[Rhodes22-list] Academics - another view

[Brad Haslett]

Jim,

Like you, I paid for an undergrad degree from my own resources (grad school
was on my employer's nickel) which required eight years of work and study
for a four year degree.  Flight training was an additional burden.  When my
oldest son went off to college I was well established financially and gave
him a "full ride" which he managed to milk for five and a half years before
graduating.  He's now back in college pursuing a second degree on his dime.
My youngest was undecided on his major, not unusual for an incoming
Freshman, and decided early on to major in partying.  That lasted for one
semester and I cut off his funding, one of the most difficult things I've
ever had to do as a parent.  After a year of washing dishes (literally) he
decided that living without an education or job skills wasn't any fun so he
joined the Coast Guard.  Every time his boat deploys they have a college
instructor on board and with a combination of work and study, he should
finish his degree at about the age his father did, 26.  I'm not sure which
of the two boys is the luckiest.

Not only have we established a higher education entitlement system that
rewards some and punishes others based on color and ethnicity, we have in
fact dumbed the system down so no adult-child is left behind with the right
combination of victimhood status.  For anyone who thinks life has cheated
them out of an opportunity for a better education, I'll be happy to help
them find housing in Memphis, a part-time job with my employer that will pay
their tuition, and they will get full-time benefits.  It may not be the four
years of leisure they were dreaming about but they'll get their coveted
"sheepskin".  What they do with it after that is up to them.

Brad





On Thu, Feb 14, 2008 at 3:18 PM, Jim White <lemenagerie22 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Herb:
>
>  This is a subject I am passionate about, having put myself through
> college and grad school on grants, loans, the GI bill and my own money. I
> finally finished paying off those loans not long ago. The dilution of
> academics, and the notion that everybody is entitled to a college degree is
> just plain nonsense.
>
>  I am reminded of a story of a rather dense entitlement student that I had
> when I was TA'ing general biology. I was trying to get them to regurgitate
> Darwins theory on a test, asking the question "Explain Darwin's theory" to
> which I received the following answer from her:
>
>  "Darwin proposed survival of the fetus"
>
>  I didn't know whether to laugh or cry (of course I did the former), but
> briefly considered giving her credit for such a beautiful, if slightly
> obliquely correct answer. In a strange way I reasoned, in a manner of
> speaking she was right…. adaptation, embryonics and genetic mutation (god
> forbid, ontogeny recapitulating phylogeny!) producing strong and fit
> species….but of course she had no idea that this was the case, and her wild
> stab at an answer was simply petty semantics gone awry….
>
>  I ended up hanging a copy of her answer on my "wall of shame" where
> everybody who was legitimately striving to understand the world around them
> got great guffaws every time they read it.
>
>  My eldest at-home daughter is turning 18 Friday and will soon be
> graduating high school, college bound. She struggles sometimes in school,
> but maintains high grades and is an excellent student of whom we are deeply
> proud of.  Her mother and I are average, semi-talented middle class working
> folk, who struggle to pay bills. It will be a major challenge to simply help
> her get through college.
>
>  Meanwhile, had we been able to certify ourselves as "economically
> disadvantaged" i.e. migrant workers or some other cause celebre….she
> would've had the whole (excuse the pun….but we are a mixed ethnicity family)
> enchilada paid for, she would've been entitled to that
> education….compliments of you, me and Uncle Sugar. I know this as fact,
> because my wife happens to direct the high school college prep center, and
> has to award these freebies to underprivileged (and often ungrateful)
> students, long used to the perks and benefits of entitlement.
>
>  So, instead of encouraging survival of the fittest (genetic or
> otherwise), we are now encouraging the masses (regardless of ability or
> aptitude, (and….I'm not being discriminatory here, because there are most
> assuredly some who would benefit) to get that hallowed sheepskin and head
> out into professional life to make decisions of great importance. In doing
> so we dilute, and thus lower the standard to the lowest common denominator.
>
>  Pretty intelligent of us huh?
>
>  jw
>
>  Le Menagerie (1976 Rhodes 22)
>  Olivia (1974 Westerly Centaur Ketch)
>  http://www.yotblog.com/WesterlyC/
>
>
> Herb Parsons <hparsons at parsonsys.com> wrote:  Robert,
>
> You're missing a link in the chain. Yes, you're 100% right on it going
> "where the bucks are"; however, it's the (typically) liberal agenda of
> "education for all" that brings in those bucks that are combined with
> poor self-motivation or initiative.
>
> In "the old days", you basically had two types of people going to
> college - those that had wealthy parents, and those that worked they way
> through on their own. Obviously, there would be a percentage of those in
> the former group that weren't particularly motivated to do what needed
> to be done. It wasn't their money, so it didn't matter.
>
> On the other hand, the poor slob that ate peanut butter sandwiches 6
> days a week, and "splurged" on Spam once a week, so he could work his
> way through school, understood the cost, and was more likely to do what
> needed to be done.
>
> As we made the financial burden easier (or in some cases, non-existant),
> we added to the pool of those that were going on someone else's dime.
>
> And this is a capitalistic society. The colleges are going to adjust for
> that shift, and make courses easier.
>
> In other words, as PI (Politically INcorrect) as it may sound, there's
> something to be said for elitism.
>
> And, as we further dilute what it means to have a "college education",
> it will become of lesser and lesser value.
>
> Robert Skinner wrote:
> > ...
> > The dumbing down of college curricula may not be
> > entirely the result of whatever one might construe
> > as "liberalism." It may be a matter of where the
> > bucks are, and who is willing to dilute education in
> > pursuit of the student dollar.
> >
> >
>
> --
> Herb Parsons
> S/V O'Jure - O'Day 25
> S/V Reve de Pappa - Coronado 35
>
>
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