Category: Education: “Higher” Ed

Profs propose using classrooms to counter Trump rhetoric

“These students and their allies look to us for support and assurances,” they write. “The academy can, and should, help our students…contest increased social inequality and exclusionary discourse toward immigrants that is now being amplified by the Trump Administration.”

Translation: We are not engaging in any education anymore. Straight political indoctrination is the order of the day.

Source: Campus Reform

Why Professors Are Writing Crap That Nobody Reads | Intellectual Takeout

All of this is very unfortunate. Ideally, the great academic minds of a society should be put to work for the sake of building up that society and addressing its problems. Instead, most Western academics today are using their intellectual capital to answer questions that nobody’s asking on pages that nobody’s reading.

Another reason your college degree isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on… or even the ink.

Source: Why Professors Are Writing Crap That Nobody Reads | Intellectual Takeout

Greek Life retreat cancelled after banana peel found in tree

After word of the banana spread throughout the retreat, leaders decided to end the event early. Arndt explained that she “felt it was imperative to provide space immediately to students affected by this incident.”

According to The DM, some students left the retreat in tears, with McNeil noting that they “didn’t feel welcome” and “didn’t feel safe.”

Seriously? Over a banana peel? We’re doomed!

Source: Greek Life retreat cancelled after banana peel found in tree

Racial History in the Solar Eclipse Path of Totality – The Atlantic

On August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse will arrive mid-morning on the coast of Oregon. The moon’s shadow will be about 70 miles wide, and it will race across the country faster than the speed of sound, exiting the eastern seaboard shortly before 3 p.m. local time. It has been dubbed the Great American Eclipse, and along most of its path, there live almost no black people.

The eclipse is racist!

(Hat tip: Bayou Renaissance Man

Source: Racial History in the Solar Eclipse Path of Totality – The Atlantic

Implicit Bias is the New Original Sin  |  Ricochet

Thanks to US immigration policy and the forward progression of time, there are many people, white and otherwise, who now live in America and can legitimately claim that they had absolutely nothing to do with the injustices of slavery and Jim Crow, because they weren’t here while these things were going on and aren’t related to anyone who was. So, there needs to be a myth that proves that racism is just part of man’s fallen nature. The Old Testament has Eve eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge; Science™ has the Implicit Association Test.

There are actually multiple Implicit Association Tests (you can try them out here, if you like), but the first one is the “Race IAT”, which claims to show that Americans implicitly associate “European Americans” with “Good concepts” and “African Americans” with “Bad concepts.”

I took two of these tests. Basically, the results simply measured my response time. Since I’m right-handed, my right-hand response times (faster) showed I’m a racist. Hardly scientific.

Source: Implicit Bias is the New Original Sin  |  Ricochet

Not a Good Look for Connecticut Higher Ed – The American Interest

But surely the services that colleges offer are so obviously worthwhile that such lawsuits should fall flat on their face…right? On the contrary, the courts are in many cases ruling for the plaintiffs in such cases, suggesting that those who argue college is often a ripoff are not so far off the mark.

A degree in anything ending with with the word ‘studies’ is a blatant ripoff.

Source: Not a Good Look for Connecticut Higher Ed – The American Interest

The Pseudo-Science of Microaggressions | National Association of Scholars

The problem is, when Sue, Solórzano, and other critical race researchers reject “Eurocentric epistemologies” and “objectivity” they reject the methodology and standards of modern science (e.g., use of a comparison group, sufficient sample size, unbiased questions, replicability of results, use of modern statistical analysis). Instead, critical race theorists value “experiential knowledge” (e.g., the narrative). Such storytelling enables the implementation of a highly politicized agenda and places a social change agenda above objective social science research. It also makes it significantly easier to “prove” the prevalence of microaggressions on campus.

Most important, the critical race paradigm logically and unreflectively results in a one-way analysis pervasive in these studies, which all start with this premise: that microaggressions can only be perceived by non-whites but are only committed by whites. In other words, whites’ perceptions are invalid.

Source: The Pseudo-Science of Microaggressions | National Association of Scholars

Angels and Demons | The Z Blog

The true believer latches onto a cause, in part, because of a deep belief in magic or the super natural…

…The ruling class of America seems to be particularly prone to belief in the supernatural, despite their alleged love of science and reason. You see this in their obsession with racism. Our betters talk about racism as if it is a demon spirit. The anointed, invested with the spirit of good-think, are tasked with exhorting the rest of us to resist the Dark Lord of Racism. You see it in this post the other day by VD, regarding the hysteria at Duke Divinity School. Anathea Portier-Young sounds like she is organizing an exorcism.

Source: Angels and Demons | The Z Blog

College Students PROTEST Class Content Because It’s Too White… | John Hawkins’ Right Wing News

The problem with the class for these kids? It’s just too white.

Humanities 110, covers “Greece and the Ancient Mediterranean,” and it’s a course that introduces students to the works of often celebrated Greco-Roman thinkers such as Aristotle, Ovid, Epictetus, and Plato. You know, some of the greats….who apparently are, racist?

Here’s my problem with this. You whiny brats are going to college to LEARN! Learn about what has been going on for the last 3-4 thousand years. But you are too bigoted and prejudiced to do that. If you don’t want to learn, stay home. It’s obvious that college is useless for you.

Source: College Students PROTEST Class Content Because It’s Too White… | John Hawkins’ Right Wing News