Ed,

First let me say thanks for the quality comment. One can never have too many of those. Also, let me apologize for the delay in replying. My (lame) excuse is that in the new semester I got deluged with email about all kind of things and fell woefully behind on replying to email from my blog.

I agree that the overwhelming majority of college profs are not the snobby elitists that some have made them out to be. there is evidence to show that they have a strong leftward leaning in politics, but last I checked that was not a crime!

As i think back now about the Sowell article, I don't think his argument was one about the "nobility of poverty" as you put it. as an african american whose family is mostly from the south, I see that line as a load of crap. Poverty is soul stifling. Where I am and more linberal friends and family part ways is one what ought to be done about it and by whom. What i found appealing about Sowell's article is that places a geat deal of the burden on the individual to excel, to climb above the low-paying, low-skill entry level jobs that many call dead end. I worked a dozen such jobs between age 14 and 22 when, upon graduating with a BS in Engineering in 1985. I could have stopped anywhere along the way, as many of my friends and relatives did, and I still most likely be earning the equivalent of $10 or less. But I knew then that I should never expect much from those jobs other than an opportunity to earn money enough to get me to the next stage.

I am hard pressed to know why this viewpoint couldn't apply to most others equally well.

thanks again for the comments. I do value them.

David

that is a very astute observation. As a professional educator I do try to stress the development of "meta-skills" over just getting "A's". Nothing frankly is more annoying than students who quibble over such matters with little or no concern for whether or not they have learned anything useful or applicable to their work life.

This is partly a reflection of the excessive emphasis on skills and credentials that can be obtained thru formal education or training without understanding the importance of metaskills that are learned by experience. Thus, many people don't seem to grasp that a fast-food job can teach reliability and courtesy, metaskills that may later be useful in a completely different kind of job.

Many parents ignore the development of metaskills almost completely, pressuring teachers to give their kids an "A" rather than being concerned about the kids learning the dedication to actually do the work.

I was a university professor for a number of years and I saw political correctness in action by a number of my colleagues. Very few, however, had snobbish attitudes toward non-college educated workers. There are those professors who are arrogant jerks and liberal at the same time. This cannot be denied. They are a small minority in my experience. Most professors work hard at their jobs and keep politics out of their work. Again, while exceptions who politicize lectures, etc., clearly exist, they are not anything near a majority.
The "elitist academic snob" is a caricature used as a straw man by conservatives to whip up the troops. There are corrupt conservatives who lie, distort, manipulate, and intentionally damage others for their own gain (insert certain talk show hosts here, for some prime examples). To paint all conservatives with this brush would itself be dishonest and unfair. Most conservatives I know work hard to support their families and want good things for themselves and others, especially positive life experiences and a helping hand to those truly in distress. Just like most academics I know. Even the liberals who take umbrage at calling workers who provde child care and elder care, for instance, important and noble but pay them almost nothing. Words are nice, but actions reveal the true attitudes.$6-$12 bucks an hour (usually part-time)keeps people in poverty, on food stamps, government health care and other helping programs. The nobility of poverty is just as big a myth as a helpful government official.

Good observations Starling. You're right about the snobbery of academic so-called intellectuals who look at jobs that don't stem from a university education as being "dead end." I just listened to "an educator" on a news show as he denigrated successful plumbers (as an example), saying that their income would eventually "top out." Hmmm. Just like Bill Gates topped out at, let's see, how many billion? And I suppose that a university professor's income will never "top out?" Must be nice!

Does academia REALLY look down their noses at us working slobs like that? How do these people get so self-satisfied and arrogant? Not to mention shallow! Is income potential (based on education level of course), the REAL measure of a successful person? I suppose so, if I my living was based on convincing everyone that soaring college costs are worth it.

And of course, they must SOAR, if that professor's income is going to NOT top out! Present company excluded of course...grin

An interesting article post ... let me add this ... there are some of us, and forgive me but that number will increase as more and more of the baby boomer group retires, that don't want or need anything more than a "dead end job". We are seeking to keep active or perhaps supplement, dare I say it, Social Security, not build a lifetime profession. A greeter at WALMART doesn't have much of a career ladder ... but performs a function that gives the individual self-worth and a little extra money while performing a nice, but not essential, service for WALMART. The problem of have with liberals is that in their zeal to care for the "underprivildged", they invariably screw things up for all of us ... and don't help those they did it for.