Studying Is Hard And That’s Unfair
“Everyone deserves 8 hours of sleep,” say Georgia Tech’s branch of the Young Democratic Socialists of America.
Apparently, the students are struggling to reconcile their academic obligations with the need for rest, expectations of free time – eight hours of it each day – and their own socialist activism. And perhaps the students have a point. Socialism is tiring, what with the protests and psychodrama, and the relentless, almost daily, issuing of demands. In this case, our fatigued intellectuals “reject the hostile culture and severe working conditions that pervade Georgia Tech,” and a curriculum that is, they say, “far more difficult and demanding than is necessary.” “All professors,” we’re told, should “implement stress-reducing policies,” including allowing more absences from class without consequence, dropping quizzes and assignments, and generally making lessons “more forgiving.”
The Young Socialists also insist that the university hire more counsellors and psychiatrists, with fees for psychiatric appointments being “eliminated.” “We need more relief from the… emotional burdens of higher education,” say these warriors of tomorrow.
We STEM majors could have made such complaints about the many extremely demanding classes we had to take, such as Organic Chemistry I and II, Advanced Differential Equations, Quantum Mechanics, and so on, but we knew that demanding course work was the key to successful careers.
I did an MEng in Mechanical Engineering, and am now doing an MBA. Let’s just say fluid mechanics was a lot harder than marketing.
Hi Tim,
I happened upon a site frequented by (people who said they were) college professors who were in general agreement that the dumbest students get routed into MBA and education majors. Do you agree with this? It does explain a lot about our society.
P.S. Tim, your site may have a virus; when I try to read it I get hijacked into a thing wanting to give me (free! Of course!) a several-hundred-dollar Amazon gift card.
Tim, your site may have a virus; when I try to read it I get hijacked into a thing wanting to give me (free! Of course!) a several-hundred-dollar Amazon gift card.
F*ck, not that again! Can you take a screenshot and send me the URL? Sorry about that!
I happened upon a site frequented by (people who said they were) college professors who were in general agreement that the dumbest students get routed into MBA and education majors.
I don’t know how representative my course is, but let’s just say I’m not expecting I’m studying alongside any future Nobel laureates.
When I was taking my Physics degree, every class beyond the introductory stuff consisted of a single section, taught by one of a handful of professors. Unfortunately for us undergraduates, several of these professors were early risers, who felt that 0800 was practically mid-morning, and why should anyone complain about attending class at such an hour on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays?
Heh…Was just relating to the wife this very thing after reading Muldoon’s post. The ONE class that I ever had to take that started at 0800 was introductory physics.
As we’ve started with xkcd…
Also not unrelated, particularly given lit crit’s influence on grievance studies.
@Governor Squid,
OK, I’ll grant there may be some exceptions to the rule, but where I spent the first two years pretending to go to school (just like these nutcases) any class actually scheduled by the school before 0900 was a rarity, and anything after 1600 probably astronomy.
Even though it is Georgia Tech, I am guessing the complainers aren’t actually studying anything tech, so I am also guessing they are lousy planners as well.
but the Julian Von Able affair is astounding.
Is there a good third-party description of the facts in this story?
Correcting myself, it’s Abele…
Try this: https://www.amren.com/commentary/2018/12/who-created-the-modern-world/
He’s a brilliant student with the rare ability to tip a glass while in college, which may have contributed to loud declarations of affection for culture builders who happen to be white while at the same decrying those who instinctively decry culture builders who happen to be white. Naturally this aggression shall not stand.
What I thought of interest to locals was the official Declaration of Sensitive Morality from head of nursery at Columbia, namely, ‘Statements of white racial superiority conflict with the university’s core value of inclusivity’. (Core values of history were not mentioned.)
At some point it seems NBC started persecuting the kid. The American lackey press in full bullroar.
I can’t find recent studies, but I know that when I was in college, the 4-year attrition rate in the Department of Physics was around 65%, slightly higher than the rate for the College of Science as a whole, which was around 60%. I know that the College of Engineering had similarly sobering numbers.
The 4-year attrition rate for the College of Education was something like -30%, as the students washing out of the more rigorous programs and transferring over were more than enough to offset the few numbskulls dim enough to wash out of the babysitting major.
(Apologies to the Education majors reading the above, who probably don’t deserve my snark. I should just let the numbers do the talking.)
who were in general agreement that the dumbest students get routed into… education majors.
Yes, education courses tend to attract students with some of the lowest SAT scores, or their equivalents.
Apologies to the Education majors reading the above…
Not to worry, if they are education majors, they probably can’t read it anyway…
I see that in the eight years since I finished at GT, the Useless Major Useless Eater proportion hasn’t gotten any better. I took enough humanities courses to be able to identify a schism of sorts. The drunkest, wildest hallmates and roommates were always in the school of business and other less-serious things, with few exceptions. The stupidest classmates were in 100 level language classes, the most fragile and neurotic classmates in 100 and 200 level humanities.
As to deserving 8 hours, in the words of Eastwood’s William Munny, “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it”.
“say that I am both simultaneously, at least until somebody observes me directly”
Is that a Schroedinger reference or a Motte and Bailey?
Look — you can understand the joke, or you can find it funny, but not both at the same time.
Let’s just say fluid mechanics was a lot harder than marketing.
And infinitely harder than feminist theorizing. 🙂
Remember the feminist professor who proclaimed that significant progress was made in statics long before fluid dynamics because of sexism?
“The first rule of Dunning-Kruger Club is that feminists don’t know they are in Dunning-Kruger Club.”
“When I was taking my Physics degree…several of these professors were early risers, who felt that 0800 was practically mid-morning….”
Yes, me too.
I remember thinking to myself, doesn’t every CEO or such have a phone on their desks?
Indeed they do. But woe would fall onto those who dared actually use it, if they were below executive level.
A cat may look at a king, but that doesn’t mean the king wants to take his call.
The advantage of email (and this was an internal email system, not internet SMTP/POP3/IMAP stuff) was that anyone in the organization was not only able to contact my exec, he pointedly stated that peons could email him. He published his email in the newsletter, showed it on slides at corporate events, etc.
Of course, not everyone in the organization had a computer, but every knew at least one person who did.
We laugh today at the printout/dictation reply sequence he used, but this was almost 30 years ago, and this was practically unheard of. In fact, other execs advised against this (“it encourages them”), and also “this email thing is just a fad anyway”, of course.
The stupidest classmates were in 100 level language classes, the most fragile and neurotic classmates in 100 and 200 level humanities.
I actually had a dorm mate who had to transfer out of humanities because it was too difficult. He transferred into Phys Ed. And apparently, he was a rock star within PE, because he was able to ace the most difficult course there was: “The Sociology of Sport”.
Apparently, this was beyond most of the PE majors. Keep in mind that many/most of his PE campadres were in PE in the first place because unlike him, they didn’t meet the tough entry criteria of the Humanities.
It was most amusing listening to him talk about the utter stupidity of his classmates who weren’t as smart as him and the rest of us in the dorm. I should mention in context that the dorm consisted of myself (Comp Sci/Math), two Bio/pre-med, one Chem Eng, one EE, and two Physics majors.
In his mind, these were all equivalent, and the world was divided into the smart (Humanities and above) and the dumb (Phys Ed). The fact that he’d failed Humanities, and was in PE didn’t dissuade him from his belief that his courses were no less difficult than any of ours, of course.
@Bill de Haan
I did humanities/liberal arts degrees and I noted that we had very stringent course and GPA requirements to graduate from the college of Arts & Sciences. For those in the College of Education, however, students with an “emphasis” in my area, i.e. they would be certified to teach in American high schools, had to have one-third fewer hours in their core area and of those, six were “Teaching X in High School,” and not substantive courses. Further, they only needed a 2.0 GPA to graduate (A&S students needed a 3.00) with a 2.25 GPA in their subject area as opposed to my required 3.25. There were some good students in education, but invariably, they obtained a B.A. or B.S. from Arts and Science in addition to their education certificates.
OK, we’re all agreed that education majors are idiots, how about the MBAs?
Tim, if I go to your site that gift-card scam somehow jumps on my browser and follows me all over the Internet for several days, sorry. It’s the one where it says it’s giving the cards to loyal customers in a city and state a hundred or so miles away, and it wants you to spin something, if that’s any help.
I remember thinking to myself, doesn’t every CEO or such have a phone on their desks?
Indeed they do. But woe would fall onto those who dared actually use it, if they were below executive level.
As I recall, both Al Gore and Hillary Clinton were the ultimate CEO’s: it was verboten to say ‘good morning’ to them when passing them in the hall at the White House, and Hillary became furious if someone looked at her. (As related by someone who worked at the White House during the Clinton presidency.)
Can’t wait for the lawsuits when these same students sue their alma maters for failing to teach them anything.
“I’m stupid and it’s your fault!”
Not that they’ll win.
Pogonip – add an ad blocker extension to your browser and that crap will go away.
OK, we’re all agreed that education majors are idiots, how about the MBAs?
The Lovely Bride agreed to help one of her work girlfriends study for her MBA, mostly because the Lovely Bride is a born scholar who can’t help but hide her true nature. After several weeks of tutoring her friend in Bullshit Bingo and Contemporary PowerPointing and whatnot, her reaction was “I can’t believe people get paid extra for this.”
After several weeks of tutoring her friend in Bullshit Bingo and Contemporary PowerPointing and whatnot, her reaction was “I can’t believe people get paid extra for this.”
Up the Organization: How to Stop the Corporation from Stifling People and Strangling Profits
First published in 1970.
Hopp Singg: “Can’t wait for the lawsuits when these same students sue their alma maters for failing to teach them anything.”
I believe that has already happened several decades ago in the early days of affirmative action in the USA. Students, often barely literate/competent, were allowed charity “passes” in various classes and granted qualifications. When they realised they were not competent in terms of gaining employment and their qualifications were a joke they sued.
By the way I am an education graduate from the days [1960s/’70s] when admission to university [in Australia] was highly selective and only the very best gained entry. The race to the bottom, led by the corporate boys and girls and politicians, means that there are many students gaining entry, especially to humanities and education, who should not be allowed to become professional dog walkers let alone work with real human beings.
Jim
When they realised they were not competent in terms of gaining employment and their qualifications were a joke they sued.
Ironically, some of these might be the same people who, as students, violently demanded ever more “affirmative action”.
My alma mater is USMA. I have no sympathy, or time, for these snowflakes.
USMA? So, same school as this clown?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2018/06/19/a-west-point-grad-wrote-communism-will-win-in-his-cap-the-army-kicked-him-out/?utm_term=.e716bef2bfaa
R. Sherman: I spent some particularly happy times in Rolla. Is Ozark Jim’s still extant?
So, same school as this clown?
It is also the school that produced the class of 1915, but regardless, 4293:1 normals to idiots is a far better ratio than the average US college where that ratio is reversed.
It is also the school that produced the class of 1915,
Yeah, I’m thinking standards have slipped considerably since 1915.
Yeah, I’m thinking standards have slipped considerably since 1915.
I know three recent grads (2 2018, 1 2016), and many more going back to around the class of 1965, and no, not really. Besides, there are those among the unenlightened would lump the likes of Robert E. Lee and all the cadets who left to fight for the Confederacy with the commie above.
The problem here is that the Marxist Progressive cure for stress is infinitely worse than the disease. What I can’t figure out is why most people are toofa king stupid to see that.
When I was in law school, Conflicts of Laws was a required five hour course at 0800.