RE: Grades vs Education
December 17, 2013 at 4:06 am
(This post was last modified: December 17, 2013 at 4:08 am by bennyboy.)
I ran an English school for a few years (owned and ran, that is). I sometimes hired "big guns," people with honors coming from Ivy League schools with big student loans and bigger egos. Almost invariably, they sucked as teachers, for the same reasons they succeeded as students in that environment-- they were overly pedantic and took few risks, and they really believed they were the "cream of the crop," and should be deferred too. They also had a complete disregard for the effect they had on others, for example whether their students were interested in their classes.
I learned quickly to test people's basic competence of English grammar on my own, diploma be damned, and then to throw them off their rehearsed "job interview" scripts right away. I ended up getting a lot of people with "B" averages who were humorous, resilient (living in Korea sucks), and modest enough to listen to direction and follow them without telling me how whatever great systems they just pulled out of their asses 2 seconds ago were better than my 20 years of experience. Many good times were had by all, and the stick-in-the-muds ended up being shown the front door, precious diplomas and all.
On the other side of the story, I recommend getting an education in job skills that you can apply ON YOUR OWN to benefit: psych courses, business admin or marketing courses, math courses, etc. etc. Don't take a fucking philosopy of French poetry degree or some BS like that-- if you like those subjects, a library card and a bus pass will get you all the "education" you need. You need to be able to head out into the market and make your own economic niche-- because the days of landing a reliable position and getting incremental raises over the course of 30 or 40 years until you are financially secure are OVER. You have to be a pit fighter, a carpe diem, no-holds-barred money maker, no matter where you are or what you current circumstances.
That's my advice-- get the straight-A grades if at all possible, but more than that, prepare yourself to make your own way in life, rather than begging a series of employers to string you along on THEIR profitable ventures.
I learned quickly to test people's basic competence of English grammar on my own, diploma be damned, and then to throw them off their rehearsed "job interview" scripts right away. I ended up getting a lot of people with "B" averages who were humorous, resilient (living in Korea sucks), and modest enough to listen to direction and follow them without telling me how whatever great systems they just pulled out of their asses 2 seconds ago were better than my 20 years of experience. Many good times were had by all, and the stick-in-the-muds ended up being shown the front door, precious diplomas and all.
On the other side of the story, I recommend getting an education in job skills that you can apply ON YOUR OWN to benefit: psych courses, business admin or marketing courses, math courses, etc. etc. Don't take a fucking philosopy of French poetry degree or some BS like that-- if you like those subjects, a library card and a bus pass will get you all the "education" you need. You need to be able to head out into the market and make your own economic niche-- because the days of landing a reliable position and getting incremental raises over the course of 30 or 40 years until you are financially secure are OVER. You have to be a pit fighter, a carpe diem, no-holds-barred money maker, no matter where you are or what you current circumstances.
That's my advice-- get the straight-A grades if at all possible, but more than that, prepare yourself to make your own way in life, rather than begging a series of employers to string you along on THEIR profitable ventures.
