Originally Posted by
Wegs
I agree, yes, that a degree is an important thing to have. However, I disagree with saying that, if one has a degree, that they are automatically more capable. I, for one, did not have parents who could begin to afford to put me through school. I've been forced to pay bills since I was 16 and live in lieu of college. Secondly, I know way too many people with degrees that are absolutely clueless, and whom I would NEVER trust in a cockpit. That being said, I think it is b.s. to say that having a degree deems a person more capable of flying Americans around the friendly skies. I don't want to be a pest about this matter, but it is something which I feel very strongly about. College does not instill logic and common sense, which I feel are sometimes more important in life.
Wegs:
I'm sorry that you are financially strapped. I've been there. My dad cut me off after the first year of college. Afther that I paid for college, supported myself, and ended up needing government loans for my final two years. It isn't easy.
However, I feel strongly that airline pilots do indeed need a college degree in order to work as an airline pilot. Consider this. As an airline pilot, you can literally have a couple hundred people in your hands in any one day. Doctors for the matter, do not. Yet, you would never go to a doctor who wasn't a degreed professional or got a degree from an online college or Devry Institute.
As airline pilots we are professionals -- we must be critical thinkers, there's a distinct body of knowledge required and it keeps changing which requires us to keep mastering our profession, there's certification, there's a certain technique with our work, and we get paid adequately.
If I had it my way, I would make the requirement to be a technical degree. But I am willing to let the folks who take basketweaving fly a plane if they prove to pass the ATP standards / tests.