Four Years Of College Is Not The Only Road To Success

DEAR ABBY: Do you think every American child should get a four-year college degree? I keep meeting students who have a real talent and passion for other jobs — military, cosmetology or skilled trades, such as Internet technology and carpentry — but whose parents are furious at the suggestion they might not graduate from a four-year college.

It’s a little-known fact that there is actually a shortage of skilled tradespeople these days. IT jobs pay well and are constantly in demand. As my grandmother used to say, “Everyone needs a plumber when the toilet’s clogged.” It distresses me to see so many parents disregard their kids’ instincts about their skills and desired careers in favor of the “more schooling is always better” philosophy.

Graduating from college has been part of what we envision as the “American dream,” but not every kid is going to be fulfilled after getting one of those degrees when the jobs that go with it don’t materialize. If a child wants to go into the military or become a skilled tradesperson, parents should at least consider what they’re suggesting. Because someone chooses a career path that isn’t what a parent hoped for doesn’t mean he or she can’t be successful. — ANN ARBOR READER

DEAR READER: I have had this discussion with many people over the years and I agree. While it is crucial that young people finish high school, not every child is intellectually inclined. Many have talents better-suited to the trades. A person with skill and drive can earn a good living as a plumber, electrician, tailor or in the food industry.

Some brilliant and successful people started but didn’t finish college. Many of them are in the arts and technology fields. Economic realities being what they are today, parents should be flexible and sensitive to their children’s aspirations on this subject.

DEAR ABBY: For 20 years, my secret (to some, but not to others) involvement with a married man has kept me on an emotional roller coaster. We were both married at the time it began, and it was always understood that we would not leave our partners. However, since then my marriage has broken down.

Conventional wisdom — expressed by friends, family and your column repeatedly — has it that I should end this hopeless affair, get out and meet other men. I have made numerous attempts, but have accepted that he’s the only man I feel comfortable being intimate with.

I don’t want him to leave his marriage, from which he draws much respectability and desperately needed security. However, his obvious delight in our afternoon trysts does suggest that his so-called picture-perfect marriage doesn’t meet his emotional and sexual needs. And that’s what irks me!

This couple presents a happy profile in our community. The urge to burst his hypocritical bubble is growing within me with every passing year. Would it be morally reprehensible for me to let his wife know that she has been made a fool of for the last 20 years? — SEETHING IN CANADA

DEAR SEETHING: Yes. Resist the urge. What makes you think his wife doesn’t know? Once more than two people know this kind of “secret,” word has a way of circulating. I see nothing positive to be gained by trying to hurt the wife. If your lover has to make a choice between the two of you, the person who will get the boot will be you. You knew this from the beginning. And you may find that it is not the wife who has been a fool for 20 years, but you.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

To receive a collection of Abby’s most memorable — and most frequently requested — poems and essays, send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby — Keepers Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. Shipping and handling are included in the price.

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/four-years-college-not-only-road-success-050011655.html

Fulfillment can be found without college degree

DEAR READER: While it is crucial that young people finish high school, not every child is intellectually inclined. Many have talents better-suited to the trades. A person with skill and drive can earn a good living as a plumber, electrician, tailor or in the food industry.

Economic realities being what they are today, parents should be flexible and sensitive to their children’s aspirations on this subject.

DEAR ABBY: For 20 years, my secret (to some, but not to others) involvement with a married man has kept me on an emotional roller coaster. We were both married at the time it began, and it was always understood that we would not leave our partners. However, since then my marriage has broken down.

I don’t want him to leave his marriage, from which he draws much respectability and desperately needed security. However, his obvious delight in our afternoon trysts does suggest that his so-called picture-perfect marriage doesn’t meet his emotional and sexual needs.

This couple presents a happy profile in our community. Would it be morally reprehensible for me to let his wife know that she has been made a fool of for the last 20 years? — Seething in Canada

DEAR SEETHING: Yes. If your lover has to make a choice between the two of you, the person who will get the boot will be you. You knew this from the beginning.

Dear Abby, written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069. © 2012 UNIVERSAL UCLICK.

Article source: http://www.sunherald.com/2012/03/19/3829089/fulfillment-can-be-found-without.html

College of Mass Communications to offer new degree

The College of Mass Communications at Texas Tech will offer a Bachelor of Arts in media strategies, beginning in September.

“Media strategies is kind of a broad term, or concept, that expands what media are about,” said Jerry Hudson, dean of the College of Mass Communications. “How do you position media to be better communicators with the public? What new technologies can you use to communicate? What are other revenue streams that you can use? It’s the strategy of developing communication messages to meet the needs of specific target audiences.”

This degree will offer a range of knowledge unlike skill-based degrees, such as journalism or public relations.

“We began talking about what we are missing in some of our courses,” Hudson said. “I think there were three or four faculty members that said, ‘You know this really is something that maybe we should take a second look at in terms of trying to decide if this should be a degree or not.’”

We’re focusing quite well on skills to prepare people to go into journalism and advertising and electronic media and public relations, but maybe this umbrella of this degree that encompasses a little bit of all of those degree programs from a media effects perspective, maybe that’s what we should be looking at and just evolve from that.”

The media strategies degree is a general theories degree, said Marijane Wernsman, assistant dean of students and study abroad.

“It doesn’t prepare you to go work at an ad agency or PR agency or something like that,” she said. “That’s what the other majors do. This is something more along the lines of ‘Are you a student who maybe wants to go to law school?’

Maybe you want to do entertainment law or mass communications law, media law, when you get to law school. This new degree would enable you to just take more theories courses and not have to take the skills courses. It would prepare you more for general knowledge of the mass communications industry.”

This degree plan is suitable for working in a family-owned business as well, Wernsman said.

“Say you have a family who works in the industry, or has a business, and you already know that when you get out of college you’re going to go back and work for your family,” she said. “You don’t need a degree that’s going to especially make you marketable because you don’t need to worry about that. You just need knowledge about the industry.”

The media strategies degree is planned with different requirements and courses than other degree plans.

“Students still take the mass comm. core, and they take research methods, but then there’s three new courses that we’re going to have that they have to take, so they’ll have their own built-in core,” Wernsman said. “There are two business courses that are required. Then after they take that, they take 33 or 36 hours of electives.”

A lower GPA requirement also makes this degree unique.

“Because these students don’t have to take the skills courses, there is a lower GPA requirement, which is probably the biggest difference,” Wernsman said. “Those students are only asked to have a 2.25. We expect that maybe some of the students who have had to look at other majors because of the 2.75 requirement might be more interested in staying with us if they know that’s part of the requirement now.”

This degree allows students to work with the College of Mass Communications and the Rawls College of Business Administration.

“I think that this degree will be a good opportunity for business majors who are hoping to get more involved in the mass comm industry,” said Sara Stelling, a freshman journalism major from Houston. “It will also give an opportunity for an increase in the population of the mass comm college.”

 Hudson said business is an important aspect of the new program.

 “We are very pleased that we can collaborate with the College of Business and require students to take some of their entrepreneurial courses and then have a couple of other courses that are elective courses,” he said, “because we think they have the expertise to teach those types of classes.”

Students can earn a degree from the College of Mass Communications along with a certificate from the College of Business, Wernsman said.

 “So perhaps you’re the kind of student who doesn’t really want to work for anybody else,” she said. “You want to have your own company. This would be perfect for you. Then you could get the background information on mass comm and social media and that kind of stuff and then go get their business certificate.”

Proposal of the new degree went through the Academic Council and was approved by the Board of Regents in February. Next, it will be taken to the Texas Coordinating Board for further approval.

Article source: http://www.dailytoreador.com/news/article_fa1398d8-7230-11e1-8fc4-0019bb30f31a.html

Dear Abby: College not only road to success

Dear Abby: Do you think every American child should get a four-year college degree? I keep meeting students who have a real talent and passion for other jobs — military, cosmetology or skilled trades, such as Internet technology and carpentry — but whose parents are furious at the suggestion they might not graduate from a four-year college.

It’s a little-known fact there is actually a shortage of skilled tradespeople these days. IT jobs pay well and are constantly in demand. As my grandmother used to say, “Everyone needs a plumber when the toilet’s clogged.” It distresses me to see so many parents disregard their children’s instincts about their skills and desired careers.

If a child wants to go into the military or become a skilled tradesperson, parents should at least consider what they’re suggesting. — Ann Arbor Reader

Dear Reader: I have had this discussion with many people over the years and I agree. While it is crucial that young people finish high school, not every child is intellectually inclined. Many have talents better-suited to the trades. A person with skill and drive can earn a good living as a plumber, electrician, tailor or in the food industry.

Dear Abby: For 20 years, my secret (to some, but not to others) involvement with a married man has kept me on an emotional roller coaster. We were both married at the time it began, and it was always understood that we would not leave our partners. However, since then my marriage has broken down.

Conventional wisdom — expressed by friends, family and your column repeatedly — has it that I should end this hopeless affair, get out and meet other men. I have made numerous attempts, but have accepted he’s the only man I feel comfortable being intimate with.

I don’t want him to leave his marriage, from which he draws much respectability and desperately needed security. However, his obvious delight in our afternoon trysts does suggest his so-called picture-perfect marriage doesn’t meet his emotional and sexual needs. And that’s what irks me!

This couple presents a happy profile in our community. The urge to burst his hypocritical bubble is growing within me with every passing year. Would it be morally reprehensible for me to let his wife know she has been made a fool? — Seething in Canada

Dear Seething: Yes. Resist the urge. What makes you think his wife doesn’t know? I see nothing positive to be gained by trying to hurt the wife. If your lover has to make a choice between the two of you, the person who will get the boot will be you. You knew this from the beginning. And you may find that it is not the wife who has been a fool for 20 years, but you.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby at www.dearabby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

Article source: http://amarillo.com/lifestyle/advice/2012-03-19/dear-abby-college-not-only-road-success

Video: This college degree is a joke, literally

Charlize Theron on motherhood, ‘Prometheus’

Monday, Mar. 19, 2012 3:46PM EDT

Charlize Theron, promoting ‘Prometheus’ at WonderCon in Anaheim, Calif., spoke about her adopted 4-month-old son Jackson: “It’s just surprising that your heart can turn into mush like that, over … the most incredible little stranger.”

Article source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/video/video-this-college-degree-is-a-joke-literally/article2373968/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=Home&utm_content=2373968

Dear Abby | Some just not meant for university degree

Q. Dear Abby: Do you think every American child should get a four-year college degree? I keep meeting students who have a real talent and passion for other jobs — military, cosmetology or skilled trades, such as Internet technology and carpentry — but whose parents are furious at the suggestion they might not graduate from a four-year college.

It’s a little-known fact that there is actually a shortage of skilled tradespeople these days. IT jobs pay well and are constantly in demand. As my grandmother used to say, “Everyone needs a plumber when the toilet’s clogged.” It distresses me to see so many parents disregard their kids’ instincts about their skills and desired careers in favor of the “more schooling is always better” philosophy.

Graduating from college has been part of what we envision as the “American dream,” but not every kid is going to be fulfilled after getting one of those degrees when the jobs that go with it don’t materialize. If a child wants to go into the military or become a skilled tradesperson, parents should at least consider what they’re suggesting. Because someone chooses a career path that isn’t what a parent hoped for doesn’t mean he or she can’t be successful. — Ann Arbor Reader

A. Dear Reader: I have had this discussion with many people over the years, and I agree. While it is crucial that young people finish high school, not every child is intellectually inclined. Many have talents better-suited to the trades. A person with skill and drive can earn a good living as a plumber, electrician, tailor or in the food industry.

Some brilliant and successful people started but didn’t finish college. Many of them are in the arts and technology fields. Economic realities being what they are today, parents should be flexible and sensitive to their children’s aspirations on this subject.

Who is the fool?

Q. Dear Abby: For 20 years, my secret (to some, but not to others) involvement with a married man has kept me on an emotional roller coaster. We were both married at the time it began, and it was always understood that we would not leave our partners. However, since then my marriage has broken down.

Conventional wisdom — expressed by friends, family and your column repeatedly — has it that I should end this hopeless affair, get out and meet other men. I have made numerous attempts but have accepted that he’s the only man I feel comfortable being intimate with.

I don’t want him to leave his marriage, from which he draws much respectability and desperately needed security. However, his obvious delight in our afternoon trysts does suggest that his so-called picture-perfect marriage doesn’t meet his emotional and sexual needs. And that’s what irks me!

This couple presents a happy profile in our community. The urge to burst his hypocritical bubble is growing within me with every passing year. Would it be morally reprehensible for me to let his wife know that she has been made a fool of for the last 20 years? — Seething in Canada

A. Dear Seething: Yes. Resist the urge. What makes you think his wife doesn’t know? Once more than two people know this kind of “secret,” word has a way of circulating. I see nothing positive to be gained by trying to hurt the wife. If your lover has to make a choice between the two of you, the person who will get the boot will be you. You knew this from the beginning. And you may find that it is not the wife who has been a fool for 20 years, but you.

© 2012 Universal Uclick 3/20

Write Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

Article source: http://www.kansascity.com/2012/03/19/3500971/dear-abby-some-just-not-meant.html