Friday, April 11, 2014

FFOT: The dumbing-down

On Wednesday, I wrote about the dumbing-down of an economics course.  Yesterday, as a faculty member, I got an email from the same twit in the econ department announcing a dumbing-down of the entire fucking degree.  They've just announced that they have a "new Bachelor of Science in Economics degree that we are beginning in the fall semester.  This is a 30 hour degree that does not require students to complete the Business core, but does require a second major or a minor."  

And yes, that is a direct quote from the email.  

In other words, a student can decide that that business degree is just too hard, but they've always wanted to go into finance, and by golly, it looks like now they can!!!  

I am so unbelievably angry about this that I can't even find the right words.  I don't comprehend why this is happening in the first place--aren't we, as a university, supposed to challenge the students to do as much as they possibly can do?  Aren't we supposed to refuse to cater to the little darlings that need to do more work than they're willing to do?

Why the fuck are we repudiating what we're supposed to be????

6 comments:

  1. Wait for the former-student lawsuits when the morons who took the "lite" degree realize they can't compete with someone who actually took the "hard classes" for jobs.

    The sad thing is, students demand this kind of buffoonery. I get students bitching all the time about my courses being hard. Guess what, skippy? The way I teach them is easier than the comparable classes I had as a student. I'm not making them any easier. Either rise to meet the fairly-minimal standards or go do something else with your life.

    My FFOT are the students who don't want to do anything that's remotely haaaaaaaarrrrrrd. Guess what? A lot of adulthood is hard. That's why adults run the world and kids don't. Grow a pair and grow up.

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    1. I really don't remember any but the ones that had legitimate mental disabilities complaining that something was "too hard." I wonder why I hear so many make that complaint?

      I think the problem lies with parents that won't let their kids get frustrated, and encourage them to keep trying. I think. I'm really not sure. I do know that my two are a hell of a lot resilient than a lot of other kids their age that I see--I let them try, fail, try, fail, and get frustrated, then I step in, hand out snuggles, and encourage them to think about what went wrong, and try again, perhaps in a different way.

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    2. I think you're totally right on the parent thing. My parents were like "It's okay to have to try again sometimes" or "Think about what went wrong and you can fix it next time." They were really big on letting us keep working at stuff until we figured it out. They would encourage us or suggest we took a break when we got frustrated, but they wouldn't do whatever it was FOR us. I think parents who are too fast to step in and do everything for their kids are stunting the kids' emotional and intellectual growth.

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    3. Yeah. It's not easy to not jump in when they get upset. Just like it's not easy to teach them that just because they bump something and it hurts now doesn't mean they're really hurt. My rule is if it's not bleeding or broken, you're not hurt.

      It makes my kids really mad. And they cry. And I have to tell them that if they do that in school, people will laugh at them, and won't like them.

      It's really hard, but I think it's what's best in the long run.

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  2. School sure as changed hasn't it. Way too many Liberals have done so much crying about schooling that's why things are like they are today. Here is an idea, set up a school so you can buy any degree you want. From AA to PHD.

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    1. Considering that my MA work wasn't any harder than my BA work, I'd be prepared to argue that that's the ultimate function of tuition, at least in the humanities.

      Degrees from STEM and from business should be harder. They should not ever be dumbed down. Hell, the humanities shouldn't have been, but that has always been easier.

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