"John Edgar" wrote in message
...

I think you can blame the education system.

That might depend on the definition of "education system"
When I was a kid, my parents were busy planning to build their dream house.
Being exposed to all sorts of ideas on that front it was perhaps
understandable that I wanted to become an architect. At the time, (in Irish
rep) it was the results of our leaving cert. (O levels in GB .... I think)
that would determine what one might be able to apply for in terms of
univercity placement and architects candidates needed something like 28
points. One more than to study to be a surgeon. That I do remember! If you
did honours maths for your leaving cert, and got an A+ then you might get ,
say, 7 points. An A+ in standard math might get only 3 points. Less than 5
subjects passed and you were considered a failure.
Art, which one would think usuful for a budding architect would barely get
you any mark and so you can see that subjects chosen were to achieve points
and no other purpose, however useful they may be.
This highlights an irrationality. But it is one that schools have to work
with. It is therefore accedemia that matters, purpose is second best. Oh and
there are no points at all for manners or other such real things.
And it is accademic success that opens the door to all sorts of people who
.... if say, their future depended on a gardening exam... they would now find
it hard to get a job cleaning the streets. What that means is that accedemia
is a fashion accessory,. A must have, which if one has the aptitude to
follow up on,,,, but does not,,, then such a person would want his/her head
examined.
Eg. I was once at the home of a young lady who had just recieved her degree
in Hotel and Catering management. She popped into the kitchen to make a
brew. A few minutes later I could hear the kettle. The water was boiling but
no response. And then came the question I would not have expected. It was
not...; "Mom, where did you put the tray?" Or; "Where are all the cups
gone?"
No! It was "Mom, how do I know when the water is boiled?"
Fair enough , as someone pointed out, she was in management, not a chef.
She went on to get a job which she could not have got without the degree.
Yet the first thing her employer had to do was train her for the work,
which, quite frankly, a school boy could do without much "special training".
If she had done a catering course, she would have being expected to turn up
and be productive from day one...... and..... recieve about 6 times less
pay.
It is sometimes like the difference between a good, well trained sheep dog
that is left outside, exposed to all weathers, tethered to a bolt in the
ground. Whilst a highly over-bred dog, reduced by breeding manipulations to
being a useless mutt that can't even cleans it's own ass, gets brought
indoors to be fussed over and pampered, for no other reason than a dictate
of fashion.
It is unfortunate, but quite likely, the slob in sacha story quite probably
has a degree... if not a masters.

Patrick