tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post2223698668637162804..comments2024-03-29T04:34:05.185-04:00Comments on CURMUDGUCATION: Meat Widgets and the End of CollegePeter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-82331174845200214282016-07-31T14:54:05.232-04:002016-07-31T14:54:05.232-04:00Unfortunately, the profession of anthropology has ...Unfortunately, the profession of anthropology has a long history of kowtowing to the needs of widget makers. The Diploma in Social Anthropology from Oxford University which I hold was designed originally to give colonial officers and missionaries a fig leaf of academic "respectability" before they went off to Africa and the rest of the uncivilized world to do the Empire's bidding...Fred Mindlinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09862148685897378157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-83824704373577064622016-07-31T10:53:46.253-04:002016-07-31T10:53:46.253-04:00As always, this is for Other People's Children...As always, this is for Other People's Children. teka21https://www.blogger.com/profile/01940482505192254008noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-43489121450126744982016-07-19T22:31:24.130-04:002016-07-19T22:31:24.130-04:00I like "smuggery". But I'm surprised...I like "smuggery". But I'm surprised to see this kind of stuff from a cultural anthropologist, even a young one. I expect it from economists and psychometricians. Rebecca deCocahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13168718846105012814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-62299479054295535062016-07-19T17:00:46.322-04:002016-07-19T17:00:46.322-04:00This is the kind of crap that super duper, "o...This is the kind of crap that super duper, "out-of-our-realm" graduate students (usually in the humanities) come up with. Could this idea really take root? These young visionaries are sure they must. The rest of us know that like everything else, this will blow out as quickly as it blew in. That's how hot air works. Meantime, she is feelin' REAL GOOD because there ain't nothing more satisfying than irking the old guard. The theme is no longer question authority. They graduated from that. The theme is mock authority and live in "smuggery" (my term). <br /><br />The thing is, they will be on the receiving end sooner than later.<br /><br />Kobishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16778054056084383752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-70782632598781415642016-07-19T08:39:25.818-04:002016-07-19T08:39:25.818-04:00I am in higher ed, in a field whose accrediting bo...I am in higher ed, in a field whose accrediting body requires us to certify that upon graduation, our students are capable of performing certain tasks. And guess what: their future employers still want to interview them before they're hired. I suspect the reasons include:<br /><br />1) As you've already touched on, it's not possible to reduce the job to a simple list of skills and tasks, thus the top-down list conjured by the accreditors is at best a jumping-off point. The job has already changed before the new hires have cashed their first paychecks. I suspect employers are likely looking for adaptability, resiliency, and ability to self-assess relative to those ends in the context of the hard skills they'll be applying, learning and refining on the job. <br /><br />2) The newly hired meat widgets will have to work with and/or alongside each other and/or the meat widgets already there. <br /><br />My understanding of the DSM is that it was rooted in an attempt to describe "disorder" better than Potter Stewart defined obscenity ("I know it when I see it"). It was not an attempt to describe "normal" because that would be a much, much bigger book. But that's what Smolenski seems to want.Ogre Proctor Hephttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17428431147495287413noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-73331078212739189102016-07-19T07:13:44.006-04:002016-07-19T07:13:44.006-04:00Thanks for another excellent, insightful analysis,...Thanks for another excellent, insightful analysis, Peter.<br /><br />If you think back to why universities were created in the 13th century, you see how this kind of proposal is a striving for mediocrity, the opposite of excellence for all.Rebecca deCocahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13168718846105012814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-40155490343235949782016-07-18T21:00:56.730-04:002016-07-18T21:00:56.730-04:00"Act in such a way that you treat humanity, w..."Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never merely as a means to an end, but always at the same time as an end." --Immanuel Kant<br /><br />I believe that the education reformers are not abiding by the categorical imperative as expressed above in its 2nd formulation.<br /><br />However, combining competency based education with Pokemon Go might be an excellent way to combine intellectual and physical activity. At least the students could have fun while they are being treated completely as means to the ends of corporations. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07228908566250306699noreply@blogger.com