A commitment to share the very little legal and management knowledge I have with you!

[Citizen X]

I firmly believe that whatever profession you in, you should be able to articulate your knowledge in an easy, understandable and practical way. Going forward, I would really like to share the very little that life has taught me. I don’t have any big ideas about myself.Let it suffice that I say, titles, positions and degrees mean nothing to me.
The one thing that I have learned about a degree that applies strictly and only to me is simply this: A degree is that substance you find in a thermometer which you use to stick up your … to take your temperature.
I’m humble, approachable, and teachable and I’m even willing to learn from a little child!
I’m for the under-dog, I’m for the grassroots man. My life and all that it can offer is for “ the lost, poor and broken hearted.”
“I prefer the company of drunks, degenerates, prostitutes, grassroots people and derelics.”

[Justloadit]

Vanish,

I also do not really give a hoot for paper qualifications, when ever I meet any one new, no matter who they are, I always listen intently, I may learn something.

I enjoy a good laugh and I enjoy someone who is knowledgeable, and I always feel humbled in the presence of some one who has more knowledge than me, as I may learn from the experience.

What I do not like is people who throw names about, and who think they know what they are talking about by quoting a few terms relating to the subject.

On a number of occasions I have learn't from a toddlers, their lack of fear and determination and their focus to complete what they set out to do, no matter what obstacle is in front of them, has inspired me on a number of occasions, when it was tough going.

[Citizen X]

Here’s my gripe: In our South African society people by virtue of their status as a doctor, lawyer, chartered accountant and wealth expect respect on the basis of their academic acquirements or financial status. The latter is no indication of morality, integrity, trustworthiness and any such other attribute.
1. Dr Dinesh Singh. A psychiatrist was found guilty of unprofessional conduct by the HPCSA for having a sexual relationship with his patient. He would have sex with his patient when she came to see him for her appointment in his office. Dr Singh the psychiatrist was diagnosed as having a bi polar disorder;
2. Dr Omar Sabadia, a psychiatrist got one of his patients Patrick Manyapi to murder his wife Zahida Sabadia;
3. An advocate Cezanne Visser was convicted of sex crimes against children;
4. A former Old Mutual financial broker by the name of Francois du Plessis was convicted of fraud.”With Du Plessis in the dock was co-accused Elmarie von Willigh, a former director of the company Capital Commitments. She had possession and control of all of Du Plessis' files pertaining to Old Mutual insurance policies and investments in shares. Von Willigh was found guilty on 41 counts of theft, 22 of fraud, six of money-laundering and one involving the uttering (presentation) of a forged document. “
5. Dr Rush is still regarded as the father American psychiatry, but look at what crazy ideas he had: “DR. BENJAMIN RUSH, American physician, held to the view that Blacks derived their skin color from a condition called Negritude. When cured of this condition, wrote Rush, the skin of the victim would turn white.”
6. “DR. HENRY COTTON treated psychotic patients with gastrointestinal surgery and by extracting teeth. 43% of his patients died. Upon his death, the American Journal of Psychiatry hailed his work as "an extraordinary record by one of the most stimulating figures of our generation.”
7. “DR. JOHN NATHANIEL ROSEN developed a technique for treating schizophrenic patients that involved slapping them. In 1971, he received the Man of the Year Award from the American Academy of Psychotherapy”
8. “Dr JOHN ORPIN, psychiatrist, was convicted and jailed for six years for sexually assaulting female patients during bizarre hypnotic therapy sessions.”
9. “Dr HARVEY LOTHRINGER: In 1962, this psychiatrist killed a 19-year-old college student and tried to hide the crime by cutting her up with a scalpel and power saw and flushing her down the toilet in his Queens, New York home. He pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter but as late as 1996 was still working in a professional capacity in Florida, a member once again of the American Psychiatric Association.”

10. “Dr FREDERICK APTOWITZ: Paid a patient $3,000 to plant explosives under the car of a former employee who was suing him for sexual harassment.”
11. “Dr BERT POTTER: This New Zealand psychiatric nurse was jailed for 7½ years for sexually abusing his own children.”
12. “Dr EDWARD PATRICK HOUSTON: Senior psychiatrist in Australia was sentenced to 3½ years in jail for exchanging drugs for sex with a prison inmate under his care.”

13. “Dr OLAVO MACHON: British psychiatrist convicted of plotting to smuggle heroin into great Britain. Machon worked at the drug dependency unit at London's St. Thomas Hospital, caring for heroin and cocaine addicts.”

14. “Dr JAMES HARRINGTON WHITE: This Orange County (California) psychiatrist was charged with and convicted of forced sodomy of a male patient. White was found to have drugged young men and then videotaped himself having sex with them.”
15. Dr Benjamin Spock, aleading child psychologist, wrote tons of books about how to bring up your children. His son committed suicide!
My personal favourite, for all you women out there looking for a rich guy from a reputable family, I’ve got just the guy for you! A guy your parents will be proud of!!! His father a judge and his family owns a clinic. He’s also a millionare and I can assure you he’ll take you for a ‘hell’ of a honeymoon in Cape Town!!! Shrien Devani
Now, I’m not disparaging all these professions, I’m merely saying that qualifications and wealth isno indication of morality, integrity, trustworthiness and any such other attribute.

[AndyD]

I’m humble, approachable, and teachable and I’m even willing to learn from a little child!

These are qualities that will serve any man or woman well but are unfortunately often lacking in many.

I think your post #3 just proves that there's certain dark aspects of human nature and no amount of education will dilute or conquer them.

[wynn]

I have never stopped learning, when I was at school I used to argue that exams were not aimed at finding out weather you understood the work but at how good your memory was and improving your memory was not a subject they taught.

There were kids with me who used to get high marks during exams but couldn't apply their knoweledge in the real world because they understood the work like a parrot speaks and under presure could only squawk.
A lot of these kids got good jobs on their qualifications but stayed at lower levels in their various organisations only achieving promotion as a result of continuous repetition and seniority, that is all they were good for.

A brain surgeon will not perform a rare operation on someones brain without first boning up on the procedure and understanding what he was about to undertake (at least he should have)
An airline pilot on the other hand needs to have instant recall in an emergency.

Moral of the story:- I could have been a brain surgeon but not an airline pilot

[Citizen X]

You are exactly right!!!! In modern learning and teaching methodology worldwide, there is a distinction bewteen passive learning and actual learning, where the former is simply memorising the content in which case you really learn nothing whatsoever at all and can never apply that memorised knowledge, and the latter which is true learning i.e. makes sense of the material in your mind, seeing things in a holistic manner..

[Dave A]

There are times when that knee-jerk "learned by rote" stuff is pretty useful, though.

Take maths. Knowing your multiplication table by rote, or the simpler combinations of sides of a right angled triangle, proves incredibly useful in breaking down more complex stuff that does take some logical thought and understanding.

My point is - don't throw the bath out with the bathwater. There needs to be a foundation of learned knowledge before the more complex stuff can begin to flow.

[Citizen X]

Dave, you raise an interesting perspective, I’ll give you that. “In the counsel of many, there’s wisdom.”
One of the reason's I appreciate this Forum is that we may put things to each other in a gentlemenly manner. We can get many perspectives. This is a textbook example of freedom of speech!

[wynn]

There are times when that knee-jerk "learned by rote" stuff is pretty useful, though.

Take maths. Knowing your multiplication table by rote, or the simpler combinations of sides of a right angled triangle, proves incredibly useful in breaking down more complex stuff that does take some logical thought and understanding.

My point is - don't throw the bath out with the bathwater. There needs to be a foundation of learned knowledge before the more complex stuff can begin to flow.

I agree with you for the basics, but take theorems for example, why will the examiner always ask the question that the exceptions apply to, so to pass the exam forget the theorem learn the exceptions, then in real life the answer required is the theorem very seldom the exception and you don't know the theorem or how to apply it? you can always look up the list of exceptions. (maths was never my strong suite although I understood everything especially how to apply the theorems I could never remember the exceptions, same with science, I knew all about the periodic table but could never remember how to write it down in the correct sequence, so why did the question always relate to remembering exactly how the table was written down, never weather you understood what went with what)

I learned more after school than I would have if I had gone on to 'Uni' and done a 'B Comm'
I know graduates in middle management even with fancy degrees they never used and now they are retiring unfulfilled.

Highly qualified engineers still specify the wrong product for certain applications.
The marine biologist who designed a beautiful abalone farm and placed it 2 kms down current from a huge sewer outfall and wondered why the stock kept getting deseased, until some uneducated idiot pointed out his basic mistake.

[Blurock]

I have seen some very stupid people with excellent degrees being outshone by very clever people who did their apprenticeship in the school of life.

It is not the education, but the application that counts.