I think universities are in trouble. These overpriced vanity degrees are not worth the paper that they are printed on. Students are paying a big price for a useless education. They need a piece of paper when they apply for a job, but the reality is that most institutions now give the degrees away and they have no bearing on the ability of the students who receive them. When I was in college, I knew a girl from the same department who had gotten A's in most of her classes, even though she didn't know anything. In fact, she was not super smart. She took classes from the same female professor who gave A's to all the female students because they had been oppressed by the male society, clearly a variation of grading on the curve. I took one course from the same professor and it wasn't rigorous or challenging.
As to ethnic advantages, I dated a Chinese girl who lived in Berkeley, but she couldn't go to UC Berkeley because there was a Chinese student quota. She had to attend UC Davis. The competition by Chinese students was so strong that admissions restricted the Chinese. Otherwise, as my girlfriend said, UC Berkeley would have been Chinese U. Chinese students got the highest scores on the SAT tests. No other ethnic groups, aside from the highest echelon of white students, would have gotten into the university if it was based strictly on grades and test scores.
When I went to the university, I paid $84 per semester. I loved going through the admission process every semester and writing that check, because I considered the education to be essentially free. That's what an education should be. It should be free to all, so that they can explore ideas, read books, and listen to the thoughts of professors and other students. You shouldn't have to pay $50,000 a year to get a piece of paper to hang on the wall at the end of four years. I went to the university on the GI Bill, and I spent four years reading the best books written by the best minds who every put pen to paper. I want to say that I read the best minds of all time, but I think it's likely that some very smart people were born in a time when there were no books, no pens, no paper, and no way to record their thoughts. Let's hope that we breathe in a few molecules of their breath every time we breathe.
She could make words! Indeed. There was a day when my daughter of Z's age said something clearly synthesized from things she had heard but in a phrase she was unlikely to have heard. She created that original thing herself and was a glimpse into the human mind and how we connect things. Our children are marvels!
Credentials. We in the west have been led down a bad path - higher education for all, forget the expense no value for money. But we see US high schools graduating seniors who can't read beyond the third grade level (Baltimore and LA reporting). How can that possibly be true? What have we done to even devalue a HS diploma? Is it a product of feminism that now requires bright women to become CEOs instead of tending to our children (nominally females generally care more I believe)? We brainwashed generations to gain a female mind in the boardroom? We seriously need for the next generation to come to terms with these social wrongs.
We do need a Great Reset but it's not what the billionaires of the WEF wish. It's a return to real social values centered on family. A departure from the constancy of media feeds demanding your attention to purchase some widget of marginal utility. I still rely on my cast iron which enjoying my Instapot, thanks. But I could survive using that butane stove, I think.
Thanks. We are learning about butane. One of the girls apparently turned on the small burner. I did not notice, and as I opened the main valve and lit one of the big burners, gas escaped. Thank goodness Oksana noticed it. Note to self: keep checking the main valve, and close it so tightly that little fingers cannot open it.
I think universities are in trouble. These overpriced vanity degrees are not worth the paper that they are printed on. Students are paying a big price for a useless education. They need a piece of paper when they apply for a job, but the reality is that most institutions now give the degrees away and they have no bearing on the ability of the students who receive them. When I was in college, I knew a girl from the same department who had gotten A's in most of her classes, even though she didn't know anything. In fact, she was not super smart. She took classes from the same female professor who gave A's to all the female students because they had been oppressed by the male society, clearly a variation of grading on the curve. I took one course from the same professor and it wasn't rigorous or challenging.
As to ethnic advantages, I dated a Chinese girl who lived in Berkeley, but she couldn't go to UC Berkeley because there was a Chinese student quota. She had to attend UC Davis. The competition by Chinese students was so strong that admissions restricted the Chinese. Otherwise, as my girlfriend said, UC Berkeley would have been Chinese U. Chinese students got the highest scores on the SAT tests. No other ethnic groups, aside from the highest echelon of white students, would have gotten into the university if it was based strictly on grades and test scores.
When I went to the university, I paid $84 per semester. I loved going through the admission process every semester and writing that check, because I considered the education to be essentially free. That's what an education should be. It should be free to all, so that they can explore ideas, read books, and listen to the thoughts of professors and other students. You shouldn't have to pay $50,000 a year to get a piece of paper to hang on the wall at the end of four years. I went to the university on the GI Bill, and I spent four years reading the best books written by the best minds who every put pen to paper. I want to say that I read the best minds of all time, but I think it's likely that some very smart people were born in a time when there were no books, no pens, no paper, and no way to record their thoughts. Let's hope that we breathe in a few molecules of their breath every time we breathe.
Nicely reasoned and written!
Thanks, Ed!
She could make words! Indeed. There was a day when my daughter of Z's age said something clearly synthesized from things she had heard but in a phrase she was unlikely to have heard. She created that original thing herself and was a glimpse into the human mind and how we connect things. Our children are marvels!
Credentials. We in the west have been led down a bad path - higher education for all, forget the expense no value for money. But we see US high schools graduating seniors who can't read beyond the third grade level (Baltimore and LA reporting). How can that possibly be true? What have we done to even devalue a HS diploma? Is it a product of feminism that now requires bright women to become CEOs instead of tending to our children (nominally females generally care more I believe)? We brainwashed generations to gain a female mind in the boardroom? We seriously need for the next generation to come to terms with these social wrongs.
We do need a Great Reset but it's not what the billionaires of the WEF wish. It's a return to real social values centered on family. A departure from the constancy of media feeds demanding your attention to purchase some widget of marginal utility. I still rely on my cast iron which enjoying my Instapot, thanks. But I could survive using that butane stove, I think.
Thanks. We are learning about butane. One of the girls apparently turned on the small burner. I did not notice, and as I opened the main valve and lit one of the big burners, gas escaped. Thank goodness Oksana noticed it. Note to self: keep checking the main valve, and close it so tightly that little fingers cannot open it.
Some instruction required. The worse might be the loss of gas and that trek.