Do any of you know

I quit school young. I later got my GED and even later returned to high school and graduated with honors.

As for the question, how would I feel if a diploma was required to qualify for a CDL or any drivers license, well, I would feel we had entered the twilight zone.

 

Just curious --- where did your assignment originate?
Was it your choice of topic, or someone else's?

I quit high school at the beginning of the last semester of my senior year. Due to a counselor's incorrect guideline, I didn't have enough credits to graduate anyway unless I took two additional classes, and passed them. The only classes that weren't full, were advanced trig and Spanish 4. So I bailed out and attended night school classes. Psychology and US history, classes I could actually pass, and even excelled in psychology. From there I enrolled in a Jr. College.

I credit my ability to drive a Big truck on the psychology class.

How so?

Why not?
Some college educated doctors and lawyers fly airplanes, and sail boats around the world.
I'm thinkin' that the chances are good that a doctor or lawyer could drive a Big truck better than an old timer without a high school education could do what doctors or lawyers do.

 

Your best bet for finding that information would be the good old US government. Department of Labor an/or the Department of Education; they are most likely keeping track of this kind of thing.

Requiring a GED or Diploma would accomplish very little (education and intelligence are not the same thing) and neither have all that much to do with the "trucker image" Have you ever encountered an obnoxious driver and exclaimed: "I bet that jerk never finished high school!" ? Was CDL training offered at your high school? It wasn't offered at mine (I definitely would have taken it).

I think one should be be able to speak, read, and write English to get a license though. Image trying to navigate without being able to read the road signs.

 

Growing up and still to this day I remember kids saying oh if all else fails I'll just quit school and drive a truck. Everyone seems to think that being a truck driver requires no real intelligence or skill.

On the other hand, if drivers would be required to have at least a high school diploma we might lose some of that negative image. Back in the day a high school diploma is just a piece of paper. Now days it shows a you have basic education and you really need that to function as a productive member of society.

I can't think of another career out there (that's worth having) that doesn't require a high school education. We're all supposed to be professional and want to the public to take truckers and trucking serious and how can they do that when drivers don't have a basic education?

 

That's something else completely. I think your missing the point. A high school diploma shows that you have a basic education. Doesn't it make you a better driver? No. That's comes with training. How can you train someone who can't read the CDL handbook or do math without a calculator?

I willing to bet the reason most companies are making trucks easier to drive and eliminating paper logs is because most of the drivers they see and deal with can barely walk upright let alone drive.

 

The military requires HS or GED. You don't need an education to fight.
The main thing is people look as you as a quitter or one that completes the task at hand. It's not always about the learning part. Most employers want someone that is going to stay around and not quit. That's where quitting school hurts your image. They see you as someone that won't stay around. It might not be right in some minds but that is how employers perceive it. Furthering your education even enhances your image as a go getter.
It's always easier for someone to teach you than learn the hard way anyways.

If you notice, college graduates carry themselves with a real professional attitude. They don't swear. They settle differences in a calm negotiable manner instead of blowing up, getting mad and wanting to fight. They actually teach them that stuff and a few could use that training, lol. I never went to college, but I do notice the character thing they learn.
Same with the military. You learn respect and discipline if you haven't already and it stays with you the rest of your life.

 

Call around to some trucking schools. They might have some stats for you.

 

You don't have to have a high school diploma or GED to read or do math without a calculator. Trucks are being made easier to drive to cut down on the stress and physical exhaustion of driving those things. Paperless logs are just another method of 'big brother' watching over everyone's shoulder.

That last paragraph of yours is just out and out insulting to ANY truck driver. There are people in all industries that can barely walk upright.

Basic common sense will get one farther in life than any sort of degree ever will. If you don't have the sense to come in out of the lightning storm, you've got issues. I've met plenty of college graduates that can't handle basic life skills, but they think they are better than others because they have that college degree.

All that being said, I have a high school diploma and some college behind me. The college came after I retired from driving truck.

Skills that are required to drive a truck are not all taught in high school. How many people learned how to read a map in high school?

 

I do be got my GDE !!!!

 

Whoa, slow down. Again, your missing the point. Like I've said having the diploma would show that a person SHOULD have the basic reading/writing/math skills to do this job, therefor eliminating an otherwise illiterate potential "professional" driver. Things like map reading, logging, driving a truck would come with additional training.

Your assuming because I say a truck driver should have a HS diploma, that means their somehow automatically qualified to be a truck driver and that is not what I'm saying.

Now with that said in no way am I saying because someone doesn't have a diploma they can't do this job or drive at all for that matter and, as far as insulating every driver. Most drivers do a fine job of that themselves. I've never said anything that isn't true.

Good debate by the way. :smt038