tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post1390189799307043025..comments2024-02-28T18:29:41.120-08:00Comments on Not of General Interest: College for $99 a Monthundinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05589384016564587214noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-72644791837163400832009-11-02T11:53:35.651-08:002009-11-02T11:53:35.651-08:00Well, you might look at it like this: they're ...Well, you might look at it like this: they're already PAYING you and me like grimy proles to run their silly educational institutions for them.Christopher Vilmarhttp://christophervilmar.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-75785090693850435702009-10-31T15:43:14.999-07:002009-10-31T15:43:14.999-07:00Christopher Vilmar, I think you're right. &quo...Christopher Vilmar, I think you're right. "Fully formed from the head of Zeus"--yes, and now that they have their liberal arts education, it's time to educate the rest of us grimy proles just enough to run the machines for them.undinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05589384016564587214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-53900072661529978622009-10-31T05:49:06.630-07:002009-10-31T05:49:06.630-07:00(Aha, you linked right to it!)
The part of this (...(Aha, you linked right to it!)<br /><br />The part of this (large cultural problem or question) that always irks me: how these kinds of discussions never credit the role of the humanities in getting them to where they are. The results of the humanities are hard to track. Teaching them is labor-intensive and results-ambiguous. But that doesn't mean they're useless or dated. The climatological effects of a butterfly's wings were also labor-intensive and results-ambiguous until an adequate rubric was developed, right? But the destroyers of education always act as though they sprang fully-formed from the head of Zeus, instead of getting an education at Harvard.Christopher Vilmarhttp://christophervilmar.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-63929252172140127012009-09-24T17:38:05.050-07:002009-09-24T17:38:05.050-07:00That's brilliant but depressing, profacero!That's brilliant but depressing, profacero!undinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05589384016564587214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-1177173243338497162009-09-23T19:37:05.365-07:002009-09-23T19:37:05.365-07:00Well, my 1981 research insight, which was propheti...Well, my 1981 research insight, which was prophetic and should have caused me to change my major and win the Nobel Prize, was that it was now policy to do these things on purpose.<br /><br />That research insight predicted the current crisis as the result of the neoliberal policies then being instituted. It estimated the crisis start date at 2006.<br /><br />It's not short sightedness, went the insight, it's intentional. The plan, said the insight, was to widen the wage gap, create barriers to education for everyone but the elites, and so on.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-12231999965914610212009-09-23T17:19:23.312-07:002009-09-23T17:19:23.312-07:00profacero, it's more that this is a symptom of...profacero, it's more that this is a symptom of a system gone wrong: we need nurses (and other kinds of professions as well), but for-profit models like this are going to gut the systems that are necessary to train them. Shouldn't we as a society be willing to invest long-term in something that's a social good, like nursing, and prevent the dismantling of an educational system that allows that kind of training? <br /><br />Sisyphus, that's all too common. Not to pick on Microsoft per se, but there are thousands of unemployed software engineers in this country (recession, remember?) and the tech companies keep yelling that they need to import workers because none are available here in the U. S. I read something recently online about how our supposed brain drain in science (people refusing to go into science careers) isn't because the students are stupid but because they're smart: they've seen those jobs outsourced and don't want to put years into a career in which they'll be told, "Sorry, no jobs." <br /><br />Of course I think that a diverse international workforce is good for the U. S., and especially for U. S. universities--all that international talent--but I guess I think we need to consider the long-term as well as the short-term effects of gutting educational institutions (isn't that what the UC system schools will be protesting about, as you wrote about today?).undinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05589384016564587214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-66876870342172367062009-09-23T10:52:47.698-07:002009-09-23T10:52:47.698-07:00Ick. I love how the same companies that sell a pro...Ick. I love how the same companies that sell a product (education/retraining/job security) that they claim will help laid-off workers are using the same outsourcing practices that have caused all the layoffs and downsizing in the first place.Sisyphushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09880634753539329199noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-91581219385165112222009-09-22T21:34:43.807-07:002009-09-22T21:34:43.807-07:00I guess to be in nursing students would have to pa...I guess to be in nursing students would have to pay more, as with medical school? So that certain professions would be reserved for those who can pay to get in?<br /><br />Maybe the hospitals would have to start subsidizing the nursing schools more heavily if they wanted nurses, and everything could just be pegged to the needs of business, and that's that. Short sighted but...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com