College Grad = F*cktard

[evan price]

Back when I was briefly ab English major at The Ohio State University, one assignment was to read "The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock" by TS Eliot. Then write a review similar to a movie critic. The professor was one well known tenured liberal lady and I think she was even the Chair of the English department.
So I wrote what I really felt, that it was a muddy confused piece of crap more or less. And Eliot isn't a writer I dislike.
Got an "F" on it, and "see me after class for rewrite/resubmit". Seems she had a love affair with this poem. Her favorite.
So I rewrote my review but only changed every negative word to positive. Got an "A". Go figure. That is what opened my eyes finally.
Also the class discussed goals. I wanted to write Sf/F. She said it would be virtually impossible to get published unless I was"in the circle" and the circle seemed to be full of people I disliked their writing and their bickering and inflated egos. So went back to Engineering.

[Langenator]

She seems to have been right about that last bit, at any rate. At least until self publishing cracked to door.

[Darrell]

I've read that 40% of incoming freshmen must take remedial classes upon entering college. This tells me there is something very wrong with the educational system.

[Denis]

I've read that 40% of incoming freshmen must take remedial classes upon entering college. This tells me there is something very wrong with the educational system.

Suggests to me both (a) the pre-college school system isn't much good and (b) many people go to college who shouldn't, because they can't benefit from it. They should probably learn a trade or skill instead.

[Old Grafton]

I've read that 40% of incoming freshmen must take remedial classes upon entering college. This tells me there is something very wrong with the educational system.

Suggests to me both (a) the pre-college school system isn't much good and (b) many people go to college who shouldn't, because they can't benefit from it. They should probably learn a trade or skill instead.

That's exactly the problem. Government loans and helicopter parents are putting butts in overpriced overrated seats when those butts should be standing around a plumbing or wiring or carpentry or welding instructor instead. We have shit-tons too many folk whose only skill is an obscene familiarity with a qwerty keyboard. Advanced auto mechanics can earn more than college professors--and deserve to do so. One young man who used to work for me earned a Bachelor of Physics from Ohio State--and finally found employment as a bank loan officer. Still that's better than the hiring rate for those with degrees in Womyn's Studies or Afrocentric Cultural History.

[blackeagle603]

One young man who used to work for me earned a Bachelor of Physics from Ohio State--and finally found employment as a bank loan officer

and I'd lay odds that was not his last stop on the job/career path.

[Aesop]

A college diploma has become the ultimate Participation Trophy in the educational olympics, by express design of nearly all involved.

This is what happens when two generations of educators, parents, and students learn exactly the wrong lesson from the Scarecrow's ultimate reward in L. Frank Baum's Wizard Of Oz.

[Langenator]

I read a blog post a while back on how SCOTUS had a large hand in making college into a credentialing experience vice an education. Had everything to do with the 'disparate impact' theory that came out of the Griggs v. Duke Power decision.

Basically, companies like Duke Power used to use various forms of intelligence tests, but the results were 'to white.' So know they use a things like college diplomas and credit scores as proxies.

[Vonz90]

I've read that 40% of incoming freshmen must take remedial classes upon entering college. This tells me there is something very wrong with the educational system.

Suggests to me both (a) the pre-college school system isn't much good and (b) many people go to college who shouldn't, because they can't benefit from it. They should probably learn a trade or skill instead.

That's exactly the problem. Government loans and helicopter parents are putting butts in overpriced overrated seats when those butts should be standing around a plumbing or wiring or carpentry or welding instructor instead. We have shit-tons too many folk whose only skill is an obscene familiarity with a qwerty keyboard. Advanced auto mechanics can earn more than college professors--and deserve to do so. One young man who used to work for me earned a Bachelor of Physics from Ohio State--and finally found employment as a bank loan officer. Still that's better than the hiring rate for those with degrees in Womyn's Studies or Afrocentric Cultural History.

Working in banking is not necessary a bad think. STEM majors get sucked onto a lot of non STEM fields because employers are figuring out that problem analysis and solving skills are almost always universally applicable.

[SoupOrMan]

Let's see...

Roberts
Thomas
Scalia
Alito
Souter
Ginsburg
Kagan
Sotomayor
Zeppo

There. Think I got it in one.