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Zeev Hed

05/21/04 6:49 PM

#248468 RE: ajtj99 #248463

I never considered education an ROI issue, I considered it a stimulation to curiosity and learning... By the way, a little anecdote about "education" . When I went to the Hebrew University in the late 50', my older brother who was studying music in the conservatory took me to a party where most guests were his fellow students. I was duly introduced as the crazy little brother that dropped a major stipend for studying music (I was already with two years as an apprentice of a leading Israeli composer, studying music the "old fashioned way", so I knew something about the "subject"), and decided to go and study Mathematics/Physics. One of the students who followed a dual educational path of music and physics (and yes, she could afford it...), took me aside trying to dissuade me from the task I have chosen. Her argument was simply, it cannot be done, in all the 25 years of the Hebrew University, there was not one student that got a doctorate in Physics while holding a normal job in the first three years of the University, surely not one working in "body building heavy construction". Well, I really did not know at the time what was a "doctorate" (an ignoramus farmer, that dropped out of high school, what would you expect?) nor that it was the "end goal" for any physicist worth his salt. I went there because I was curious and wanted to take the "toughest" and most "educational" path (Major in Nuclear Physics, and two minors, Pure Mathematics and Applied Mathematics). Without hesitation, I "dared" her that I'll get it done. That was really the only (well, maybe not the only reason) that I got a doctorate (g). I pinched my nose, plunged into the cold waters and seven years later came out fully equipped, and collected my shekel (it was still a "lira", or an "Israeli Pound" at the time). By then, It was a little clearer (though not completely) what is a doctorate, now I had to figure out "what do I do with it" (g). I am still trying to figure that one out.