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Those papers you deride aren't what college professors mostly produce. What they should produce are citizens via the study of what great minds have thought in t

by wbl 6y ago

Those papers you deride aren't what college professors mostly produce. What they should produce are citizens via the study of what great minds have thought in the past. The increasing narrowness of scholarship has destroyed the liberal arts.

seibelj 6y ago
Totally agree, but I also think the same curriculum can be provided at a fraction of the cost of a 4 year degree. We can produce thinking, reflective people for less than $200k in tuition.
- stanrivers 6y ago
  State schools FTW; if you are the top 5% of your average state school, you are going to match the top 5% of your Ivy League students. Make sure you are taking advantage of all the opportunities that the state schools offer, push yourself a bit more than you think you can, and you will be prepared for whatever career path. Plus, you’ll have the added benefit of a chip on your shoulder wanting to prove you are as good as those colleagues that paid 200k. Chips on shoulders put chips in pockets.
nrdvana 6y ago
Dunno... an english professor where I went to college listed his primary research on his faculty website as “determining from the writings of Mark Twain whether he was gay”. I often wonder how much of my tax dollars went toward that. On the whole I have a low opinion of the “english” department, since they get to study a blend of communication, philosophy, psychology, history and so on without ever contributing concrete advancements to any of those fields. For instance, it took all of one month of my first job before I realized that the essay format was a completely ineffective way to communicate (tl;dr) and learned a completely new bullet-point-driven style that would actually deliver ideas to the intended recipient. I taught myself; it would have been nice if the people who study communication for a living actually knew the best way to communicate ideas to others and could have taught me that. Instead they basically taught me the most artistically pleasing way to communicate with other english majors. I’m also generally irked by the english major attitude that there are no wrong answers and every interpretation is equally valid. This attitude prevents them from ever making useful advances at anything.
- mola 6y ago
  Bullet points deliver a certain kind of message, superficial and simplistic. These type of studies are not meant for advancement, they are meant for reflection and sense making.

by wbl 6y ago

seibelj 6y ago

Totally agree, but I also think the same curriculum can be provided at a fraction of the cost of a 4 year degree. We can produce thinking, reflective people for less than $200k in tuition.

stanrivers 6y ago
State schools FTW; if you are the top 5% of your average state school, you are going to match the top 5% of your Ivy League students. Make sure you are taking advantage of all the opportunities that the state schools offer, push yourself a bit more than you think you can, and you will be prepared for whatever career path. Plus, you’ll have the added benefit of a chip on your shoulder wanting to prove you are as good as those colleagues that paid 200k. Chips on shoulders put chips in pockets.

nrdvana 6y ago

Dunno... an english professor where I went to college listed his primary research on his faculty website as “determining from the writings of Mark Twain whether he was gay”. I often wonder how much of my tax dollars went toward that. On the whole I have a low opinion of the “english” department, since they get to study a blend of communication, philosophy, psychology, history and so on without ever contributing concrete advancements to any of those fields. For instance, it took all of one month of my first job before I realized that the essay format was a completely ineffective way to communicate (tl;dr) and learned a completely new bullet-point-driven style that would actually deliver ideas to the intended recipient. I taught myself; it would have been nice if the people who study communication for a living actually knew the best way to communicate ideas to others and could have taught me that. Instead they basically taught me the most artistically pleasing way to communicate with other english majors. I’m also generally irked by the english major attitude that there are no wrong answers and every interpretation is equally valid. This attitude prevents them from ever making useful advances at anything.

mola 6y ago
Bullet points deliver a certain kind of message, superficial and simplistic. These type of studies are not meant for advancement, they are meant for reflection and sense making.