[Rhodes22-list] Free Education

[Kroposki]

Lloyd:
       Nice reply.
                    Ed K

-----Original Message-----
From: rhodes22-list-bounces@rhodes22.org
[mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces@rhodes22.org] On Behalf Of lcrowther
Sent: Friday, January 24, 2003 12:36 AM
To: The Rhodes 22 mail list
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Free Education

Don't know anything about Cuba but I worked for the Imperial Highway
Authority in Ethiopia in 1960-1962 as their Training Engineer.  Went
back
for a short assignment in 1984/5(?) for the World Bank.  At that time
communism was in full flower and Americans were not welcome but the WB
and
my previous experience there made things possible, i.e., the WB had
money to
give.  Talked to an Ethiopian who had worked for me there before and
asked
him what the Reds were doing to his country.  He said he felt that the
longest range damage they had done and were doing to the country was to
make
a college education free to anyone who wanted it.  The government soon
learned that everybody couldn't hack a college education so they began
to
dumb down the educational content in order to continue to give everybody
who
wanted one a college degree.  Bear in mind that most Ethiopians couldn't
read, and still can not, so there was physical room at the university
for
people with connections and any pretense of an grade school education.
My
previous employee, who had graduated from Perdue in the early 50's, felt
that the government was wasting a whole generation of possible further
country leaders by graduating people who were trained to believe they
were
leadership material but couldn't screw in a light bulb.  Maybe he was
right!

Lloyd
s/v Uhuru II (Swahili meaning Freedom)


----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Alm" <salm@mn.rr.com>
To: "Rhodes" <rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 23, 2003 5:24 PM
Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Free Education


> As our illustrious former Gov. Jesse Ventura said after cutting
millions
> from the Univ. of MN spurring an immediate tuition hike, "If you're
smart
> enough to get into college, you should be able to figure out how to
pay
for
> it."
>
> Although it was yet another example of his shoot-from-the-hip
comments, I
> think there's a little wisdom there.  Maybe just a little.  But if a
college
> education was a free and easy thing, wouldn't that make any advanced
degree
> more common and less distinguishing?  Further, in order to make their
> programs look like they're working, there would be a big push to get
> everybody graduated--so they'd have to dumb down the programs to
achieve
> this.  Instead of "No child left behind" it would be "No
dorm-squatting,
> reefer-blowing coed left behind."  [grin]
>
> Show me the money!  We have enough trouble funding K-12.  But I'm in
favor
> of finding ways to make college more available to more people.  Bush
is
now
> at loggerheads within his own cabinet on Affirmative Action.
> Quotas...whatever!  Let them in.  Let everybody in.  Even ere on the
side
of
> letting anybody in.  But Don't lower the bar to get out!!!!  Not even
the
> first class.  Calculus 101 isn't supposed to be easy.
>
> But for the good students, we need to find more creative ways of
helping
> them get through.  For you parents out there who are putting your kids
> through college, OWCH!  I feel your pain.  Tuition is outrageous.
Bring
> back the GI Bill.  What do you say we make a new tax (gasp!) on
companies
> that require a college degree for employment?  That money goes to the
> colleges and universities (but not Bob Jones University) and offsets
the
> tuition. We could call it the dorm-squatting, reefer-blowing tax.
>
> Last thought: Cuba has one of, if not the highest literacy rate in the
> world.  And almost everybody goes to college.  Has that helped Cubans
or
> Cuba herself?  I'd like hearing from any of you who know more about
higher
> ed in Cuba.
>
> Slim
>
> _________________________________________________
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