for the non-elitist

a tough week. last night i went to the movies with a friend, a nice break. "Saw 2" was the feature--great movie! not just an empty headed horror film ala "Friday the 13th", the plot wasn't easy to figure out. forget about predicting what would happen next! i hate predictable horror films. Saw 2 kept me on the edge of my chair the entire time--and also had a twisted & satisfying ending. if you like intelligent horror films, i recommend Saw 2.

i'm off for a weekend away. alot to think about in many areas of my life. i hate how sometimes one thing really gets to me, and i end of thinking about it, without answers, until i'm sick of thinking. but i have something now that is kind of getting to me, a dilemma, in a sense and i hope by sunday i'll have an answer.

my dilemma includes the value of an education in american society, and the stratified social ladder created purposely by the elite. i won't be citing any empiracle data here--just how i feel. i mean, it is MY blog.

intelligence comes in many flavors, not just "IQ", there's relational, emotional, creative, artistic, intuitive...all kinds of intelligence. intelligence is a blend of genetics + environmental factors and isn't bounded by race, ethnicity, gender, age, economic circumstances, anything like that. that's what i believe. although developing a person's intelligence, to lets say an "ivy league" placement takes more than just braincells or cunning. it takes lots of money, stable parents and siblings [if you've got them], and many other factors. if you happen not to have the correct environmental factors going for you, despite a high intelligence, you're probably never going to see the campus of an ivy league school.

i live in the northeast US, where ivy league is a supposed "big deal", but i've read that in other parts of the country, its not considered with the same 'esteem' it gets here. if you don't know what ivy league is, go read about it on Wikipedia. but its big here--and can affect your future. the environmental factors, such as financial well-offness, family connections, stable home environment, are always downplayed here--as if a non ivy league education mean's you're dumb. no kidding.

i'm certainly not dumb, but not ivy league branded either. not that i couldn't have been based on my intelligence. i'm intelligent enough, but all those other factors just mentioned, well, i didn't have any of them going for me. at one point i was so depressed in HS i didn't even want to go to University at all and had no opportunities either, so i thought i'd just end up at a nail salon or post office or something. that's not to say that non-college educated people are dumb--there aren't at all, but they too suffer from our society's perception of intelligence and intellect 'branding'.

my father, who wasn't college-educated, or rich, or still married to my mother, was the force behind my going to college at all, at of course the local 3rd tier state college since that's all we could afford. i went part time for a very very long time to achieve the degrees i have now, including my masters just last year. all those years i worked full time, got married, then divorced, lived in various situations, etc, i still attended school. i did my art projects, readings, studying, etc at school, in the library, at home, at work, in my car, at the park, at youth groups, anywhere i could find the time. people used to laugh when i'd bring my textbooks to read during after church coffee get togethers, but since school was such a long haul for me, i didn't have a choice because dropping out of the real world, like full-time students can do, wasn't an option for me.

although it severely limited me in many ways, my long term tenure at university has been a great education all in and of itself. i've watched as the university administrations changed, policies changed, students changed, the way courses were taught and their technologies changed, how those changes affected where i got my info, how i studied, how i perceived my environment, etc. like a macro-view. i've now been using this store of experience to my benefit and am grateful, but at the same time i've been challenged.