The Good Spaniard
You can't escape it... I've tried. When you least expect it, Creationists rear their ugly head and strike with fangs of ignorance. And some people try to tell me people nowadays are less superstitious. ROFL If only that were true.
Smack dab in between lectures on Gem/Metal Deposits and Sinkholes/Landslides, my Geology professor hands out sheets on the Scientific Method. You know the thing that says first you see stuff (observation), then come up with the idea (hypothesis), then test out your idea under certain conditions (experiment), then form a model based on all that stuff (theory), and then allow others to test/criticize/analyze/pick apart ad infinitum until it's eventually disproved (altering your model as they go along). Yeah, that. That thing we all learned in 5th grade science class. That thing we learned in every other science class until graduating (or simply leaving) high school. That thing that is one of the foundations of critical thought. That thing that by the time you are going to college it should have been pounded into your fucking head harder than Ron Jeremy on PCP introducing himself to the newest cheerleading recruit. So why for the love of god, are we going over this now?! The second handout is an article outlining the differences between the Theory of Evolution and Creationism. What? Srsly?! Why?! Why are we doing this... this is retarded! Everyone knows the Scientific Method, everyone knows the difference between Creationism and Evolution, and everyone knows that Creationism is not based on science but on religion!!
"So who here thinks that a hypothesis and a theory are the same thing?" the professor begins the lecture.
My head is spinning; I lost 12 years of my life in a single moment. If it were physically possible to belch molten lava, I would have just to end the lecture. No one in their right mind would ever think that they were the sam--
Half of the hands go up in the room, followed timidly by a couple stragglers. I stand corrected. Why are you people attending college? Better question: how did ANY of you even make TO college? If I were the professor, I'd fail every single one of you based on pure principle. I couldn't in good conscience allow people acquire an Undergraduate degree that hadn't by this point mastered that single goddamned concept of the goddamned Scientific Method. How did any of you ever learn anything?! Rote memorization?! How is it that no one challenged you further than regurgitating something you've read or heard?! What's more, what did you expect to get a degree in that wasn't going to challenge you in that way?! Science? No. Engineering? No. Medicine? No. Psychology? No. Liberal Arts? No. Fine Arts? No. Social Science? NO!! NO NO NO!!! There's nothing that you could possibl--
Public Administration... I stand corrected. Now for those of you that are unaware what Public Administration is, it is defined as:
the study and implementation of policy. As a moral endeavor, public administration is linked to pursuing the public good through the creation of civil society and social justice. The adjective 'public' often denotes 'government', though it increasingly encompasses Non-governmental organizations such as those of civil society or any entity and its management not specifically acting in self-interest. The term public administration sometimes is taken to refer to bureaucracy (as in the federal administration in the USA). Although often used negatively as a term of abuse, bureaucracy is needed to perform day-to-day functions of government. Public administration and bureaucracy are, in a sense, the same thing.
Why am I not surprised?! The same legislators and paper-pushers that run this country, run this state, and run this school have been running around for decades without ever having to entertain critical thought!!! The only thing that is required of you to get out of college with a one of those degrees is to simply show up and vomit back all the case studies and reports that have been forced down their throats for 4 years. This is why Creationism appears in science courses; why money is spent on a new football stadium instead of teachers for over crowded class rooms; why we never found any weapons of mass destruction!!! And so, what do these assholes do? Since they obviously got by fine without ever having to learn scientific or critical methodology, they make it unnecessary in the school system. Pre-college standards are dropped to make sure that even the laziest kid with Downs could wave his diploma in the air at age of 17; at the same time never raising the bar for the other students. Public school has become the homogenizing meat-grinder: Everyone at the same level of stupid.
So who can stop this? Not Mr. Phd. Geology professor. Expecting "too much" from the students will inevitably cause many of them too fail. So? So good!!! No.... so bad. The powers that be (yes, those same assholes) say: Fail too many students and tenure comes up for review. So for godsakes pass them... gotta put bread on the table. So maybe the academic community as a whole will rise up against this regime and set things straight!!! Not likely. The academic community is a dying breed, a bi-product of the lowered educational standards. Proven in the last Presidential election, the intellectuals are in the minority. So what can change it? How can we keep this country from becoming even more ignorant that it is now? How?
Smack dab in between lectures on Gem/Metal Deposits and Sinkholes/Landslides, my Geology professor hands out sheets on the Scientific Method. You know the thing that says first you see stuff (observation), then come up with the idea (hypothesis), then test out your idea under certain conditions (experiment), then form a model based on all that stuff (theory), and then allow others to test/criticize/analyze/pick apart ad infinitum until it's eventually disproved (altering your model as they go along). Yeah, that. That thing we all learned in 5th grade science class. That thing we learned in every other science class until graduating (or simply leaving) high school. That thing that is one of the foundations of critical thought. That thing that by the time you are going to college it should have been pounded into your fucking head harder than Ron Jeremy on PCP introducing himself to the newest cheerleading recruit. So why for the love of god, are we going over this now?! The second handout is an article outlining the differences between the Theory of Evolution and Creationism. What? Srsly?! Why?! Why are we doing this... this is retarded! Everyone knows the Scientific Method, everyone knows the difference between Creationism and Evolution, and everyone knows that Creationism is not based on science but on religion!!
"So who here thinks that a hypothesis and a theory are the same thing?" the professor begins the lecture.
My head is spinning; I lost 12 years of my life in a single moment. If it were physically possible to belch molten lava, I would have just to end the lecture. No one in their right mind would ever think that they were the sam--
Half of the hands go up in the room, followed timidly by a couple stragglers. I stand corrected. Why are you people attending college? Better question: how did ANY of you even make TO college? If I were the professor, I'd fail every single one of you based on pure principle. I couldn't in good conscience allow people acquire an Undergraduate degree that hadn't by this point mastered that single goddamned concept of the goddamned Scientific Method. How did any of you ever learn anything?! Rote memorization?! How is it that no one challenged you further than regurgitating something you've read or heard?! What's more, what did you expect to get a degree in that wasn't going to challenge you in that way?! Science? No. Engineering? No. Medicine? No. Psychology? No. Liberal Arts? No. Fine Arts? No. Social Science? NO!! NO NO NO!!! There's nothing that you could possibl--
Public Administration... I stand corrected. Now for those of you that are unaware what Public Administration is, it is defined as:
the study and implementation of policy. As a moral endeavor, public administration is linked to pursuing the public good through the creation of civil society and social justice. The adjective 'public' often denotes 'government', though it increasingly encompasses Non-governmental organizations such as those of civil society or any entity and its management not specifically acting in self-interest. The term public administration sometimes is taken to refer to bureaucracy (as in the federal administration in the USA). Although often used negatively as a term of abuse, bureaucracy is needed to perform day-to-day functions of government. Public administration and bureaucracy are, in a sense, the same thing.
Why am I not surprised?! The same legislators and paper-pushers that run this country, run this state, and run this school have been running around for decades without ever having to entertain critical thought!!! The only thing that is required of you to get out of college with a one of those degrees is to simply show up and vomit back all the case studies and reports that have been forced down their throats for 4 years. This is why Creationism appears in science courses; why money is spent on a new football stadium instead of teachers for over crowded class rooms; why we never found any weapons of mass destruction!!! And so, what do these assholes do? Since they obviously got by fine without ever having to learn scientific or critical methodology, they make it unnecessary in the school system. Pre-college standards are dropped to make sure that even the laziest kid with Downs could wave his diploma in the air at age of 17; at the same time never raising the bar for the other students. Public school has become the homogenizing meat-grinder: Everyone at the same level of stupid.
So who can stop this? Not Mr. Phd. Geology professor. Expecting "too much" from the students will inevitably cause many of them too fail. So? So good!!! No.... so bad. The powers that be (yes, those same assholes) say: Fail too many students and tenure comes up for review. So for godsakes pass them... gotta put bread on the table. So maybe the academic community as a whole will rise up against this regime and set things straight!!! Not likely. The academic community is a dying breed, a bi-product of the lowered educational standards. Proven in the last Presidential election, the intellectuals are in the minority. So what can change it? How can we keep this country from becoming even more ignorant that it is now? How?