Oh Goddam. Grading undergrad papers. Here. I'll teach you something.

[Maddy McCall]

Did you know that the Nation of Islam is completely to blame for 9/11?

Did you know that violence is a natural trait of Muslims?

Did you know that the reason that women in Africa have Aids (sic) is because they dye their hair, go hang out in bars all day, and get drunk, and thank God that people in the US don't do this!

Did you know that we have to do something about global warming, even though global warming has not been proved to be caused by fossil fuels, industrialization, or human activities?

Oh, god, my brain hurts. I need some Zomby Coffee, because I have eight more papers to grade. :banghead:

[Oeditpus Rex]

1. College students are saying this?

I weep for the future of this nation. :scared:

[Maddy McCall]

4. Weep. Weep with all your might.

I do, daily. :cry:

[Robeson]

2. Wow. And these people have made it to college?......

...I guess the admins are now letting anybody in, as long as they can pay tuition...

:yoiks:

[Maddy McCall]

5. Yep.

Lower admissions standards and the university prez's desire to be the largest college in the state.

Sadly, these are your future elementary school teachers. :cry:

[BrotherBuzz]

3. Best education money can buy....

Mommy and Daddy must be proud

[Maddy McCall]

6. LOL.

True in many cases. :hi:

[ghostsofgiants]

7. And suddenly I feel a whole lot smarter, somehow.

[Maddy McCall]

8. You may think you are smarter...

but if you didn't know that the hunger strike by prisoners at Gitmo is based in the history of the Bay of Pigs invasion, then you really don't know much, now do you? ;-) :D

:hi:

[ghostsofgiants]

9. Next you're gonna tell me...

That Osama bin Laden DIDN'T help Iraq invade Kuwait. Or that Salvador Allende DIDN'T graciously step down and let the democratically elected Augusto Pinochet take over the government of Chile.

[Maddy McCall]

11. Hate to burst your bubble.

:D

[ContraBass Black]

68. No way.

You're just making that one up.

[serryjw]

94. Maddy.....My brain just exploded

Do I dare ask how they came to this conclusion?

[NMMNG]

10. Apparently they are only letting home-schooled neocons in nowadays?

[Maddy McCall]

12. Actually, my formerly-homeschooled students are pretty bright.

Sadly, it's the ones coming out of public schools that are giving me the stuff you're reading above.

:D

[NMMNG]

16. That's scary

How can they go through the system and still have that crap uncontested in their brains?

[Maddy McCall]

18. Like I said below, much has changed in the past 10 years.

I really don't understand the lack of intellectual/cultural curiosity. But it's evidently not restricted to the deep south, because TWBM below said that she's seeing the same thing in her classes.

[Thtwudbeme]

19. AND...the ones that do want to travel are trustafarians

who are such little priviledged snotwads whose mom and dad have handed them everything--that no adult in their right mind would want to hold a conversation with them.

In all honesty, I would say that I have enjoyed talking to about 25% of the kids at the school. There ARE some decent ones out there.

[Hissyspit]

41. Absolutely, Maddy, I came out and said it to my class the other day.

I tell them that their situation - America at the beginning of the 21st Century - is not NORMAL, it's unprecented. A period of unprecedented wealth and comfort in human history.

[RubyDuby in GA]

44. Because nowadays, at least here in the usually dead last in education

state, teachers have to teach to a test, not to actually teach a student to think for themselves. I've been out of school for 10 years now, where I got a BA in History, and when I was in my basic core classes I couldn't believe the ignorant dumbasses in there. I seriously wondered how anyone could not know the most simple stuff........

And yet, people wonder why the US continually lags behind other nations......

[NMMNG]

88. That makes me think of an episode of The Simpsons

Lisa decides to go Vegetarian, and she's in school one day. She begins asking questions about the validity of using animals for food and each time she does the person she's asking presses an "Independent Thought Alarm" button. This alerts the principal who is called into action to squelch the behavior.

I can't help but wonder if that's the state of reality in today's school system.

[mzteris]

25. THANK YOU!

:hug: :loveya:


Teaching kids critical thinking skills is a very good reason to homeschool!!

'cause with the "teach to the test mentality" pervasive in NCLB - you can be assured that teaching kids to THINK is taking a backseat in most (not all) classrooms!

[Thtwudbeme]

13. Hey, I am actually sitting in class with these little fuckwits

but, they don't talk to me because they have heard me rip their little Republican buddies asses up.

After I finish explaining to them that Bush is ruining THEIR futures...then I offer to teach them how to shoot an actual REAL gun so that they can take action and call their damned recruiter.

[Maddy McCall]

14. Then you can attest to this, right?

LOL. :yourock:

[Thtwudbeme]

15. My God Maddy

These college kids are not only the stupidest I have ever witness...but, they seem to have zero interest in other cultures, traveling, each other--I mean they are like little zomby weirdos.

When I was that age all I could think about was where I was going to go next.

It's really sad---

Furthermore, my father in law asked me if I was going to teach through grad school, and I said "Hell no."

I can't stand them.

[Maddy McCall]

17. In the 10 years since I've been in higher ed....

It's changed. Lord have mercy, it's changed.

And y'all always give me hell for homeschooling my kid. :D

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

20. With education like it is

homeschooling isn't possiple, ALOT of the teachers (not you ;) ) can't teach or in that case can't read either.

[Hissyspit]

39. I've been in for 10 years, too, Maddy. I will attest for it.

It has changed. And it's not pretty.

See here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x4756705

[RubyDuby in GA]

46. They have no interest - they just want their business degrees

and to be on their merry way to the corporate world.

Whatever happened to learning for the sake of learning? For being able to hold a decent conversation with someone? Or to just be an interesting person?????????

[no name no slogan]

49. It was like that in the 80s too, though

I was in college in the 80s, and most of my classmates at a small liberal arts college were business majors of some sort or another, too.

I think it is worse now than say, 30 years ago, but I don't think it's that much worse. Middle-class "college-age" students have always mostly been intellectually lazy-- as is the majority of this nations' population.

But think about our country's history: we've either been isolated from the rest of the world OR been the biggest bully on the block for all of our history. We haven't NEEDED to know what the rest of the world is doing, because we can bully or cajole it to do our bidding.

Unfortunately, 90% of the population either doesn't know what's going on, or doesn't care, because they feel powerless to change it. THAT, IMHO, is the REAL problem. Destroy ignorance first-- because that will lead to intellectual curiousity.

Ignorance can be cured. Stupidity is terminal.

[mitchum]

61. Why don't they just create trade schools adjoining golf courses...

for the business majors?

[WritingIsMyReligion]

21. What the FUCK??

I know other high schoolers who'd write better'n that...

Fucking A....

:grr:

[xchrom]

22. yikes -- you scared me.

:yoiks:

[SmileyBoy]

23. HOW did they get into college??

Apparently college nowadays is nothing more than post-high school.:eyes:

[Hissyspit]

38. You just don't know...

how sad it can be.

[RubyDuby in GA]

47. It's the 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th and nowadays sometimes 18th grade

Why am I picturing Ferris Bueller right now telling us he weeps for the future???

[Lydia Leftcoast]

52. Grade inflation and the desperation of colleges

that were built up to accommodate the baby boomers desperate for a share of today's smaller generation of students.

[ucmike]

81. the criteria for most colleges is the ability to pay

whether mom and dad write the check or the student signs up for years of adjustable rate government loans. colleges have become just like hospitals, where they were once about something they are now mostly about profits and brand name recognition.


i couldn't believe some of the absolute ignorant jackasses that graduated in my class. people who sat next to me in the same classes, hearing the same lectures, and took nothing from it then graduated anyway. i remember going out on job interviews and hoping that no one from my graduating class had interviewed before me and tainted the school's reputation.

[kwassa]

24. Have you heard about standardized tests for college students?

No College Student Left Behind?

that's a joke, but it was on NPR yesterday. A real push.

[KitchenWitch]

35. I heard about that last week

:wtf:

[Hissyspit]

40. Not really about excellence, but about grabbing control of the one area

of American culture the wing-nuts do not have control of. It is VERY disturbing.

Compare to the take-over of institutions of higher education by the Nazis. (Yes, I said it! I know exactly what I'm talking about!)

[nickgutierrez]

26. What. The. Hell.

:banghead:

I apologize for my generation.

[Rowdyboy]

27. One of my history professors from the '70's told me recently that the

current crop of freshman is woefully unprepared to handle anything approaching college level work. Their writing skills are negligible, grammar and spelling very weak and and they seem disinterested in anything that doesn't involve making money. He teaches at what was once an excellent, private college in Jackson known for its tough academic standards.

You have my sympathy. :hug:

[DS1]

28. Fail them all

They need waking up

[ProfessorGAC]

29. Flunk 'Em All

I thought the purpose of higher education was to learn how to research, compile, analyze, and conclude. Silly me!
The Professor

[Rabrrrrrr]

33. I agree with the Professor and DS1 - flunk 'em

Unless you've asked them to write editorials or opinion pieces, that kind of just plain wrongness cannot be rewarded with anything other than a kick in the ass.

[GalleryGod]

43. Right! I took a blunt cutlass to aobut 22 of my Sophs this Fall.

[ContraBass Black]

71. How many do you have total?

[petronius]

93. You'll never get tenure with that attitude...

See, a cutlass is a cutting tool, and if you're gonna use one, it should be sharp. If you want to use a blunt object, than a bat packs a lot more wallop...

:)

[GalleryGod]

100. Thank You, Sir !!! Duly noted !

[Orsino]

30. This is what happens...

...when you underfund education, and overpay corporate media whores. We get ignorant--and proudly so. :patriot: :spank: :banghead: :hide:

[ProfessorGAC]

31. Oh, You're Completely Wrong!!!

It's those damned liberal professors. They actually expect people to learn and think and not merely train for a job at the bank.
The Professor

[bridgit]

32. you neglected to mention: base the lion's share of your job potential...

on mega corporate sports franchises...people may think all they may need to do is dribble a ball, or call for a flea flicker 'in huddle', and the endorsements will come streaming in

[slide to the left]

34. This is why

I am taking my Texes test(Texas teching cert. test) in 42 hours, I feel it is my civic duty to teach history and govt.

[bridgit]

45. smart move & welcome to du, slide to the left...

:hi: :kick:

[Hissyspit]

36. See here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=105x4756705

[anarch]

37. the Nation of Islam???

Goddamn that Louis Farrakhan! It's no wonder we had to invade Iraq! :crazy:

[GalleryGod]

42. Here's What I Do, M.M. !

Nip It! Nip It! Nip it in the BUD !!!

[newportdadde]

48. I would take those examples and write them on the board for all to see.

Then tear them apart with the facts.

[patcox2]

50. Boy thats way off base about the nation of islam.

They're the ones who believe white people aren't people, that whites were invented (bioengineered) by an evil black mad scientist back in ancient egypt.

[Reverend_Smitty]

51. did these kids graduate from Freeper HS?

I don't even know what to say about this...although I had a good chuckle in my cultural anthropology class on Tuesday when the professor asked if we knew what the scare of 1837 was and a girl raised her hand and asked if it had anything to do with nuclear weapons...hey at least she said nuclear properly.

:banghead:

[tigereye]

55. oh my

:rofl:

[jakefrep]

53. Are these kids citing...

...the great scholarly books by Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, or Coulter in their bibliographies?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

54. It was getting to be this bad when I left academia in 1993

I graduated from college in 1972, when business was a small major. Most of my classmates were going to be high school teachers of some sort, so they took a liberal arts major.

When I went back to teach at the same college ten years later, the business department was running the academic program. In fact, enrollments in other departments were being thrown out of whack because the business majors were required to meet their general education requirements with specific courses and were supposed to choose their electives from other specific courses. The non-business faculty were trying to redesign the general education program and the major requirements so that students would have to take courses that were not designated by the business department.

I blame two factors:

1) The job market: Some time in the late 1970s, corporations gave up their previous practice of hiring liberal arts graduates and putting them through a training program. I watched the transition in college placement offices. In the mid 1970s, when I first began considering jobs outside academia, even major corporations would interview students in any major. By the time the Reagan administration rolled around, the corporations were interviewing accounting and business majors exclusively. The only corporate jobs available to liberal arts majors were in commissioned sales.

2) Rising tuition and decreasing financial aid: Tuition began rising faster than inflation (due, I believe, to administrative bloat--every administrator suddenly needed a full-time assistant who needed an assistant and so on and so on), and at the same time, the Reagan administration eliminated all grants to college students (except the teeny-tiny Pell Grants) and all forgivable loans (like the NDSL loans, which could be forgiven 100% if you taught school in a designated poverty-stricken area for 5 years, and 50% if you taught anywhere for five years or entered the military or Peace Corps). The only options left aside from private scholarships were loans, loans, and more loans, AND ROTC.

That was a diabolically clever move on the part of the Reagan administration. To a non-political student, ROTC looks like a good deal--free tuition and books, and you get to dress up and play soldier a few hours a week. But what I saw as a professor on a campus where ROTC was strong was that ROTC served as neocon brainwashing.

[tigereye]

56. one of my buddies is an anthro prof

and the stories she told about college kids who can't write or think were astounding.

But oddly enough, my 4th grader is writing his butt off with pretty high expectations. So maybe some of the writing skills that are being emphasized for younger kids will help things to improve, and maybe? the critical thinking. I send my kid to a progressive school, so there's no danger of right-wing thinking, fortunately.

You have my sympathy.

[Ron Mexico]

57. Is that representative of papers you usually grade, or a

standout example of stupidity?

[Taverner]

58. What in the name of fuck????

Don't tell me we've really reached this level of stupidity in this country....

[Hosnon]

59. Hey Maddy...from Jackson right? Where do you teach? nt

[mitchum]

60. Okay, they need to tighten up those admissions standards

but thanks for the laugh! :)

[Patiod]

62. Someone asked me why Jews don't celebrate Easter

One of my sorority sisters, who was a JUNIOR majoring in education.

I could understand -- maybe -- a freshman asking this question, especially since she was from a town in the boonies where everyone was Luthern (or Catholic), but she had gone through THREE YEARS at Penn State, and didn't understand the difference between Judiasm and Christianity. AND we had a bunch of Jewish girls in our sorority, and you would think she would have picked SOMETHING up from hanging around with them. Scary, scary, scary.

[JVS]

64. One of my brother's room-mates at PSU saw a sign hanging up...

that said "Happy Chanukah", as they drove past he said "What the hell is Cha-nooka?", pronouncing the ch as one does in English. My brother replied, "Dude, the word in Hanukkah, you may have heard of it before", the room-mate said "Oh yeah, whoops, the spelling threw me off"

[Taverner]

70. YOu could have answered "but they doooooooooo"

I mean the communion wine, wafers - that's a Seder.

Most Christians don't get the Last Supper was a Seder.

[Patiod]

72. Yeah, but this girl was talking Easter bunnies and eggs

I guarantee!

No way was I going to confuse her with the Seder. She was having enough trouble digesting that Jews don't acknowledge the divinity of Jesus.

[Taverner]

73. Ahhh...probably also shouldn't have thrown in

That Jesus himself never claimed to be God. That was Paul, the first self-loathing Jew ever.

Or that Jesus studied the Kabalah (as an Essene Jew, that would be part of his studies.)

[serryjw]

98. Cute story...When I was 13 ( Now 56!)

my parents moved from Queens NY to LA. MY first girlfriend's name was Debbie Smith ( Her brothers were the Good Time Singers on the Andy William's Show). After school I invited her over to the house. When got home, I asked if she was hungry and would she like a bagel? She ASKED what a bagel was! It was a real culture shock to me. I was raised in a middle class neighborhood where we had ONE non Jew. Her name was Barbara, and she was Puerto Rican! They closed the schools on the High Holidays

She was 13 NOT 22!

[Patiod]

99. I used to love High Holidays

I grew up Catholic and went to a largely-Jewish junior-high, so they were holidays for the Gentile kids too, at least the ones in the honors classes (Stoner Math was still full, of course). In some classes, it was just me, Kelvin Okamoto and Nancy Pietroski, so we ended up in 1/2 day art classes.

When I got to Penn State, it was a real culture shock. Gentiles everywhere. I was dressed all wrong, I talked all wrong. It took some time to adjust, which is probably why I ended up in a sorority with so many Jewish girls - it felt more comfortable.

I bet the move to LA was somewhat the same (although nothing could be as white-bread as Penn State)

[serryjw]

102. I understand being a minority

Growing up in a middle class Jewish ghetto I understand that you are sheltered from the majority. I never understood WHY no one on TV every went to Temple! My Valley schools in LA were 50/50 so I was exposed to all faiths and races in LA. LACC, the community college was 90% Black, so again I was the minority

[Callalily]

63. Those statements

are truly mind boggling. But . . . I suspect those comments are not from students attending a liberal arts college. Liberal arts college students are not only taught critical thinking, but become very adept at it, practice it with ease.

[Patiod]

66. Hey, repeating that line got me a scholarship!

I was interviewing for a scholarship for the children of employees at Hess's Dept. Store. The question was "what do I want from an edcuation", and for some reason at the time I was less than happy with the education I was receiving at Penn State's college of business at the time (an attitude which has changed in the intervening years).

I went on a rant about the difference between a "tech" education that educates you for a job, and a real liberal arts education that actually teaches you to THINK.

The judges? I didn't know it when I wrote the essay, but they were: the dean of a liberal arts college, the dean of English at another school, and somebody from the store. So needless to say, I was a big hit with the two deans and won the scholarship (it was only like $500, but still).

[Pacifist Patriot]

65. Sounds like failing grades in my class.

[sinkingfeeling]

67. At least you have something to read. I just sit here and watch the

GRADUATE students submit the same job to the mainframe time and again, complete with the very same JCL (job control language) error. I guess they believe that if they submit it the right number of times, the system will automatically correct the error and run the job!

[LynzM]

69. Oh geez, Maddy

I'm not surprised, but damn, those are bad. Makes me feel a little better about mixing up my 15th and 16th century leaders on my exam this past week :eyes:

[Aristus]

74. Sheesh, Maddy!

Where do you teach? Bob Jones University?


BTW, I KNOW you would never teach there. B-)

[SIU_Blue]

75. As a college student...

I'd like to apologise for my fellow students.

This is just embarassing.

I'll be spending all of tommorrow "peppering" the campus with flyers for "Students for Peace and Democracy" explaining that 12% of children in the U.S. live without healthcare.

At my college I have certainly found that our generation is learning from Bush's disastrous reign. Don't fear for the future.



:)

[ProfessorGAC]

76. I Hope You're Right!

Is this SIU as in Carbondale?
The Professor

[SIU_Blue]

78. yep, Carbondale

not your typical base of liberal student activism, being so far south,

but I find that among fellow polysci majors, there is enormous anti-shrub sentiment and a true commitment to doing something about it. Our next campaign will be trying to rid the on-campus bookstore of sweatshop made clothing.

[ProfessorGAC]

79. Well, That's Great

And do well in school. We need people like you in our future. I only live about four and a half hours north! Get good grades or i'm coming down there!
The Professor

[SIU_Blue]

82. LOL

working on it.

Do you teach in Chicago? I only ask because my dad is a researcher at Loyola, he used to work at UIC and has taught a class at U of C as well.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

77. But that's what Rush and Anne said...

What higher authority is there?

[hfojvt]

80. what have you been teaching these kids?

I guess I need to go back to college. I didn't know half of that stuff.

[TheMightyFavog]

83. I say flunk 'em.

Then take them into your office and explain to them exactly WHY you flunked them on this assignment.

[SmokingJacket]

84. Oh, wow. I quit teaching when my kid was born, just as Bush

got in. I had to deal with lots of awful papers (and many ineptly plagiarized ones), but never anything like that...

Maybe I don't want to get back into academia, after all...

[Dora]

85. I hear about this decline all the time

I hear it from my mother - she teaches in elem. ed at a large state university. She's been teaching for 20 years. Even she says she would pick homeschooling over public school today. She had two homeschooled undergrads in the same class last semester - one was a questioning, critical-thinking, interested/interesting young adult, and the other was a pap-parroting dimwit.

My mother has always loved teachers and teaching. The level of discouragement I hear in her voice just makes me sad.

[Lisa]

86. did you know that grasslands are created by "frequent periodical burnings"

Something explained by one of my resource management students last year. (I just have this vision of all these stacks of "Journal of Ecology" and "National Geographic" going up in smoke!)

Hang in there, Maddy.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

87. Please tell me you're flunking these people...

They don't deserve anything else!

[XemaSab]

89. Flunk 'em,

and start demanding footnotes in all essays.

Footnotes are the last stronghold of an angry prof.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

91. I second the footnotes

Make them actually do some research, rather than just gather all their material from the "smart" one in their group.

[RevolutionaryActs]

90. I just lost brain cells reading that.

How are those people able to feed and clothe themselves? I mean really? :shrug:

[6000eliot]

92. What class is this?

Hopefully not history or anthropology.

[Wapsie B]

95. I saw this post this morning

and couldn't think of anything more to add. But with the state of affairs in education it gave me an idea for a thread of my own. Who controls the selection of textbooks in this country?

[wildhorses]

96. just think about the NURSES that are graduating...

and they will be taking care of you!!!! !t is scary!!!
The ones with their BS are MORE stupid than the ones with assoc. degrees
twice as snotty and half as caring...

[La Lioness Priyanka]

97. what college are you teaching for?

i went to nyu and while there were some dumb people most were very eloquent, articulate and knowledgeable

[Benfea]

101. Conservatives have worked very hard to push all that misinformation...

…into the national dialog.