re: #88 Gus 802

A lot of it has to do with pop-culture and how it became the norm for many standards. Education used to be treated with near reverence.

It’s true that education is sometimes the best route out of poverty but I recall there was a time when people ascribed too much monetary riches by way of an education. I remember in the 1980s when the common answer to the question “what do you want to major in” was “anything were I can make a lot of money.”

The quest for monetary riches is a poor motivator for education in the long run. A person can seek an MBA which may lead to riches however the first motivator would have to be the love for business or more to the point the topic or field.

This same motivation has been transferred into the popular belief that celebrity is a means for riches. Hence the popularity of “American Idol” and how so many kids today want to be singers or movie stars rather than engineers or doctors.

That was well said. The fact is, learning is hard. It’s work. We seem to have grown a couple of short-attention-span generations (please pardon the broad brush) where the terribly unlikely is the perceived key to success.

It’s not. It’s nose-to-the-grindstone learning of a trade. Doesn’t matter whether it is a blue collar, white collar, science, or the arts. It’s plain old hard work.