George Will: An excess of intellectual emptiness

[GK4Herd]

Very good article by Will on college education and entitled students.


From the article...



"College, in an earlier time," Nichols writes, "was supposed to be an uncomfortable experience because growth is always a challenge," replacing youthful simplicities with adult complexities. Today, college involves the "pampering of students as customers," particularly by grade inflation in a context of declining academic rigor: A recent study showed "A" to be the most commonly awarded grade, 30 percent more frequent than in 1960. And a 2011 University of Chicago study found that 45 percent of students said that in the previous semester none of their courses required more than 20 pages of writing and 32 percent had no class that required more than 40 pages of reading in a week.

"Unearned praise and hollow successes," Nichols says, "build a fragile arrogance in students that can lead them to lash out at the first teacher or employer who dispels that illusion, a habit that carries over into a resistance to believe anything inconvenient or challenging in adulthood." A habit no doubt intensified when adults in high places speak breezily of "alternative facts."

 

[GK4Herd]

Also...


"Much attention has been given to the non-college-educated voters who rallied to Trump. Insufficient attention is given to the role of the college miseducated. They, too, are complicit in our current condition because they emerged from their expensive "college experiences" neither disposed nor able to conduct civil, informed arguments. They are thus disarmed when confronted by political people who consider evidence, data and reasoning to be mere conveniences and optional."

 

[GK4Herd]

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20170129/OPINION02/170129223/0/FRONTPAGE

 

[GK4Herd]

And my personal favorite...


"What is most alarming about the President and his accomplices in the dissemination of factoids is not that they do not know this or that. And it is not that they do not know what they do not know. Rather, it is that they do not know what it is to know something."

Ouch.

 

[HerdFan76]

College miseducated, interesting phrase. I can see that being the ammunition of "uneducated Trump voters."

 

[-CarlHungus-]

Grade inflation is one of the reasons why I still favor so much standardized testing. As of now, it's still one of the best ways to assess large volumes of student data to help people make decisions about ranking achievements/mastery of a subject matter.

There are lots of pitfalls to "teaching to the test" and standardized testing in general, but a standardized test can help cut through some of that variability you get with grade inflation.

 

[Raoul Duke MU]

Those writing and reading requirements..Apparently these students never took a class taught by Simon Perry.

I believe on-line classes are horrible for any subject requiring logic and debate of ideas. Less technology, more thinking is what students need.

 

[i am herdman]

You are just paying for a piece of paper anyway. Who cares about what you have to read or write in college? 75% of that crap is a waste of time(if not more).

As for George Will, he is a butt hurt Republican who can't stand Trump being in power.

 

[GK4Herd]

You are just paying for a piece of paper anyway. Who cares about what you have to read or write in college? 75% of that crap is a waste of time(if not more).

As for George Will, he is a butt hurt Republican who can't stand Trump being in power.

Actually he's just what republicans are in short supply of...a person who views things on a well thought out and intellectual level. Not those who measures every act through the scales of vaginification and some twisted perception of manhood.

Will is actually (with bigger words of course) preaching the same thing you preach...that kids today have been pampered. Of course you miss (or chose to miss) that point because he's been a critic of Trump. God forbid you actually try to understand his point rather than opportunistically use it as a springboard to the same soapbox rhetoric about everyone being a vagina because they weren't like the men in dubya dubya deuce.

But gloss over that in order to grant yourself permission to believe the intellectually weak point that his recent executive order will somehow how strike a blow to terrorism. It won't ...but by all means revel in the misguided believe that tough guy rhetoric and actions will somehow make America great again. It's symbolism over substance.

 

[i am herdman]

Actually he's just what republicans are in short supply of...a person who views things on a well thought out and intellectual level. Not those who measures every act through the scales of vaginification and some twisted perception of manhood.

Will is actually (with bigger words of course) preaching the same thing you preach...that kids today have been pampered. Of course you miss (or chose to miss) that point because he's been a critic of Trump. God forbid you actually try to understand his point rather than opportunistically use it as a springboard to the same soapbox rhetoric about everyone being a vagina because they weren't like the men in dubya dubya deuce.

But gloss over that in order to grant yourself permission to believe the intellectually weak point that his recent executive order will somehow how strike a blow to terrorism. It won't ...but by all means revel in the misguided believe that tough guy rhetoric and actions will somehow make America great again. It's symbolism over substance.

How do you know it won't? Seriously? We have to start somewhere. Why should we let all of those people in here? It was a 90 day ban while things were looked at. It sends a message that it is not some damn open door right to come in here. We are going to figure out who you are and what your intentions. Look at Europe and see the mess they are dealing with because of all the intellectually superior people opened their borders up.


The reason Trump won is just because of this bull shit. Intellectually smarter, bla bla bla.

Keep it up folks. Look forward to winning again. I thought we were lucky to get 4 years but I am thinking we might just run the table for the next decade.

The average American doesn't know what is going on in Somalia and other places now. they don't know what we are having to do in Africa and the Horn. And, other places in the Gulf.

but, go ahead and be intellectually superior.

 

[extragreen]

You don't have to be "intellectually superior" to realize that a ban on those countries will do no good. There was already a restriction on those countries requiring vetting.

 

[i am herdman]

You don't have to be "intellectually superior" to realize that a ban on those countries will do no good. There was already a restriction on those countries requiring vetting.

Sure it does some good. They go back when turned away and tell cousin Blow Em Up Akbar that he can't get in and he won't either.

Trump is not the first one to do something like this. His job is to protect this country not be a boarding house for the world.

 

[extragreen]

Sure it does some good. They go back when turned away and tell cousin Blow Em Up Akbar that he can't get in and he won't either.

Trump is not the first one to do something like this. His job is to protect this country not be a boarding house for the world.

You're just like your master, Cheetos, you can't think any further than you can spit.

 

[i am herdman]

You're just like your master, Cheetos, you can't think any further than you can spit.

obsessed much?

 

[extragreen]

obsessed much?

Not nearly as much as you fawn over your empty suit president.

 

[raleighherdfan]

And my personal favorite...


"What is most alarming about the President and his accomplices in the dissemination of factoids is not that they do not know this or that. And it is not that they do not know what they do not know. Rather, it is that they do not know what it is to know something."

Ouch.

Let us remember these FACTS...this is an intellectual "neo-con", some of you continue to blame for years of Repub govt "malfeasance". The same type of neocon(s) that gave you the Bush dynasty, originally supported conflicts in the middle east and US involvement around the world, championed trickle down economics under Reagan & Bush1, free trade deals, cheap immigrant labor, wrote endlessly supporting (the idiot-incompetent-ignorant----insert any other lefty clichéd accusation) GWB policy. The irony of course is that the same voters that put GWB in office twice...he now ridicules as "miseducated". The same "independent-liberal" people that ridicule "failures" of neocon policy and look to end it....now put Will on a pedestal as some type of free thinking "moderate" despite his years of promoting it.

This is what I do know (despite Will's opinion of some people like me). George is just as mired in political-partisan rhetoric as anyone. He is no "independent thinking" repub intellectual. By conveniently ignoring his past opinions and positions (which essentially helped to usher in the Trump phenomena), he arrogantly uses his Ivy league pedigree as a shield from any ridicule his elite journalism leftist brethren may dish out.

Will is like almost anyone else in the beltway bubble I've ever met....desiring countless invitations to weekend parties where endless pontification by self absorbed "intellectuals" and political elites mock the foolish plebeian voters as the central theme of the evening. From my point of view, Will has slightly become the feeble frail college mind he describes here. When something doesn't go your way (election results)....simply lash out. Sulk, pout, mock those that don't agree fully with you as "miseducated". (A very high brow way of saying,"vaginification", indeed.)

Maybe Will is playing a giant intellectual Conservative Jedi mind trick on us all. Because real intelligence derived from looking at the evidence and data would tell you that the biased actions and reporting of the MSM and their surrogates helped to lock in the Trump win across the heartland. Maybe his intent is to strengthen the Trump base, because that's what stories like this do. Real intelligence would tell Will to simply sit back, STFU, and quit spreading much of the misinformed opinion, sold as "news" that ends up making the media more disliked than congress. Had people actually paid attention to the pre election evidence and data, ignored biased predeterminations influenced from media talking heads (like Will); a Trump win shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone.

 

[Raoul Duke MU]

You are just paying for a piece of paper anyway. Who cares about what you have to read or write in college? 75% of that crap is a waste of time(if not more).

I could not care less what a piece of paper earns or does not earn me. I wanted to learn and expand my knowledge. Life is too short to be a relative dumbass, the most glorious thing we are blessed with is our intellect.