4th April 2011, 05:22 PM
I expect he/she has been on a nail-hitting course!
I don't know what proportion of new grads the know-all thing applies to, but it is not peculiar to archaeology. Sorry to bang on about my previous life again (the one with good pay, holidays....) but there was quite a percentage of year out placement students and part 2 (almost qualified architects) in that profession. I have to say that in the majority of cases this was simply enthusiasm and most of the young scamps quickly got the hang of it after getting over the shock. A few - just a few - however continue to protest and argue that they were right and everyone else was wrong and frankly were of little use to man or beast.
There is something of a society wide reluctance to start at the bottom though - encouraged by governments who think that university is the only way and is right for everyone. In my day (cue brass band music) a common route into many professions, particularly the "practical" ones, was to start at 16, attend day release college, and begin with menial tasks - running errands, taking drawings to the printers, doing dyeline prints, that sort of thing, while learning first to draw and then what to draw. One suspects that the youth today consider all that beneath them.
Now, please shoot me, I'm sounding like my dad............
I don't know what proportion of new grads the know-all thing applies to, but it is not peculiar to archaeology. Sorry to bang on about my previous life again (the one with good pay, holidays....) but there was quite a percentage of year out placement students and part 2 (almost qualified architects) in that profession. I have to say that in the majority of cases this was simply enthusiasm and most of the young scamps quickly got the hang of it after getting over the shock. A few - just a few - however continue to protest and argue that they were right and everyone else was wrong and frankly were of little use to man or beast.
There is something of a society wide reluctance to start at the bottom though - encouraged by governments who think that university is the only way and is right for everyone. In my day (cue brass band music) a common route into many professions, particularly the "practical" ones, was to start at 16, attend day release college, and begin with menial tasks - running errands, taking drawings to the printers, doing dyeline prints, that sort of thing, while learning first to draw and then what to draw. One suspects that the youth today consider all that beneath them.
Now, please shoot me, I'm sounding like my dad............