What does a person have a higher education for? If he dreamed of becoming a doctor or a teacher, a journalist or a lawyer from childhood, he cannot make a career without long and thoughtful systematic study. And in other cases?
In Soviet times, they tried to give higher education to children for various reasons:
“As good as anybody” – all of my daughter’s girlfriends are in college, and mine will go there too. And don’t let her get tired of wanting to be a tailor or a draughtswoman, just like a pretty girl would become a light industry engineer or an architect!
“The army’s crying for you” is a more serious argument. In the Union republics they knew well what the Soviet Army was, how difficult it was for “katso”, “uryku” and “tyunis”, especially if they did not speak Russian very well. The guys were shoved into institutions with a military department so they wouldn’t serve in the army. Then he will work as a salesman or butcher, the main thing is that the army does not threaten him.
“For asterisks” – police officers were trained by correspondence to obtain the officer’s rank. As a rule, they went to humanitarian universities, where the problems do not need to be solved. We hired for a top 20 student to prepare or at least write a test paper for the session.
Thousands of fates have broken over the intransigence of parents: “Either you go to medical school – or I do not want to know you. And sat at the reception at the polyclinics doctors who hated the patients, taught the music of the graduates of the conservatory, could not stand the children, sat the prescribed hours in the research institute those who from the view of drawings of longing took.
Perestroika gave many people the opportunity to realize what they had only dreamed of before. The girlfriend retired at the age of exactly 55, enthusiastically threw away a doctor’s robe and stethoscope, bought two rolls of fabric and finishing materials – and opened a workshop for women’s clothing. Real masterpieces came out from under her hands, no blouse repeated the other, skirts sat on women like second skin, dresses for brides charming. It turns out that she was very fond of sewing – she graduated from sewing courses back in high school, but her parents-surgeons pressed – and she became a doctor, and blood scared incredibly and chose a quiet specialty rheumatologist. And at her new job, she blossomed, got 10 years younger, her eyes shone. That’s what it means to find yourself!
My neighbor, a construction engineer, left to sew shoes. His dad, a great shoemaker, taught him how to sew and model shoes, but after school he went to polytechnic: “I can afford it – so my kids don’t hump in a shoe box!” Perestroika, when closed many research institutes, allowed his son to start with a penny earnings – and in four years to become the owner of a large shoe shop and four (!) Brand shops “Vlad Shuz” (“Shoes from Vlad”).
Life in our family has set up a full-scale experiment, leaving us to live in another country. At first, there was no choice at all – what kind of work there is, and such was taken, then her husband went to courses programmers, and his wife opened a bookshop, where no one cares about her diplomas. Both succeeded – husband, who had nothing to do without higher education in the profession, and his wife, who graduated from the new place only courses on sales. Both busy doing what you like, both happy, both making good money.
Two daughters have grown up. The eldest decided she wanted to be a primary school teacher. Graduated from the university, as a second specialty she mastered English. The initial teacher’s rate, translated into dollars, is just over 1,500. Satisfied with her job, taking additional courses to get bonuses to her salary. Loves children, thinks her schedule is ideal for spending more time with the child.
The junior at school had a hard time learning, was distracted often. She was easily given only languages and drawing and drawing. After school I went to college, got a web-designer specialty, which is very popular, but does not give a bachelor’s degree. The work was immediately found, her creativity in design of sites was noticed by her superiors. Earns about two thousand dollars, about the work tells zahleb. On the cautious questions of parents, saying, if you do not want to learn further, only laughs: “I love what I’m doing right now! And I don’t need a university! Do I make less than my sister with a diploma? Or do I have a worse job than she does?” No, not worse – preparing materials for the site of one of the largest newspapers in the country, making out all friends wedding invitations, plans to open a private business in due course.
And Mom and Dad, seeing that both daughters have chosen their professions to their liking, are quite satisfied with it.
Which university did Pushkin graduate to write his beautiful poems? Wasn’t Luciano Pavarotti, who couldn’t read the notes and memorized all his arias from his ears, a wonderful singer? Great Artist Innokenty Smoktunovsky was taken to the theater “for pants”, after the war, there was an acute shortage of male actors, he never studied acting at university. Einstein was one of the weakest students in school.
Footballer Oleg Blokhin graduated from the institute by the age of thirty, when he realized that his vocation in the future – coaching work, and before that he scored goals perfectly without a diploma.
A man should enjoy his work. One needs an hadron collider and a doctorate in physics, the other needs a hairdressing chair, a comb and scissors. Some people like to sit in the library and give out books, some are attracted by the desire to plant flowers and decorate flowerbeds.
Education in itself does not make either intellectuals or happy or successful. But the work you like, it’s all good.
So choose what you like and not what someone wants. After all, life is long enough to get an education when it is needed or wanted. No one interferes with self-education in their free time, learning, for example, new computer programs, foreign languages or philosophy.
And if you’re not attracted to it – do not consider yourself flawed, just your talent lies in another plane. If you like baking cakes much more than designing barns, if you feel good at driving a tractor and not at the computer – work according to your vocation, get the joy of your work and be happy!