Posted on 04/17/2026 8:03:45 AM PDT by MomwithHope
It's been ages since I started a thread. These two pages seemed worthy of a read and discussion for those who might be interested. They are from family archives, an assignment in Sociology for the winter term 1944-1945 at Dartmouth College. Just discovered. They address many of the topics that are being discussed today.
The assignment is certainly a bit of history.
Only one question dealt with to the changes resulting from the 1924 immigration legislation. The others were all then-contemporary 1944-1945 issues.
I’ve often wondered about the impact the 1924 immigration legislation had on my Dad’s family. They immigrated from Danzig, Germany in October 1927, landing at Ellis Island. They were highly educated and my grandfather was an excellent mechanical engineer.
Yes, and to accommodate the "college for everyone" mindset, college curricula have had to be dumbed down. Students are admitted to colleges with barely elementary school level reading/writing and math ability, so colleges pick up the slack by offering remedial courses as the bulk of their curricula.
The literacy rate is about the same now as it was 50 years ago.
This is true, I think the rate of functional literacy is around 75 or 80%. "Literacy" used to be defined more broadly, i.e. if you can write your name and know the alphabet. That's different from functional literacy - being able to read and understand a paragraph of text, or to write a meaningful one.
Today’s leading essay topics in sociology departments
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Leading Sociology Essay Topics in 2026
Sociology departments today are exploring a mix of classic sociological issues and emerging social phenomena, often framed through established theories like functionalism, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionism Essay Writing Service+1. Here are some of the most prominent and relevant topics currently in focus:
1. Inequality and Social Stratification
Gender pay gap and its impact on women’s social mobility
Racial disparities in drug sentencing and the criminal justice system
2. Technology and Social Change
Social media’s role in shaping identity and political engagement
The sociology of memes and digital culture
How AI and automation are transforming labor markets
3. Social Movements and Activism
The anti-vaccination movement in social networks
Climate activism and environmentalism in consumer societies
Multicultural children’s experiences in U.S. schools
4. Family, Gender, and Relationships
The impact of government policies on family structure
Gender disparities in the criminal justice system
Domestic violence and its intergenerational effects
5. Globalization and Cultural Change
How globalization has altered local cultural practices
Food culture and its role in identity Service
Migration patterns and labor migration’s impact on host societies
6. Crime, Deviance, and Urban Sociology
Neighborhood crime and violence in urban areas
War on drugs and its long-term social consequences
Youth culture and delinquent behavior wr1ter.com
7. Environment and Sustainability
The social dimension of climate change
Environmentalism in consumer-driven societies
Urban sustainability and green space access
8. Health and Society
Medical sociology perspectives on public health policy
The social determinants of mental health
No, and there was no modern concept of "globalism" either, which is why its wrong to believe that people in USA, Japan or elsewhere in 1924 would react in ways mimicking our 2026 political/social thinking.
Some at that time might have tried fit the notion into classical, economic marxist thinking ie) all workers of the world are oppressed, but "woke" didn't arrive until well after the Frankfurt School and European post-modernists of the 1960s.
In 1924, the concept of race chauvinism, nations and distinct peoples and cultures that were different from others was widely accepted as normal, and right.
Not very different from my satirical examples - nearly all of the listed topics have to do with “equity” and victim politics.
These days they have to teach college kids basic math and how to write a paragraph.
At least, here in CA...
Also in 1924, most European countries had anti-semitic laws on their books. Germany was probably the least anti-semitic country in Europe before the Austrian Painter gained power.
There were leftist politics, but the issues that defined the political left and right were quite different a century ago. A century ago, the left was primarily focused on the conflict between capital and labor (i.e. classical Marxism) rather than the Left's current incarnation of racial, ethnic, or sexual victim/grievance politics.
Notably, socialist movements in the early 20th century attracted a large following among farmers and industrial workers - the very people who today's left treats as villainous "oppressors" and who now disproportionately vote Republican because of this!
Notably, socialist movements in the early 20th century attracted a large following among farmers and industrial workers - the very people who today’s left treats as villainous “oppressors” and who now disproportionately vote Republican because of this!
Fascism also appealed to many of these same groups.
“Students are admitted to colleges with barely elementary school level reading/writing and math ability”
Lol. What college?!
“...colleges pick up the slack by offering remedial courses as the bulk of their curricula.”
Remedial courses aren’t the “bulk” of the curriculum. A very small percentage of people in college need remedial courses.
“Literacy” used to be defined more broadly, i.e. if you can write your name and know the alphabet.”
No. If you know the alphabet and how to write your name and that’s it, you were always considered illiterate in both the classical sense and the modern sense.
Globalism has been around for centuries.
It was called Mercantilism during the Elizabethan era.
Yes, international trade or plunder has been around forever
I am talking about our present meaning of it.
Fascism and Nazism weren’t as successful at recruiting factory workers because of their anti-union platforms. The bulk of their base was made up of members of the lower middle class (e.g. small business owners etc) rather than industrial workers, who in the 1920s and 1930s gravitated more towards the Social Democratic and sometimes Communist movements. Farm owners (but not farm workers) in Italy and Germany tended to be supportive of the Fascists and Nazis as well - precisely because they were (understandably) concerned that socialists and communists would nationalize their private property, something the Fascists did not do.
You really can't be that naive. To start, take a look at many state universities (other than their more competitive flagships) with almost 100% admission rates - with such an admission policy, remediation is inevitable. Then take a look at for-profit diploma mills like University of Phoenix for even more egregious examples of how college has been dumbed down.
University of Phoenix is a for-profit university.
So your problem is with the for-profit universities?
Yeah, I agree with that: their degrees aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.
I was referring to how they govern once they gain power.
The rest of my paragraph was about second-tier public universities that are also diploma mills, thanks to nearly 100% admissions of all who apply - they’re as bad of a problem in higher education as for-profit diploma mills. You intentionally ignored that part of the paragraph, perhaps because it contradicts your blinkered view of things.
Welcome aboard Oneder!
Interesting. Hillsdale College BUMP.
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