Discussion»Statements»Rosie's Corner» Are those who have had "formal" education always far more knowledgeable than those who are self-taught? Or sometimes not?
I'm having a hard time trying to understand this E. It seems to me that it would be EXPERIENCE that educates after formal education has ended. In school you learn about things that happened which you may or may not remember. Historical dates. How to do things. Some of which you retain and some of which you forget because it really isn't needed in your day-to-day life. What you EXPERIENCE can be amazing or it can be devastating. Of course we learn from that as well, right? I guess I'm just hung up on something that is interfering with my agreeing with Albert Einstein! Imagine that? Some chutzpah! I also wonder whether WISDOM fits in here anywhere? Thank you for your reply! :)
Always - no. Formal education is book smarts. Self-taught is on-the-job-training.
We've become accustomed to believing that those who've had a formal education are more knowledge than those who haven't (and the more prestigious the school, the more "superior" the knowledge it imparts). However, while having a formal education may look good on a resume, it is no guarantee of superior knowledge. However, not many people would want a self-taught brain surgeon operating on them.
I worked for a guy briefly (he was fired a few weeks after I'd started the job) with an MBA from Harvard. Within two days I knew he was all show and no go. He actually instructed me to make an incorrect entry in the books. It was so wrong it shocked me. That was a very short time after I'd started. What did I do? I gave a two-week notice to the secretary of the president of the company. When she asked why I told her exactly why. She invited me out to lunch that day and it was a two-Margarita lunch. She told me that they were in the process of replacing him. She told me to document every incorrect direction he gave me. I didn't do what he told me to do obviously. One day she asked if I'd just hang around for awhile after others left for the day. The president had hired a replacement with whom he had worked at a prior company and they wanted me to meet him. So I hung out and met him and chatted a bit and explained to him my situation. From our fairly brief chat I knew he knew what the he** he was talking about. Within a week the MBA fake was gone and my new boss was in place. I learned later that the MBA guy got a job managing an estate or a portfolio of someone very wealthy. He was kinda pretentious which I could have tolerated if he only knew what he was supposed to know about Accounting. I'm not sure what his MBA was in but it certainly wasn't Finance. A degree is worth zip when it is conferred upon an idiot! Thank you for your reply Shuhak! :)
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