Comments on: Not All Knowledge Comes from College

By: John Barba

John Barba — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 18:04:39 +0000

Thanks for reposting Allison.
Thanks for reposting Allison. Looking forward to seeing Andy at Taco in May, and hope you can make it up later this year as well. It'll be like Woodstock, only for heaters instead of hippies. Three days of peace, love and hydronics….

By: Tim Hart

Tim Hart — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 05:13:07 +0000

enjoyed this piece. Our
enjoyed this piece. Our society is filled with folks who've been educated beyond their ability to understand what they know. knowledge and understanding are two different things. Wisdom and understanding are two different things. In the perfect scenario one would have the knowledge to do something, the understanding of how to do it and the wisdom to go ahead and do it!!!

By: Jeremy Higbee

Jeremy Higbee — Tue, 09 Jul 2013 18:13:41 +0000

Great article! There's so
Great article! There's so much pressure for EVERYONE to go to college when it's not necessarily the best thing for everyone. Thanks!

By: Thomas Billups

Thomas Billups — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 23:57:22 +0000

Great read!
Great read!
Immediately after graduating with my MBA (ten years after getting an engineering degree), I took an $8 an hour job as a carpenter’s apprentice. I also took evening classes in a carpentry program at a local technical college. I learned more in the next year about the work that I really wanted to do – build things well – than I had learned in all my time in college and grad school. I now manage a construction program and teach part-time at the same technical college I attended. My wife is a high school teacher, and we both see the results of an education system that devalues learning trade skills. Many of my students have never built or fixed anything in their life. Not every high school student has the desire or the capacity to complete the 4-year college track. This has as much to do with the high failure and drop-out rates as the societal issues that receive most of the blame (poor parenting, corrupt school systems, drugs, gangs, etc.). Trades are an important part of our society and should be an important part in our education.
The other thing that Americans are doing is bankrupting our future generations by burdening kids with mountains of student loan and credit card debt. The private, for-profit colleges especially target uninformed people who are desperate to improve their condition. There was a time when you only went to college if you could earn a scholarship or could afford to pay the fees. I’m not suggesting that we cut-off low-income people who see higher education as their way up the socio-economic ladder. But we should first educate them on how the potential increase in income balances (or doesn’t) with the costs of student loans and other related debt, schools to avoid, and ways to pay for school without taking on excessive debt.

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 01:43:22 +0000
Too true. I was pushed to go
Too true. I was pushed to go to college and subsequently dropped out. Worked landscaping which I loved but after a couple hernias I had to accept my small frame was not made for doing hard labor. So, I went back to college again and now work in health care as a Nutritionist. I am continually comparing doctors to mechanics. One does surgery on cars; the other does surgery on you. They both get messy and use stainless steel tools. But, most people are more likely to take their car to a mechanic for a tune up than go to a doctor for a physical.

By: Dave Yates

Dave Yates — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 17:43:50 +0000
Allison,

Allison,

I'm living that dream! Similar experience with my Pop-Pop. Tried college - quit with a 4.0-ave in my 2nd year. Started as a plumbing apprentice at the firm I ended up buying. Doing what I love & earning a very good living.

By: Dennis Brachfeld

Dennis Brachfeld — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 19:23:16 +0000
Allison, Reminds me of Bucky
Allison, Reminds me of Bucky Fuller, designer of the Geodesic dome,he also dropped out of college. "Thinking outside the box" and "doing more with less" are quotes to his credit. He asked his college professors, "how much does a house way? None of the professors knew. So he said if he was going to design a really efficient home, he had to forget all he learned in college (Harvard) I just finished a great inspiring book about Bucky "A Fuller View". In the early 1970's, I heard him speak at Sandia Labs in NM, I was a student at Denver University. He inspired me to start my retrofit company in 1975 after 34,000 retrofits, we still enjoy our work, thinking outside the box, but working inside the box, to make our boxes more comfortable as well as energy efficient. Doing more with less! Thank-you Bucky and Allison!

By: Ken Bailes

Ken Bailes — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 21:24:56 +0000
Thanks Allison for the
Thanks Allison for the picture "It's my screen saver now," lol. And I understand your'e meaning. I'm glad Dad was willing to teach me the basics in Home electrical/plumbing. Don't know if you remember at his Houston office he had me installing and running many/mulitiple outlits on the wall closest to the busy street. Have to go I have a webinar from Westinghouse Solar to log in for.

By: Mike MacFarland

Mike MacFarland — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 18:32:23 +0000
And I'm proof that you can
And I'm proof that you can even get invited to Joe's "Stinkin' Building Science Summer Camp" without a college degree! :) Great article, and I second the statement that every tradesperson will get his/her batteries recharged by watching Mike Rowe's testimony before the congress on the value of skilled labor. A fantastic 8 minutes.

By: T.C. Feick

T.C. Feick — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 16:28:49 +0000
Allison, I was curious about
Allison, I was curious about your hotlink on your "how to think" blog referenced above. I am glad I was. Awesome. And a couple of the comments were equally well thought out and written. T.C.