Many of the public schools in the US are already a mess so it’s just going to get worse.
WuWei
146
I didn’t say anything about mathematicians and cosmologists.
Hard to focus on school when kids are involved with ■■■■ like this:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/feds-cite-explosion-in-child-sextortion-cases-fbi-dhs-issue-national-public-safety-alert/ar-AA15smXU?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=8e43924937f24b64b9f790ba8617161c
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zantax
148
Don’t worry, the FBI has an elite eighty man team keeping an eagle eye on the internet to prevent that kind of stuff, no wait, that was to watch twitter for lame dad jokes.
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Samm
149
Here is an excellent assessment of the state of Higher Education in America and where it is headed if it does not radically change direction soon.
WuWei
151
Skeptical American employers, to remain globally competitive, will likely soon administer their own hiring tests.
Which will give cries of “RACISM!” all over again. Eventually those cries will rin into the bottom line.
History is a circle.
Excellent article! From your link:
At Yale University, administrative positions have soared over 150 percent in the last two decades. But the number of professors increased by just 10 percent. In a new low/high, Stanford recently enrolled 16,937 undergraduate and graduate students, but lists 15,750 administrative staff—in near one-to-one fashion.
No wonder these institutions are so ■■■■■■■ expensive with so much money going to people who contribute nothing to education or society!
My brother’s friend works for a private engineering firm. He told me they never higher anyone from ivy league schools. They largely are not all that impressive and more specifically their attitude is that they should run the company.
WuWei
153
Those recently graduated crits have to have a living while they wait for the revolution.
Nemesis
154
Not every person has to go or should go to college. But it seems every aspect of American culture is wrapped up in this myth.
School counsellors, gym instructor’s, books, movies, TV shows, news media, church, everything a child and parents is exposed to from birth is about college, college, college.
For the most part Kids get involved in extra curricular activities and charity work to enhance a college application.
My two sons (step sons) were pressured into going college by their dad, one dropped out and is now an EMT and graduated fire academy, the other graduated with a degree and a boat load of debt to his name. His dad pressured him to going to a private college bit after first year I talked some sense into him and he moved to the much more affordable state university. Ultimately his degree will help him but there are cheaper and more effective ways of going to college.
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Gaius
155
Interesting addendum
I am “taking” a free online course titled “Medieval Europe: Study of Antiquity and the Middle Ages” taught by Dr. David E. Thornton of both Cambridge and Oxford Universities. In this instance he is teaching the course in Bilkent University, Ankara Turkey.
Early in the course he shows an archeologist’s diagram of a particular Germanic tribal grave (a skeleton buried W-E with some weapons, some and other items), with very little comment, asks the students to identify what they are seeing.
At one point a student suggests that because it is buried with weapons it is probably a man. Dr. Thornton accepts the answer, but takes a moment to laugh-at and poke-fun-at American universities and says between laughs “at an American University I’d be fired for saying that.”
+++
This is only one example, so it is hard to say how widespread it has become, but this is at least one instance of American universities becoming the butt-end of jokes in the world university system.
Scorning American universities is NOT something done just by ignorant rednecks in MAGA caps. Esteemed professors worldwide now look down on the clown-and-pony act of politcal correctness that American universities have become.
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So much wrong with college / university in the US today. Don’t get me started with my veteran issues.
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Gaius
157
At Penn State there is an unchartered (it might be part of national thing) anyway it is chartered as s student club (not as a fraternity) so they can get funding and reserve on campus space etc…
It’s made up exclusively of veterans etc. and goes by the Greek Letters Chi Gamma Iota (or "X- GI.) They’re a good group of guys…I’ve done events with them.
https://sites.psu.edu/chigammaiota/about/history/
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Education like any other performance based system is largely based on the people it receives from the population. The more children the system receives from impoverished single parent homes with plenty of psychological and social issues, the greater the decline in education there will be no matter how much money Washington throws at the problem.
Samm
159
Yes, but in the case of our education system, it is the educators who are driving the society by indoctrinating children from a very young age. Universities are just the blatant tip of the iceberg where the indoctrination of the youth rears its head. We have now reached the point where qualifications produced by higher education are in danger of becoming meaningless, or even a detriment to the recipients.
WuWei
160
The US public education system including college is not performanced based.
Would you prefer the word progress based? The whole idea of moving up grade levels is that one adequately performs at the previous level. That’s the intent at least.
I agree with you on that as well. One can argue that it’s a double edged sword. One the one hand there’s an increasing decline in the quality of student along with a decreasing decline in the quality of education.
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A few years back I read a article about a family who had a Daughter in the Eanes district here in Austin. It is a very high level district in the most expensive area of Austin. The parents and Daughter wanted her to go to UT. But to qualify she had to be in the top 10% of her class. She was just outside it.
So they packed up and moved into a fairly low level area of San Antonio so she could be in the top 10%.
The SAT’s are still important. But now it is complicated by the ability to secure the student loans necessary. When I was in college (back in the 1970’s) I was a Engerring major. And I asked the question on how much more I could make going to a UC school versus a State University. And from what I could find out it was pretty marginal. But the costs were not. The one thing that I have learned over the years is that major Corporations will now hire kids out of college before they will hire folks with a few years experience. What they get in return is a person who is willing to take less money and a person that they can better mold to be a follower in their corporate philosophy.