<p>
</p>
<p>No, I do not. Education is like strength, wealth, or any other ability. How you use it, your choices, are what make it worthy of respect or condemnation. Look at Madoff or Stanford for example, very smart and educated men who ruined innocent people who trusted their promises. Would you really claim they deserve respect just because of their education? I would not. </p>
<p>Could you please answer my question, ring<em>of</em>fire? Have you ever held a manual labor position?</p>
<p>I think we need to define terms for this argument.</p>
<p>What is respect? </p>
<p>Is it the kindness and politeness with which you treat a person? Because then absolutely not, you don’t treat someone with an education better than someone without.</p>
<p>Is it deference to one’s opinions on a topic that someone learns about in a specialized education program? Then sure you give more deference to an educated person.</p>
<p>But before we just go on bickering, tell me how you guys define “respect.”</p>
<p>“You know what I was trying to say.”</p>
<h2>No, I actually have no idea what you meant by “and no I am.”</h2>
<p>"People who are more educated are deserving of more respect. Do you agree with this statement or not? "</p>
<p>I strongly DISAGREE agree. I do not measure a person by their level of education. I do not respect people based on the # of degrees earned or the “prestige” of school they went to. People have to EARN my respect and what makes a difference to me is the type of PEOPLE they are, not the education they received.</p>
<p>Very honestly, if this is your view of people, I feel quite sorry for you.</p>
<p>Tzar, I will answer your request as soon as ring<em>of</em>fire answers mine. It’s germane to the issue, you see.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I certainly do not.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No, I have no idea. It’s either</p>
<p>“No it isn’t and no I am not.”<br>
OR
“No it isn’t and yes I am.”</p>
<p>So, are you a parent, or not?</p>
<p>“People who are more educated are deserving of more respect.”</p>
<p>ring<em>of</em>fire: This is so offensive. I can only hope that you are young and you will grow up someday. First, not everyone is lucky enough to have access to an expensive education, or an college education at all for that matter. I’m stunned at how lacking the issue of cost is in this thread. Are the posters from the affluent community so insulated that they can’t imagine that a price tag of $200,000 is out of reach for most families.</p>
<p>The janitors of this country and the other people who perform manual labor are the ones who do the hard work in this country. They work hard and they are not compensated well so that you snobs from your affluent community won’t have to demean yourself with these tasks. And you don’t think they deserve respect? You don’t think that they can see the look on your face, hear the tone in your voice, see the contempt in your eyes as you condescend to them? You should be ashamed of yourself.</p>
<p>This whole argument is meaningless until everyone says how they define “respect.”</p>
<p>It’s a broader term than the people in this conversation would have us believe.</p>
<p>I recall an old story about rank and respect. His ship was travelling at night and the helmsman noticed a light straight ahead. When the light did not move, the bridge crew realized they were on a collision course. The admiral had the ship’s radioman send a message to the contact to change course:</p>
<p>“Unknown contact bearing 315, be advised you are on a collision course, advise you change your heading twenty degrees starboard”</p>
<p>The contact replied:</p>
<p>“Advise you change your heading twenty degrees starboard”</p>
<p>This angered the admiral:</p>
<p>“Contact, change course now!”</p>
<p>The contact replied:</p>
<p>“Strongly advise you change course immediately”</p>
<p>The admiral was enraged:</p>
<p>“I am an admiral on a US Navy Cruiser… change course now!!!”</p>
<p>The contact replied:</p>
<p>“I am a Seaman second class in a lighthouse … please change course, sir.”</p>
<p>Guess who changed course?</p>
<p>And, just a little anecdotal side-note:</p>
<p>My grandfather’s father died when he was in junior high. He had to go to work to support his mother and younger brother. One of the jobs he held was sweeping up a barroom at the end of the night, so I guess that qualifies him as a janitor. :)</p>
<p>Meanwhile, he was studying typing, dictation, and general secretarial skills, in the hopes of better employment. </p>
<p>He lucked out by finding a typing job with a new outfit starting up in Humble, Texas, back around the early 1900’s, that called itself Humble Oil. He had to provide his own typing table though, so he “borrowed” his cast iron mother’s sewing machine table and took the job.</p>
<p>He worked his way up through the corporation, eventually retiring as Secretary/Treasurer of Humble, which was later called Exxon.</p>
<p>All this, without a highschool diploma :)</p>
<p>True worth is based on the measure of the man and his abilities, not the school from which he graduated. </p>
<p>ring-of-fire, when you are working for your future bosses, and you find that a majority of them graduated from schools that you now find inferior, I dare you to tell them that you don’t respect them because of their lowly beginnings! ;)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>So you are saying that George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are not deserving of any respect because they did not go to college while Franklin Pierce, a Bowdoin graduate, deserves more respect for nearly dividing the country in half? Please.</p>
<p>There is a difference between “showing” respect and actually “respecting” someone.</p>
<p>I show (or at least try to!) respect for everyone - kindness, politeness, tolerance, etc. However, it takes a lot for someone else to EARN my respect. That requires me to value, trust, and admire someone. I do not automatically respect people for WHAT they are, or how many degrees they hold, or what their title is, or where they went to school. I respect people for WHO they are based on their character.</p>
<p>Bowdoin, Woot Woot!!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No. You’re clearly so young and unsophisticated that you don’t understand that not everyone has the same opportunity in life, and that judging people based on whether they went Ivy or State Flagship just makes you look small and not worthy of respect.</p>
<p>I think you’re also naive enough not to understand that plenty of people who aren’t “educated” are incredibly successful in life, because the traits that make one successful aren’t just merely educational / book smarts, but perseverence, personality, ability to get along, innovation, creativity, etc. </p>
<p>Really, I know people with degrees from “sub-par” colleges who could buy and sell half the Ivy grads on these boards, because they had other characteristics that made them successful. Good for them all, I say! Good for the Ivy grad who works an intellectual job and is quite erudite, and good for the directional-state-u grad who starts his own business or could sell ice to the Eskimos!</p>
<p>You folks need to cut ring<em>of</em>fire some slack here. YOu don’t need to ask who he is, just find the posts he has authored and he has already answered these questions. Ring<em>of</em>fire is:</p>
<ul>
<li>A Junior or Senior at Duke, who was a three sport athlete in high school and President of his student body</li>
<li>Indian (East) by heritage</li>
<li>Pleased that the gay marriage proposal failed in California.</li>
</ul>
<p>this took me all of 90 seconds to gather using the search function here.</p>
<p>From the posts in this particular thread, we can also see that in <em>his</em> world education and intelligence are the most important attributes of a person – the attributes most worthy of respect. Likely more than athleticism, ethics, looks, ethnicity, gender, wealth, charitablility, artistic talent, skill as a parent, or any other attribute some might hold out as the most important in a heirarchy and thus worthy of great respect (some of these attributes might be found even in a Janitor 
).</p>
<p>I don’t agree with ring<em>of</em>fire’s values, but it is quite common for Indians to hold these views (and some others as well). Immigrants to the United States often lack generations of connections in society and business. This naturally leads to a reliance upon a prestigious education as a barrier-remover to lucrative employment and other opportunities.</p>
<p>I have a 4.25 GPA, 36 ACT score, etc. I’m the varsity swimming captain, a state champion, and our National Honor Society President, among other things. Yes, I’m among the most intelligent and active students in my graduating class, but I don’t feel that I have to go to an expensive, “prestigious” school to prove this. Yes, my family could probably afford the $200,000 price tag, but I don’t want that great financial onus weighing down upon them (I have 4 siblings already in college). I don’t even normally disclose my statistics or accomplishments (I honestly don’t enjoy doing so), but - by doing so here - I want to make a point: I was admitted to MIT, but I’ve decided to go to WVU. I don’t feel like I’m “settling” for something “beneath me” at all. I feel that I have found a college in which I can and will excel because I’m in love with the surroundings, the honors program, and the vitality of the student body. When it comes to selecting a college, there is so much more to consider than prestige or reputation; this is something I didn’t learn until this year, something that so many people never do learn. There’s my bit haha :)</p>
<p>
No, I have not performed manual labor in my life. I come from a very affluent family and I have never had to work until my internship in investment banking the summer after my junior year.</p>
<p>
It’s true that these poor, unskilled workers perform a lot of the hard work in this country, but this is due to their own failures in life. My dad came from a poor village India and walked to school every day for 2 miles in his bare feet. His home didn’t have electricity and used candles in order to be able to study in the night. His parents were too busy being involved with regional politics in India and left him to the care of his grandparents. So, all his motivation in life has been internal.</p>
<p>With nothing but his own desire to provide a better life for his kids, he toiled until he gained admission to the Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) and later went to Harvard Business School. He is now in a high level position in a Fortune 500 company.</p>
<p>So DON’T YOU DARE lecture me on hard work. My dad grew up in worse conditions than 99% of the country and was still able to be immensely successful. ANYONE and I mean ANYONE who grows up in the US should be able to be equally successful.</p>
<p>These janitors threw their lives away when they were young and now they are paying the price. I will greet them politely but I will never truly respect them.</p>
<p>
You are a fool and will regret this decision for the rest of your life. What’s your point?</p>
<p>ring<em>of</em>fire: You brought all of the backlash on yourself, although you don’t seem to care and you haven’t learned anything. It’s very sad.</p>
<p>“No, I have not performed manual labor in my life. I come from a very affluent family…”</p>
<h2>That is evident.</h2>
<p>“It’s true that these poor, unskilled workers perform a lot of the hard work in this country, but this is due to their own failures in life.”</p>
<h2>That is a rude statement and while it may be true of some - it is by no means true of all people doing the jobs you wouldn’t be caught dead doing.</h2>
<p>“With nothing but his own desire to provide a better life for his kids, he toiled until he gained admission to the Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) and later went to Harvard Business School. He is now in a high level position in a Fortune 500 company.”</p>
<h2>Too bad he wasn’t able to provide his children with a lesson in humility along the way.</h2>
<p>“These janitors threw their lives away when they were young and now they are paying the price. I will greet them politely but I will never truly respect them.”</p>
<h2>That, again is a very rude, narrow-minded point of view and I think one day you will regret it.</h2>
<p>"You are a fool and will regret this decision for the rest of your life. What’s your point? "</p>
<p>The POINT is that he is a far wiser young man than you and will go far, impressing people at ALL levels of business.</p>
<hr>
<p>My husband has his graduate degree from Duke. I just showed him this thread and he is appalled. I sincerely hope that your point of view is not a common one among the folks at Duke. How sad. I truly pity you.</p>
<p>Haha, I love how he thinks that his father’s toil justifies his own arrogance when he himself grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth. </p>
<p>Fire ring man, your father is an exceptional individual. Few people can be held up to such a rigorous standard-- not necessarily even you. </p>
<p>Don’t assume that you could do what your dad did just because your his son. If you were in his proverbial shoes you may very well be a wheat farmer in India right now. It takes a very strong character to overcome such a dismal environment. Can’t expect it of everyone.</p>