If you watched any of the recent presidential election results, you may have noticed a recurring theme. As traditionally blue states turned red, a common phrase heard among reporters was that the “uneducated rural community” had made a larger turnout than what was expected. As a member of the rural community, which is quite educated might I add, I saw a few things wrong with this statement.
First, the political affiliations of a certain group of people should in no way merit the assumption of education, or lack thereof. In a society that claims to be open to all walks of life and discourages the labeling of cultural groups, I felt that the way rural voters were viewed was quite misguided.
Secondly, the definition of “uneducated” is the lack of education. Nowhere in that definition do I see that the lack of an Ivy League education or a formal college education counts as “uneducated”. Education takes place in so many other places besides a classroom. Early mornings and late nights spent in the barn, long tractor rides through open fields, and a walk through the woods gives you a real life education, and is something no four walls and a desk will ever give.
Rural life would not be possible for the “uneducated”. For many situations, like pulling a calf in the middle of the night, fixing a tractor in the middle of a field, or simply raising animals and crops, a step by step guide is not provided. Of course there are words of wisdom that are passed down through generations, but for this generation specifically, rural life requires a vast understanding of science, business management, production efficiency, and technology.
As someone with a degree in agricultural science, I am constantly reminded that it will be this generation’s job to feed the world with less land and with more efficiency than any generation before us. This isn’t something we take lightly. This is something we are preparing for, with every ounce of science, technology, and information we can grasp. But yet, we are the “uneducated” ones.
Well, I have a message for anyone who believes in the phrase that was so overused a night ago. We are far from “uneducated”. Rural Americans are the backbone of this country, they are the ones who endure the cold nights, the long summer days, and quite literally put their blood, sweat and tears into their business. They are people who truly love what they do, and have a deep desire to be successful at it, and that success wouldn’t come without education.
Rural America is a place I am proud to call my home, and is a group that I am proud to be associated with. So please, before you call us “uneducated”, remember that just because our walls aren’t covered with Ivy League degrees, doesn’t mean that our education means any less.
life on this side of the fence 
I have a masters degree and lived in large cities over the years. I earned six figures. When I was young I lived on a farm and worked in the oil fields and served 8 years in the navy. I was educated enough to not vote for Clinton or Obama
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Very smart decision, Thank you!😁
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I’m with you.
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You are an adorable deplorable!
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Chris Boyter……you are the kind of person that MAKES AMERICA GREAT
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Excuse me for pointing the political finger, but it has become characteristic of the liberal mindset to esteem themselves smarter, more enlightened than their conservative brethren. It was glaringly obvious in the disposition of Michael Dukakis’ towards George Bush 41, and in the disposition of Al Gore towards George Bush 43 and look what that got them. Their smug lack of humility could not attain for them the office to which they aspired.
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I agree with this comment 100%. Want to add that while I am watching protestors jumps on cars, beat up white people who voted for Trump, yell obscenities at camera men..oh and of course the hollywood and music industry folks…I don’t see the left as the most educated, intelligent people in this country.
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Exactly my sentiments, also!
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Love your comment!!
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This is going to get me in a lot of hot water, but there is simply a difference between formal education and “life experience.” They aren’t the same thing and you can’t conflate them, no matter how much wanna feel better about your lack of formal education. Either you *have* a formal education, or you don’t.
You can be be *self* educated. Plenty of people who stopped their formal education at high school and since have continued to absorb every bit of knowledge and learning on every topic of interest they can get their hands on and as such are quite information rich people, albeit on a somewhat narrow range of topics. They still have vast blind spots, and often *they know it.* They know how much they don’t know. They are sponges for learning. They may lack skills, but they don’t lack knowledge.
But the fact remains that without a formal education you lack a number of key skills, particularly critical thinking skills, analysis, the ability to effectively communicate both in the spoken word and in writing–though any of these can be developed independently. You often lack mathematics, history, social sciences, chemistry and the list goes on and on and on. The first two years of University are spent developing core skills in *thinking* and without those years, not only don’t you know, but you don’t know what you don’t know–this is the *essence* of ignorance. What has been expressed here-above is ignorance and pride in ignorance, “We don’t know that which we don’t know, and DAMN we’re proud of it.” It makes me shake my head and wonder at the fate of our country.
Formal education without life experience creates no common sense, but life experience without education is no better and it’s certainly not the same. There is no way in which lack of formal education is superior to having BOTH a formal education AND life experience. Don’t go trying to fool yourself. The good news is, anyone can be self-educated. It is never too late to start. All that is required is time, a thirst for knowledge, and the desire not to to be ignorant.
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Hello, and thank you for your input. I would like to say that I never claimed one form of education to be superior to another, I was simply stating that the lack of a formal college education does not make one “uneducated”. If this were the case, then what does high school education count for? And as for critical thinking and the like, I have often used critical thinking skills while trying to save a calf or figuring out a new practice to increase efficiency. Though I have a college education, I can safely assure you that not all of my critical thinking skills were developed there. Real life situations create the need for critical thinking, on the spot analysis and clear communication, which is why I believe that it does not take college to make someone somewhat “educated”.
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For me it isn’t about formal education or life experiences but more about the bubbles these two categories live in, more specifically city vs rural. Neither has much experience or understanding of the other. Having bounced back and forth over the years, finally settling in a small urban area near Green Bay, Wisconsin, after living 40 some years in the second largest city in Illinois. I have seen and experienced those differences first hand. People can only react with what they know and live with every day. It’s pretty hard to understand the other side if you don’t experience it. A rural farmer for example, who is able to grow crops and can their own food and perhaps hunt can’t relate to the impoverished ghetto cities that exist in larger cities. They think everyone should be able to get a job and care for themselves. Of course that isn’t entirely true but I can’t blame them for thinking that anymore than I can fault the city dwellers who perceive the rural population as “country bumpkins” who they feel have no life experiences that count because they have chosen to live a less chaotic environment and are willing to work hard to maintain that lifestyle. There are no easy answers here but we need to find a way to try.
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Totally agree . Also it seems as everyone is just assuming everyone in the “Rural fly over” is uneducated. Many of us have degrees and have gone to college , and prefer the country living. We have all watched on TV how the educated react to a disappointment, they are using a lot of critical thinking and life skills protesting and destroying other people ‘s property.
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“The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.” University education does its best to eliminate the belief in God. The simple truth is that there is no foundation for learning or understanding apart from the knowledge and wisdom imparted by the study of the Word.
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I would agree – critical thinking skills and analytical ability are not entirely or even mostly developed in college.
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Probably you didn’t read the entire essay. The author does, indeed, have an advanced formal education.
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Your particular brand of condescension certainly colored the outcome of the election. The sheer numbers of fully “formally” educated folks in rural areas would confound your imagination. As would the general humbleness, good manners and goodwill in rural communities. Apparently you can’t really live it without learning it from real experience and daily example.
Condescending criticism of a population whose average combine eclipses the value of your ivy league student loans exposes the shallowness of your narrative to the very population you scorn. Thank you for the oh so vocal ignorance that frightened us from the fields to the polling stations!
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It seems like you predispose that folks that live in a rural area have no formal education. First, they all attend elementary through high school. Following that many go on to community college, four year college and even Ivy League schools. Do all the urban kids graduate from college; even community college? Many do not even finish high school. Where you live does not dictate educational background or your political party.
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My parents produced 6 children who are college grads, though neither of them went to college. Nothing I learned at university can hold a candle to the wisdom and knowledge they invested into my life in the past and still today.
I find this statement by Dejah to be particularly ignorant and condescending: “…without a formal education you lack a number of key skills, particularly critical thinking skills, analysis, the ability to effectively communicate both in the spoken word and in writing…The first two years of University are spent developing core skills in *thinking* and without those years, not only don’t you know, but you don’t know what you don’t know–this is the *essence* of ignorance…”
You are seriously misguided if you think the first two years of college are essential to the development of core thinking skills. If you make it to age 18 without learning core thinking skills both at home and at school, your education and upbringing are already seriously deficient. What arrogant nonsense! Some of the most brilliant writers, eloquent speakers, and analytical thinkers never attended college. Many of today’s successful business owners and inventors never attended college. Conversely, many of today’s college grads spend 4, 6, or even 8 years and tens of thousands of their parents’, taxpayers’, and banks’ money and still emerge seemingly incapable of rational or independent thought and possessing no real-world skills, still unprepared to successfully “adult” their way into being productive members of society.
I am grateful for the opportunity I had to benefit from an amazing college education, which was well-suited to my giftings, personality, and aptitude, but I have been equally, if not more so, enriched by the opportunities I’ve had in life to learn from wise and accomplished learners and thinkers who never pursued “higher education.”
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Well spoken! I am a college educated professional. My critical thinking and analytical skills were learned long before college. In fact, the liberal professors at the college I attended sought to teach students not how to think but rather how to follow, preferably, their own personal liberal agenda. I see this same mentality in the streets today. Half of those students, etc. who are protesting do not have a clue as to what they are protesting and the other half have been deceived by the liberal elites because they have no critical thinking skills and have believed the lies fed to them by the liberal media. I am weary of hearing how uneducated, white men elected Donald Trump. I am a white, educated woman and there are millions of us that exercised our critical thinking skills and voted for change in order to save our country from corruption, destruction and anarchy.
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Amen! My father quit school in the 10th grade and started his own business in 1972 at the age of 29. He’s a retired millionaire now so I guess Democrats would just call him “lucky”.
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Well said. Do not like the supposed lowering of my self esteem at the age of 80 by being called uneducated just because I did not attend college. Does an Associates degree obtained after the age of 50 or a secretarial certificate plus an accounting certificate raise my status? I think not, but am saddened to be labeled uneducated. God bless.
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Sounds like you don’t know what you don’t know…thoughts like yours are exactly whats wrong with this country…you believe those who don’t have a formal education are lacking “something” and we “don’t know what we don’t know” I believe we can admit what we don’t know…i have met many “formally” educated people who can readily admit they don’t know everything, because news flash no one knows everything…and I have also met college educated people who have too much pride and cannot admit what they don’t know…because they believe since they have the “formal education” they are far superior to those of us who don’t and we couldn’t possibly know more than they do since they have a piece of paper in a frame on a wall collecting dust. I have also noticed in my 61 years of life that what about 75% of the “formally educated” may excel with critical thinking but lack big time in good old fashioned commom sense….
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Hhhmmmm, talk about not knowing what you don’t know. I am a “higher educated” farm kid. Tell you what, critical thinking and problem solving, science and math, are learns farming and ranching from our first 4-H projects. You don’t know what you don’t know, employers will, given the chance take rural raised applicants over “city kids” almost 90% of the time. We work harder longer and with less need to be watched or a pat on the back. We are pilots, scientists, engineers, we are farmers ranchers, nurses, doctors, mothers, and fathers. Out of choice, we also have a greatly diverse, genetic background from Japanese to Russian every nationality is here in rural America. So no the uneducated “white man did not elects our next president, a well educated group of people tired of the crap going on in the “highly educated” cities came out and said enough. Because of people like you who don’t know what you don’t know.
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I’m a “rural uneducated” with a bachelor’s degree and two master’s degrees. The individual that wrote this has a bachelor’s degree in agricultural sciences. Anymore the majority of farmers send their children to college to understand the intricacies, technology and sciences of agriculture to be successful farmers. This is the formal education that you refer to in your comment. I know others who come from these same humble beginnings with doctoral degrees and they, as well as I voted for the principals in which we believe hoping for a brighter and more successful future for all Americans. Instead of pointing fingers and elevating yourself as more esteemed than others, consider that those who voted republican come from all walks of life just as those who voted democrat. The election is over…let’s all recognize that this country needs all of us united and willing to be the best individuals we can be, to be unified and work to create a better America for all of us. This is how it has been done every time before and should be done now. It is frustrating to see all this negativity, destruction, insulting remarks and comments toward others in blanket statements. Let’s be peaceable people, recognize we have our different view points and agree to disagree without belittling others. Proud to be an American. God Bless Us All!!!
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I would like to disagree that the skills you assume people lack can not be learned with out a university degree. You should spend a day on any large farm in the world and try and keep up with their knowledge or work load and I believe you would understand the reason the words “undereducated” is degrading to these people.
I am sure this makes no difference to you. Understand I do not know you but I am sure would would disagree on more then just this subject. No disrespect however I would rather be with the “under educated” then with a educated person that assumes because you have a formal eduction this makes you smart or more ededucated then others.
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I would say that cancelling classes and staging “cry-ins” is hardly what I’d call developing critical thinking. In fact I’d venture to say it’s quite the opposite.
Signed,
Rural Homeschooling Mom with 2 College Degrees
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Amen. Well said in just a few words.
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Well said and briefly stated.
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Jennifer, I have been a university professor for twelve years. While I was disappointed by the election results, I was prepared to go into my classroom the next day and model a neutral stance to my students. I believe that is part of my job. Then I learned that one of my students had received a death threat that morning (“Trump won, prepare to die dyke!”) and three others had been yelled at with racial slurs by fellow students wearing Trump shirts. This was just Wednesday morning. The bullying that continued throughout the week is unlike anything I’ve seen in my twelve years of college teaching. I am neither cancelling classes nor “staging ‘cry-ins’” but I am horrified and shocked (perhaps naively) by the bullying leveled at these students. I am not using the classroom to advocate who someone should or should not support politically, but I have taken time to talk about what hate speech is, and why we need to support one another against it.
I, too, was born in a rural community, and my roots go back there for generations. For us to come together in any meaningful way, I am committed to *listening* to both sides. The author of the original post makes a good point: it takes a lot of intelligence to run a farm, and it does none of us any good to paint our political opponents with broad strokes. It helps none of us to belittle others purpose or social contribution. I respect, too, the time and commitment it takes for you to home school your children. But I hope you’ll consider the fact that my students who are being bullied, and those who are forming support circles for those bullied, are also making good points: they deserve to get an education without being bullied for the parts of themselves that *already make them vulnerable.* And when an eighteen year old, newly away from home, receives a death threat (it was written on her door, and on several other students’ doors), it is our job to provide university services that assuage her fears and work to change the campus climate. Bullying is a real problem in education, and it effects *all* involved, not just the bullied individual. For further information on this, I recommend this article by the Michigan Association of School Administrators. http://www.gomasa.org/news/what-effect-does-bullying-have-students-and-schools
I realize this probably isn’t a popular opinion on this blog post, and I don’t mean to stoke the fires any further, so I won’t return to argue with further comments. Like the author of the original post though, I believe all of us come from places where we can stand up for intelligence, respect, and dignity. And I believe it’s our responsibility to do so.
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An article in “Signpost” (Weber State University student news), quotes student Catherine Shackelford: “…I started learning about political science. ..it teaches activism. It teaches people to be upset…how to express their dissent respectfully but not necessarily politely. You have to make noise, you have to convince people, rather than just yelling at them and expressing how you feel.” Let us now brace ourselves to face a future of complainers full of zeal without knowledge.
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My response was to Dejah
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I am a medical recruiter and I have to say…the resumes I see from about 80% of the “college educated” candidates are a total joke. I see poor grammar, typos, poor structure etc. And these are candidates applying for jobs that pay anywhere from $100K-$400K. In my industry a college degree is a prerequisite but not every industry needs it. And some family farms need all hands on deck everyday. I respect a rural citizen with a strong work ethic, common sense, business acumen and experience etc. than a liberal “cupcake” millennial living in his/her parent’s basement at the age of 30… any day. But you are missing the point. This woman was not stating one was better than the other. She was responding to the ignorance of the left for assuming rural Americans were stupid. I loved a news segment I watched 2 night ago…interviewing one of the many protestors. A reporter asked a woman why she was crying. Her response “because too many white people voted”. That ignorance and stupidity is why so many rural whites came out to vote in force. This expression of entitlement that liberals are displaying is disgusting and the worst kind of ignorance. They believe they have the right to express their first amendment rights but those who disagree with them do not. This country needs a little “social correction”. Also, when we have college students needing to take the day off of class, miss exams etc. because they are so upset, overly anxious because the outcome of the election did not go as they planned…we are in big trouble my friends. I am a recruiter and I do live in the real world. Myself and the corporations I represent, flush those candidates out very quickly. So be like Trump and listen to what the author of this article was saying. That is also part of being intelligent.
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For someone that is telling us how well versed you are, you sure do display an astronomical amount of ignorance. I went to universities, colleges and technical schools and to say that you spend the first two years taking courses that you have very little interest in. Now that I am in my fifth decade of living I can honestly say that the greatest educational experience I have ever encountered was when I asked someone older than me and with more life experience how to do something or what they thought about a certain tooic.
So I challenge you to this test; next time you are hungry, try feasting on your diploma or critical thoughts.
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Whether it is formal education or not the fact remains that those of us in the rural areas are not ignorant and can think critically. A college degree doesn’t give anyone the right to look down their nose at those without one. An Ivy League education would not give you the education run a farm and raise the crops to feed the nation. The ability to manage a farm does not mean one has the education to perform
brain surgery. Everyone has their nitch and each career has it’s place in this world. None of have a right to assume their education/career deserves more honor than anyone else’s. Like our bodies, each part is essential and we can’t function fully without each one doing their purpose.
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Abraham Lincoln had no formal education. Enough said.
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Apparently, your life experience and formal education have failed you. Your rant has merit, but you must have missed the fact that the author has that combination of formal education and life experience you seem to think all people must have to have value. You are wrong, but in this case, you apparently didn’t read that the writer has a college degree. That was also a part of his education. And even if you don’t think it is good enough because it isn’t medicine, law, or business, it is a degree that requires a great deal of study in biological sciences and business. The life experiences enhance the formal education. If you don’t produce your own food, you need people in agriculture to do it for you, and those who have studied agricultural sciences are the ones to do it.
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I would easily stand the number of advanced degrees in “uneducated rural America” beside the number of advanced degrees in the members of your so-called “elite.” Don’t you know that today’s working population is composed of doctors, teachers, engineers, nurses, ministers, and many other very well educated folks. Even your lowly farmer has to have a Purdue agricultural degree nowadays just to maintain his farm in today’s market. Come on, remember your elite contains lots of Hollywood Bozos too numerous to count. If you really want to check out the uneducated rural people, come visit us in Indiana, Kentucky, any Midwest,Southern or Western state, and you’ll probably lIke us. You may even find we’re not as dumb as you think.
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Bottom line is regardless of your source of knowledge, formal or otherwise, you are either a willing student your whole life or your not. Being a willing student is to understand you don’t always know all sides of an issue, but you’re willing to learn. Being a professor of anything that you don’t have first hand knowledge of is just being a robot programmed by data without the true knowledge of what to do with it or what it means.
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Tell me the value of your 4 year degree vs my 2 year applied science degree? We are not uneducated because we choose a much more productive and necessary field of work than your jaded view behind a desk! We are masters of technology not better than but equal to, and in some cases more important than those fields with 4 yr degrees!
Many of us worked our way through college while many of “you” nursed your parents teats and didn’t see an honest days work until after graduation.
Some of us couldn’t afford to leave the farm for four or more years and leave our families helpless without us. Get a grip!
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Resilience appears to not be one of the virtues instilled by education.http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/11/10/canceled-classes-cry-in-and-more-college-campuses-reel-from-trump-win.html
Nor, it appears is respect for democracy with the left clearly showing that many of them are promising little despots.
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I know highly educated people that haven’t a clue how to plunge a toilet or the simple physics behind it. Critical thinking is a skill, it is something you cultivate and not necessarily educate. I feel sorry for you as the need to feel superior shows a lack of emotional IQ. Experience and education is a life long pursuit. Please cut no one short because the word formal is put in front of it. An institution of learning is nothing more than an institution . You might say your education is institutionalized and that in itself can be hindering and leave you with a set of precepts that close your mind, just as much as you stated earlier a person lacking an institutional education and a diploma. Steve jobs dropped out of college and didn’t get his degree except for honorary ones, now there was a person who decided the precepts didn’t fit him.
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What you don’t seem to understand is that it is not only unfair to assume that people living a rural lifestyle are uneducated or that by lumping any group as uneducated rural as a reason to vote republican.
The people that voted republican and turned the states red did so by their educated choice. They felt that it was the choice for them.
I have both my undergrad as well as my grad degree in Agriculture from PennState.
I choose to vote democratic because that’s who I am. My husband is Spanish, my one son is adopted from Haiti and I adopted a special needs unwanted baby from Kissemmee. We have horses, goats, chickens, peacocks, pigs, dogs, cats and a big blue and gold McCaw. My husband and I also have one biological son.
Our family participates in many equestrian sports and have many friends across the United States, who feel that being a republican serves them better. Maybe some democrats need to start showing what the core values really are to many people who only think that we are going to take their hard earned money and share it with others who don’t deserve it!!!
So many of my so called Rural friends are lawyers,doctors, business owners, ex military who like the rural life. It is very expensive and a ridiculous amount of work.
I could never get along as happy as I am without these friendships that I have forged with so many republican friends.
This country was forged on a two party system. I love this country and I for one am glad to suffer for the next 4 years with a president that I did not vote for to be able to live in this wonderful country!!!
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Wow. If you’re going to argue his point at least proof read your response. His eloquent phrasing and grammar lends him to be much more intelligent and educated than you. Also, read his article again. He went to college.
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Good luck developing any critical thinking skills in the liberal ideology factories colleges have become. That’s especially true of the ivy league institutions. If you voice any contrary opinion your fellow classmates run off to find a safe space and fondle puppies while you get disparaged in class. Way different from when I went to college in the 1960’s. Critical thinking skills aren’t taught in college these days – in fact they are discouraged. I was raised on a farm, enlisted in the Army for 4 years, was honorably discharged, attended college (which I paid for myself), earned a BSEE and MBA, worked for 35 years in Aerospace, and retired back to the country. I was one of the redneck rural Pennsylvanians that put Trump over the top and proud of it.
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In my opinion, what you have just said might apply for some people, but in other situation what you’ve said is total nonsense! Do you really mean to tell me that you think people without formal education who have gained massive life experience really lack critical thinking skills, or really lack the ability to synthesize experience/knowledge they have gained? Seriously! Do you really think that ONLY people who attend the first two years of university can think critically?
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Ok so you are implying unless you want to be ignorant you need a college education,like the students crying and rioting in the streets because Hillary didn’t win the election.Who need a day off from school or a save space because they can’t handle the real world. I agree that college should be and institute of higher learning and make one a well rounded person capable of critical thinking and better able to handle the unexpected situations that life is full of which I think the schools seem to be doing a poor job of both.
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Dejah, have you ever associated with a person who is not “college educated”?
I would disagree with you on most of your points, an instance comes to mind
a university educated man was my dad’s boss, I had taught him in high school, so knew him. This is what he said about my 8th grade educated dad, ” he taught me more usable knowledge than I learned at university.
Lack of college degrees does not prevent a persons ability to think logically.
By the way does a masters from a university count?
You must be a liber to think like this.
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So…. let me get this straight, the “only” way you can get critical thinking skills is through universities? I am fairly certain that quite a few of the “uneducated” would run circles around you. Military Service offers critical thinking skills, and if you seem to think that you don’t have to use them on farm work, maybe you should head out to a farm for a month or two. Food for thought
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Your weak critical thinking and analysis skills are showing…..he stated that he HAS a college degree in Agricultural Science. Shaking my head at the general lack of understanding of who and what the typical person is that lives in rural America. Many of us have built our own home, do our own home repairs, repair our vehicles, fix plumbing and electrical when laws allow, grow crops, fix farm equipment, have a vast knowledge of the plants and animals that live around us, there is a long list I could add that are typical for the majority of us. Nearly every service people living in large cities pay someone to do for them we do for ourselves and put in 40-60 hours a week at a job. Analysis and critical thinking, problem solving and applying your knowledge to a new situation happen all day every day. We don’t need a university to teach us those skills. Btw many more of us than you’d think have a degree. Many industrial plants require a college degree even though no part of the work requires a degree. We look at this country, at the non-rural areas, and we see and understand the many careers where a degree would be essential. You look back at us and you have no understanding . I wonder what you imagine us to be…..
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Unfortunately, high schools and colleges have stopped teaching ‘critical thinking’. Now it’s a matter of indoctrination. If, in fact, schools were still teaching the Socratic Method or critically analyzing situations, I would agree with you. But the fact is, all any school is doing now is teaching students how to take tests and indoctrinating students with the latests far left doctrine. We have a whole generation that needs safe zones and participation trophies. The future will be very interesting.
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Your views on this subject only serve to point out one of the problems with today’s “formal” education. If you truly believe that someone without a “formal” education doesn’t possess critical thinking skills or lacks science, math, history and social studies, I believe you have only bought into the myth that having a “formal” education makes you “special”. You need to go back and study more on history. Formal education only makes you smarter than you were before you started studying. For example Bill Gates dropped out of school and based on your view, he should be a failure.
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I am formally educated. And the first two years were about programming me to be a liberal. More often than not, you have to assimiliate yourself to your professor’s opinions to get a good grade. There were two professors that did not intimidate me and allowed me to be a free thinker. Those classes were Criminology and Forensic Science. I received an A+ in both. As for Sociology, Psychology, Abnormal Psych, Forensic Psych, Social Psych, Children and Crime, and Corrections, I had to convince my professors that I now share their opinion to get an A. And I did. That is not critical or analytical thinking. That IS programming by some liberal professors.
I have learned more through life experience and being in the field than I have through my formal education. You are correct. They are not the same. One put me in enormous financial debt.
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Well, I’m glad to have learned of my inability to think critically, or to communicate in writing or verbally.
I guess I’m going to have to hand over those journalism awards for reporting and editorial writing that I’ve won despite my lack of a college degree.
By the way, “university”, as you’ve used it, is not a proper noun and is, therefore, not to be capitalized. Furthermore, where you’ve used asterisks for emphasis, you should have used quotation marks.
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Ah I think you missed the part where they said they do have a college degree in Ag Science? You may have missed it in your smugness. I grew up urban, was educated up through college urban, and worked urban until my early 30’s. My family moved to a rural town for a job a accepted and I met and have befriended several farmers. They are educated and I realized most of my assumptions were wrong about rural America. From your post, I believe you are too.
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I believe you missed the writers education credits. You might want to go back and read it again. Further, I know many college educated people who have little to no common sense, who can’t solve common problems and refuse to read instructions.
I am city bred with a rural heart, college educated with common sense.
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Perfectly said!!
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If you are so proud of your “formal” education, then please proofread your comments before you post them. I believe you should go back and read the original article again before you do your proofing because you will read that the author is indeed educated formally. I work with goat farmers who voted for Trump and they both have Masters’ Degrees from big universities. Gross generalizations are very dangerous. The behavior of the people, who live on the urban fringes of this country, are desperately trying to make themselves feel better because they didn’t get their way. Please just accept the fact that the people of America have spoken and they chose Trump. Live with it just like we lived with Obama for eight years. It is just how the political machine of this democracy balances itself out.
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I live in rural America. I have a formal education you would envy. I stood in line to vote with only people with formal educations or college degrees. Come work a day with these folks and you will see the level of knowledge it takes to feed and clothe you.
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Yes a college is a” School of thought”. And a University is a collection of colleges. Critical thinking is not uniquely acquired at a college or university and such a statement in and of itself is ignorant. Assuming masses of people are ignorant of history, science, or, mathematics, and an understanding of culture and sociology given they do not have a “formal” university education is the smugness we speak of. Do yourself a favor and stop assuming most people that are not like you are ignorant. People at their core hold many of the same truths the world over. How many scientists, inventors, writers, explorers etc. that you learned about and studied their works in college had a formal education? Many may have but a good many did not. People like Thomas Edison, The Wright brothers, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Larry Ellison, John Glenn, Hollis Greely, John D. Rockefeller, Mark Twain, Henry Ford…. should I continue? There are thousands more like them.
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I AM a self confessed redneck, I wear dungarees (for you folks from Rio Linda those are Levis or Wranglers) Redwing boots, flannel shirts, and sometimes camoflauge. I wear Tractor Supply ball caps, suspenders and white socks with my slip on shoes. I also have a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree. So YES sometimes rural Americe does have the skills that you get from a formal education. Having said that I have met some of the smartest, skilled, and best critical thinkers who have no formal education other than high school and some less that that. So to imply that the only way you can get these skills is a formal education is a baseless and senseless argument
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There is no one as ignorant as an educated person talking outside of their field !
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For someone trying to elevate the “formal education” over on the job training claiming things like analytical thinking, history etc., you really missed the mark. You remind me of a college freshman who comes home after their first year thinking they now know everything (I was one of those!). Hindsight is 20/20 and as I look back over my formal college education I realize something very important – until I started taking the classes that pertained to my occupational field the rest of the courses were pretty much AP high school requirement level. Do I know the first thing about raising crops or cattle, or operating large scale farming machinery or knowing how to deal with different soils or feeds? No! That would be the equivalent to college level course work. Everyone knows that it isn’t until you get to the practical learning (400+ level classes) that real formal education starts. I can’t even imagine how much continuing education these folks have accumulated over the years.
I don’t know who you are, how old you are, what you do or where your “formal education” took place, but I am fairly certain your critical thinking skills are lacking somewhat. Maybe you should try managing a 10,000 acre farm for a while and see how well your “formal education” works for you. On second thought, maybe you should just recant your comment and show some appreciation for the skills and abilities of those that keep us fed.
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As a college graduate and a farmer’s daughter you are completely ignorant of the skills and knowledge it takes to run a ranch or farm. The next time you’re really hungry – Eat A Book!
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You may be able to read and write but your comprehension is poor. The person was pointing out many people you label as rural are college educated! They have degrees in business and animal science,, animal husbandry. I could go on but I think you continue to label and stereotype as fits with your narrow view.
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I have 3 Associate’s Degrees and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a 3.87 GPA with my 3rd degree in Medical Massage at age 38, and I am appalled at your statement. I was the first of my family members to attend college, and I still consider many of them far more intelligent then I will EVER be. You truly are the epitome of ignorance. To think that your formal education makes you superior in ANY way to those men and women that didn’t need to be formally educated to learn “critical thinking skills, analysis, the ability to effectively communicate both in the spoken word and in writing,” and yet THEY use them everyday. But I guarantee they would out think you any day of the week in the real world, and in anything that requires analysis or critical thinking, you have proven that you would not be able to keep up.
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You generalize life experience, which often can foster critical thinking, and communication skills. I don’t even have a 2 yr degree, but oddly seem to know more than most of my 4 year degreed co-workers. I am an avid reader, and I like to investigate that which I don’t understand. How many of those like me have been cast into the group of “uneducated” are underestimated in these narrow stats? There are more factors in play than a piece of expensive paper. I do not dismiss the paper, but isn’t the last word, either.
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With all the educated people you had on board, basketball players, singers, and all the rest, you still lost the election, and all the educated woman, the college students, and etc. And they are showing just why TRUMP and Pence we’re elected.
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Lacking a “formal” college education is nearer to “lacking a proper brain-washing”. What hogwash! Seriously? Unfortunately you must have missed a great deal in your education. You missed the part in the article that says the author has an agriculture degree, as in college education. What you are actually saying is this, if YOU don’t agree with someone, then they obviously don’t have an education you believe WORTH as much as your own. You are not only in hot water, you are a brain-washed bigot.
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It doesn’t take classrooms to read the great books, learn how to speak/write/spell correctly, experiment with chemistry, immerse yourself in language or history, or travel the world. Outside of “University”, one is at least spared the filters imposed by the liberal indoctrination specialists currently infecting the US education system in the form of professors and lecturers. Your ever-so-superior college students are apparently currently sitting in their dorm rooms sniveling, coloring, and kneading play-doh now that their candidate lost. I’ll take real life learning over narrow minded pseudo-intellectual snobs any day. Life happens, best to be ready.
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Hmm, i have formal education and real world education. From what I’ve seen the last 5 to 10 years is formal has turned to opinion based,1 sided education in most areas, you could be surprised by the intelligence level of the self educated. Having seen this for over 50+ years, I’ll bet the self educated survives …not arguing,just an opinion.
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I disagree. College education is not the end all of broad based knowledge. Knowledge can be gathered in many ways. As a career Law Enforcement officer (with nearly 6000 hrs of documented training), I have met many college educated people over the years (many with multiple degrees) who couldn’t think their way out a wet paper sack. Your argument and stereotype is part of the “degree elitism” mentality which has push a generation of people into a lifetime of student debt. Many of which graduate and can’t find much more than minimum wage jobs, and with an unwillingness to take time to learn a trade could support them. Your argument has some validity, but certainly doesn’t fly across the spectrum.
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guess you missed the part about him having a degree in agricultural science…or were you too busy espousing your ‘critical thinking skills’…can’t understand how you superior intelligence folks got the impression that “rural” translates into a 3rd grade education. This is not the 1800’s any more. Perhaps a remedial reading course would help you understand that the above does not express ignorance or pride in ignorance but rather disgust at being labeled ignorant by location. I dare say there are fewer degrees in urban areas [by population] than on our nations farms.
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Let us talk about educated. When a person goes to school they are educated by a teacher’s opinion, mindset, ideas… The instructor chooses the topics and base it on their own opinion. Many a time while attending college, I rarely opened my book, because what our Professor was teaching us what they believed. An Ivy League Psychology professor decided to semi retire and chose to teach in a community college. Again, we never read the book that we paid highly for. And when he was teaching us about Sigmund Freud, well, lets just say his high opinion of Dr. Freud was changed, because this time, students were not afraid to speak their minds. So, though I attended college, and have a degree, I tossed out a lot of the Professors “Ideals” as I did not agree with them. I also grew up on a farm and feel that my self-education was much greater than any college education I received. So, excuse me for my thoughts that a college education is just a piece of paper and that the majority of my classes were taught by people based by their own personal perspective. Whereas my life experience education, I feel is a much greater learning and has helped me to develop my own personal opinion, not based on another person’s ideals.
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Better to be an uneducated winner than an educated loser !
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Well said.
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Interesting article. Just curious, can you provide a single specific example of the “media” referring to rural Americans as uneducated, because I was watching the “media” and didn’t see a single instance. I did see them repeatedly refer to white non-college educated voters when discussing Caucasian voters who don’t hold a college degree. If that factual description of a group upsets you, I sure hope you haven’t railed against political correctness recently. Otherwise, you might be what the educated and uneducated call a “hypocrite.”
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Hello Toby, and thank you for your input. I realize that not every facet of news media used the term “uneducated”, but the channel I was watching did (this was CBS). Both I and the people whom I was watching with noticed, and I can assure you that the term was used. “Non-college educated” would have been a more accurate designation, and I am glad to hear that it was used. And no, I have not railed against political correctness lately, but thank you for asking.
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Hey Toby,
I also watched CBS Good Morning America and it was stated that we whom voted for Trump are uneducated.
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I saw it numerous times election night, especially on MSNBC. I was hopping from one networks streaming site to another. The reference was that “uneducated white males” were stating they voted for Trump in exit polls by a significant margin over educated white males, woman or minorities. I wonder why this was used over and over again in reference to white males as uneducated or educated, meanwhile no correlation to education to any other voter segment.
It seemed intended to state that if you are white and not very smart you came out in force to vote Trump. I just took it as the typical liberal arrogance…you have to go with your strengths I guess.
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Here is another: http://www.npr.org/2016/08/18/490240652/is-rural-resentment-driving-voters-to-donald-trump
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Well I watched the election results on the ABC network & I was appalled at how many times the media (including George Stephanopoulos, Cokie Roberts & the rest of the very educated journalists) mentioned the uneducated rural Americans! I live in the suburbs but I grew up in what would be considered a rural area. At first I laughed when they said it…. thinking, they obviously think they are all “country bumpkins”! After hours of their journalistic rhetoric (Simple Definition of rhetoric
: language that is intended to influence people and that may not be honest or reasonable) I became quite annoyed!! Oh I added the definition of rhetoric just in case any “uneducated” people were reading this or maybe for people that didn’t realize the election results were shown all of the networks on Election Day.
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Actually I DID hear it. Marianne Kushi, the weekday morning anchor on NBC 7 in San Diego said “Donald Trump was elected by the votes of uneducated white people.” Those were her exact words. I backed it up twice to see if I heard her correctly. I texted a complaint to the station, and received an apology.
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When the government made public the quantitative statistic of the “uneducated voter” it was not an implication people were ignorant.
I’ve worked in and been involved with the political industry for years, since I was fourteen years of age actually.
My grandmother is from a family of full blood Cherokee Indian (Original natives of our nation) slaughtered so you may have the farm you speak of.
Her family ancestors were forced to learn two additional languages, that of the English and Hispanics, in addition to changing their apparel, to avoid being slaughtered or imprisoned on reservations. They were highly intelligent people who realised this was the only way to survive, to live, to continue their blood line, to avoid the sinful efforts of the white man to annihilate their race.
There are a great many people who have acquired AS, BA, MA, PHD who still only speak (one) language.
Back on point; statistics are categorized by titled: White, African American, Hispanic, Asian, etc. In addition; there are the categories by age, income, gender, global location, education. These are the demographics the categories are broken down into.
Point is; I just wanted you to know you were not being insinuated ignorant.
PS: I grew up on a farm too, and lived in the city as well. I have a degree too. 😉
~ Gods Blessings ~ ♡♡♡
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Hello, and thank you for your input. While I realize that the term was being used as a demographic, I was simply stating some of the opinions and feelings that many of my peers had voiced. Thank you for taking the time to read this article, many blessings.
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Very well said. Thank you.
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“Uneducated” was probably a poor choice of words. You are absolutely right. There are many kinds of education. They are all important in their own ways, but when it comes to selecting the leader of the free world who will make decisions not only for today but tomorrow and your children’s and grand-children’s tomorrows, knowing how to pull a calf or how to use the latest Monsanto drug won’t help you. In this case, words like “narrow minded” “short sighted” “self centered” would have been more accurate than “uneducated”. Thank you for clarifying. (a former IA boy who has lived in many cities, states and countries)
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Alf, “uneducated” was a very poor choice of words. As are, “narrow minded”, “short sighted” and “self centered”. These would more likely represent your point of view. But, thank you for sharing. (a TX boy who has lived in many cities and states…I’m happy with this country)
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Uh Jan Davis people that live in glass houses should not throw spelling corrections. “Prolly” is not a word. Did you mean ” probably”? I’m one of the ” uneducated ” Trump supporters. I’m a White woman with two university degrees, a retired nurse and a retired university assistant professor who cast a vote informed by sources other than CNN, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CBS or the Hearst newspaper chain and the New York Times. These have all been shown to have colluded with the Clinton campaign from the beginning.
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I have worked for decades with educated people – mostly attorneys. They are great at pushing papers, talking to juries, drafting legal motions and so forth, but when it comes to LIFE, many are clueless. One couldn’t figure out how to microwave food when his wife was out of town. Once called me when his tire went flat. One got a set of tools for Christmas and didn’t know what half of them were (allen wrenches, socket sets).One plugged a new printer into the wall and complained that it wasn’t working — he didn’t know it had to be connected to his computer as well. Education may make you ‘smart’ but it’s usually only in one narrow area. Look how many college kids are smart in engineering, but know nothing about American History or budgeting or healthy eating habits. Being educated is more than a framed certificate on the wall. A farmer may have a lot more wisdom, common sense and experience than a rocket scientist – and be more useful to society. “I am educated” is sometimes a statement of how proud but dumb you are.
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Having taught high school for 35 years, with more “education classes” than I like to remember, being an immigrant, and now, in my “golden years”, farming, I can only say that I am continually amazed at the tenacity, intelligence, helpfulness and knowledge of the farmers with whom I now connect. Today’s farmer is not the isolated person that many think the “rurals” are, as they too have computers, computerized equipment, and must have knowledge of biology, chemistry, and math if dealing with animals. They also are attached to smart phones, so they are no longer the “isolated” group of people that we hear of in the media. In addition, they stay on top of bills going through Congress and the Senate, and it is because of farmers I have met that I am now more politically involved than I ever was before. As many have stated, the lack of common sense, combined with education, is what is most lacking in today’s society.
I agree that travel makes a person more open to the ideas and customs of others, but if what is learned is not underpinned with common sense, which is used to digest the new information gained by that experience, it does nothing to make a person more Intelligent or educated. After travel to many other countries, and I just love traveling to places to which I have never been, I realize more and more what an entitlement it is to be an American citizen, and to live in a country that offers so many opportunities to those who want to take advantage of it. I also perceive, that there are many people in this country who do not know how well off they are compared to those living in other countries. It is those people who really don’t have an “education” and they probably never will. They are the ones who expect everything being given to them, A farmer, on the other hand, never expects to be given anything; he/she works for them every day, and does not expect to get rich doing what he/she does. Most farmers do their job because it is what they love to do, not because they expect to become rich doing so.
Retired teacher, now a single female farmer with animals that rely on me, Mother Nature, chemistry, physics, math and contact with the outside world,
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I am self trained in Database Development (Oracle) and have been in my field for 20 years. I grew up in D.C. and attended private school in Va. and college at the University of Arizona (Anthropology and Math). I grew up going to the theater (which I still love attending), the opera and the symphony. I loved going to museums, Natural History and Art were my favorites. I now have a house off a large lake, in the foothills of The Smokies in Alabama and I do glass work as well as raise chickens outside of my regular job. I also advise on chicken care as well as anything coop related and you were absolutely correct about knowing biology, chemistry and math. I do not consider myself uneducated just because I live in the country, for that I consider myself smart. I agree with everything within your comment and I thank you for saying it so well – from another ‘uneducated’
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Hi – I grew up on a small family farm in Kansas. The farm has been in our family since the 1860s when our ancestors from Germany immigrated to the Midwest. Over the years, we have grown commodity crops and raised beef cattle. My mother was a public high school teacher until she earned her PhD just before retirement and then became a university professor. My father and grandfather did not have college degrees, but their wisdom, creativity, and problem solving abilities were developed via life experience and constant research (i.e. reading farm magazines, journals, newspapers and discussions/collaborations with fellow farmers). Like you, Rural America is a place I am proud to be from and is a community that I am proud to be associated with. It’s important to me to stand up for my rural community AND to stand up against anyone (rural or otherwise) who is disrespectful to others whether that disrespect is rooted in political differences, racism, sexism, religious intolerance, and so on. I think the people using “uneducated” to describe Rural America believe that our communities are close-minded and intolerant (which they tend to chalk up to whether or not we’re college-educated) because those who live among us who really are have been emboldened to yell the loudest and behave in hateful and sensational ways. It’s up to us to stand up for who we really are and what we really believe – and that includes showing that we stand against indecency and hate. We have to step in, disavow and condemn acts of violence, intimidation, bigotry, misogyny, and hatred and we have to do it louder and prouder because our character, morality, and kindness is at stake.
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My dad grew up on a farm in Poland and was forced labor in WWII before coming to America under a displaced person program. Dad was a millwright in a factory here for 30 years. His formal education only went up to the 8th grade but he was the smartest man I have ever known. He could speak 3 languages and invent, make, and repair anything and everything. His large garden was second to none. His education came from life and the diverse experiences he had. Perhaps some Trump voters should not be stereotyped as eneducated but rather as sheltered. Living in the upper Midwest in a rural community, I can attest to the distinct lack of diversity and life experiences. Living in rural areas of the big swath of red states does not give people the full view of our racially and culturally diverse America (nor the world.) Day-to-day life in rural Kansas or South Dakota is not the same as the life and struggles in a city. Because of my upbringing with farmers on both sides of my family I fully appreciate the life and hard work of farmers but it’s a big country and to understand it we have to look beyond our own backyard.
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Reblogged this on i8there4irun and commented:
We have to stop lumping and labeling.
It’s lazy and useless.
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Wonderful comments…great people!!! I admire them for such endurance, hard work, sacrifice all that takes to feed our country and the world! God bless you with abundant fruits!
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I worked for a couple years in Illinois and was talking to a plumber who said he only hires Farm Boys, he pays them a dollar over code. He said they know how to work and never complain about the work environment.
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The education they speak of may give them some facts to roll around in their heads but for most of them that’s as far as their education goes. In most cases they lack common sense, and basic life skills and intelligence. For example, let’s take the people rioting in Oregon for instance. Oregon voted blue but many are rioting and causing damage to their own people and businesses in that state. Where is the common sense or intelligence in that? If this is what their higher education or Ivy league education produces, I want nothing to do with it. It’s very sad to me that they claim they are protesting because they live in fear that the elected President is going to cause us so much damage, doesn’t accept everyone or worry he will treat others or certain groups of people unfairly but without even waiting a day and giving him a chance they have risen up to be vicious, degrading, threatened and have been violent, unfair, and unwilling to accept others for who they are and their values, and they have clearly been unable to accept defeat. If we aren’t educated the same way, believe everything they do, act and vote like they do, or have differences in opinions they won’t accept us? Isn’t this what some call…calling the kettle black?? I watched a video of a woman deficating on a Trump/Pence sign, college students flopping on the floor like a fish out of water cying and acting like two year olds and others smashing up local hard working people’s business for no other reason than to be part of the tantrum throwing. Again, if this is what we call higher educated people, I will stand up and be proud to say that I have been educated with common sense, life skills and a higher intelligence and I will take that over your wall plaques any day of the week!
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I have 2 bachelor degrees, a master and a Ph.D. from the University of California. I have also attended the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program.
When people ask me “where were you educated”, my response is “at home, by my mother”. If the question is “where were you trained”, then I give them the name of the schools I attended.
Schooling does not imply education: one does not learn to appreciate good books, or reading in general, or listening to music, or enjoying many other faucets of life “at school”. At school one learns to be a nurse, or an engineer, a lawyer, a medical doctor. Most of our university graduates are well trained people, few are educated.
I also am one of those deplorables (and a motorcycle rider) who voted for a very unusual candidate. In my past I held very high security clearances. The first thing one learns upon getting cleared is the “do’s and don’ts”. If I had done what Mrs. Clinton did, I would still be in jail. And if I had done what Mr. Clinton did as a President with a lower level employees, I would have had to face a sexual harassment case. Now, both of them are considered highly educated. While Mr. Trump is noted for not being so.
I have lived in seven countries in my life. By living I mean for a year or longer. Three of those countries were considered non-democratic at that time. Two others were socialistic in nature. No country in the world is as good as the USA. Period. With all our problem and issues.
So it is time to stop trying to find fault in everything that happens here, because it is not constructive. We do have a complex system, and surely a lot of things could be, or should be, changed. Term limits for Congress and Senate, better health coverage for all, as well as an improved education (training) system for all, a simplified and more equitable tax system, many other things.
And as the bumper stickers say: Love it or Leave. And work within the system to change it, improve it, make it fair to all the people who live in this great country.
But please, stop complaining about every little thing. It is not constructive.
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I grew up on a farm, spent summers working my grandparents’ from Junior High through my first year in college and here’s the deal. On the farm I learned that regardless of the political climate the cows still have to be milked twice a day – EVERY DAY. I learned that the crops don’t wait until I’m through fishing to need harvesting. I learned to judge men and women by the content of their character and their work ethic, not the color of their skin long before MLK put those eloquent words to the sentiment. I learned, in short, that the universe is an awfully big place and it will continue to move forward regardless of my inconvenience because as difficult as it may have been, I learned to accept that I was not the center of it.
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To all of the “college” educated, how many of you are carrying large student loans which will never be repaid and cannot find a “suitable” job for your intellectual prowess. There comes a time even for Einstein to simply get a grip and grow up. To coin my very educated grandfather, “The sun don’t shine on the same dog’s ass every day!” There are always winners and losers. You just happen to be on the losing team this time. Suck it up and quit complaining!! None of you could eat without the labor of our farmers!!
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One of the common themes emerging post election was the frustration of people in rural America that they were losing jobs and/or seeing declining incomes and they wanted to blame the “elites” who were causing this loss. They wanted to “hand onto” the life that they had or see it improve and they hoped that Mr.Trump could help them “stay in place”..
One of the economic forces they were choosing to ignore was that the economy had changed – technology had become a more significant economic force. It had changed they way goods and services were produced and experienced. A good example comes from some of the “Rust Belt” states who experienced great losses in employment opportunities for individuals with only a high school education while at the same time experiencing great demand for persons with technological skills. In one Michigan town with which I am familiar, two companies were “stealing’ employees from one another and paying them $25-$30 per hour – because those individuals had the technological skills needed in today’s factory (these are not your father’s factory). American production will continue to lead the world as long as it has employees who are sufficiently trained to support the demand for high-tech production. Technology changes will be on ongoing force in today’s economy.
I cannot help but wonder if those who complain most about lost jobs are also those who either don’t want to acquire new technology skills or don’t have the opportunities to get the training needed to get competitive jobs. How similar is this situation to the migration of workers from the south to the factories of the north in the 50’s and 60’s who had to learn certain manufacturing practices. If you want to succeed in today’s economy, you need to acquire the skills needed to make that success possible. Sometimes that means making changes in where you live and how you live. The economy will not wait for you – you need to catch up to it and that means you need the technical training. Those who complain about being left behind have to make tough choices – leave the place they live and love in order to make a good competitive wage or salary or remain stuck in an economic swamp. Or get the skills needed by today’s economic environment and bring it back to their hometown and build a future for themselves and their neighbors – become an entrepreneur.
The truly educated person is one who recognizes that change surrounds him/her and that he/she need to stay up-to-date with the changes, and makes a plan to do so (and not get left behind).
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I was raised on a farm in what was called country or rural America==have a college degree am 81 yrs old and have plenty of “learned” education..it does make my blood boil when people state that folks who grow the food that they eat call us uneducated.
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Remember Rural people….. Rural worker are doing jobs that are treated with a varied respect.
Farmers are a much needed resource, but please don’t attack workers who do other careers…. who are in many cases related to farmers.
Rural living taxpayers, don’t all drive tractor or rear cows.
Some people work and educate your kids as a career and others people maintain your roads and service your daily needs. Some come to call when you have an accident and some watch out for you both day and night.
Rural is where these people live as neighbors, not as enemies of a political process.
We all come from a seed set by God, nothing more.
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i grew up on a farm and know plenty of farmers with bachelors degrees, my brother included.
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Ignorance is a small town that houses someone who grew up with others with little, but got lucky and forgets where they came from.
Easy to change along a party line and ignore your heritage and original career, when you come into a few bucks.
You can influence a community in Rural America with charm, and you can even buy up your little piece of the pie. Just don’t forget how you were reared and what you really are.
Rural America is just that….. you are that too.
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I have a degree from an Ivy League school, but…to paraphrase Mark Twain…the only time my education was interrupted was the time I spent in college. There are many kinds of education and learning. All forms of education and learning have value. Education though isn’t simply about learning and analysis, it’s also about understanding and relating. Too many go to college to learn and better themselves but fail to learn how to relate to people whose experiences are different than their own.
So to me the problem isn’t education. No, the problem is understanding. Some times certain forms of education can even get in the way of this understanding. Thus , if we truly want to make America even greater, we have to start listening to one another and asking each other questions instead of calling each other pejoratives and giving each other labels.
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Spot on and god bless…. I was born and raised in New York City and yet I always felt you can learn a lot from a stupid question. People need to appreciate and respect all it’s people that make up their society. We may have 3 different way of doing the same thing rather than knock someone for doing it differently try first seeing if it’s more affect his way. If not open a discussion about it. You yourself might learn something and that my friend might go a long way for everyone. 😉
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I am a college educated professional. My critical thinking and analytical skills were learned long before college. In fact, the liberal professors at the college I attended sought to teach students not how to think but rather how to follow, preferably, their own personal liberal agenda. I see this same mentality in the streets today. Half of those students, etc. who are protesting do not have a clue as to what they are protesting and the other half have been deceived by the liberal elites because they have no critical thinking skills and have believed the lies fed to them by the liberal media. I am weary of hearing how uneducated, white men elected Donald Trump. I am a white, educated, professional woman and there are millions of us that exercised our critical thinking skills on election day and voted for change in order to save our country from corruption, destruction and anarchy.
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Well! Duh! Of course the people that spent an excessive amount of time in the worst educational system in the free world voted Democrat. It is hilarious that they are so proud of it. We’ve known for generations that our schools and universities do more indoctrination than education. This is just more proof. Our school system encourages critical thinking? BUAHAHAHAHAHA… no really that’s too funny.
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I had issues with the “media” continually saying that Trump was gaining votes from “uneducated White women”. That educated White women were voting for Hillary (of course!). Being an educated White woman with a masters degree and faculty status at a university, I resented the assumptions being made. Because, of course, I, like many other educated White women, had voted for Trump.
I do not, however, consider my college education to be superior to life education. My father, who was only formally educated through the 9th grade, was vastly more “educated” than myself and taught me way more than I ever learned in school. Not only did he pay for my education, but he also helped me get started in life financially and was always the person with the wisest advice in my life. I only hope to achieve a small percentage of the wisdom he exuded by the time I leave this Earth.
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Anyone who operates under the ingrained believe that you can only get a worthwhile education in an institute of higher education is demonstrating his/her shortcomings, prejudices, and elitism.
Education/learning takes place through living, though being one of the “uneducated”, maybe I’m mistaken when I recognize the value of life experience and being open minded.
Generally, and certainly when making a decision as to who your choice is to lead this nation, it is far better to be an “uneducated white male” (their label) who more often than not is intelligent and open minded, than to be an educated, ignorant, narrow minded bigot who accuses people of opposing viewpoints of possessing the very faults that she/he regularly demonstrate is the true essence of her/his character.
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This is a great post. I also have a Master’s Degree. I have met far too many people who are ‘educated’ beyond their intelligence. Am soooo sick of the name calling going on..
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I was raised in L.A. and always wished I had been raised on a farm or a ranch. I spent years on 80 acres of desert land, ran a few cows and tried growing some crops in very poor soil. Though I was not successful I was around hard working people as yourselves. I have always admired how hard working, strong, and intelligent you people are, and yes you are the backbone of America! It breaks my heart to see legislation thrown at you that would destroy your livelihood. Hats off to you!
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Hit the nail on the head. Thanks for posting!
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