Monday, June 2, 2008

Education or Wealth

In elementary school we had an "essay" class where we learned about the art of writing. The way it worked was that each week the teacher would provide us with an interesting subject to write about and the final draft had to be ready by the next class. Some times we would get lucky and turn our work in to the teacher for her to read in private, and at other dreaded times we were picked out to recite our master piece for the entire class. One of the most popular subjects that teachers picked for us to write about every single year was "Which is better, Education or Wealth?". And every single year one after the other all of the students wrote their essays stating that education is better than wealth. Their reasoning was that education has a higher value than wealth as well as with education you can attain wealth and with wealth you cannot attain education. I do not remember one single student who wrote otherwise and designed their essay pro wealth as the answer was a given.
This is an interesting question which we still ponder about at times and continue to contemplate it (especially single girls out in the dating world who are looking for a life partner). When we were children sitting in a classroom we knew what was expected from us, we knew which answer we had to pick, not giving it much thought. Picking wealth would have landed us on the hot seat across the scolding words of the teacher and the rest of the students. We knew that the point of this assignment was to teach us the value of education over wealth, so we complied. Also, we did not have the life experiences which could help with exploring the topic and making a decision. But now we have both, the freedom of our own choice, decision and answer as well as the extra dash of life experience to go with it. Would we still choose the same answer if the question was presented to us now?
I have learned that education has nothing to do with wealth as we see filthy rich Entrepreneurs who have acquired a High School Diploma as their highest level of education and Master's level Social Workers who are broke as a joke. We see daddy's boys who run their father's stores or businesses and earn as much or more money than a hard working Engineer who received a College Degree. We see spoiled daddy's girls who drive Porches and Bentleys with out a Bachelor's Degree and we see good hearted Lawyers who work in Public Law and are trying hard to pay all of their bills. It is obvious that you can have wealth with out education, but can you have education with out wealth? No. Between $15,000 to $30,000 per year is the price for higher education in this country. Medical Doctors and Lawyers are deep in debt between $150,000 to $300,000 by the time they leave school. Does this mean that with wealth we can attain eduction and with education we can not attain wealth? Could we have been wrong all along? The two things, education and wealth, are so separate yet so intertwined. But when it comes down to it and the drum is beating which one do you chose? Do you marry the guy with a Doctoral degree in Rock Analysis or the guy who is running a successful Bowl Shop? Do you apply to college, work hard to pay a tuition and go to classes or do you accept the bad ass position at Vogue? I am so confused!
Which is better, education or wealth? As a free adult with a mind of my own and a dash of life experience I refuse to choose one and would like to take both. I do not understand why we have to chose one as they are completely unrelated and can both be attained separately. Yet, you can not have one with out the other. Yes, we would not have had a nice topic to write about in the "essay" class in elementary school if it was not for this fascinating choice, but if you ask me it is a no brainer. Yet no one even thought about choosing both from the presented tray in their essays. I guess that is when the dash of experience comes in, grab both when presented to you I have learned, grab it all for that matter.
In conclusion I would like to purpose a new topic for the elementary school teachers to give to their students to write about, "Which is better, Wealth or Class?".

3 comments:

Sanazi said...
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Sanazi said...

hmmm...class, as in social class?you can be wealthy and classy, so I don't think this one is a good question either...aslan I don't know why there even needs to be an "or" or a question. Why not "and"?
New proposed topic: Wealth, class and education

me said...

i still wonder if elm behtar hast ya servat....we worked so hard in school to get a decent education and work so hard during our adult lives to get to the next place and live wealthier....does either provide happiness??