Alabama behind Kazakhstan in math.

[Floyd Eye]

True, without that piece of paper your nothing. It's kind of ridiculous that you need a freaking bachelor's these days just to become a interpreter/translator when any competent person growing up in a bilingual speaking household can translate in just about any situation.

I can tell you this is untrue. Most of the welders where I work have no higher than a HS education. They make $35/hr to start and the weld on live gas lines, which are pretty important.

 

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Starting out on ~$70k PA? None too shabby.

 

[Ziltoid]

But Zil's a post-positivist and I'm a constructionist, so we'll always go back and forth in good fun during these discussions. And bringing this back to the discussion at hand about math, the majority of research I've conducted has been quantitative. I just subscribe to Anthony Giddens' argument that even quantitative social science research is still hinged upon a qualitative foundation, particularly when it comes to things like operationally defining variables and such.

What did you call me?!

 

[LiquidMidnight]

What did you call me?!

Lacan's intellectual heir.

 

[glocke1]

Actually one would be surprised at the quality of education in places like Kazakstan…I have a relative who is in the physics and math dept. at a University there, and that school is the on par with many "Ivy League" colleges here in the states...

 

[Ziltoid]

Lacan's intellectual heir.

Go Freud yourself!

 

[Immigrant]

Has anyone been harmed because they learned more math? If someone will be fabricating, they're going to need it. I went to a shop that does stainless sheet metal fab work and drew the guy what was needed, in the way a sheet metal pattern is done and they still screwed it up. After I saw what they made, I almost made a pattern from a piece of cardboard, just so they could trace it, cut it and bend it. All they needed to do is take the dimensions from the other drawing and apply them to my sketch. It was a simple piece, too. Pathetic!

FWIW, the guy next to me in Freshman Algebra was severely disappointed when he got a B on his mid-term report card. If it was a matter of him not understanding the material, it wouldn't have been so bad but he came from Prague when the Soviets invaded and he had done the same work in their equivalent of our 3rd Grade. Of the people I know, who came to the US from another country, I can't think of a single one who isn't more advanced in math AND science.

I've got no problem with a welder needing a Math class or three, or just doing it for the education. I was surprised that it was a requirement, that's all.

 

[Immigrant]

Educated people vote.

Yeah, thank goodness.

 

[Exxcell]

when I wus in skool I told that teachin lady that all the arithmutik I needed to no was 4x4=off-roadin.

Yes sir.
'Murica.

 

[Unprofessional]

Isn't "book learnin" considered a bad thing in most of the South?

Yes. So, please don't move there.

 

[jmattbassplaya]

Profitable for who? The colleges?

Colleges were who I had most in mind, though others can and do benefit from those barriers as well.

I just find it fascinating that certain jobs and professions have created these barriers of entry. Some of them are understandable, but others make little sense.