Educating myself into ignorance

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Jack_Bauer

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I just had a major epiphony today. I discovered that my sister, whom I’ve been worried about for so many years because of her living conditions and lack of normal luxuries most of us take for granted, was dirt poor. She just told me that her husband makes $200,000 / year. She has a GED and he might have a High School deploma. My other brother dropped out of High School and procured a GED as well and makes up to $300,000 / year. In case your wondering what they do or did to get there, they’re both tool pushers. My brother is a consultant now. My point is that I’ve spend a good portion of my life in college trying to overcome my inability to make a decent living and feel like I’ve shot of my foot, both feet.

I started thinking about this and have decided that my life is a joke for one. I’ve started rethinking what to teach my children, one on his way out the door in a few years. This reminds me of what I now perceive as the creation of Protestantism. The more educated we think we are the more we place ourselves in jeopardy of falling into Satan’s snare. What a trap. I’ve always thought that overly educated people I’ve known have been the least intelligent I’ve met. No offense. I’m right up there with them. Only, my education is much broader than most because of my thirst for knowledge. It has helped me in my faith, but not in providing for my family. I was conned into believing the more education I have the better off we would be. After countless attempts at climbing in my fields, GIS, Planning and/Civil Engineering, I’ve decided to throw in the towel and become a teacher. Only, I won’t con the kids. I’ll tell them like it really is and also show them the downsides. I’ve lived it.

Some of the most intelligent people I’ve known had little to no formal college. Some of the wisest also fit in the same group. It begs the question as to whether our ancestors, if peasants, were better off than we’re led to believe. Ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ. Well, maybe the ignorance is what protects us from killing our souls. Just another twisted thought of the day from yours truly. I feel so depressed.😃
 
I am pretty sure you will not get tenured if that is your agenda…🤷😃
 
Jack you just made the mistake of working for the government sector. As a consulting civil engineer, I never get shot at by terrorists, asked to fly a Cessna with a nuke aboard, beaten senseless or blown up. Plus I get paid more. 😉

Note to self, don’t be a CIA civil engineer like Jack Bauer.

But look on the bright side. Unlike all those unwashed masses, you know how to make water flow downhill!
 
Jack_Bauer said:
I just had a major epiphony today. I discovered that my sister, whom I’ve been worried about for so many years because of her living conditions and lack of normal luxuries most of us take for granted, was dirt poor. She just told me that her husband makes $200,000 / year. She has a GED and he might have a High School deploma. My other brother dropped out of High School and procured a GED as well and makes up to $300,000 / year. In case your wondering what they do or did to get there, they’re both tool pushers. My brother is a consultant now. My point is that I’ve spend a good portion of my life in college trying to overcome my inability to make a decent living and feel like I’ve shot of my foot, both feet.

I started thinking about this and have decided that my life is a joke for one. I’ve started rethinking what to teach my children, one on his way out the door in a few years. This reminds me of what I now perceive as the creation of Protestantism. The more educated we think we are the more we place ourselves in jeopardy of falling into Satan’s snare. What a trap. I’ve always thought that overly educated people I’ve known have been the least intelligent I’ve met. No offense. I’m right up there with them. Only, my education is much broader than most because of my thirst for knowledge. It has helped me in my faith, but not in providing for my family. I was conned into believing the more education I have the better off we would be. After countless attempts at climbing in my fields, GIS, Planning and/Civil Engineering, I’ve decided to throw in the towel and become a teacher. Only, I won’t con the kids. I’ll tell them like it really is and also show them the downsides. I’ve lived it.

Some of the most intelligent people I’ve known had little to no formal college. Some of the wisest also fit in the same group. It begs the question as to whether our ancestors, if peasants, were better off than we’re led to believe. Ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ. Well, maybe the ignorance is what protects us from killing our souls. Just another twisted thought of the day from yours truly. I feel so depressed.😃
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You are equating success with how much money you make.

Your friend
Sufjon
 
Jack_Bauer said:
She just told me that her husband makes $200,000 / year. She has a GED and he might have a High School deploma. My other brother dropped out of High School and procured a GED as well and makes up to $300,000 / year.
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Jack, this is highly unusual. Most people people without a college degree will only make a decent amount of money if they can get a high-paying union job in a factory. Otherwise they are likely to be stuck in a low-paying job that offers no advancement since they do not have an advanced education.

If a high income was truly able to be obtained with only a high school degree/GED, colleges would be ghost towns.
 
Jack_Bauer said:
I just had a major epiphony today. I discovered that my sister, whom I’ve been worried about for so many years because of her living conditions and lack of normal luxuries most of us take for granted, was dirt poor. She just told me that her husband makes $200,000 / year. She has a GED and he might have a High School deploma. My other brother dropped out of High School and procured a GED as well and makes up to $300,000 / year. In case your wondering what they do or did to get there, they’re both tool pushers. My brother is a consultant now. My point is that I’ve spend a good portion of my life in college trying to overcome my inability to make a decent living and feel like I’ve shot of my foot, both feet.
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Thanks for the laugh:)
Seriously dude my brother doesn’t even have his grade 10.
He started on the rigs age 17 and is still working on them, mind you he now makes more in a month then i do in a yr. and you know what i could care less cause i am happy to be doing what i am doing.
i think almost anybody with a paying job makes more than i do. but in the end you still can’t take one bit of it with you, What matters is what you do with yourself not what somebody else does.
 
formail education, espcially university, is a joke. its an institution of ideaological brainwash.
 
I know many well educated people with only middle incomes because they thought more ed. more doh.Nobody told them you have to have common sense to go with the deg.Many of the assumed the jobs wpould jump into their lap automatically .there is a thing called "life experience"that can be very marketable .I have friend who is a millionaire she has grade 10 but a hard worker she has her own h/keeping co .she knew when to delegate when to hire advice , when to get an accountant .she had smile that could charm the birds out the trees and she used it ,she treated every client like they were the Queen so she made great contacts and her busuiness flourished.You can decide your only going to work in your "field"you have to take a l:thumbsup:eap into other things and not turn your nose up at any job you just don;t know where it will lead or the contacts you make while your doing it
 
Sufjon said:
You are equating success with how much money you make.

Your friend
Sufjon
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BEEEEEEEPPPPPP! Incorrect, Go to Jail. Do not collect $20

Sorry, Gotta wait till you can roll the dice for a chance to get out of jail:p.
 
about 8 years ago I had an opportunity to work as a junior CEO for a Mapping company in GIS. I chose a Senior Engineering job over that job with a lower salary in order to stay close to home. I made the choice. About 6 years ago my neighbor said he would get me on with an American company in logistics in the Middle East. I told him I’d rather have my M16 on my shoulder than to run around like a target. The pay would have been $140,000/yr. Believe me, I’m here by choice. I could have been a cold hearted husband and father and run off but chose to remain close to home.

I left an engineering job to become a teacher. So, I made my own bed. I’m not unhappy for those of you that have missed the point of my post. I’m shocked that my sister [you don’t know my sister] and her husband. She quit school because she got pregnant. Her husband used to struggle from job to job. She lives on their property in a very small home and has these drawings of a dream home add on. The way she talks is like they don’t know where their next check is going to come from to pay for groceries. At one point I was trying to find a way to help them [boy do I feel foolish now]. It’s amazing. I happy for them. It’s been rough. Leaving home for so long is not my idea of a good living though. It’s money in the bank and guys like that usually play hard, which requires lots of money. I thought his parents were helping them. WOW! Blew my mind.

Anyway. I’m still mind boggled over it. Ever heard of the story about the Attorney that hired a plumber? The plumber gives the attorney the bill for his work and says, ‘man with money like this I’d do better becoming a plumber.’ The plumber said, that why I left my law firm and became a plumber. 😃 I’m grateful that my sister actually does have a little security that I never realized she had. Of course, money isn’t everything.
 
Personally, I would not trade my college education for anything. Not because it will get me a well-paying job (I’m going into nonprofit work, let’s be real… ;)), but because it has made me a better person. First of all, my religion classes and discussions with classmates and professors led me to become Catholic. I cannot express how grateful I am for that experience. I have also learned to think more critically and view the world with a Christian/Catholic viewpoint. And I didn’t even go to a Catholic college.

So, I don’t think that college is for everyone, and it’s certainly not necessary to make a good living or to be an intelligent, informed Christian, but a college education can be very useful, both for some professions (can you imagine a doctor who didn’t go to college?) and for personal growth.

Another thought… reason and faith are not contradictory. Some colleges teach a curriculum that does contradict faith, but that is the fault of the college and not of the concept of education itself. We should be prepared to defend our faith, which means that we need to be able to talk with those who are very educated. I recommend reading John Paul II’s encyclical On Faith and Reason. It is awesome. 🙂

I do, however, agree that higher education is often inaccurately promoted as a good in and of itself. 👍
 
Jack_Bauer said:
I just had a major epiphony today. I discovered that my sister, whom I’ve been worried about for so many years because of her living conditions and lack of normal luxuries most of us take for granted, was dirt poor. She just told me that her husband makes $200,000 / year. She has a GED and he might have a High School deploma. My other brother dropped out of High School and procured a GED as well and makes up to $300,000 / year. In case your wondering what they do or did to get there, they’re both tool pushers. My brother is a consultant now. My point is that I’ve spend a good portion of my life in college trying to overcome my inability to make a decent living and feel like I’ve shot of my foot, both feet.

I started thinking about this and have decided that my life is a joke for one. I’ve started rethinking what to teach my children, one on his way out the door in a few years. This reminds me of what I now perceive as the creation of Protestantism. The more educated we think we are the more we place ourselves in jeopardy of falling into Satan’s snare. What a trap. I’ve always thought that overly educated people I’ve known have been the least intelligent I’ve met. No offense. I’m right up there with them. Only, my education is much broader than most because of my thirst for knowledge. It has helped me in my faith, but not in providing for my family. I was conned into believing the more education I have the better off we would be. After countless attempts at climbing in my fields, GIS, Planning and/Civil Engineering, I’ve decided to throw in the towel and become a teacher. Only, I won’t con the kids. I’ll tell them like it really is and also show them the downsides. I’ve lived it.

Some of the most intelligent people I’ve known had little to no formal college. Some of the wisest also fit in the same group. It begs the question as to whether our ancestors, if peasants, were better off than we’re led to believe. Ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ. Well, maybe the ignorance is what protects us from killing our souls. Just another twisted thought of the day from yours truly. I feel so depressed.😃
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Albert Einstien worked in a Patent office you know…👍

Of the many emotions Joy, Fear, Happiness, Anger, Sadness…Depression/Sadness is one of the most difficult and least understood.

I have no understanding of it. I do know however that sadness/depression is a power like all the other emotions that signal change within us…I discovered that when I did not dwell on sadness it passed and I was then able to observe it and understand what it was I was to learn from it…I often tell my friends when they say “sometimes I get depressed” and add and I try to get out of that and do blah, blah, blah…I say why not just let it happen, see where it goes and then see how you see things when it passes…practice this and sadness is no longer something that is to be feared, ignored, or even cause sadness…we all get sad once in awhile, it is just the human experience…🙂

Observe how you deal with what are called the positive emotions Joy, Happiness, etc…you don’t dwell on those…you experience them…

If you want a good book, non-religious that addresses how we can manage our emotions, I suggest the following…Since you are an educated person you would enjoy learning something that you can put to use…

Dragon Slaying, by L. Michael Hall, PhD. It is not a book written as a self help book. It is actually the notes that were produced for teaching a class in Neurosemantics.

The Preface states the following…
“I wrote Dragon Slaying because we humans so easily and frequently find ourselves in emotional states of mind that we can only call “Dragon States” . I wrote this because by using Meta-states we can fairly easily get ourselves out of those states”
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A meta state is nothing more than a state above…for instance when you see a door…you think of whatever you think about that door, you then form an opinion or feeling about that thought…this next level is the “meta” or beyond the first thought. This is how our brain works.

You can have a thought, have a feeling about that thought, have a thought about that feeling and then have a feeling about that thought about that feeling…etc…all Meta to the first thought…get it…👍
 
My University offers a “Mind Brain” program of study. It’s new and we got the first dips on a great lecture. We’re studying development and that includes a less in depth aspect of the physiology of the brain. Very interesting stuff.

And, I’m not really depressed. It just shocked me.Can you imagine walking up to someone in a parking lot that looks like a homeless guy and putting a dollar in his cup… Then you discover that you just put you dollar in the coffee cup of the owner/foreman of a huge construction crew. That’s about what I feel… kind of stupid.
 
Jack_Bauer said:
. Of course, money isn’t everything.
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I was around 7 or 8 and my Dad had to borrow a car from the neighbor in order to go check on our car at the mechanic. The water pump had gone out I believe and the month before it was the air conditioner.
We were on a long dirt road when the borrowed car lurched and came to a stop. We were stuck, on a dirt road, a long time before cell phones, in a borrowed car.
My Dad got out lifted up the hood. As I was watching, he uttered the words I have never forgotten. “Brian, Money doesn’t buy you happiness but being poor doesn’t buy you @##%.”
🤷
 
BrianH said:
I was around 7 or 8 and my Dad had to borrow a car from the neighbor in order to go check on our car at the mechanic. The water pump had gone out I believe and the month before it was the air conditioner.
We were on a long dirt road when the borrowed car lurched and came to a stop. We were stuck, on a dirt road, a long time before cell phones, in a borrowed car.
My Dad got out lifted up the hood. As I was watching, he uttered the words I have never forgotten. “Brian, Money doesn’t buy you happiness but being poor doesn’t buy you @##%.”
🤷
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There’s an old saying. By a man a meal and he is good for the night, teach a man to fish and he will have many good meals. The same is true about taking care of things that go amok around the house. I learned and teach my own children all of the necessary survival skills required to save money. Mechanic, electronics, electrical, plumbing, woodworking, building, etc. I’ve been down those roads broken down many times… long before cell phones too. However, money helps only when you have the time to manage it wisely. Otherwise you end up paying late this and that.

Most people don’t realize the benefits associate with teaching and government. I know many millionaires from working in public organizations. It’s not having to sell your soul to the company that makes the difference worth settling for less compensation up front. And the amount of time off with family is amazing. I do better in a lower paying govenment job than one where I make 60% more in the private sector. Why? Time, benefits and money management services.
 
Jack_Bauer said:
My University offers a “Mind Brain” program of study. It’s new and we got the first dips on a great lecture. We’re studying development and that includes a less in depth aspect of the physiology of the brain. Very interesting stuff.

And, I’m not really depressed. It just shocked me.Can you imagine walking up to someone in a parking lot that looks like a homeless guy and putting a dollar in his cup… Then you discover that you just put you dollar in the coffee cup of the owner/foreman of a huge construction crew. That’s about what I feel… kind of stupid.
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I am a physician and have studied anatomy and physiology and psychiatry…none of this helps you understand how the brain functions. I was suggesting to you how to understand how our thoughts work for communication. You can discard this…the two main books written on this topic might interest you…Users manual of the Brain Vol I & II by L. Michael Hall…No anatomy or physiology here…just communication.👍
 
CopticChristian said:
I am a physician and have studied anatomy and physiology and psychiatry…none of this helps you understand how the brain functions. I was suggesting to you how to understand how our thoughts work for communication. You can discard this…the two main books written on this topic might interest you…Users manual of the Brain Vol I & II by L. Michael Hall…No anatomy or physiology here…just communication.👍
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Thank you. I’ll look into it. I may be back to chat about it. But don’t wait around. My life is like a zoo of monkeys with my 3 monkeys, and other animals, not to mention the overly busy matriarch.
 
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