Tag Archives: academic

“Let the Damned Thing Die”

07 Wednesday Feb 2018

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He’s (She’s?, Xir’s??, They’s???) not talking about the Federal Reserve.

Another good reason to be very wary of the college-debt-idiocy complex:

Following a row about a professor-produced play about immigration a new and exciting student group has sprung up at Kenyon College in Ohio: The Whiteness Group seeks to silence whites on campus.

The Good Samaritan’s retraction comes serendipitously at the same moment as the creation of a new student group at Kenyon: “the whiteness group.”

The group was founded by a student, Juniper Cruz, and is notable not just for its name, but for its rules, which state that “no white person can ask a person of color questions; white people must try to answer their questions for themselves. And no spreading rumors about what people say during the meetings.”

If you were going to set out to create a more illiberal student group possible at a college, you would be hard-pressed to do so.

Were I a student at Kenyon, this wouldn’t be much of a problem for me. “STFU” isn’t exactly a question. And censorship and crybaby-ism isn’t much of an academic tradition. At least one (probably older) professor gets it: “’Today is the end of [liberal education at Kenyon College],’ Fred Baumann, a professor of political science at Kenyon, proclaimed last week to a panel and its audience.”

He’s alone:

And as for Baumann’s suggestion that liberal education was finished at Kenyon, he’s certainly on to something. Following the panel where Baumann made his stand, one student took to Facebook, saying that if liberal education “necessitates the silencing of marginalized communities, the protection of racism, and our complicity with both, then let the damned thing die.”

A loaded, fallacious “if, then.” Let it already; there are better and cheaper alternatives. Is this garbage worth $65,840 per year? No.

Average-College-Debt

No questions asked, okay?! WFDD.

SJWs Attempt Convergence of the Hard Sciences

17 Monday Jul 2017

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Not content with gender and hoax “studies,” and having taken over the legal education, they now move on to the research sciences:

Academics and scholars must be mindful about using research done by only straight, white men, according to two scientists who argued that it oppresses diverse voices and bolsters the status of already privileged and established white male scholars.

Geographers Carrie Mott and Daniel Cockayne argued in a recent paper that doing so also perpetuates what they call “white heteromasculinism,” which they defined as a “system of oppression” that benefits only those who are “white, male, able-bodied, economically privileged, heterosexual, and cisgendered.” (Cisgendered describes people whose gender identity matches their birth sex.)

Mott, a professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, and Cockayne, who teaches at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, argued that scholars or researchers disproportionately cite the work of white men, thereby unfairly adding credence to the body of knowledge they offer while ignoring the voices of other groups, like women and black male academics. Although citation seems like a mundane practice, the feminist professors argue that citing someone’s work has implications on his or her ability to be hired, get promoted and obtain tenured status, among others.

There is, of course and as noted in the article, a distinct lack of otherkin in the hard sciences. That’s not the point; this is all code for hating the “white, male, able-bodied, economically privileged, heterosexual, and cisgendered.” As for citations, if not for the foregoing evil white men, there would be next to nothing to cite. Fred Reed, two years ago, noted just a few of the accomplishments:

Euclidean geometry. Parabolic geometry. Hyperbolic geometry. Projective geometry. Differential geometry. Calculus: Limits, continuity, differentiation, integration. Physical chemistry. Organic chemistry. Biochemistry. Classical mechanics. The indeterminacy principle. The wave equation. The Parthenon. The Anabasis. Air conditioning. Number theory. Romanesque architecture. Gothic architecture. Information theory. Entropy. Enthalpy. Every symphony ever written. Pierre Auguste Renoir. The twelve-tone scale. The mathematics behind it, twelfth root of two and all that. S-p hybrid bonding orbitals. The Bohr-Sommerfeld atom. The purine-pyrimidine structure of the DNA ladder. Single-sideband radio. All other radio. Dentistry. The internal-combustion engine. Turbojets. Turbofans. Doppler beam-sharpening. Penicillin. Airplanes. Surgery. The mammogram. The Pill. The condom. Polio vaccine. The integrated circuit. The computer. Football. Computational fluid dynamics. Tensors. The Constitution. Euripides, Sophocles, Aristophanes, Aeschylus, Homer, Hesiod. Glass. Rubber. Nylon. Roads. Buildings. Elvis. Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors. (OK, that’s nerve gas, and maybe we didn’t really need it.) Silicone. The automobile. Really weird stuff, like clathrates, Buckyballs, and rotaxanes. The Bible. Bug spray. Diffie-Hellman, public-key cryptography, and RSA. Et cetera.

Space-Shuttle

Oppressive white heteromasculinism in action. Fred Reed/NASA/the Oppressors.

Rather than be thankful for the incredible groundwork, the SJWs attack the groundworkers. They always lie… I suppose it would be possible to live without the above-listed. People did so for thousands of years – in caves. Maybe that’s the final goal – regression to the Paleolithic.

“You’ve come a long way, baby. Now go back.”

Of Summer Jobs, Economic Woe, and Academic Pursuits, Etc.

23 Friday Jun 2017

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So much in one AP story about teens and summer and changes: the Disappearing Summer Job.

As summer 2017 begins, America’s teenagers are far less likely to be acquiring the kinds of experiences Doyle found so useful. Once a teenage rite of passage, the summer job is vanishing.

Instead of baling hay, scooping ice cream or stocking supermarket shelves in July and August, today’s teens are more likely to be enrolled in summer school, doing volunteer work to burnish their college credentials or just hanging out with friends.

For many, not working is a choice. For some others, it reflects a lack of opportunities where they live, often in lower-income urban areas: They sometimes find that older workers hold the low-skill jobs that once would have been available to them.

In July 1986, 57 percent of Americans ages 16 to 19 were employed. The proportion stayed over 50 percent until 2002 when it began dropping steadily. By last July, only 36 percent were working.

So much about modern America in one article. I was going to dissect this, almost line by line, but I have not the time – working my summer jobs.

My first summer job, of real employment, was conning people into helping people obtain gym memberships. Some 27 years later, I’m kind of still at it. I’m under contract for a fitness chapter in a new book (should be drafted and in next week) and writing a stand-alone book on the subject for the same publisher (later this summer). This is in no way typical.

pee-wee-bag-boy

Gone like Pee Wee? Sinking liner.

There are:

Fewer jobs;

Massive competition for them;

Illegals and other immigrant inflation;

Pressures for college (for what that’s worth);

And the looming threat of total automation.

Please make of this material what you will. Did you have a summer job? Your kids? Food for thought in a changed nation. Where are we?

Valediction 2017

20 Tuesday Jun 2017

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The news from government schools and the standardized “education” industry grows worse by the month.

“Valediction,” as used above, means saying farewell.

Valedictoria: a student, typically having the highest academic achievements of the class, who delivers the valedictory at a graduation ceremony.

The Valedictorian, with the highest academic achievement, gets to say farewell to the school on behalf of the graduating class. And we now bid farewell to valedictorians in American government high schools.

Unfortunately, as the AP points out today, that is exactly what seems to be happening at high schools all around the country as the title of “valedictorian” is being eliminated and/or bestowed upon so many kids in each graduating class that it’s rendered meaningless.

“More and more schools are moving toward a more holistic process. They look deeper into the transcript,” Gottlieb said.

Wisconsin’s Elmbrook School District has for several years ranked only the valedictorian and salutatorian, and only then because the state awards scholarships to schools’ top two graduates, according to Assistant Superintendent Dana Monogue. The change has been accepted by colleges and community alike, Monogue said.

“We are encouraged by any movement that helps students understand that they’re more than a score, that they’re more than a rank,” she said.

One school in Tennessee awarded the “valedictorian” title to 48 kids or roughly 25% of the entire graduating class.

Tennessee’s Rutherford County schools give the valedictorian title to every student who meets requirements that include a 4.0 grade-point average and at least 12 honors courses. Its highly ranked Central Magnet School had 48 valedictorians this year, about a quarter of its graduating class.

At another school in Maryland, the AP highlights the woes of a concerned mother who wonders how ranking might affect her teenager’s confidence.

The day rankings came out at Hammond High School in Columbia, Maryland, students were privately told their number — but things didn’t stay private for long.

“That was the only thing everyone was talking about,” said Mikey Peterson, 18, who shrugged off his bottom-third finish and will attend West Virginia University in the fall.

A spokesman for the Howard County, Maryland, district said schools recognize their top 5 percent so students can include it on college applications and hasn’t considered changing.

“There was a big emphasis on where you landed,” said Peterson’s classmate Vicki Howard, 18. “It made everything 10 times more competitive.”

Peterson’s mother, Elizabeth Goshorn, said she can’t walk into his school without hearing good things about her affable son, but worries about how rankings can affect a teenager’s confidence.

“It has such an impact on them as to how they perceive themselves if you’re putting rankings on them,” she said.

Try as you might, ignoring the principles of basic mathematics does not mean that they cease to exist. And while your enabling parents, high schools and colleges may share your view that ranking people on the basis achievement is racist, sexist and/or any other number of adjectives you may wish to throw out there….again, we assure you that the real world does not care.

Life is competitive and your relative performance versus your peers will ultimately determine your success in life irrespective of how “triggering” that fact may be. The sooner you realize that fact, the sooner you’ll be able to move out of mom’s basement.

The feelings of the snowflakes and the incessant demands of the SJWs destroy another tradition.

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I was not, if I recall ancient history correctly, valedictorian at “my” government high school. We had some very smart kids and very industrious. I’m confident my IQ placed at or very near the top. But my efforts*, while better than average, fell far short of the top slot. I can’t remember who received the honor, and honor it is (was), but I wasn’t the least bit upset about it. I’m happy when people succeed.

Now it’s gone – or going. Maybe it’s time to bid farewell to the schools. A class of valedictorians probably will require remedial education in college and, later, in life. What’s the point?

* My efforts continued to slide in college, as my IQ also surely declined… I rebounded in law school; still not top spot but with honors. I also got a shout out by name, from the faculty speaker, for my achievement. That, I think was rebel-rousing… Hmmm…

Four More Good Reasons to Reconsider the College Experience

16 Friday Jun 2017

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And anymore, it’s an experience more than an education. I suppose the following does not apply to STEMs (maybe and for now), many professional tracks, and broad-spectrum education sought out by those with both the aptitude and the existing financial abilities. This is for the other 90% of students and potential applicants. It is time to think long and hard about paying (financing) a fortune for four, five, or ten years of increasingly useless drivel.

From Jonathan Newman at Mises:

Students are running out of reasons to pursue higher education. Here are four trends documented in recent articles:

[1] Graduates have little to no improvement in critical thinking skills

The Wall Street Journal reported on the troubling results of the College Learning Assessment Plus test (CLA+), administered in over 200 colleges across the US.

According to the WSJ, “At more than half of schools, at least a third of seniors were unable to make a cohesive argument, assess the quality of evidence in a document or interpret data in a table”. The outcomes were the worst in large, flagship schools: “At some of the most prestigious flagship universities, test results indicate the average graduate shows little or no improvement in critical thinking over four years.”

There is extensive literature on two mechanisms by which college graduates earn higher wages: actually learning new skills or by merely holding a degree for the world to see (signaling). The CLA+ results indicate that many students aren’t really learning valuable skills in college.

As these graduates enter the workforce and reveal that they do not have the required skills to excel in their jobs, employers are beginning to discount the degree signal as well. Google, for example, doesn’t care if potential hires have a college degree. They look past academic credentials for other characteristics that better predict job performance.

[2] Shouting matches have invaded campuses across the country [SJW mayhem]

It seems that developing critical thinking skills has taken a backseat to shouting matches in many US colleges. At Evergreen State College in Washington, student protests have hijacked classrooms and administration. Protesters took over the administration offices last month, and have disrupted classes as well. It has come to the point where enrollment has fallen so dramatically that government funding is now on the line.

The chaos at Evergreen resulted in “anonymous threats of mass murder, resulting in the campus being closed for three days.” One wonders if some of these students are just trying to get out of class work and studying by staging a campus takeover in the name of identity politics and thinly-veiled racism.

The shouting match epidemic hit Auburn University last semester when certain alt-right and Antifa groups (who are more similar than either side would admit) came from out of town to stir up trouble. Neither outside group offered anything of substance for discourse, just empty platitudes and shouting. I was happy to see that the general response from Auburn students was to mock both sides or to ignore the event altogether. Perhaps the Auburn Young Americans for Liberty group chose the best course of action: hosting a concert elsewhere on campus to pull attention and attendance away from both groups of loud but empty-headed out-of-towners. Of the students who chose not to ignore the event, my favorite Auburn student response was a guy dressed as a carrot holding a sign that read, “I Don’t CARROT ALL About Your Outrage.”

The other two reasons are:

[3] More efficient alternatives;

[4] Tuitions are Up; Incomes are Down.

All of these are telling and alarming. Any one by itself would be worrisome. For me, perhaps the worst is the lack of learning – especially considering the ridiculous costs imposed.

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Moon Prep.

What is the point of spending the better part of a decade (I think I was the last four-year degree man to actually finish in four years) at school, when there are no measurable increases in knowledge or critical thinking? To go through this, mortgaging ten to thirty years of one’s life in debt without the prospect of decent employment is ludicrous.

These are but four reasons. Look around and I’ll bet you can come up with another four – or forty. Google: “James Altucher college” for some extreme insight into better options.

If you’re in college or thinking about it, or if you know someone who is: seriously consider the many and increasing downsides. One can watch football and drink beer for a lot less and without the increased stress.

Rappin’ at Harvard

19 Friday May 2017

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I was going to use this story as an example of the decline of academia.But, after reading it, I’m not so sure.

While other Harvard University students were writing papers for their senior theses, Obasi Shaw was busy rapping his.

Shaw is the first student in Harvard’s history to submit a rap album as a senior thesis in the English Department, the university said. The album, called “Liminal Minds,” has earned the equivalent of an A-minus grade, good enough to guarantee that Shaw will graduate with honors next week.

Count Shaw among those most surprised by the success.

“I never thought it would be accepted by Harvard,” said Shaw, a 20-year-old from Stone Mountain, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. “I didn’t think they would respect rap as an art form enough for me to do it.”

Shaw describes the 10-track album as a dark and moody take on what it means to be black in America. Each song is told from a different character’s perspective, an idea inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer’s 14th-century classic “The Canterbury Tales.” Shaw, who’s black, also draws on the works of writer James Baldwin while tackling topics ranging from police violence to slavery.

Unorthodox? Yes. But I’m a sucker for Chaucer.

The Miller 2

I wonder how the Miller’s part goes?

Was this big man, could bust down doors.

Love to party with all the … ladies…

For the creativity and subject matter I would have dropped the “-” for a straight “A”.

Huh.

American Colleges: Play Dough and Bean Bag Studies Dept.

17 Wednesday May 2017

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It’s graduation season for American high school seniors. Congratulations, kids, especially those of you who survived twelve years of government indoctrination. For many this fall means heading off to college. I know young people, this year, headed to Georgia Tech, UNC, Chapel Hill, and Notre Dame. These selections and acceptances, by themselves, are impressive accomplishments.

However, I have warned repeatedly in the recent past about the decline of academia. Today, Dr. Walter Williams shares some similar cautionary sentiments: please know and understand what really goes on at modern institutions of higher learning.

To reduce angst among snowflakes in its student body, the University of California, Hastings College of the Law has added a “Chill Zone.” The Chill Zone, located in its library, has, just as most nursery schools have, mats for naps and beanbag chairs. Before or after a snooze, students can also use the space to do a bit of yoga or meditate. The University of Michigan Law School helped its students weather their Trump derangement syndrome — a condition resulting from Donald Trump’s election — by enlisting the services of an “embedded psychologist” in a room full of bubbles and play dough. To reduce pressure on law students, Joshua M. Silverstein, a law professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, thinks that “every American law school ought to substantially eliminate C grades and set its good academic standing grade point average at the B- level.”

Today’s academic climate might be described as a mixture of infantilism, kindergarten and totalitarianism. The radicals, draft dodgers and hippies of the 1960s who are now college administrators and professors are responsible for today’s academic climate. The infantilism should not be tolerated, but more important for the future of our nation are the totalitarianism and the hate-America lessons being taught at many of the nation’s colleges. …

Mats, bean bags, bubbles, and play dough at law schools. Law schools – graduate programs for people who have already passed through college at least once, many of them with one or more years of “real world” experience in between tenures. Perhaps the real world isn’t what it was.

ydR7CCNl

Hasbro.

Williams point, like mine previously, is that we must not tolerate this nonsense any longer. We just can’t afford to humor the idiocy at the expense of civilization. Paying $50,000 or more, per year, for play dough and safe zones is insane. There are vastly less expensive options, some that are free.

If you’re thinking about going to college or if you’re the parent of a student, think long and hard about what goes on at some of these giant preschools with beer parties. Do your homework.

Williams concludes, again as I have before, that the best way to fight this is to cut the money. Regents and legislators can do that, theoretically, by slashing budgets. You can do it by withholding tuition. Do something. Anyway,

Congratulations to the Class of 2017!

Reality v. The Ninth Circuit: 72 Terrorists

11 Saturday Feb 2017

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The black-robed dictators in San Francisco claimed no evidence was presented to justify President Trump’s enforcement of existing law. But we know that SJWs, even the ones wearing robes, always lie. ALWAYS.

Since 9/11, 72 individuals from the seven mostly Muslim countries covered by President Trump’s “extreme vetting” executive order have been convicted of terrorism, a finding that clashes sharply with claims from an appeals court that there is “no evidence” those countries have produced a terrorist.

According to a report out Saturday, at least 17 claimed to be refugees from those nations, three came in as “students,” and 25 eventually became U.S. citizens.

The Center for Immigration Studies calculated the numbers of convicted terrorists from the Trump Seven:

— Somalia: 20

— Yemen: 19

— Iraq: 19

— Syria: 7

— Iran: 4

— Libya: 2

72. That were CONVICTED. That we know about. The true number of terrorists is much harder to ascertain, especially by the metric of conviction.

Of instance, Abdul “Allahu Akbar!” Artan, the saintly Somali scholar formerly of THE Ohio State University, can never be convicted. His important graduate research, Blood Loss Quantities, by Type, Via Insertion of Knife, Following Honda Civic Sharia-fication of Infidels on a Sidewalk, was rudely interrupted by a racist police officer and his NRA-approved sidearm. To think we may never know if his hypothesis was correct.

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Adbul “Allahu Akbar” Artan ponders the physics of the Civic for his civic physical experiment. Twitter.

Also, Omar “My Name Is I Pledge Of Allegiance [to ISIS]” Mateen (wherever the hell he was from and should have been last summer) lost all of his data concerning The Kinetic Effects, Physical, Psychological, and Philosophical, of Concentrated Rifle Fire on Frolicking Central Floridian Homosexuals, at Night, as Studied (Studiously) by a Former Jilted Down Low Lover (And ISIS Supporting Jihadist): A Lone Wolf Analysis in Time after Putin, Trump, and Focus on the Family sent a SWAT team to murder him – even as he so diligently worked. They may convict his wife but never Omar. Research lost forever.

The Ninth was correct that much scholarly work – learning, teaching, and research – is being interrupted. So many academic treasures at risk – airport shootings, sidewalk maulings, mall stabbings, train station bombings, gay club murder, straight club murder, cartoon convention attacks, warehouse office decapitations, office party massacres, marathon bombings, Wal-Mart hostage takings, Trump-supporter tacklings, etc., etc., etc.

Still, there is that evidence thing. And the law. And the Constitution. The Culture. History. Reality.

Is it 72? 7,200? All of them? Given the uncertainty and the importance of the issue, I’d just as soon say “all”. So, send them all packing. And save room on the planes for the judges, the lawyers, George Soros, Congress, and all the G-D “protesters” too.

Snowflakes, Diversity, And The Two Americas

23 Wednesday Nov 2016

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When it comes to opinion of the state of American academia, Walter Williams is our laureate. Today he recounts more snowflake meltdowns of the student, faculty, and administrative varieties.

In a previous column, I cited an article on News Forum For Lawyers titled “Study Finds College Students Remarkably Incompetent,” which referenced an American Institutes for Research study that revealed that over 75 percent of two-year college students and 50 percent of four-year college students were incapable of completing everyday tasks. About 20 percent of four-year college students demonstrated only basic mathematical ability, while a steeper 30 percent of two-year college students could not progress past elementary arithmetic. NBC News reported that Fortune 500 companies spend about $3 billion annually on training employees in “basic English.” Many of today’s college students are not only academically incompetent but emotionally so, as well, and do not belong in college.

These college snowflakes and their professors see themselves as our betters and morally superior to ordinary people. George Orwell was absolutely right when he said, “There are notions so foolish that only an intellectual will believe them.”

Schools, lower and higher, use to teach and not indoctrinate nor coddle. No more. I found a relatively recent article from Great Schools on the snowflake enabled and enabling phenomenon of cultural diversity.

Students who attend schools with a diverse population can develop an understanding of the perspectives of children from different backgrounds and learn to function in a multicultural, multiethnic environment. Yet, as public schools become more diverse, demands increase to find the most effective ways to help all students succeed academically as well as learn to get along with each other. Teachers are faced with the challenge of making instruction “culturally responsive” for all students while not favoring one group over another. A 2007 study by Public Agenda and the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality found that 76% of new teachers say they were trained to teach an ethnically diverse student body but fewer than 4 in 10 say their training helps them deal with the challenges they face.

Diversity is needed to foster diversity. In turn that allows for more … diversity. No-one can render (or spell) the quadratic though they inevitably feel better about themselves. Progress. The comments, many of them, following the pure-BS article were enlightening, with many calling the concept what it is – Marxism.

I stumbled upon that drivel while researching something at Great Schools in the wake of the Chattanooga school bus crash. A diverse bus driver demonstrated to diverse students the blessings of nonconformity to oppressive traffic norms and laws. “Y’all ready to die,” he asked the kids. Some did. As those parents and the community grieve for their dead children they can at least take comfort in the multi-cultural panacea of their establishment. GS rated the Woodmore Elementary a “1 out of 10” school, by the way.

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Demonstrated diversity in education. CNN.

Far better and more prestigious institutions are also afflicted blessed with diversity of various persuasions. Phillips Academy of Andover, home of the Addison Gallery, for years hosted a diversity hire as their chief medical officer. Part of his celebrated otherness was a predilection for pedophilia. According to The New York Times, the school says the hundreds or thousands of children in his care were never in danger. Diversity is never a danger.

Of course, according to The Times, pedophilia is but a minor mental disorder, one in need of treatment and understanding rather than punishment. One wonders in the author of that story, a law school professor, really meant “celebrating” instead of “understanding”.

Still, some in our backwards, patriarchal societies continue to oppress and hound the disordered. Dr. Keller of Andover was arrested in 2012 in a vicious international persecution of pedophiles. That case sprang from others dating back years. And the investigations continue even now. Stunning, almost unbelievable, revelations about world-wide Satanic pedo-faggotry possibly influenced the 2016 presidential election.

The Times vows more honest reporting in the future. They also admit that now, amid all the dishonesty and diversity, there exist two Americas. This proposition is easily demonstrated, geographically and electorally, with maps and graphs. However, conceptually, it goes much deeper.

The two Americas consist of those who get it – the reality of substance versus fluff and hysteria – and those who either do not or who would obscure away reality in favor of an agenda. More plainly, there is: America of the Americans and anti-American Amerika. Diversity and the snowflake generation are both causes and symptoms of the divide.

The conflict spills into every corner of society. The diverse, alarmed, and anxious cast of Hamilton lectured Mike Pence on being diverse, alarmed, and anxious. These being the same people who violated New York’s human rights laws with their non-white only casting calls. And the same actor who delivered the keynote rant formerly praised Saint Patrick’s Day as a good time for raping white women. Well, at least he’s not wrapping buses around trees.

Most telling is the substance versus the imagery. The multi-culties, while decrying appointment based on things like skin color, only seek appointments based on things like skin color. Walter Williams facially meets their requirements, being a black man. Further and most importantly, Williams adds true diversity via his reasoned dissenting thoughts on intellectualism and society. That kind of diversity the pedo-culties do not like. Is theirs an aversion to reality?

Muddling Through College

11 Monday Mar 2013

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Given the popularity of my postings on the law, generally and regarding specific topics, and given the inclination of so many people to ask me about becoming a lawyer and what it’s like, I thought I would write something about legal education in America.  It won’t be pretty but it will paint a good overall picture of the modern training lawyers undergo.  First, however, I thought I would write something about the undergraduate experience which precedes law school.  That’s what this article concerns.  It is mainly drawn from my experiences at the University of Georgia in the early – mid 1990’s.

As my personal collegiate experience is somewhat dated (ugh….), I have tried to incorporate a little news concerning more modern college education as well.  So, this piece is really about my personal muddling with an updated, universal background.  I hope it serves as a guide of sorts for those entering college or already there and struggling to decide what to make of the situation.  For those you who have already completed your formal education, I hope this resonates with you.  It’s up to us to enlighten the younger generations so that they may achieve their full potential.

College today is much the same as it was back then.  Modern students have a wealth of on-line information to assist them in picking the right school and program for them.  I wished we had had that.  I recently stumbled across a fantastic website that goes beyond the normal rankings and summary guides.  Check out this site: http://www.whatwilltheylearn.com/.  It’s an initiative from numerous alumni to assess what, if anything, colleges teach these days.  The results are eye-opening.  Of the 1000 or so schools surveyed only 21 got an “A” based on required core curriculum.  I’m proud to say my alma mater was among them.  Several famous and pricy schools did not fare so well.  Watch their video too.

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(Google Images.)

Back to yours truly.  I started college in 1993 immediately after graduating from high school.  I applied to and was accepted to three colleges (I think it was three, I’m lazy).  I got accepted to Mississippi State University (in my original home town) and the University of Georgia, where many of my relatives attended.  I think the other school was UVA; I attended classes for a week as a high schooler and was most impressed. 

MSU offered me a scholarship, I think it was a full ride.  My dad had been a professor there and apparently they needed someone from Georgia.  I probably should have accepted but, given my poor choices in college, I would have likely lost the scholarship anyway.  In the end, I went to UGA.  The Georgia HOPE scholarship was recently enacted at the time.  My high school grades were excellent and so I would have qualified.  Unfortunately, my parents made something like 50 cents over the family income maximum.  The next year they raised the maximum but by then my grades were so dismal it didn’t matter.  I must say I had a great time in Athens.  The city is overrun with bars and hot girls and there is always something to do.  Oddly, none of that matters looking back.

I have since analyzed why I did as poorly as I did in the early half of my college career.  I used to blame the school and several professors in whose classes I did poorly.  I have come to the conclusion though that any failings (pun intended) were my fault only.  I had considered that perhaps I was not ready for college.  Then again, I’m not sure what I would have done instead at that time.  I wanted to continue my formal education, I just went about it all wrong.  I was not true to myself.

I have devoted a whole chapter in The Time Given (not long now….) to being true to yourself.  My understanding of the concept comes from my own self-betrayals.  In high school and for the first few years I was at UGA I was under the delusion of the great “American dream.”  George Carlin once said, “it’s a dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.”  I know what he meant.  The dream went something like this:  You go to college to get a valuable degree.  The degree gets you a ticket to work for a big corporation for 30 or 40 years.  By working hard for your employer you get rich and enjoy a comfy retirement.  You can vacation in Destin, Florida and such.

I tried to take the dream to its extreme conclusion.  I just knew I had to major in business in order to get that golden job ticket.  I started out as a general business major and then switched to a speciality in real estate.  UGA’s real estate program is excellent and I did learn some things in my concentration classes which came in handy at Trammel Crow and in my brief real estate sales career.  I also found some of my advanced economics classes fascinating – but only from an academic standpoint.  The rest of the core business classes bored the ever-loving hell out of me.  My grades reflected this.  I recall mornings when I remembered I had to drop classes I had not attended all semester – on the last day possible.  Still figures into some of my nightmares.  I recall passing finance my reading the booklet for my fancy calculator the night before the final exam.  I wasted a semester in a business MIS class that covered things like floppy disks and the new-fangled internet, whatever that was.  That all says something – I’m not sure what…

The “hard” problem I found with an undergraduate business degree was that you studied based on scenarios only a CEO would encounter.  Then you get into the job market and discover only entry-level jobs are available.  It’s kind of depressing.  I really lucked out with Trammell Crow and it took me months of interviewing for scores of other positions to find.  Another problem is that once you’re on the job, they retrain you completely.  I’d say only 10% of what I managed to learn ended up being useful on the job.

If you want to enter business, I think it’s best to get an MBA. It also helps to study something you have connections to (the family business, etc.). Otherwise, you’re wasting your time.  I wasted a lot of the stuff.

The “soft” problem I had was that I didn’t really want to be a business major.  I look like a businessman but I have the heart of a history professor or a latter-day dragon slayer, neither of which benefit from a class in marketing.  This was made clear to me during my senior year.  For whatever reason I finished most of the required classes and had an abundance of electives to take.  Out of curiosity I wound up in a number of classics (ancient Greece and Rome) and philosophy classes. 

Suddenly, I was immersed in subjects that spoke to me about eternal issues I could relate to everyday American life.  I also got “A” after “A” and it wasn’t hard to do.  I liked the programs.  I identified with the programs.  I dig ancient wisdom and logical discourse more than ROI statements and accounting baselines.

It occurred to me a little late in the game to change majors and stick it out.  I probably should have done that.  At the time though, the same stubbornness that got me into my plight held me there.  I made excuses like “I’m almost done.  I need to settle, get out, and get that dream job.”  Ha!  The job I got was great.  I foresaw myself rising in the ranks and becoming a developer, another Donald Trump.  I was good at it.  I thought I could even open my own business and build skyscrapers.  Then, they called me one day and thanked me profusely for my hard work.  I smelled a raise.  Then they said the division was closing and I was no longer needed.  More depression followed.  This is the real American dream – you lie to yourself, waste time and money, and end up getting laid off after giving 150%.  Well, it was the dream.  I think most people have to settle for permanent unemployment or food stamps these days.

After a year of flopping around I headed to law school.  It was my attempt to right my ship.  It almost worked.  I know now that while I love the concept and theory of law, present and historical, these are not good reasons to go to law school.  I’ll have more on this in my coming column on the legal education racket.

I should have gotten a Ph.D. in political theory or history.  Then I would have been primed for a happier career in higher education, pondering the big ideas and helping young people seek questions and answers.  I’m currently trying to re-route myself that way.  This blog is a grand outlet for my academic pursuits.  I’m delighted by the support I have received so far.  I plan to press forward regardless of what kind, if any, formal institution I end up in.  I don’t mean an “institution” where I weave baskets…

Counting the four years I was locked up in high school, it’s been about 24 years getting around to being honest about my ambitions.  I have been extremely lucky in the alternative.  I’ve had the opportunity most people don’t get in the business and legal fields to interact with academics, statesmen, titans and ticks of all stripes.  I have also been able to strike a few blows for freedom over the years.  Everything happens for a reason and I have accepted my long way home.

I hope you, dear readers, find and accept yours too.  Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you.  I genuinely like helping people.  It’s really why I’m here.