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[theinevitable]

(I think this is the part where the thread should be quietly closed, without comment, so that 'Dawg has the last word. You can delete this post, to make it more neat. I am so sorry that I started talking about college.)

[wombat]

I disagree with AD that the disparity of our backgrounds makes this thread impossible.  I think it makes it fascinating.  It perfectly illustrates how many different paths there are.

Don't be sorry, Inevitable.  The wandering has been lovely, you beautiful pig-fuckers you.

[robot_god]

So uh... whaddya think that Pokemon Kid will end up like?



_{Jail, I say.  Possession of kiddie porn.}

[AugustWest]

So uh... whaddya think that Pokemon Kid will end up like?



_{Jail, I say.  Possession of kiddie porn.}

Him?  He's going to be the very best, like no one ever was.

[FlipConstantine]

He's gonna fuckin catch 'em all is what he's gonna fuckin do.

[pmcd9]

He's gonna fuckin catch 'em all is what he's gonna fuckin do.

He does look like a catcher to me.

~Paul

[AlohaDawg]

I disagree with AD that the disparity of our backgrounds makes this thread impossible.  I think it makes it fascinating.  It perfectly illustrates how many different paths there are.

Don't be sorry, Inevitable.  The wandering has been lovely, you beautiful pig-fuckers you.

Were we all as enlightened as you , it would be possible. But we aren't, and so the discussion degenerates to threat and innuendo.

[wombat]

Were we all as enlightened as you , it would be possible. But we aren't, and so the discussion degenerates to threat and innuendo.

Well, of course I'm used to academic discourse always being on the verge of shanking-and-leaving-in-ditches, so it just seems normal.

[V-Adore]

I hope V is still reading this thread because she is doing the right thing for herself.

Life is about choices. Every choice you make results in some mixture of self-approval and regret. Sometimes it's 99% / 1% sometimes it's a neutral 50/50. V is a brainiac 'kid' (only using the term in the sense that I graduated from THE Ohio State University in 1990) who has whatever pressures she has and we don't share them. Although I've often disagreed with many things that come out of Academia and I've met many career academics who have no ability to function in the world outside academia, I also know that many many good things come out of colleges and universities, in terms of science, art, and thought. Not to mention a steady stream of fairly qualified professional workers.

The reason I wasn't reading this thread today is that I have been running around like a fuck*ng chicken with my head cut off attempting to complete the approximately 2.5 billion projects required to let me leave college in a month or so. I'm having a nervous breakdown, thanks for asking! (And yet I'm still doing better than my friend one floor down, who is probably going to drop a thesis she's spent almost a year on, just because her advisor is a dick and stuck her on a doomed project...)

Anyway: Ash, I'm really sorry you feel the need to shank me and leave me in a ditch, but whatever. I'm too tired to not offend people, apparently. I have no problem with people who are professionally-minded in college; if you want to use college as professional prep, and you have a good experience doing so, far be it from me to disagree. That said, I think there's a big difference between a practical-minded professional-track student and the kind of person I was thinking about -- those who believe that college is nothing but a joyless, mandatory four-year slog, a huge Industrial Revolution-style abbatoir from which you emerge with a degree, and that in exchange for the miserable experience you should at least major in something that will make you cash when you leave. What I was trying to say is that I think an essential part of the college experience is a joy in learning and a willingness to learn to think in new ways; this can be done whether your ultimate goal is philosophy or business administration, but cannot be done if you think of college as essentially punitive.

Okay, shutting up now. Bring out the shank.

[theinevitable]

Amen, sister.
*joylessly shanks self and falls into ditch*

hang in there, V.

[AugustWest]

A Shanking!  A Shanking!

[wombat]

those who believe that college is nothing but a joyless, mandatory four-year slog, a huge Industrial Revolution-style abbatoir from which you emerge with a degree

You know, though, for some people it is, and they are not necessarily bad people.  One person's intellectual joyride is another's torture chamber.  It's not their fault that everyone is basically expected to go to college now even if they don't really need college training to do what they want to do.

I feel a need to defend people who hate college as a penance for how many years I taught before I figured out the following:  I was not a normal student, I was the kind of student who grew up to be a teacher. It was stupid, and not fair, to judge student behavior on the basis on how I would have behaved.

[V-Adore]

Oh, I'm not going to disagree that society would probably be better off if college wasn't as mandatory as it's become, or that it's not purely the problem of the individual. I'm not even referring as much to the "have to do college to qualify for the job that I want" crowd, though; I think that's reasonable, and I commend them for doing something unpleasant to them to live out their dreams. What gets to me is the "have to do college but don't actually have a good reason beyond vague societal expectation, so treat it as punitive, devalue opportunities available there, choose the easiest/most lucrative major option, etc." attitude.

I should really stop digging my own ditch/shallow grave, shouldn't I?

[FlipConstantine]

What gets to me is the "have to do college but don't actually have a good reason beyond vague societal expectation, so treat it as punitive, devalue opportunities available there, choose the easiest/most lucrative major option, etc." attitude.

Damn, there goes my four year plan.

[theinevitable]

Hamlet didn't kill himself! Didn't you go to college!?

Just kidding.

I actually did that for real, today. it was lame.

a kid made a comment about China. And then said "yeah, they love that over in Bangkok"
I said "that's... that's in Thailand."
I was informed that you could hear my sneer across the room (even though I actually do not even know how to sneer).
it ended up he was making a bad pun, I think. he's actually the most knowledgeable kid in the class.