For the college folks

[irvingj]

In the US education field.... the first place/field I have ever worked in where you get paid not according to how well you do your job, but by how many degrees/credits you have. In teaching, in my experience, there's not necessarily any correlation between the two. Not sure what can be done about it, folks have tried "merit pay" (who gets to play "decider"?), with limited or no success... jsut a fact of life, I guess, but unfortunate, nonetheless.

OK, there's my rant.

 

[funwithahoe]

For those who went to college did you ever see crazy courses like these :laughing:

Most Bizarre College Courses

Click to make the photo bigger.

How is this related to Kubota?

 

[buckeyefarmer]

How is this related to Kubota?

Clemson and Tennessee colors

 

[Chuck52]

Ah well, I guess I'll throw my $0.02 in, too. It is true that there are quite a few fluff courses available at most colleges and universities these days. I also wonder why there should be a degree offered in Hotel Management, for instance. However, most of these things fill a need since the days of apprenticeship and journeyman training have largely slipped away. It is also true that some courses that sound funny might have real content. I saw that Philosophy was on one of those lists....I took Philosophy quite a number of years ago and as I recall it was mainly a course in logical thinking. I also took a weight training class because there was a requirement for physical education for my degree (in Chemistry!). Some folks probably took tennis or badminton instead. I have no problem with requiring some Physical Education for a degree....it is not a major part of most degree programs. I also was required to take ROTC at my first university...no problem with that either. I had to take various history, language and writing courses....Liberal Arts! Because Conservative Arts is an oxymoron?


If you think universities and their products, both the students and the other services, like research, they provide are useless, well you are free to hold that opinion as you type on a device that would not exist and send your thoughts over a network that would not exist and live in a country whose main claim to be a world leader would be greatly diminished, if our system of higher education did not exist.

Chuck

 

[charlz]

I also took a weight training class because there was a requirement for physical education for my degree (in Chemistry!). Some folks probably took tennis or badminton instead. I have no problem with requiring some Physical Education for a degree....it is not a major part of most degree programs.

So what is the root of requiring things like PE for various degree programs that it has nothing to do with? "PE was good for you in High School so we will just keep doing it" or "A fool and their money..." ???

Who sets the "you must have X credits to graduate"??

 

[jdfire]

I think it's hard to ever say that education is bad. The education system may have some flaws that could be fixed but overall education of any kind is a good thing. While many of these classes may not apply directly to a given field of study or a career, they do expose students to different aspects of life.

My undergrad degree was in Economics, but I still needed to take general education classes. I took an art history class that I found interesting but not immediately relevent. I went on to law school and in the lobby of the law library there was a copy of a large stone monolith that I had learned about in the art class and instantly recognised. The significance of the piece is that it is inscribed with the first written form of any laws in history, the Laws of Hamurabi. Not crucial knowledge, but just an example of never knowing when you might use something you learned.

There have been many examples where some piece of information learned in a "fluff" course added to the conversation at hand. Education is a good thing.

 

[user.69169]

Tell you what, right here in NY paid for by my hard earned tax dollars you can go to the Alfred State college and get yourself a degree in tow truck driving. Now I didn't believe that till I seen with my own eyes, so I went by and had a look. You spend some time riding around with a little tow truck barely big enough to haul a pickup, and tow a junk car, and then the State give you a diploma. The best part, that diploma qualifys the college kid to drive the biggest wrecker and do so legal.
I asked the professor fellow if he teach them how to pull the axel or the U joint to tow a truck, and he looks at me and asks why somebody would do that. Dam fool ain't got no idea and he's teaching college.

Theres another State College I pay for where you can go learn to drive an 18 wheeler. Gee, I shold might go get me one of them degrees. I only drove for better part of 50 years, and according to all these brilliant beer drinkers I ain't got a degree in truck so I can't drive one. So how come I got a license in my wallet with more dang endorsments than a college boy can count using all his fingers?

Fellow told me one time knowledge accumulates in colleges. Every freshman brings in a little, and no senior takes any when he leaves so the pile just gets bigger at the collrge. I'm pretty sure I smelled that pile over to Alfred, and I'm dang sure it weren't knowledge I was smelling.

 

[JDGREEN4ME]

Tell you what, right here in NY paid for by my hard earned tax dollars you can go to the Alfred State college and get yourself a degree in tow truck driving. Now I didn't believe that till I seen with my own eyes, so I went by and had a look. You spend some time riding around with a little tow truck barely big enough to haul a pickup, and tow a junk car, and then the State give you a diploma. The best part, that diploma qualifys the college kid to drive the biggest wrecker and do so legal.
I asked the professor fellow if he teach them how to pull the axel or the U joint to tow a truck, and he looks at me and asks why somebody would do that. Dam fool ain't got no idea and he's teaching college.

Theres another State College I pay for where you can go learn to drive an 18 wheeler. Gee, I shold might go get me one of them degrees. I only drove for better part of 50 years, and according to all these brilliant beer drinkers I ain't got a degree in truck so I can't drive one. So how come I got a license in my wallet with more dang endorsments than a college boy can count using all his fingers?

Fellow told me one time knowledge accumulates in colleges. Every freshman brings in a little, and no senior takes any when he leaves so the pile just gets bigger at the collrge. I'm pretty sure I smelled that pile over to Alfred, and I'm dang sure it weren't knowledge I was smelling.

I can honestly say the college I went to did not have any "degrees" in tow truck driving or 18 wheeler driving.

 

[Chuck52]

So what is the root of requiring things like PE for various degree programs that it has nothing to do with? "PE was good for you in High School so we will just keep doing it" or "A fool and their money..." ???

Who sets the "you must have X credits to graduate"??

The requirements are usually set by organisations that acredit programs. Do you care if your physician had to take literature classes as an undergraduate? His job is to be a mechanic of the human body, right? Who cares if he knows who Chaucer was? On the other hand, it might be a good idea if he had to do some PE so he'd know what he was talking about when he told you to lose some weight!

Chuck

 

[Chuck52]

(removed),

I do admire your ability to write such beautiful colloquial English. You should volunteer your services to one of the numerous community colleges in your area. Achieving such perfect imperfection requires considerable talent.

Chuck