Yes, sorry, but I would consider someone with an associates uneducated....

or perhaps undereducated, especially if the person is very bright, articulate, open minded etc..OP you sound like you are all of those things, so I'd probably think you grew up in a home that did not value education as much as my family did or you were not able to attend college due to financial reasons etc. I would not look down on you - I know plenty of people who did not graduate from a 4 yr university/college but who are very smart.

I know people with no high school diploma who have great accomplishments and speak many languages well. I also know people with many advanced degrees. Some people with many advanced degrees have barely traveled, or if they have, it is not adventurous or cultured (but rather sheltered, like the rest of their life).

It is hard to respect people who have had a cushy existence or expect others to give handouts. It is hard to respect people who mistake working hard for everything one has for "luck".

Of the people I associate with, a good life does not fall in their lap by luck. It has to do with goals, hard work, and endless sacrifices. Some people will never in a million years understand the latter. It is truly a shame to those who are that willingly blind.

It is hard to respect parents who sacrifice beyond their own means to give their children things they simply can not afford. Money is not love.

OP, if you have the right attitude in life, and are not lazy, you are wealthy in that regard. You can not buy that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mother only has a high school diploma. She also speaks 4 languages, has lived in 6 countries, she has tought children all over the world. She paints, draws and can play three musical instruments.

Would you consider her uneducated?

No, I wouldn't. However, how did she get hired to teach children 'all over the world', if she only has a high school diploma?

Yes. She's smart, well traveled, and cultured. She's not educated, though.

And see, I consider someone who has never left the USA uneducated. Uneducated about the world around them.

I guess we differ on the definition of the word.

Yes, because just like you can't learn parenting from a book, you can learn about Rome or China without going there. Books are not always "education" sometimes, it's just reading.

Sorry, but this doesn't make much sense. You can or can't learn about Rome or China without going there?

If you ask me, yes, you can. Did you go to every single country that was mentioned in your geography class? But you still learned about them. Or so I hope.

Anonymous wrote:Most people can't afford a private education, but they can afford a BA or BS from a state school, even if they have to earn it one class at a time. If you are so poor that you can't afford to pay for one class at a time, then you will qualify for pell grants and loans. College is the US is expensive, but there are ways to get it.

This is what I call uneducated. You and the PPs who think higher education is easily obtained, you're unedcated about, and ignorant of, the barriers to higher education. It's not just access to money that is a barrrier - although that's a huge one.

Anonymous wrote:My mother only has a high school diploma. She also speaks 4 languages, has lived in 6 countries, she has tought children all over the world. She paints, draws and can play three musical instruments.

Would you consider her uneducated?

Not at all!

Uneducated= someone with a closed mind and lack of curiosity. has nothing to do with degrees.
I would choose life experience over being a life-long college student any day.

Anonymous wrote:Yes. If you just have an associates degree, you are uneducated. You may be smart and read, but you are still badly educated.

I don't agree that people don't have access to a college education. Most people can't afford a private education, but they can afford a BA or BS from a state school, even if they have to earn it one class at a time. If you are so poor that you can't afford to pay for one class at a time, then you will qualify for pell grants and loans. College is the US is expensive, but there are ways to get it.

I do worry that a lot of people don't know how to access the help they need to afford it, though.

Ugh. You know there are 19-year-olds financially supporting their families of origin, right? Do you think the aid out there covers all life circumstances?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mother only has a high school diploma. She also speaks 4 languages, has lived in 6 countries, she has tought children all over the world. She paints, draws and can play three musical instruments.

Would you consider her uneducated?

No, I wouldn't. However, how did she get hired to teach children 'all over the world', if she only has a high school diploma?

Yes. She's smart, well traveled, and cultured. She's not educated, though.

And see, I consider someone who has never left the USA uneducated. Uneducated about the world around them.

I guess we differ on the definition of the word.

Yes, because just like you can't learn parenting from a book, you can learn about Rome or China without going there. Books are not always "education" sometimes, it's just reading.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mother only has a high school diploma. She also speaks 4 languages, has lived in 6 countries, she has tought children all over the world. She paints, draws and can play three musical instruments.

Would you consider her uneducated?

No, I wouldn't. However, how did she get hired to teach children 'all over the world', if she only has a high school diploma?

Yes. She's smart, well traveled, and cultured. She's not educated, though.

And see, I consider someone who has never left the USA uneducated. Uneducated about the world around them.

I guess we differ on the definition of the word.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mother only has a high school diploma. She also speaks 4 languages, has lived in 6 countries, she has tought children all over the world. She paints, draws and can play three musical instruments.

Would you consider her uneducated?

No, I wouldn't. However, how did she get hired to teach children 'all over the world', if she only has a high school diploma?

She's not American. Her first teaching job was in her home country, after that she went with my father to France and taught her language in an international school. With that experience everywhere else they went, she was hired. Only in the USA would you rather have a 22 year old with 0 experience and a MS than someone with years of experience and no degree.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mother only has a high school diploma. She also speaks 4 languages, has lived in 6 countries, she has tought children all over the world. She paints, draws and can play three musical instruments.

Would you consider her uneducated?

No, I wouldn't. However, how did she get hired to teach children 'all over the world', if she only has a high school diploma?

Yes. She's smart, well traveled, and cultured. She's not educated, though.

Yes, this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My mother only has a high school diploma. She also speaks 4 languages, has lived in 6 countries, she has tought children all over the world. She paints, draws and can play three musical instruments.

Would you consider her uneducated?

No, I wouldn't. However, how did she get hired to teach children 'all over the world', if she only has a high school diploma?

Yes. She's smart, well traveled, and cultured. She's not educated, though.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please, any monkey can get a high school diploma, doesn't take much to get that anymore. Think about some of the people you went to high school with.

Any sort of post-high school degree would denote being educated. However, when you speak of education, what does this mean? Educated in what?

And the junk about naming 5 operas--I get what that poster was getting at (intellectual curiosity beyond what you 'need to know', but it's more about learning things just because--what if you can't name 5 operas and their composers, but you can speak very intelligently about Ptolemic Egypt, for example? You are still educated (moreso--memorization isn't a function of analytical thinking.)

Exactly. That stupid post about reciting poems and the dates of wars and operas - that's just memorization. Anyone, anywhere, can spit that crap out. It means absolutely nothing.

I was certainly not suggesting anyone go out and try to memorize these things. And of course the list of facts and concepts I chose, and the areas those factoids represent is very random and subjective. But I do believe that these are the sort of things that a person who received a good secondary education and has some natural curiosity about the world would know and do. Like for example you don't have to love opera, but if you are curious about history and art, and if you read a wide variety of books, there is no way you can't name at least five operas if you think about it.

So what you're saying is have some interests and explore those interests. What you listed was YOUR interests, or to be more specific, a list of stuff that you can recite without any critical thinking attached to it whatsoever. The list just represents a bunch of useless facts. Those are two entirely different concepts. So I would add to being educated - learn how to communicate properly so that the message you think you are sending is what's heard.

I agree with PPs that one does not need formal education to succeed in life. Nor does one need classical poetry or the rudiments of physics. There are several people in my immediate circle who I love and respect and look up to who are not very educated in either sense.

Reading and writing well, that is, thinking critically about what you read, and expressing yourself in a concise and logical manner, is a big part of education. And you are right, my list of "useless facts" was an example of sloppy writing. The idea I was trying to express was that a truly educated person is curious and knowledgeable about a variety of things, not just those they specialized in at school or those they feel most passionate about. That knowledge is not defined by a list of names, numbers and dates, and it certainly does not come from dumb memorization. But it is generally the ignorance of factoids that educated people consider to be common knowledge that betrays an uneducated person in social settings.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please, any monkey can get a high school diploma, doesn't take much to get that anymore. Think about some of the people you went to high school with.

Any sort of post-high school degree would denote being educated. However, when you speak of education, what does this mean? Educated in what?

And the junk about naming 5 operas--I get what that poster was getting at (intellectual curiosity beyond what you 'need to know', but it's more about learning things just because--what if you can't name 5 operas and their composers, but you can speak very intelligently about Ptolemic Egypt, for example? You are still educated (moreso--memorization isn't a function of analytical thinking.)

Exactly. That stupid post about reciting poems and the dates of wars and operas - that's just memorization. Anyone, anywhere, can spit that crap out. It means absolutely nothing.

I was certainly not suggesting anyone go out and try to memorize these things. And of course the list of facts and concepts I chose, and the areas those factoids represent is very random and subjective. But I do believe that these are the sort of things that a person who received a good secondary education and has some natural curiosity about the world would know and do. Like for example you don't have to love opera, but if you are curious about history and art, and if you read a wide variety of books, there is no way you can't name at least five operas if you think about it.

So what you're saying is have some interests and explore those interests. What you listed was YOUR interests, or to be more specific, a list of stuff that you can recite without any critical thinking attached to it whatsoever. The list just represents a bunch of useless facts. Those are two entirely different concepts. So I would add to being educated - learn how to communicate properly so that the message you think you are sending is what's heard.

Anonymous wrote:My mother only has a high school diploma. She also speaks 4 languages, has lived in 6 countries, she has tought children all over the world. She paints, draws and can play three musical instruments.

Would you consider her uneducated?

No, I wouldn't. However, how did she get hired to teach children 'all over the world', if she only has a high school diploma?