Well I'm sitting here and I came across this post on Protein Wisdom about some poor Asian A+ student who has been chosen as the nation's sacrificial goat to atone for the Virginia Tech killings. But I'm not going to write about that (what's the use? and everything that needs to be said is in the PW post anyway): I'll just focus on the advice of one commenter to another who is worried about his daughter getting indoctrinated by the PC-BS going on at her PS:
When you’re [sic] daughter gets to college, have her aim for the business classes. Much less moonbattiness there.
Well that's all very well and good if the daughter is interested in business courses, but what if she's in the position I was, in love with history, literature, and the humanities -- all fields of study which have been infested and poisoned with political correctness and multicultural rot? I must say that the teachers I had in the few business-type courses I had to take (an Intro to Economics course for my "core" studies, and a business statistics course when I was trying to be practical -- that is, when I was disappointed at the way my rambling, unfocused college "career" was taking me and was trying to pin myself down to something that would get me a better job) were among the most down-to-earth and sensible instructors I had. But I find business studies to be dreary and boring, though not difficult to grasp -- but the dreariness and boredom made it difficult for me to concentrate, and if the teachers had been dull drones I'd have made F's instead of the A and B I did get in each course. I will say this, though -- most of my teachers in the other, more airy courses that I preferred were also good, though they were often a bit more "odd" than the business instructors. Yet for the most part discipline and a concentration on the practical requirements of learning a subject were kept in focus despite all the different "cultures" of the students in a community college in South Florida.
True, a degree in literature or humanities won't lead directly to a great job in upper management, but not all people are meant to be upper managers. I finally got my Associates Degree years ago, and did most of the work for the Bachelors until I threw in the towel (for now), but I haven't been on a campus since 2003. And I graduated high school the year Reagan was elected. I hear more and more horror stories of this sort, and I think it's really unfair that the only way for a sensible student to escape the claws of the multicultists is to go into business or the army -- not everyone is meant for those paths, and art and literature are important to society as well as business and the military.
Comments (4)
Engineering is mostly resistant as well. The key property is some kind of external, mostly objective measure of success and learning.
Posted by Annoying Old Guy | April 29, 2007 12:17 PM
Posted on April 29, 2007 12:17
Yeah, but what if you're too stupid (like me) to grasp the study of engineering?
Posted by Andrea Harris | April 29, 2007 7:12 PM
Posted on April 29, 2007 19:12
I'm not too stupid to grasp engineering anymore - I'm just "differently gifted." HA! Unfortunately, my 'gift' is the ability to make gravy, not exactly a barn-burner when it comes to paying the mortgage!
Posted by prairiecat | April 30, 2007 9:16 PM
Posted on April 30, 2007 21:16
The beauty of the humanities, though, is that it's easy to learn on your own.
For example, I was never much for history, until I hit about age 25. So I've read a lot since then, and for the past two years have been listening to the History According to Bob podcast. Also, I splurge on Teaching Company lectures when they're having sales. I was a little flush with a nice bonus a few years ago, so I signed up for one of St. John College's Executive Seminars where one has a discussion group on various great works from Western Literature (read Aristotle, Plato, Huck Finn, Leviathan, Henry IV part I, etc.)
One need not go to college to learn these things. Unlike lab science, you don't need equipment. And you can prove your knowledge to others through intelligent conversation, as opposed to needing a piece of paper to prove you know math or engineering. If it's art you're interested in, all you need is the price of a museum membership (and if you're in DC - the museums are free! Most of them, at any rate.)
So I majored in math and physics, and continued on in math in grad school. Meanwhile, I was hanging out at the Met and MoMA, reading all of Dickens novels, getting the lovely student discount tickets to opera, free music and dance events at NYU, and on and on.
Humanities programs at colleges are mainly a joke now, so you might as well major in something practical and get your cultural education in a non-curricular way.
Posted by meep | May 1, 2007 7:23 AM
Posted on May 1, 2007 07:23