Posted on 02/20/2016 7:56:38 AM PST by Republicanprofessor
In short, work hard for less, and if you don’t like who you’re working for, work for someone who will let you work hard.
You are so out of touch as to be laughable. The four year colleges do not all require exams and GPAs. Sorry to burst you little arrogant and childish bubble, little girl, but entrance to most colleges is guaranteed.
The fact is college education is controlled by corporations that hire college graduates. Since the dumbing down of the corporation has happened, most companies do not value technical educations but liberal arts like business majors. Most companies will not hire an engineer as a senior manager or executive. They want an MBA that does not have a technical degree. The MBAs of the world have circled the wagons and have kept out the superior intelligence for fear of competition. Why get a masters in engineering when a bimbo with a Business Communications or English degree will be the superior manager?
Colleges will follow whatever the commercial sector demands and they are only beginning to demand better educated graduates.
Two books that changed my perspective on teaching are Poetic Knowledge by Dr. James Taylor, and The Beautiful Tree by James Tooley.
The first explains what needs to be done, the second explains how it can be done.
“Entrance to most colleges is guaranteed”
The industry is amazingly successful at generating an aura of scarcity and competition when reality is that on May 1 there will be 10 000 unfilled places.
As a former professor at a 4 year state university I like to see anybody that has the motivation and interest in college get a grab at the ring.
The US is a free country and everyone should have equal access to education. If you can gain acceptance to a 4 year university and you can pay for it you should be allowed to try. If not you can always start out at the community college and see how that goes. You know as well as I do that college is hard. It winnows out the weak and unmotivated pretty quickly.
People who want to be auto mechanics, plumbers, hairdressers and electricians don’t generally plan to attend college anyway they go into the technical schools, 2 year cert programs and then internships etc.
What I do take exception with is all this talk about who should be allowed to go to college and who shouldn’t.
Sound like an interesting read. Most of life is maintenance and rote, so something has to be the sugar.
Either way,we are nasty animals still, with highly defined and scrupulously maintained practices of exclusion and admission. The cats promising the big tent welcome are quite comfortable outside of the tent.
They will state, “Send in your SAT and Application and transcript from highs school”, but the reality is that they are scared about not filling the entire school and few schools do fill up. There are always “waivers” and other means to admit a student. I’ve seen colleges give a “life credit” so a private-pay student has “prior college credits” to overcome the lack of an SAT score.
I worked at Noel Levitz, the college recruiting and retention company, and know first hand that colleges are scared to death about census. They lose so many students every quarter and most classes go unfilled.
There are many ways to enter college without an SAT score. About the only real requirement is a high school diploma or GED.
I think it is sad that a college will claim high academic standards only to admit that really good football player that can’t read, and graduate him the same.
I meant fed and state dollars are driving the unions and others...I agree dollars do not equate to success
“You know as well as I do that college is hard.”
No, it isn’t. It is very easy. It is a lot of work, but make-work is not education or difficult. You want to think it is hard because you want to place yourself on a pedestal, but that pedestal is made of cardboard and flimsy. We see the results of colleges and it isn’t impressive by any means. Illiteracy is rampant and knowledge and wisdom lacking.
Heck, even Harvard had a study a few years back showing 23% of graduates did worse on the entrance exams after graduation.
It’s not an easy read, but it’s worthwhile. The author taught at Hillsdale for awhile.
Sorry but you just don’t exhibit even a smidge (that’s community college for nano thought) of information that would qualify you to be involved in this discussion. :-)
Well I’m thinking “Code Toad” is an expression of serious self esteem issues which four years of college might have corrected. Especially since its so easy to get into college. :-)
Just whip the kids, as I did. No need for me or the wife to worry about income during retirement.
(actually, we only had to spank, and not much - kids FOCUS after being in some pain, always works)
Good points about parents and their involvement, sometimes to the detriment of the student. As a parent, I never double-checked or corrected my own kids homework. Sometimes they got in trouble for not doing it, and then they took the consequences.
I have always felt there should be a monetary involvement, even in public schools (beyond the taxes paid). So that even poor parents would pay something, even $50, so they are connected to their student’s progress. Richer districts would exact a higher toll, maybe $500-$1000, which could be used to even out the inequities between districts. I hope to imagine poor mothers saying something like “What do you mean, you didn’t do the work? I paid good money for you to go to that school...now do the work!”
Either way, I would hope that parents would be more accountable. I have found with private schools, and much higher costs, that parents are quite involved. Sometimes they are too much involved, but that is a subject for another essay.
I see education as the one possibility for evening out “inequity” in our society....if only students, from all backgrounds, could be taught a true work ethic for success.
I will look into those books, thank you.
I agree that it is a travesty to use athletics to attract students and then not educate them. Athletes, almost more that other students, need to learn because the percentage of athletes that make it to the major leagues is very low. And it is despicable that minorities especially are used for football, basketball, etc., and then discarded without a degree.
“I’m thinking “Code Toad†is an expression of serious self esteem issues “
As a so-called instructor, you espouse the very immaturity and stupidity we’ve come to expect of the collegiate system. Your ignorance is also well founded on FR and this comment of yours is just further demonstration of it.
“Code Toad” is a name for a cryptographer, someone with high levels of mathematical skills. Hardly a term for someone with a “serious self esteem issue” or lacking in education. You can refer to me as “Dr. Code Toad” in the future since, as a typical liberal, you place such titles on a pedestal and I am a PhD.
You dummies never know when to quit.
“Sorry but you just don’t exhibit even a smidge (that’s community college for nano thought) of information that would qualify you to be involved in this discussion. :-)”
I wouldn’t expect the typical college instructor to understand such matters and to make rash and emotional conclusions as you just did. Typical of the collegiate system today, nothing but emotionally driven liberals.
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