To think you can be well educated without a degree?

[Birdylade]

I left school very young although I always did very well academically. I don't have a degree although almost everyone else in my family does and this makes me feel intellectually inferior. I have young DC's but spend a lot of time reading and have a real thirst for knowledge, just no time, or more importantly money, to do a degree.

I like to think I am well educated, albeit through self-education, but I find I do get judged for not having a degree. Is it unreasonable to consider myself well educated without a university degree?

educated at the university of life baby!!

birds I quite agree.

I would think "having been taught" is more in line with "schooled" than "educated" . You can be educated by travel, for example. Or perhaps, by travel with an enquiring and thoughtful mind. Formal education is not the only education.

I know, I agree. But education in this country used to mean something deeper - it implied that someone had studied and learned and used it to try and better him/herself. Now someone can have a degree and be, or appear to be anyway, almost ignorant and proud of it. People who amass knowledge and understanding for the love it are often sneered at.

I don't know what point I'nm trying to make, really :)

Absolutely not. Neither my brothers nor I had degrees yet most people we worked with almost refused to believe that we hadn't. When I met a friend of brother's for the first time a few years ago the first thing he asked me was how come my brother was so erudite, educated, cultured, intellectual and intelligent and yet not have a degree or even A levels. We are products of our parents, that's how.

I went to Uni when I was 34, because I wanted to know more about a particular subject and it seemed like the best way to find out. So now I have a degree. I have just embarked on another with the OU.

I did find that during my 3 years I did learn to think a bit more clearly and logically, and also to set down my understanding clearly in essays. However I hadn't been particularly lacking in those areas to start with, it just improved a bit through the discipline of having lots of essays to write to deadlines. I'd often been congratulated on the reports I wrote at work before I went to Uni anyway, so that just showed that I was as good as a graduate anyway.

I can promise you that having a degree is entirely unnecessary except perhaps to get a particular job or promotion, but if you're worth promoting then your company would be silly to refuse to do it just because you haven't got a particular qualification.

Jux- people seem surprised I don't have a degree too. I don't have a-levels either. To be honest I've given up caring what people think though I do wish I had got a better formal education but that's for myself only. I do sometimes wonder though what impression I give out where people don't know me such as on mn but that's just idle curiosity.

YANBU

I met some complete morons when I was at university. I happen to be good at exams and writing essays, however, I have the memory of a goldfish so I can't actually remember a jot of what I studied at university.

My Dad never had a degree but he was one of the most educated men I have ever known...and I have known some very well educated men.

There is a big difference between being intelligent and being clever. My Mother has 2 PHDs but she has no common sense whatsoever DH left school without any exams and has several companies all of which do exceptionally well.

I have great short term memory so can cram for exams really well, this generally does not stay with me though. On paper I am more educated than DP but he has by far the most knowledge. I cannot stand when people use their degree as a form of being superior (my neighbour cannot have a conversation without including the phrase "professional" which is her mind you can only be with a degree.

Its about separating out clever / well informed / well read etc. I teach some very bright kids who will get excellent A levels and probably degrees but they have very little knowledge or interest in knowing much about current affairs at this point. I know adults who think they are very well informed because they read a broadsheet newspaper every day, without questioning the political leanings of that paper. How you are valued because of these things depends on the context - eg who the prospective employer is and also how you present yourself. I do think it matters that people write and speak correctly in a formal setting. I despair over the essays I have just marked that are A grade in terms of content but shocking in terms of syntax, spelling and grammar.

absolutely agree

My grandad only went to school until he was 14 - because he was expected to work as he was one of 11 kids - but he read everything he could lay his hands on, spent all his time in libraries and museums and is one of the cleverest men I've ever met.

YABU. Being clever and being educated is not the same thing. "Well educated" really means specifically educated to certain levels in certain places, verified by exams and qualifications.

Anyone can say they are educated, however if you have not been tested or gained qualifications, what does it mean? You can be well read, well informed, knowledgeable, clever, smart...lots of things, but to be well-educated you need to have been educated.

I think there is a huge difference between being well qualified and well educated.

I did not have a degree until I was 45. However, (I left school in 1978) I studied two MFL's, Latin, three sciences, maths, English, etc., and was given a brilliant grounding in numeracy and literacy. I can speak and write well and calculate quickly and effectively. I can conduct myself in any company and not make a fool of myself in conversation. I was sent to finishing school where I learnt quite a lot that has been very useful to me throughout my life.

I consider myself to have been exceptionally well educated up to the point where I obtained a degree (well level 7 prof qual and now have an MBA too). My education, ability and life skills meant that I was able to earn six figures on City trading floors in the 80's and 90's - I didn't need formal qualifications to do it although I accept it would be harder now.

I work with lots of people with lots of qualifications now. They are not as well educated or able or nimble minded as those I worked with in the City and they ranged from Ivy League to Barrow Boys. Both were sharp and adaptable.

marriedinwhite

Law and medecine are vocational degrees

Don't you think that 'qualifications' are but stepping stones to an 'end'? If you have GCSEs you can go on to study for A level. With A levels you can go on to study for a degree. That degree may open employment doorways...
That degree or those A Levels or GCSEs are but 'tools' or 'stepping stones' in a process.
You can be very well educated with no qualifications - you can know about all manner of things, you can pass that knowledge on to others; the qualification, in itself, is irrelevant.
As a Mum you teach all manner of things, and you need no formal qualifications (yet) so to do.

Of course you can!

I certainly don't see myself as particulary intelligent. I found sitting my A Levels harder and spent most of my Final year writing, listening to music and watching Brookside at the same time. My friend was amazed i passed.

'Educated' doesn't mean 'taught'.

Educated means drawn out (of yourself). You can be educated formally, in school and at university, but you can also be educated by reading and learning and thinking.

My grandpa studied sciences at school and that was his work, but when I knew him he had got interested in history and taught himself to read Anglo-Saxon. I have his books and he had learned and read much more about that period of history than I did when I studied it formally - it just took determination.

I think your family sound a bit mean and you should tell them you don't appreciate it.

you can drop the if you want to debate a meaning, don't start off assuming you are 100% correct. Especially when you aren't.

ed·u·cat·ed/ˈejəˌkātid/
Adjective:
Having been educated: "a Harvard-educated lawyer".
Resulting from or having had a good education.

It's open to interpretation.

Oxford Dictionary of Etymology: from the root 'educe', lead or draw forth; bring out; develop from a latent condition.

Really, you can be educated by something external like school, or by using your own internal ability.

It's not remotely 'open to interpretation'.

I think it is ridiculous to insist that education must be formal teaching, if your own education has not included enough to tell you the etymology of the word. It is from Latin, 'ducere', with the prefix 'e'.

If you don't know that, your formal education is lacking. Now, I don't see that as a particular issue since I don't believe formal education is the be all and end all. But you're putting someone down by insisting they should have been 'taught' when you've not enough knowledge to make an accurate point. It makes you look silly.

The definition you cite, by the way, is tautological. It's pointless to define something by saying it means itself. I suspect you also need to learn to use a dictionary properly - looking up 'education' might have provided a more useful explanation.

Completely agree that a degree does not mean you are well educated. I don't think I am well educated and I have 2 degrees. But I think it is a way to just get past the first hurdle when applying for a job. Nearly every job going at my company (global) seems to want a graduate regardless of the subject area - it's just a way to sort through the applications.

Only 1 colleague in my dept does not have a degree and she is passed over for promotion all the time. She has the experience but not the qualification, which is daft - I can't remember anything I did on my course 20 years ago. I'd play the company at their own game by getting a degree via the OU.

I can use a dictionary, thanks, being educated to PhD level. If you have a problem with the definition, take it up with Merriam-Webster. How predictable of you to attack the poster rather than the post, perhaps your education in manners is not as extensive as other areas?

And everything is open to interpretation, thats one of things a decent education teaches you.

I don't need to take it up with the Merriam-Webster. You need to learn that tautology is not definition, and that telling the OP she needs to be 'taught' when you don't understand what 'education' means, is just making you look ignorant and rude.

Why do you need to do that?