The College Experience

[Kaos]

Just finished a day of orientation for the parents of freshmen-to-be.   

First, if you are a parent going to orientation in a sleeveless Harley Davidson tee shirt, baggy gym shorts and flip flops and you weigh 350? Please.  

Second through eighty fourth.  

Everything about the educational system as it currently exists is wrong.  If I could raise the money I would create an alternate method.  

The kids are ridiculously pampered.  The dorms are nicer than the first three apartments I had when I first got married. The recreation center is like a high end spa. The meal plan includes unlimited food and it’s not cafeteria slop. Sushi stations, stir fry, pizza, burgers, dessert... tons of selections.  They can eat all and any time.  Landscaped Walking paths.  

The insular nature of the entire system guarantees that kids are being taught by pampered psudeo-elite pseudo-intellectuals who have no concept of or connection with the real world.  I talked to more than a dozen faculty and administrators. Only one had ever worked outside the college sphere.  He for just three months because “the corporate rat race just wasn’t for him, heheh”.  Doctorate degree teaching in the College of Business. Most of them came to college at 18 and never left. 

THe students are spectacularly entitled and have no concept of economic and cultural realities.  At least the speakers we heard from were.  And they were the “success stories”

The entire culture is completely wrong.  

My kids are going to spend four years and $100,000 for nothing but failed theories espoused by spoiled snobs who could not survive in the world outside their walls. 

[Snaggletiger]

Of course, I sound like my dad complaining about walking 5 miles to school every day, barefoot, in the snow, up hill...both ways. 

The first place I lived in Auburn on East Glenn was so bad it was bulldozed the year after we moved out.  From there, I lived in University Apartments on Donahue (Still there), Gentilly Trailer park and finished up in a spacious 1 bedroom duplex out by the Krogerz.  This past football season, we went by our niece's apartment for a visit. Sweet Haysus on a stick.  3-bedroom. 2 bath.  Full kitchen.  Back door opens out into the courtyard where the pool and several fire pits are.  There's a workout room too. 

Yep, it's a different world, but you never heard us complaining.  We thought we had it all.  And we pretty much did.    

[Saniflush]

You have not lived until you lived in married student housing in '92 that had been built when my mother was in school '57.  CDV.  The original.  Not any of this pussy CDV extension that was new in the 80's and has just been torn down in the last few years.

And yet it was still better than the squad bays and quonset huts from the corps.

[AUJarhead]

Not any of this pussy CDV extension that was new in the 80's and has just been torn down in the last few years.

Damn, you wound me.

[Kaos]

I'm not saying they have to live in hovels and scrape tree bark to make fires in the winter so they don't freeze to death.  

BUT the problems we see today with militarized students, passionately embracing socialism and bleeding their hearts out for the poor immigrants is a direct result of the out-of-touch babying that occurs on college campuses.  

If you've ever had to buy bread at the day-old store and hope the peanut butter you bought when you had $8 in your pocket will make it to the end of the month?  If you're that person and you worked your way out of that into a job that provides you and your family some sense of security?  You're not voting for Bernie Sanders.  You're not mouthing off or snapping your stupid ass fingers in some cushy auditorium because you disagree with someone speaking there.  

I came away from that orientation after listening to ten presentations and talking with probably 25 students, faculty and administrators with the firm belief that my daughters will not "learn" a single thing in the next four to five years that will translate into anything meaningful in their real lives. 

The exceptions are the skill courses nursing, welding, etc.  There the students DO have to learn at least some rudimentary techniques.  But any course outside that is nothing but a complete waste of their time.  

We've got to overhaul the entire system.  I have no problem with a well rounded education.  I think people need a solid background in history, literature and math.  That doesn't mean "learning" dates and events.  It means learning the meaning behind them, what caused them to happen and what those events mean in the broader context.  It doesn't mean learning formulas you'll never ever use again.  It means using math in real-life situations.  A male friend of my daughter graduated with honors and took AP math courses.  I was trying to build a dog house a few weeks ago and asked him to help me with some measurements and calculations.  The math whiz couldn't do it.  Couldn't get close.  What has he learned, really?  He can spout theory all day long, but practical applications elude him.  

I'd like to see us move toward a shorter-term background in social sciences and math and use apprenticeships and internships and co-ops for students to be out in the world. 

It's got to change.  

[wesfau2]

If you've ever had to buy bread at the day-old store and hope the peanut butter you bought when you had $8 in your pocket will make it to the end of the month?  If you're that person and you worked your way out of that into a job that provides you and your family some sense of security?  You're not voting for Bernie Sanders. 

Been there and did that...all of it.

We've got to overhaul the entire system.

Agreed. 

[Godfather]

Just finished a day of orientation for the parents of freshmen-to-be. 

First, if you are a parent going to orientation in a sleeveless Harley Davidson tee shirt, baggy gym shorts and flip flops and you weigh 350? Please. 

Second through eighty fourth. 

Everything about the educational system as it currently exists is wrong.  If I could raise the money I would create an alternate method. 

The kids are ridiculously pampered.  The dorms are nicer than the first three apartments I had when I first got married. The recreation center is like a high end spa. The meal plan includes unlimited food and it’s not cafeteria slop. Sushi stations, stir fry, pizza, burgers, dessert... tons of selections.  They can eat all and any time.  Landscaped Walking paths. 

The insular nature of the entire system guarantees that kids are being taught by pampered psudeo-elite pseudo-intellectuals who have no concept of or connection with the real world.  I talked to more than a dozen faculty and administrators. Only one had ever worked outside the college sphere.  He for just three months because “the corporate rat race just wasn’t for him, heheh”.  Doctorate degree teaching in the College of Business. Most of them came to college at 18 and never left.

THe students are spectacularly entitled and have no concept of economic and cultural realities.  At least the speakers we heard from were.  And they were the “success stories”

The entire culture is completely wrong. 

My kids are going to spend four years and $100,000 for nothing but failed theories espoused by spoiled snobs who could not survive in the world outside their walls.

Yep all to get their foot in the door maybe.  It's an abomination anymore really.  Nothing that they learn in college remotes to anything in the job world, that you don't learn on the job, and this includes doctors.

I'm sending my son to trade school, by the time hes old enough to go Plumbers will make $600 an hour because there won't be any of them left.

[Saniflush]

If you've ever had to buy bread at the day-old store and hope the peanut butter you bought when you had $8 in your pocket will make it to the end of the month?  If you're that person and you worked your way out of that into a job that provides you and your family some sense of security?  You're not voting for Bernie Sanders.  You're not mouthing off or snapping your stupid ass fingers in some cushy auditorium because you disagree with someone speaking there. 

I feel ya dog.  
Suffering was trying to scrape together that $1.39 at the end of the quarter for a gallon of Beast from Mom's Party Shop.  

[Buzz Killington]

I feel ya dog. 
Suffering was trying to scrape together that $1.39 at the end of the quarter for a gallon of Beast from Mom's Party Shop. 

Just hoping that the Ajax the last tenants left behind wasn't tainted and cleaned out the milk jug you took there with no lasting chemical effects.

[Snaggletiger]

I feel ya dog. 
Suffering was trying to scrape together that $1.39 at the end of the quarter for a gallon of Beast from Mom's Party Shop. 

Never a problem.  Just head to Anders or J&M to get $27.50 for the $200.00 worth of books you bought.

[Saniflush]

Never a problem.  Just head to Anders or J&M to get $27.50 for the $200.00 worth of books you bought.

That had to go to the light bill.  Most of my end of quarter beer was from two places.  1) after I had taken the bike back to WalMart and got my money back from the "Wal-Mart rental program and 2) people dumb enough to buy beer and invite me over.

[Snaggletiger]

I needed the $27.50 to get me a little satchel of weed.

[AUJarhead]

the "Wal-Mart rental program"

I had a buddy who bought a whole shit load of camping gear from the Auburn Walmart, went camping over spring break, used the shit out of the gear, and then when he got back, boxed it all back up and took it back for a full refund.

[Hogwally]

If you could be an engineer without going to college I never would've gone.  Didn't particularly like any part of it, but you have to do it if you want to get a job as an engineer.  I agree about kids today, and wonder if the older generation thought the same thing about us.  Did we have it much easier than they did?  Probably so.  Did they seem to resent it as much as we do?  Probably not.  It's funny, I grew up trying to keep old dirt bikes and worn out ski boats running.  Most kids grow up now and don't have the slightest idea how anything works except an iphone.

[Snaggletiger]

If you could be an engineer without going to college I never would've gone.  Didn't particularly like any part of it, but you have to do it if you want to get a job as an engineer.  I agree about kids today, and wonder if the older generation thought the same thing about us.  Did we have it much easier than they did?  Probably so.  Did they seem to resent it as much as we do?  Probably not.  It's funny, I grew up trying to keep old dirt bikes and worn out ski boats running.  Most kids grow up now and don't have the slightest idea how anything works except an iphone.

And all God's children said, AMEN.

[Snaggletiger]

On an Auburn note, I met Snagette at the start of my senior year.  The first time I went over to her apartment, Chateau, I took her a chocolate shake from the original, hole-in-the-wall Saniflush.  I was one smooth playa. 

[Godfather]

On an Auburn note, I met Snagette at the start of my senior year.  The first time I went over to her apartment, Chateau, I took her a chocolate shake from the original, hole-in-the-wall Saniflush.  I was one smooth playa.

Poor thing, Miss K was a victim, all these years.   You were like Corey Myers before Corey Myers. It's a good thing they really didn't know about sexual harassment and assault in the olden times.

[Snaggletiger]

Poor thing, Miss K was a victim, all these years.  You were like Corey Myers before Corey Myers. It's a good thing they really didn't know about sexual harassment and assault in the olden times.

You got that right.  A few sips of that chocolate Flush shake and I was takin' the skin boat to tuna town.

[AUTailgatingRules]

It has gone downhill since the federal government decided that everyone was entitled to a college education.   The world needs ditch diggers and mechanics way more than gender studies and African American History.

[Kaos]

Four more years!