An open thread for personal stuff. As always, no trolls, no Trump fans, no MRAs, etc.
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Open Thread for Personal Stuff: June 2017 Flexicat Edition
We Hunted The MammothBucking the Backlash
We Hunted The MammothAn open thread for personal stuff. As always, no trolls, no Trump fans, no MRAs, etc.
University is unfortunately become a means to an end for most people. It’s like an expensive job training program. You need a degree to get a half decent job so everyone from a middle or upper class background is expected to get one. There’s very little learning for the sake of learning and learning to become a better and more well rounded person. It’s a shame but not a surprise that academia is becoming more and more devalued.
I hope that didn’t come off as too snotty. I don’t think someone is a bad person if they’re not academically inclined. I don’t blame people who aren’t into studying for going to college simply to have a better chance at a decent job. I also don’t people for not wanting to do academia as a career because it isn’t worth the trouble. You’ve gotta do what you gotta do. It’s just one of those sad shitty consequences of capitalism. Knowledge itself isn’t worth anything unless it leads to money.
Hi again )) so I finish already my message for my relative and I sent. Now I will just waiting for her reply. I just make like you all said I should – some small stuff about what I doing and some weird story about Panama canal. Then I ask if she is okay and what is school like. And I invite her to stay with me and my girlfriend when I come home again, so I hope this will mean she has something to be exicted for.
Thank you for your help everyone <3
@WWTH
I agree entirely, which is why I think we should all be like Iceland and make University free for people.
It’s ridiculous to put a price on knowledge and learning.
I think that by monetizing something that is truly beyond value, we have doomed ourselves by trivializing education as a mere fancy frill, a frippery to be bought and sold like a new pair of boots or a dining set.
“It’s ridiculous to put a price on knowledge and learning.”
True. But a price is not for knowledge or learning, but for teachers and their time they use for educating. They deserve money for their effort. I believe what is wrong is like you say – for everything you need some kind of university degree. If things must be as such, then of course, government must subsidise for university education. Otherwise, jobs should not demand university degrees or have more way to enter. For exampe, whithout degree, then there can be apprentice option. Electrician can have elecrtical engineering degree or study like apprentice without degree with experienced mentor. And government can give subsidy to this company, like they do for shiping companies that have cadet program.
@Admiral Valentine
I don’t disagree. I realize my statement is a bit open-ended, and will now explain:
If the Government could give even the most micro-sized shit about their people, they would financially compensate teachers and professors for their work, just like how they pay people to run around with guns and bombs, pilot aircraft, navigate warships, and convene in decision-making rooms, pushing markers about on a map.
The onus should not be on us, the general public, to pay for our education, not when the Federal Government can spend billions on warfare but seemingly nothing on education.
Hey guys! It’s good to catch up on how everyone else is doing. Sounds like hugs all around are in order.
As for me, Among the Red Stars is now a real, physical book! It’s pretty awesome.
It’s on Amazon and everything and so far people have had really nice things to say about it! Its actual release day is October 3, so I’m very busy working on publicity. It has certainly been an exciting year!
https://www.amazon.com/Among-Red-Stars-Gwen-Katz-ebook/dp/B01N4M6QTT/
@Francesca, you put that beautifully. If we don’t have a society in which it’s possible and admirable for people to love knowledge and love learning for its own sake …
@Valentine, that sounds pretty good! At the very least that says I’m-thinking-of-you and I-think-you’re-a-cool-person, which is a really great thing to hear from an exciting older cousin when you’re a kid and having a tough time with stuff. I hope she likes the message. Also long-distance-internet-stranger hugs to you.
‘I think it’s a crime that academics aren’t better paid, I mean, seriously: people like you are the reason why we aren’t all crouching around a fire eating small animals and insects with our hands, and dying at age 16 because there are no antibiotics. Without academics I wouldn’t be able to write this message to you.’
You’re not the first person, nor will you be the last, to conflate science and technology. Because the two are so closely connected now, it’s sometimes difficult to remember that that’s a very recent historical development–I used to tell my students since the commercialisation of the electromagnetic spectrum, but one of them suggested the invention of chemical dyes–they both happened around the same time, so either is a reasonable milestone. Technologies before this milestone were developed entirely outside the scientific or academic spheres.
@OpposableThumbs
Thank you. Really, I mean it; as someone who writes fiction and just generally writes as a hobby I appreciate recognition of my work.
I don’t mean to pat myself on the back, but I’m sure you think I am the sort of person who would actually benefit from university, as opposed to the person who goes there just to get a credential to enter a fast-paced, high-paying job and doesn’t really care about bettering themselves.
@Witch of Endor
I’d rather not say exactly where I am going to be. I know there are trolls that lurk here and I’m going to be teaching at a university, so I’d like to stay somewhat anonymous here. I’m currently in the midwestern US, but I’m moving out west, where there are mountains. I’m really excited about having mountains nearby. It’s absolutely beautiful out there and I can’t wait to start hiking again. There is even trail access out behind my apartment complex.
@Katz
That’s awesome! Congratulations!
@Everyone else
I totally agree about the compensation for teachers. I’m just starting out in academia with this new job. I’m actually getting paid pretty well in this position, but I also spent the last three years living overseas to get my PhD, so I’ve got some student loan debt to take care of. It was a risk to go get the degree and I was lucky to get a position that will allow me to take care of that debt in a reasonable amount of time.
My mom taught elementary school for many years and was not paid enough for the amount of work she did. She was at school on the weekends and during the summer and ALWAYS brought home a stack of papers to grade. When I got my first job, I told her what my salary was and she said I was making almost as much as her. I was a recent graduate with a MS and she had 20 years of experience (all at the same school). She definitely wasn’t paid enough for everything that she did for those kid.
I completely agree with this. There is far too much pressure on kids to go to university. Not every job needs a college degree and not everyone is cut out for academia. There need to be other options, especially considering how expensive it has become to get a degree.
Thank you. I am little bit nervous now but i hope she will reply soon. Now at home it 00:43 so she will not see until morning tomorrow before school. So i hope it is okay for her.
I’d be interested in it if it has mods. Unfortunately, mods have spoiled me and I can’t go back to playing vanilla. Not enough witchcraft.
@Fran
Okay seems maybe i misunderstand what you meant before. The usa i know is spending too much on millitary. I think the highest? Maybe russia is higher but i dont know.
@Katz- all right! Massive congratulations! I will now buy…
I’ve only tried Minecraft once, but I couldn’t figure out how it works… She says while abusing every glitch in FO4’s settlement builder to make a bedroom for her pet Deathclaw.
(I don’t understand myself sometimes.)
*trigger warning*
I just told my mom about how I was drugged and gang-raped at a professional convention two months back, about the abortion I had to have as a result.
She told me about her own brutal rape when she was a sixty-two-year-old widow.
So now, I don’t know a single woman who hasn’t been sexually assaulted in some way.
I want to drop the bomb. We are irrevocably fucked as a species.
@Fishy Goat –
I am liking that whimsy! 🙂
It reminds me of Morocco, I watched a travel program about it yesterday and it made me wish to go back there for a holiday. It’s one of my fave places.
But, it’s hot here right now so there’s no point in going somewhere else hot.
And I have plenty of ‘issues’ to deal with too. None has reached the shit hit the fan stage yet, and I’m juggling to keep it so, we’re all familiar with the low grade crap I’m sure.
The US spends far higher on its military than any other country. In fact, depending on the year at which you are looking, you might find that the US has more than 50% of the military spending in the entire world, outranking all other countries combined.
atropos – hugs, if wanted.
wwth & Fran – Totally agree! Although, I came at it from a different angle. In the 80s, I was in the USAF and I worked in Base Education. I had to interact with most of the officers on the bases I worked at. Officers, by definition have some sort of accredited college/uni degree. And a lot of them were… not smart. I had to wonder how a person could go to school for four years after high school and turn out so… not smart.
I came to the conclusion that pretty much anyone with the time, resources, and inclination could buy a degree. It made me skeptical of higher education for a long time.
I finally decided to go to university in my late 30s and it was a revelation! I loved it SO MUCH and being free to just learn things was simply amazing! It was an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything.
Which brings me back to: Why do we force people to pay lots of money and spend lots of time to do something that doesn’t really benefit them* except for gaining some artificially enhanced earning potential?
*Of course, they (specifically the AF officers) got their commissions, but a bunch of them didn’t get a real education out of it, as far as I could see.
@atropos_of_nothing
I’m sorry that happened to you. People can be awful.
@atropos_of_nothing
I am so sorry for what you and your mom went through.
Healing thoughts being sent to both of you.
@atropos_of_nothing
I am sorry for you and those you know who went through such a terrible thing.
@ atropos of nothing
Oh god that’s awful. Whatever I say just feels like a platitude; but I really feel for you.