as jehovah’s witnesses, we were regularly told how awful a college education is.
i’m no longer associated with the religion but i am not so pro university.
it’s not because i think you are better off without a degree.
@LongHairGal:
All in all, I do still have a high regard for higher education - but I’m sorry for what has happened to the whole thing!
I agree. That gets lost in the fray. If I criticize these special “studies” programs, it’s not an attempt to disparage college education in general.
as jehovah’s witnesses, we were regularly told how awful a college education is.
i’m no longer associated with the religion but i am not so pro university.
it’s not because i think you are better off without a degree.
For a while, I taught as an adjunct professor for undergrad CS degrees. It was actually a great time. The college I worked for had great merit-based standards, and not a lot of fluff around the degree.
Then, it changed. I was there watching it as it happened. The college started to take more government money. It seemed like anyone could enroll with a combination of government backed loans or loose government grants. Financing the investment of an education really wasn’t a problem, but I started to notice a different ... caliber ... of student showing up. These were students that, in my opinion shouldn’t have been there. They had no propensity for learning, but they really wanted the degree, and it had been advertised to them as the proper gateway to prosperity. The government was there to help them on their way. A big break.
You see, the government money came with strings attached. The money required the college to ease up on entrance exams and “give everyone a second chance”. Those entrance exams continued to ease up all the way to the end, and by that time the only requirement to pass the exam was to produce your name on the top. Less intelligent, less determined people started filling the seats, devoid of any needed baseline skills.
But there was more! The government money came with the added requirement that the attrition rate had to stay low, below some arbitrary percentage the central planners thought reasonable.
Something had to give. The curriculum began to slip. Professional books were swapped for custom books. Skills were brushed aside and downplayed, assignments dumbed down. And all the change was costly... prices rose with the demand.
But that only goes so far. The cycle continued, and so teachers were eventually pressured ( in subtle ways ) to let certain grades slide. The accreditation was smoke and mirrors, tied more to procedure than assuring the institution was providing a good education. The agencies that accredited the college also were approved by the government, with vested interest in keeping it all going.
I was an adjunct, a contract professor. I remember being asked to let a student supply extra work to move his grade from a 59 F to a 60 D. I agreed and met with the student on three separate additional occasions, giving what I honestly felt were assignments that, if completely correctly, would demonstrate a fundamental ability of skill. He couldn’t do any of them. At all. So, as requested, I averaged those grades into the overall grade and submitted the final grade of 57 F. The admin was pissed, since they had to hit their government based quotas, and I threw a pipe bomb into their plans. I wasn’t invited back until the admin had cycled out a few times. I refused the job. I taught for fun. The extra pay was not necessary. I saw the handwriting on the wall.
It all came to an end eventually when nobody wanted to hire their graduates. Their product was crap. The government got suspicious, seized documents and investigated. When it was clear to them the college was participating in some fraudulent activities ( and some non-fraudulent, but really forking shady ), they cut the college off from government funds. The college declared bankruptcy the following week.
Maybe you can figure out which institution I am talking about.
But here’s the thing - they were stuck between a rock and a hard place. They wanted this money, but had to accept contradictory requirements. Don’t flunk people, but also accept students that have a very high probability of flunking, and accept a lot of them. But also produce capable graduates.
Universities have the same issue, I believe. EXCEPT, I think they figured a way around it. Instead of biting the bullet and flunking people or seriously dumbing down the curriculum, they have created different programs - stuff like gender studies, or women studies, or whatever-studies. These are programs where the naturally unintelligent can pour all their inborn irrationality. These are the programs where the insanity of postmodernism can have its renaissance, peppered with a mob mentality of which even a Jerry Springer audience could be proud. When the mouth breathers graduate, no worries. You can either be reabsorbed back into the ever growing malignant “studies” cancer, or you can go into the real world and seek employment at one of the many diversity and inclusion departments.
But now the cancer is growing too large. These “studies” departments are spilling over into the hard sciences in areas.
the humanist organisation in the uk wants to protect non-religious people who leave their church/religion from being punished for doing so.
they want the religious hate crime legislation in the uk to be extended to people who are not religious.
i hope they will succeed.
The Humanist organisation in the UK wants to protect non-religious people who leave their church/religion from being punished for doing so.
Holy shirt. They want to outlaw Islam?
the humanist organisation in the uk wants to protect non-religious people who leave their church/religion from being punished for doing so.
they want the religious hate crime legislation in the uk to be extended to people who are not religious.
i hope they will succeed.
You don't get to have freedom of religion without freedom from religion.
And you have it. You have freedom of association. You joined the group with a set of specified, pre-discloses rules. Now you can leave the group. The current members also have the same freedom of association as you do. You can choose to disassociate, they can too.
Stunning violates the law of coercion.
What is “the law of coercion”? Can this be defined clearly? If a wife says, “Stop smoking or I want a divorce,” does this mean she is breaking this law?
The WT makes it's followers act in a certain way re shunning........ otherwise they in turn.......... will be shunned by close family and friends. It has evolved to a punishment for the innocent.
No. Why do you wish to take away the moral agency of family members? These are people that make the choice to side with the group you left. *They* chose this. By removing their agency, you make them unaccountable. Do you see them as children?
as jehovah’s witnesses, we were regularly told how awful a college education is.
i’m no longer associated with the religion but i am not so pro university.
it’s not because i think you are better off without a degree.
I went to a great university. Got a graduate degree in computer science. Great school. Worked my ass off to pay for it without school loans. I had some help from scholarships, but the majority of the tuition was paid for by hard labor. I graduated with no debt.
This was obviously beneficial. I went through a program that required a high level of logical thinking and perseverance.
But the “studies” programs seem to be the exact opposite. A cesspit of subjectivity mixed with a diaper full mental diarrhea, vanity, victim mentality, emotional pleading, and social cancer.
as jehovah’s witnesses, we were regularly told how awful a college education is.
i’m no longer associated with the religion but i am not so pro university.
it’s not because i think you are better off without a degree.
If you avoid any program with the word “studies” at the end of it, you might be OK.
On second thought, government is subsiding it now. So along with all the “studies” programs, general STEM is getting dumbed down to accommodate people that shouldn’t be in college. Prices are rising, quality is falling.
i think tesla and musk have officially jumped the shark.. did you see the "cybertruck" they released?
it's like the car that homer built!.
it has to be the ugliest vehicle ever built.
There are also questions about what happens in an accident - can emergency services get to you in your armour-plated electric coffin?
Yeah.. or since you armored car doesn’t buckle during a collision, what happens when two armored cars collide? Does the resultant elastic collision mean the passengers experience the complete inertial change? Is there anything left for emergency services to get?
Sorry I haven’t been following the thread closely - was Musk selling this car as debt proof (or close) too?
in fact, several "wtf"s, not least - why were you visiting a convicted pedophile after his release from prison, never-mind having any contact with him in the first place when his preoclivities seemed to be an open secret.. and the best he can some up with is "i don't remember"?
you don't remember?
there's a fucking photo of you with one of the victims and accessories to the crimes you dumb fuck!.
Did you write those, MeanMrMustard? Well done!
Thanks. Just having some fun :)
watched a little bit the famous impeachment hearings....the witness sometimes when they were put on oath were with a smiled in their faces, others insecure, and the rest rightly totally outraged.... i turned it off.
too much time on the media for nothing.
it's like the russian thing didn't work to oust trump, and now ukraine maybe.
@hybridous:
Yeah I agree about the process. It’s being used as a campaign tool for 2020. I don’t think it will work.
watched a little bit the famous impeachment hearings....the witness sometimes when they were put on oath were with a smiled in their faces, others insecure, and the rest rightly totally outraged.... i turned it off.
too much time on the media for nothing.
it's like the russian thing didn't work to oust trump, and now ukraine maybe.
Prior to that, it must pass through the House by a 2/3 majority.
No, the House can pass Articles of Impeachment by a majority (of those present to vote). The Democrats could pass the articles now. Senate conviction and removal required 2/3. This won’t happen.
