Education

[TheGingerMan]

Education is over-rated. At least the formal element. Most intellect is generated on own's own, rather through some shallow indoctrination of agenda-ridden ivory tower school of thought.

[tsukinodeynatsu]

Well, Tsu's a good case--she may have droppd out of uni, but she's smart as a tac!

Everything posted is good, so far, in this thread--thanks!

It really is intellect that I need more than a degree. Maybe it's just that for most of my life, all the intellectual type guys I've been around have been formally educated?

That's likely because I'm formally educated, right? My friend (trying to set me up) is from way back, before I went to school. She never did go to school.

Anyway, thank you all for your insights and comments. I'll have some other things to think about in a free moment!

You're way too flattering. I've actually dropped out of University three times now. When I'm 30 something I might go back and study medicine, since that's what I wanted to do at the start. By the time I'm 40 I'll either be well on my way to being a doctor or will have dropped out four times and decided that University really isn't for me.

I think where you're from might be part of it, usually the only people in the South who've been exposed to differing styles of thought are those who've been to university (usually out of state). If you never come across another way of thinking you never really need to consider its virtue and stay trapped running around your own little circle.

The majority of people in Taiwan are educated, because they think they have to be. It's unusual to not have a degree here (getting that way in several Western countries as well).

Intellect is important! You need someone who can keep you on your toes!

[ehophi]

My experience with Ph.D's in my area is that the degree doesn't make the intellect, and sometimes I wonder how some of them completed one at all.

I couldn't make any long-term connection with someone who didn't challenge me intellectually. I'll pick arguments with women just to observe how they react, and I'll use that interaction to filter the wastes of time from the moderate interests.

[Petrichor]

My husband left school at 16. (That was the youngest you could legally leave in those days in the UK; he didn't drop out.) He set up his own business in IT and thirty years later is still making a good living. I have an MA, but out of the two of us he's probably more intellectual. He listens to Wagner and Mahler and reads French novels. These aren't pretensions as he's very anti-social and so can only show off to me, and he knows I'm not easily impressed. Some of the greatest people in Western civilisation were auto-didacts.

My and my husband's disparate levels of education haven't caused us any problems at all. He doesn't feel intimidated by my qualifications as he doesn't value that kind of thing, and I've met enough very smart uneducated people to know that my MA doesn't really signify much. We're at roughly the same level of intelligence and are like-minded in lots of things, especially those things that have the greatest importance in relationships, such as money and child-rearing. These are more important than similar levels of education I think.

Nowadays you'd have to have diagnosed learning difficulties not to be able to complete a degree, so such things matter less and less. Much better to find out about the person than make presumptions based on what pieces of paper they happen to have.

[housecat]

My husband left school at 16. (That was the youngest you could legally leave in those days in the UK; he didn't drop out.) He set up his own business in IT and thirty years later is still making a good living. I have an MA, but out of the two of us he's probably more intellectual. He listens to Wagner and Mahler and reads French novels. These aren't pretensions as he's very anti-social and so can only show off to me, and he knows I'm not easily impressed. Some of the greatest people in Western civilisation were auto-didacts.

My and my husband's disparate levels of education haven't caused us any problems at all. He doesn't feel intimidated by my qualifications as he doesn't value that kind of thing, and I've met enough very smart uneducated people to know that my MA doesn't really signify much. We're at roughly the same level of intelligence and are like-minded in lots of things, especially those things that have the greatest importance in relationships, such as money and child-rearing. These are more important than similar levels of education I think.

Nowadays you'd have to have diagnosed learning difficulties not to be able to complete a degree, so such things matter less and less. Much better to find out about the person than make presumptions based on what pieces of paper they happen to have.

Well said. I've come to feel, after careful consideration of this issue for me personally, and a bit of consideration of the American political scene at the moment, that education, or lack there of, need not matter a whit! All the points here about education and intellect not being corollary are spot on and mostly separate from the other issues of cultural reference and earnings potential.

[Mango]

Edit out

[tsukinodeynatsu]

Edit out, Mango had a look through =)

[urodacus]

she'd have to have awesome breasts.

[Timabee]

I think most people value courage, kindness, curiosity, creativity, humor, drive, practical skills, adventurousness (is that a real word?), the ability to work and play with others and...yes intellect. None of these, including intellect can be reliably gauged by a degree of any type. Thay all stand alone as human qualities that must be measured individually. There are no proxies.

[kelake]

Education does not equal intellect. Nor does it have anything to do with being an interesting person.

What creates the magic that sustains a relationship — money and educational accomplishments? I guess for some but it sounds uninteresting to me. And I don’t know what other topics people talk to their significant others with but nothing I discuss with my wife requires a Phd.

If I had a list of preconditions, or more likely if my wife had, I likely wouldn’t be married today.