:: the lying apprentice
Last night, "The Apprentice" was won by a guy called Lee McQueen. On the Guardian site, most comments are about his clear fiddling with his CV as a reason not to hire him, as a liar will always be a liar. And what example does it set to young kids nowadays trying to finish their exams and obtain their degrees, when clearly you can get a £100k salary without either achievement?
I can understand the goody two shoes would be worried - their own kids might drop out of college if they can't be convinced of its worth. It makes me sick though - I for one am cheering the guy on. From my own experience, I have tried to conform to societies standards of intellect by getting good grades and getting a degree, but whenever I went to the top of the class I jumped off. When I studied Journalism at college (B.A. level) my classmates always sought my help in getting facts straight, bettering the grammar et cetera.. Yet when push came to shove (answering daft multiple choice questions on the exams) I failed. The reason being that I didn't want to stuff my head with wee little facts lifted straight from study books. If they'd been relevant, aye, but their main purpose seemed to be whether you read the book or not: "In his 1994 lecture, how did professor Cargill describe the U.S. Economy?". Why, who the feck is he, and how is knowing the answer making me a good student and a good journalist? Instead of trying to answer these questions correctly, I filled the exam papers with philosophies on news items, journalism practises and logical reasoning. But when a question is black and white, a colourful answer is never correct.
I have noticed, in other studies since, that actually you do not need a free spirit, an open mind and an inquisitive disposition to obtain a university degree. In fact, it helps if you lack of all these things, and are willing to swallow any kind of tosh squirted at you from the professor's pedestals. Of course that takes ambition, concentration, and the ability to memorise data - but what is the end result? It's the same with language studies - the quickest way to pick up a new language isn't to learn pages of the dictionary and repeat them a hundred fold. It's far better to grab a book in a language you can't read and make sense of it as you go along - or better yet, to holiday among the native speakers and try to make yourself understood without barking English. Unfortunately, current day students too often are taught to memorise, repeat and bark.
If I therefore would be a hiring manager, I might look at university degrees with a bit of disdain. An applicants willingness though to show his/her worth where it matters (on the job), combined with derring-do, isn't necessarily a bad thing. On the other hand, having a degree isn't necessarily a bad thing either. What we do need to realise though is there are many ways to Rome - and the people who veered off the motorway aren't necessarily bad apples. Until society at large realises this, recruitment agencies and hiring managers might follow. Until then, white lies in black and white aren't such a bad thing per se.
I can understand the goody two shoes would be worried - their own kids might drop out of college if they can't be convinced of its worth. It makes me sick though - I for one am cheering the guy on. From my own experience, I have tried to conform to societies standards of intellect by getting good grades and getting a degree, but whenever I went to the top of the class I jumped off. When I studied Journalism at college (B.A. level) my classmates always sought my help in getting facts straight, bettering the grammar et cetera.. Yet when push came to shove (answering daft multiple choice questions on the exams) I failed. The reason being that I didn't want to stuff my head with wee little facts lifted straight from study books. If they'd been relevant, aye, but their main purpose seemed to be whether you read the book or not: "In his 1994 lecture, how did professor Cargill describe the U.S. Economy?". Why, who the feck is he, and how is knowing the answer making me a good student and a good journalist? Instead of trying to answer these questions correctly, I filled the exam papers with philosophies on news items, journalism practises and logical reasoning. But when a question is black and white, a colourful answer is never correct.
I have noticed, in other studies since, that actually you do not need a free spirit, an open mind and an inquisitive disposition to obtain a university degree. In fact, it helps if you lack of all these things, and are willing to swallow any kind of tosh squirted at you from the professor's pedestals. Of course that takes ambition, concentration, and the ability to memorise data - but what is the end result? It's the same with language studies - the quickest way to pick up a new language isn't to learn pages of the dictionary and repeat them a hundred fold. It's far better to grab a book in a language you can't read and make sense of it as you go along - or better yet, to holiday among the native speakers and try to make yourself understood without barking English. Unfortunately, current day students too often are taught to memorise, repeat and bark.
If I therefore would be a hiring manager, I might look at university degrees with a bit of disdain. An applicants willingness though to show his/her worth where it matters (on the job), combined with derring-do, isn't necessarily a bad thing. On the other hand, having a degree isn't necessarily a bad thing either. What we do need to realise though is there are many ways to Rome - and the people who veered off the motorway aren't necessarily bad apples. Until society at large realises this, recruitment agencies and hiring managers might follow. Until then, white lies in black and white aren't such a bad thing per se.