Thread: Wow! Are You Kidding Me!?

Originally Posted by Crotalus

Also, colleges are too willing to give out degrees in areas that are totally useless unless you are going to teach. What good is a Fine Arts degree outside of college?

Honestly, there are many great areas where a FA degree can be used to good advantage. But what specialization? A dramaturg will write things that you may want to see on television or on the stage. A music therapist may get a severly autistic child to speak. A person with a Master's in Fine Arts may run the gambit from a Professor to a Producer to a Movie star. Many degrees may seem useless to one who receives but does not apply that degree. Plato asserted that "To sing well and to dance well is to be well educated!" One of the greatest minds of all time! Don't discount anything.

Originally Posted by holli4pirating

What sums of money now?

while not huge considerable: in 1983 one of my neighbors was delighted his daughter had chosen Syracuse for a college... it was 3k less a year than the private high school he paid for.
late wife went to miss porter's 20k a year back in the early 80's .... it is 50k now pretty much the top end for a great girl's school.

public school... the year i graduated there were 427 kids k-12 in my school... debt free district.. the budget was $1.1million ~$2576 per kid per year, 2011-2012 budget $8.3million with 358 kids, k-12, or ~$23184 per child per year... still debt free. the nearest private school charges $17.5k a year.... i want to close the school and get all the kids a private education and the tax payers can have a little relief.
sure the teachers are moderately paid (starting pay is ~5k a year above the district average income)

so yup not a big amount of money, and that is the reason i think school, county, state and federal employees should not be allowed to be unionized... public service is good but when you want real money suck it up and get a private sector job.

here endeth the rant .... I'm putting on my body armor and releasing the hounds to slow people making it to the house... the gate is already locked!

Originally Posted by joebehar

What I'm trying to get across is that there are many types of education and knowledge, but the basics such as numeracy and literacy are sorely lacking today.

Clarification...basic numeracy and literacy means more than being able to count and read and write simple text. it means being able to take those skills and use them to understand more complex things.

I agree, to some extent. Sadly those were things that were required by the 8th grade when education was more than High Stakes Testing! Now we teach to a test, and that is the worst possible thing we could do.

If two pounds of beef cost $5.50, and three punds of beef cost $8.00, which of the following would you do?

A) I am a vegetarian, I wouldn't buy either
B) I would buy 2 pounds $5.50/2=2.75 which is more than $8.00/3=$2.67
C) 3 pounds of beef is more than I would use.
D) I would buy both because my parents are rich

That is how they would see the purchase of beef at a grocery store.

I forgot
E) How much is the Chicken?

Originally Posted by Yochatman

Honestly, there are many great areas where a FA degree can be used to good advantage. But what specialization? A dramaturg will write things that you may want to see on television or on the stage. A music therapist may get a severly autistic child to speak. A person with a Master's in Fine Arts may run the gambit from a Professor to a Producer to a Movie star. Many degrees may seem useless to one who receives but does not apply that degree. Plato asserted that "To sing well and to dance well is to be well educated!" One of the greatest minds of all time! Don't discount anything.

The Fine Arts also produce the backbone of any capitalist, free market economy; advertising.

Originally Posted by Yochatman

I agree, to some extent. Sadly those were things that were required by the 8th grade when education was more than High Stakes Testing! Now we teach to a test, and that is the worst possible thing we could do.

If two pounds of beef cost $5.50, and three punds of beef cost $8.00, which of the following would you do?

A) I am a vegetarian, I wouldn't buy either
B) I would buy 2 pounds $5.50/2=2.25 which is less than $8.00/3=$2.67
C) 3 pounds of beef is more than I would use.
D) I would buy both because my parents are rich

That is how they would see the purchase of beef at a grocery store.

I forgot
E) How much is the Chicken?

nice example... i believe that my duty to other's children education ends when they can read and hopefully understand the no trespassing signs on the property lines and do basic math like giving me correct change for a purchase. beyond that it is the parents job to see to their education and associated costs. however i will allow that teaching trades and life skills is OK but simply warehousing young people until they reach a certain age is not educating them... many people know early on whether they want a college education or to work in a trade. if that was identified earlier and then the kids were educated to those ends we would be better off on the whole. trying to teach things to people who do not want to learn is frustrating, i know that from training people to do work ... those who are just there because they need a job hold back the people who actually want the job.
look at the craftsmen around here if they did not enjoy the task of restoring or making razors do you really think they would produce such nice razor porn?

Originally Posted by syslight

nice example... i believe that my duty to other's children education ends when they can read and hopefully understand the no trespassing signs on the property lines and do basic math like giving me correct change for a purchase.

Oh, come on Jim, why would you be wasting your money? Guns and ammo are way way cheaper and much more effective

Originally Posted by gugi

Oh, come on Jim, why would you be wasting your money? Guns and ammo are way way cheaper and much more effective

yes but that is my reply to people calling to solicit funds for starving children... i always offer them guns and ammo... and explain how they are much more humane

jim

Originally Posted by 1OldGI

I don't know whether to LMAO or start crying.

Maybe the producers paid the contestants to give ridiculous answers so that the show would gain publicity on internet forums

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

Maybe the producers paid the contestants to give ridiculous answers so that the show would gain publicity on internet forums

In which case these producers ought to be fired on the spot. Their job is to select people who would give such answers without having to be paid.


You've been living the socialist life for far too long - your worldview is all skewed!

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

Maybe the producers paid the contestants to give ridiculous answers so that the show would gain publicity on internet forums

I doubt it and the reason I think so is because a couple of years ago my wife's best friend and her family were selected as contestants for this show. My wife's best friend and her husband are both teachers, her father has his degree in engineering, and yet being very smart people, they did not win a single round. Granted, they too gave some fantastically stupid answers, but they said they were so nervous they couldn't think. During one of the commercial breaks, a producer came over to them and said he couldn't believe how bad they were doing. I have the episode on tape and it's hard to watch, but we suffer through it when they come to visit and we laugh and have a great time discussing how bad they did.