Jeff Stahler for March 11, 2015

And the very wide road to unemployment, underemployment and crushing debt.

Choose wisely, debt you incur is your responsibility.

Join the military the chickenhawks are looking for cannon fodder.

Just remember some where in that maze the two will meet and still disagree.

Much of “higher education” is the consequence of affluence, not the cause. Specialized, and particularly technical, education is different, and can “cause” commercial success. Those specialized fields with no commercial applications remain isolated commercially, as perhaps they should be. The bachelors degree is commercially attractive because society says it is, not because of any intrinsic qualities involving subject matter. Skill development, reading critically, writing clearly, getting assignments done in full and on time, and so forth, involves development of skills that may be quite valuable. Other than the development of skills, however, what most bachelors degrees confer is not directly applicable to making money. Now dreams of graduating college seniors are another matter entirely. Most graduating college have zero clue about what their dreams are, much less having any practical way to access those dreams. But think back to the “useless” subjects you studied in school. In a huge number of instances, the subject matter of these studies have almost nothing to do with making a living. Oh, and by the way, I am a huge supporter of higher education for broadening horizons and providing a baseline of knowledge. Just don’t confuse causes with effects.

Back in the 1960’s a college degree pretty much assured a job. However, even then what you majored in mattered. A lot of kids went into political science (there’s an oxymoron if ever there was one) because it was the “cool” thing in the 60’s.

Now if you have a degree as an engineer or a registered nurse, chances of you finding a job are pretty good even today. If you major is in Renaissance French Literature, you’re kind of limited to teaching Renaissance French Literature. On the one hand, the competition is small; on the other hand, there’s not much work in that career field.

Yield who will to their separation,My object in living is to uniteMy avocation and my vocationas my two eyes make one in sight.

For only when love and need are one,And the work is play for mortal stakesIs the deed ever truly doneFor heaven and the future’s sakes.—Robert Frost—"Two Tramps in Mudtime"

Anyone here like The Lord of the Rings? It was written by a philologist. You know, one of those silly professors. Anyone like Harry Potter? Rowling’s undergraduate degree was in classics. You know, Latin and silly stuff like that.

Well, that explains why we get along so well — you’re a scientist who likes the humanities, I’m a humanist who likes science. I’m just always amazed when people diss the the humanities and the arts, and then spend their leisure time watching movies and listening to music. Do they think movies grow on trees?

My fave rave right now is the Shostakovich 24 Preludes and Fugues, which I got for my birthday. A bit of a shift of gears from The Chocolate Drops, but hey, music is music.

“Steady employment” & “Your dream” are both dead ends. The fancy stuff in the farground requires torches & pitchforcks.