Exactly this! I have immense respect for two professors at my school, and they are two that I know have worked in the private sector in the past and or still do on the side.

I actually had one professor essentially tell me that if I wanted to finish my degree, I needed to quit my job with a publicly traded company in order to take one 3 hour class, because she refused to do any sort of study that would have allowed me to work and take the class. Luckily I made a stink about this and got my adviser and the department chair involved, and they both understood that I had a good job with a good company, and that we needed to find a work around which we did. I graduate next week, and that company offered me a very nice starting salary for my first job out of college.

Sid, I agree. Some PhDs have a real chip on their shoulders don't they? I've come across a few and have gotten into heated debates with them about work ethics and survival (money). This was a time when I was a few year older then the average kids.

I taught High School shop classes for 30 years and ran into these types all the time.
I would occasionally tell a guy like that ,teaching was like being semi retired. I had a number of houses by the time I was 30 , I started buying them one at a time while I drove a junk yard car or a work van to my teaching job. The Eng. teacher probably had a newer car with a new car loan. I had a junker and several mortgages. An old 911 , a 930 or a vintage Vette at home in the garage. Probably I was rebuilding them at the time too.

My point was more what you do with your education more than what formal degrees you might have. As a number have pointed out here more eloquently than I.
I couldn,t get my daughter to take a shop class when she was in school. Her peers influence no doubt.
She was always coming home muddy after a soccer game or something and I could always picture her with a step ladder and truck more than a cleaner profession.
She dropped out of first year nursing ,(I dropped out of Optometry school). I worked my way thru university working as a mechanic on the side.
She then worked in a collection agency (That can,t be a happy place) and after her first child said to us "She would work in a factory now to make it better for her child".
Her mother and I remember the conversation to this day when I told her if she would work in a factory she should have a trade not a line job. I suggested electrical,as it requires less tools than a mechanic and was cleaner than most trades.
13 yrs later. 2 children a 5 yr apprenticeship and 7 more yrs full time as an Industrial electrician. Today She,s working installing all the HVAC controls at a new hospital being built in town
Unknown to me she found an apprenticeship through the IBEW local office.

Congratulations Sidney....well done!

California technical Institute for poopy-heads?
Bah, he caint even afford frets on his bases.

The smartest, most impressive person I have ever met has less degrees than I have (my father).
From his memoirs:

Sammy You are an educated man. Why do all your posts have invented spellings? It makes them harder to read and easier to just dismiss your opinions.

That's JP Stein's fault. He learnt me to speel.
Either that or it's my way of not taking my posts too seriously. I'll tone it down a tad if that'll help.


Besides, I didn't think anyone except me paid any attention to what I wrote.

I trie tow koncidr ehver1s eyedahs. See What I mean?

It used to tick my long time ex-g/f off to no end when I would intentionally mispronounce words. I see unintentional spelling errors and typos I make all the time when I reread my posts after submitting them (I don't think I've ever used a spell checker in my life :p). Why....I dunno....just the way I (and I suspect Sammy too) tick...if you dismiss my opinion also, you actually don't lose more than 2 cents worth anyway and that's on a VERY GOOD day :D

ps: At least I can read Sammy's posts and I dismiss them too (but not because of his speeling)....I can't even read OJU's posts anymore ;)

Here is my 2 cents, I don't have a PhD, but do have a Masters in engineering, and have worked for NASA out of college, into the the automotive manufacturing world later. Education, in my book means you are constantly learning, and doing. My Dad dropped out (forced more like it, to take care of family business) after 9th grade, and I consider him the smartest man I have know. He can take apart a car engine, and can repair anything up to hand polishing valve seats (different times, different country) etc, and was a hands on "mechanic" with a passion for cars. He had a high BS radar, which I do as well (I think). I on the other hand went to school, and am trying to learn to do those things...you be the judge. If you have basic intelligence and a curiosity to learn, you don't need a degree (of course it helps to earn a living without breaking your back) to be educated.

Love this forum, and hope to learn much from the collective knowledge here. I am newbie to this form, and just became the owner of a 1982 911SC. Hopefully will post pics once this winter ends, which is too far away...

ok, I can't let too many shop class posts go by without saying that one unhappiness I had with HS was I never had time to take shop class - you got stuck in either academic track or shop/etc. track and couldn't break out of it.

But MUCH WORSE, was when I was in grad. school. You guys will love this, and it still pisses me off to this day. I signed up for my regular classes and also welding class (which was still offered back then at Orygun State U., which used to be Orygun Agric. College). I guess the instructors got some kind of info on their students 'cuz this guy started the 1st class with this long, harsh harangue about "hobbyists" and "amateurs" and dilettantes and he only wanted to train PROFESSIONAL welders - real men, etc. etc. He went on & on and it was obviously directed at me. So I dropped the effing class and took multiple regression instead. I still don't know how to frikin' wled and blame that A-hole. I can run a Bridgeport tho. since I went to night classes at the local community college.

When I was in HS I was pushed into academic stream too but took all my electives in tech. other than a painful instrumental music class forced upon me in gr 9 by timetableing.
After HS I was offered admission to 2 good engineering schools and a spot in the school of Optometry. being flattered and pushed by my mother I went into optometry hated it. considered transfer to engineering where I should have been but being on student loans I couldn,t justify starting again and wasting a year. Finished a BSc working as a mechanic on the side. Fell into teaching after being hired for mainteance staff at a summer camp. I completed my mechanics apprenticeship with work during the next few summers while not teaching. here a tech teaching certification requires 5 yrs trade experience so I taught science first two years until I could prove the 5 yrs.
Tech classes here are taught in HS but HSchools are run by people with no idea what,s happening in a shop as long as you don,t send the office a lot of trouble they leave you alone. we also have a system of colleges with much bigger budgets and some offer really good tech programs.At much higher cost because HS is free to the student.
The Min Of Ed has been reducing shops to a shadow of itself. That's partially driven by budget demand Shop equipment is expensive even if it lasts for a generation,
It,s ironic that a class of mechanical engineering students from Western Univ.was routinely sent to one of our local tech high schools to be taught the rudiments of machining ,welding, automech ,woodwork and drafting if they didn,t have credits from HS in those subjects.
My brother in law is a body man and is a better welder than I am . I,m just OK.
I am looking for a night school class myself. A collegue used to teach one but it,s not being offered anymore Probably relegated to a local college with higher tuition.

johnsjmc....just curious, .....why did you hate Optometry school?:confused:

Alex Wilson
OD, UW, School of Optometry, class of '84

He fell into the lens grinding machine. Made a spectacle of himself. :D

That cracked me up. You have a sharp wit, but then again this forum lens itself to humor...

Damn. Feynman? I don't know if you are a man or a woman but I would flirt with him as well, and I am a dude.

Countless hours watching his youtube videos. A God. Just music listening to him speak.

You are older than dirt, like me. :-)

In a nutshell , I found it dreadfully boring.
I can,t remember names worth a**** either and had difficulty with all the naming in anatomy classes. not the concepts.
No problem with math,calculus,physics or chemistry.
I come from a family full of medical professionals , Drs, DVM,s,Dentists etc.
As I said before my mother wanted another Dr, in the family. Her father is a dentist.
My grandparents on my fathers side were both MD,s. ( Chicago sch. of Med 1904 )Imagine a woman anathesiologist then.
My sister is a DVM as are 2 of her kids. So my mother got at least one.

I would have been a better engineer or lawyer ( I do like to argue/debate especially for the underdog side.) but was not a rebel .

I have been a practicing Gynecologist for over 40 years, yet I have no PHD.


You would think with all the hands on and other body parts I have used during my tenure, I would have received some kind of degree, but all I got was a couple of kids.

I know a few Gynecologists and none of them have PhDs. All have MDs (tho one only went into it b/c she could not get into Vet. school!).

anyway, better luck with that joke next tiime