Who destroyed the University?

Directed at Lustig and boomerang --

I think it is dead on correct as well. My students have not read enough. They do not see fallacies in the essays they read.

I use a simple, 2-page, 2-character short story by Ernest Hemingway at the start of each session of ENG 101; not because I am a fan of Hemingway, but because the story is very short and very "transparent" and a good teaching device. I tell them we will be data mining and that reading fiction is almost the same as reading non-fiction. The story is also bleak and he sets the scene well by mentioning only two colors: black and dusty black.

You would be amazed at how few understand the story. We decode it together as a group -- something they should have done in high school -- which, I tell them, gives them a tool for reading the essays that will follow.

Boomerang -- You reacted to the Texas platform and rick perry just as I did. I am very afraid and think if we recover it will take 3 or 4 generations.

BTW, my daughter applied to Reed the year that Reed and (shoot . . . can not remember the other school . . . in Chicago) were the two top drawing schools in the country. My daughter who was accepted at all her other schools was waitlisted at Reed.

Rabel and raprap -- I do feel that free thinkers exist on the left. A few of the top ranking conservative pundits can produce the occasional essay or statement that stands up to logic and contains facts. I have trouble as a writing teacher dealing with conservative writers. I select the least egregious ones and use them to teach fallacies.

Thanks, boomerang, for the quote.

I asked--



You replied-



That sort of critical thinking one might hear in any bus queue.

Beth -- A good example is what happened when not one but six universities in Tennessee jumped on the pharmacy bandwagon. The state of Tennessee had one school offering a program in pharmacy. Today, there are seven and graduates of those programs can not find jobs in their home state.

There are other aspects of our employment difficulties that are not being dealt with and they include technology taking jobs that once seemed technology proof (e.g., the solicitor side of the legal profession) and the too large human population of this planet.

I sometimes think I would like to pursue an MFA in creative writing just for the fun of it . . . and, of course, to offer better hope of becoming not just a writer but an author. Certainly, at 65, I would not follow any course of study in the hope of an increased income. However, when I pick up a writer's magazine and I find ad after ad for "low residency masters' programs in writing," I think why be part of the pack that does nothing but support writing programs?

Actually, Beth, I liked the fact that perry made his statement loud, proud and public. We all have evidence now.

osso -- The problem is that Texas and California are the two biggest school book markets in the country. Coupled with the shrinking number of publishers, means that those two states dictate the content of school texts and it is not pretty.

I select text books for my students and deal with Pearson. As a serious 12 year old who read beyond her grade level and who would sneak adult books out of the library, I learned early on if I did not know a writer, I could rely on certain publishers to provide quality reading. Those publishers have been swallowed by the likes of Pearson.

What do they have in mind? Or, it might be better to say, what do you think they had in mind? Maybe they are trying to prevent the kids finding out that the teaching profession is like a swarm of locusts using the kids as a crop.

"Look out kid, they keep it all hid".

Bob Dylan.

The first thing a critical thinker would ask is which conservative writers and what are a few of the fallacies they enable your students to appreciate. Three will suffice.

Your statement is an example of the bullshit fallacy, which is very common, because it hasn't said anything but is intended to give the impression that it has to unwary or inattentive readers. We already know you have students because you have reminded us often enough.

What exactly is your trouble with the unnamed conservative writers? Perhaps I can help.

Just out of curiosity, POM, which Hemingway short do you use? Or do you vary them? ("In Another Country" would prob'ly be my choice; nobody seems to get it, even when it's so obvious.)

Ah, thanks. So Pearson congloms.

It is hard for me to configure what is happening - I just don't understand all this re the politics and populations of the nation's bigger cities - how do I misread them? I probably misread them since I think of them as a whole, much as I know their complexity, when a powerful if small part of that whole goes to private schools. (I knew that would bounce back to us).

Do you have any sense of what private schools use for texts? I have assumptions.


An aside, anyone read about Larry McMurtry's auction. There's a guy I like.
http://nation.time.com/2012/08/15/the-great-book-sale-of-texas-larry-mcmurtry-gives-up-his-collection/

Ah, thanks. So Pearson congloms.

It is hard for me to configure what is happening - I just don't understand all this re the politics and populations of the nation's bigger cities - how do I misread them? I probably misread them since I think of them as a whole, much as I know their complexity, when a fair part of that whole goes to private schools. (I knew that would bounce back to us).

Do you have any sense of what private schools use for texts? I have assumptions.






An aside, anyone read about Larry McMurtry's auction. There's a guy I like.
http://nation.time.com/2012/08/15/the-great-book-sale-of-texas-larry-mcmurtry-gives-up-his-collection/

Critical thinking is presenting ALL the facts and letting one make up their own mind. You you seem to think it means presenting just the facts you want them to have. I believe that is called brainwashing.

If you look around I think you will find that monopolies are the rule rather than the exception.

When one hears a remark like that one knows one is not listening to a critical thinker. It's like the motorist complaining that there are too many cars on the road.



You don't need a course for creative writing. You need creative ideas and the writing comes naturally. Creative ideas come to certain people and if you haven't had any by now the chances are you never will.

Read better stuff is my advice and read it properly. I think you just like the idea of being able to say that you have done an MFA in Creative Writing course irrespective of whether any creativity was involved. The label being the thing. And if you choose the course it is a self-labelling and depends for its effect on how impressed others are by the label which forces you to seek social contacts which are impressed by it and you get more and more idiotic.

As Beth once said--"What do you call a doctor who was bottom of the class in medical college?

And labels are a business proposition. They are marketed and sold and in doing say a good half of the nation's dimwits get top jobs and a good half of the best brains get wasted.

It's obviously only obvious to someone who is a cut above everybody else.

I'll leave off a dissertation on the "seems". This time.

I've looked around for years. I'm not up to date what makes a monopoly legally.
I see the impact, whether Pearson is legally a monopoly or not.

Not at all. You do injury to what I have said. What facts have you in mind which I want to keep from them and which you don't. Are you saying there are no facts you would avoid? You must have some facts in mind for you imagine I don't approve of presenting them. What are they?

Indoctrination or conditioning are suitable words. Not brainwashing.

Indoctrination and conditioning=brainwashing. Its what religion has been doing for years. Its also why people like you and most of the religious community dont want people to think for themselves untill they have been programed. Screw science because it contradicts the Bible.

I lay claim to destroying and being destroyed. O