(Untitled)

[kidnamedgoat]

I'm almost through with Barzun's The House of Intellect, in which he says a lot about the effects our national policy/philosophy on education has on the state of  intellect. What I'm thinking is this: cut-throat capitalism with only a limited and bloated welfare system leaves it to well meaning but uninformed and thus apologetically confused

Comments

...

[mayday_parker]

I COMPLETELY agree with you. This is why I <3 you. You articulate what's buried deep in my brain and I don't even realize I should be trying harder to get out in to the world. You make my life so much easier. :-D
The whole mess of having people receive degrees who don't deserve them has undermined my respect for higher education and led to me flunking out because I jsut don't care. Why should I work hard for a degree that's going to be handed to someone else because they got an "easier professor" or went to a less successful college. Employers don't care. It's who you know, not what you know. Which is bullshit.
I am also still shocked (which I shouldn't be anymore, but it just BOGGLES me) when I run across people who have been in college for 4+ years and can't write a paragraph. I have had students send me lab reports they've done poorly on and ask my critique and the first thing I have to say almost every time is "learn to write at least three sentence paragraphs AND keep them cohesive." Is this a foreign concept in most primary education? I was always so certain in high school that my high school was not preparing me for college and while I still believe I was not well prepared it's AMAZING how others are even LESS prepared. WTF?

Re: ...

[mayday_parker]

P.S. I don't think you're arrogant, but you're so sure of your ideas and yourself that you can appear that way. But more often than not you should be sure of yourself and your ideas because they/you are awesome.

Re: ...

[kidnamedgoat]

I think this is another problem we have, one which is especially noticable in schools. We tend to equate a high opionion of oneself with arrogance, and no one wants to be perceived as arrogant: this has led to a sort of culture of self-deprication. In class, people tend to say "I'm not sure if this is right" or "I'm probably totally off track here" before they make their comment or ask their question when such prefaces are completely unnecessary. It's a class: we are there to learn, to make mistakes, to say dumb and embarassing things. If someone shoots a hole in my theory, I'm disappointed because I thought my theory was a good one, that the situation I was trying to come to terms with was a bit closer to being understandable. I'm not angry or embarassed that someone has shot me down; I don't take it personally or as a sign of my self worth. When I assert an idea without devaluing comments, it isn't because I think I'm better than everyone else or that I think it's impossible for me to be wrong on the point; it's because such comments are a waste of time and only hinder progress: no one wants to rip apart an idea put forth by someone clearly lacking confidence, but the ripping apart of ideas is how we get anywhere. This backfires if your self-assurance causes people to assume you must be right without considering the ideas themselves, but those sorts of conversations aren't going to be worth having anyway, I'd assume.