Posted on 03/28/2014 5:17:22 AM PDT by C19fan
An awful 146-word term paper littered with grammatical errors that is barely even readable has become a potent visual symbol of the University of North Carolina's fake classes scandal. The one-paragraph essay on civil rights icon Rosa Parks earned an A- and was exposed by former UNC professor Mary Willingham, who spent 10 years teaching UNC's athletes before she turned whistleblower on alleged classroom corruption. The shocking essay came to light during an ESPN documentary timed to coincide with the March Madness basketball competition. It contains allegations that UNC athletes in danger of failing were encouraged to sign up for fake tutor groups designed to let students pass.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Having academic standards for admission, instead of a quota system, would solve this.
Thanks C19fan.
I never gave a d... about college football or any other college sport. I mean, sure, if you play your traditional, local rivals within a 300 mi. radius, and it’s amateur, and all the players are really students, and you’re into sports...
It just amazes me when stands fill up with thousands and thousands of screaming fans who really care about a game, that the outcome really, really maters to them.
How do players recruited solely for their athletic ability, who are not students in any true sense, who have nothing in common with the rest of the student body somehow represent the school?
In addition to the egregious mistakes, the assignment itself is ridiculous. Even at the undergrad level students complete research, not reports! There should be a thesis statement with pages of cited support. A report is something assigned to middle school children!
While the administration is in charge and liable, the ‘students’ still have to accept responsibility for being part of the fraud. They knew that they were not getting an education, that they were a party to the scheme. I do not feel sorry for them.
You are right! Living her in Central Pa most of my life. Penn State was hiden in the hills and there was no real light shining on nothing but the football program. That is why the evil crap went on.
I can hear it now....
“But...but...but...This guy is our leading wide receiver! He broke the school record for touchdowns! He got us to a bowl game! We CAN’T possibly suspend him from the team for academic reasons! Where’s our TV revenue going to come from????
As much as many of us enjoy college sports...that is NOT the reason for the existence of institutes of higher learning....DESPITE the thoughts of alumni and boosters.
(I know my thoughts are not popular among those people who support SUCCESSFUL sports programs.)
The availability (or removal) of athletic scholarships should be based on historical athlete graduation rates. Most basketball, and many football programs would be decimated.
Affirmative action, racial quotas and artifically elevated grades to minority students who barely attended classes are what gave us this president.......
I read this on the Blaze last night and it is just one example of the academic fraud that got UNC in trouble.
I think we’re just not seeing the papers of thousands of other students who were admitted based on the color of their skin or ethnicity.
Probably a big reason nobody has ever seen any of Obama’s work. Speaking of which, has anyone ever even seen a reference to any student that has sat in a classroom of the “constitutional” professor?
I’ve seen resumes with similar grammar.
This article is missing the real elephant in the room.
I worked for a couple of years as an instructor in the writing clinic of a large university. Lots of college students (and graduate students as well) who were not athletes had problems with writing that were as bad or worse than this example.
And some of the teachers were at fault for not demanding better writing skills on papers. I know of at least one professor who accepted papers written in Ebonic as valid.
We are living in a time in which the great dumbing down of the American student is taking place.
However, here's a thought. Maybe it's just me, or maybe others out there are thinking the same thing...
If we DO require better writing skills, better comprehension, and speaking the English language in a way that shows that you know how to use words properly, and the people coming through the education system prove that they are INCAPABLE of these things, what then? Yes, it could be the teacher's fault...but what if it isn't?
Please understand...I am NOT talking about dyslexia or a clinical reason. I am talking about kids who come out of a CULTURE of not wanting to learn, reinforced by the actions of both peers and parents. Are we graduating (or passing) people who, for whatever reason, are not capable of proper language skills?
And here's the $64,000 question: What do we DO with those who simply cannot speak, read, or write properly?
(Yes...I am well aware I am wading into dangerous territory.)
I’m from the old school. My female teachers in high school were the best and brightest of their generation because that was one of the best professions that was open to to them in that era.
In my high school English classes, if you had one error in grammar or spelling, your essay was downgraded to a B; two rated a C and so on. Today’s students coming out of high school have never had such rigorous standards imposed on them and bring their terrible writing skills to college with them.
In my college classes from 1999-2005, I couldn’t enforce that standard and keep my job. Today’s students “grade” their teachers and if you are too hard on them by enforcing high standards of performance, then you get bad grades from them.
And this is a problem that will get worse, because many of the students I was teaching had a goal of becoming teachers themselves. So the same students who can’t write now will be teaching the next generation of high school students. It will be a self-reinforcing downward spiral.
Not just the major programs and not just college. How do you think this dummy got out of H.S. in the first place?
The reason students cannot write is they do not read. I didn’t say they can’t read; it’s that they DON’T read. You have to be a good reader before you can become a decent writer.
Urban culture: Mutha is half a word.
Why bother with the pretense of an education? Colleges should go to the local prison and hire young inmates to represent them.
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