of the opportunity.
Now, most likely, they haven't had to work in high school, and their only knowledge of the working world seems to be that which comes from college. Woe be unto the kids that majored in "diversity studies".
There's no baseline any more. We're too worried about kids feelings and self-esteem to teach them relevant work skills and tools for them to become effective workers.
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