Pat McCrory Lashes Out Against 'Educational Elite' And Liberal Arts College Courses

[du_grad]

103. The UCC is very liberal

I was raised in the UCC, although I do not now attend any church. The United Church of Christ is a very liberal Protestant denomination, and it absolutely is NOT a Bible-thumping-type church. The clergy are college educated, not "called to preach." It was formed in the 1950's from a merger of the Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical Reformed Church, which trace back to the Puritans.

http://www.ucc.org/education/polity/pdf-folder/chart-origins-of-the-ucc.pdf

It is an all-inclusive denomination that was one of the first to allow women into its ministry. It has also led the way in being accepting of anyone regardless of their sexual orientation or background.

http://www.ucc.org/god-is-still-speaking/

I attended a small liberal arts college in Ohio. I transferred out my junior year and spent one year at a state university, where I picked up some 300+ level science courses that helped me a lot in my eventual career, which is medical technology. However, I returned my senior year and graduated with a B.A. in Biology. The "liberal arts" courses I took, while not necessarily being a prerequisite for my current job as a clinical microbiology technologist, had value later in life for me, although I could not see it at the time.

A liberal arts college education does not necessarily equate to attending a vocational school, where one only learns things pertaining to their eventual job. My vocation required college level science courses before I could be accepted for a year's internship in a clinical laboratory. The science courses at the state university were part of the college of liberal arts, which had universal requirements of everyone before they majored in other liberal arts fields.

It is sad that kids nowadays graduate with such a huge load of debt. I had college loans and, luckily, a half scholarship. The loans were not comparable to what kids owe today, even if 1970's dollars were converted to the inflation today. I graduated in 1971 and everything was paid by 1975.

I will say that there is such a shortage of people with my training that, at age 63, I could easily work another ten years in my field and have no fear that I would lose my job. Our hospital had to lay off two techs in the middle of the recession and they had jobs within less than a month at another local hospital without having to relocate. If there had been no local jobs, they easily could have found jobs in other areas of the country. One of my younger coworkers went to another liberal arts college near my alma mater. She majored in chemistry. She's been out for over 10 years and is still paying college loans, and probably will be for quite some time.

Has my course in Roman History that I took as a senior in college helped me in my job? Well, not in any direct sense. However, one goes to college to gain an education - an appreciation for what came before and what will come after we attend. It teaches us to think. My university sent many students on into medicine and law. I graduated in 1971. Many of my fellow graduates have gone on into quite interesting professions - some in their major, others not. A liberal arts education can, unfortunately, be a luxury for the mind in this day and age.

My daughter graduated from a state university in 2002 and got a B.A. in Art History. She did work at our local Art Museum for a short time but, sadly, they really didn't utilize her education and only really looked at people with doctorates for long term jobs that actually worked with the art collection. She left, worked in a bank for awhile, and, on her own, decided to go back to school to become a registered nurse. Could she have done this right out of high school (and saved us about $25,000)? I suppose. However, her college background has helped her attain a position in medical ICU only a couple of years out of nursing school. She has told me that her college background helped a lot with her nursing courses.

This is a sticky question that has been floating around for decades, and will never easily be answered. For this bozo to go lashing out at state school students, when he himself attended a liberal arts school, is grossly unfair. There is, unfortunately, some snobbery attached to SOME students of private schools, especially ones whose parents had the money to pay cash.