Higher Education

[Haggis@wk]

The Increasing College Degree Gap; Will College Women's Centers Address *This* Gender Issue?

I’m guessing not. White (and increasingly black) males are the only “authorized” group that can be discriminated against legally. Think of all commercials that make fun of men just as one example.

What will be the consequences, real and unintended? IMHO they are going to be enormous and negative.

[Schmeelkie]

I've seen reports where college educated black women complain that they can't find educated husbands - so, even with college ed, they're sticking with the single mother pattern as black men 'don't measure up'. I think young guys in general are less intimidated by a better educated and higher earning woman than in the past, but it's not really universal.

I'd be curious about a graph with an age break-down. I'd venture to guess that more 'non-traditional' or returning students (ie, those > about 25 years old) are women than men, but I don't know how much effect that has on the overall trend. Anecdotally, lots of my college-educated female friends are going back to school for masters or PhD in their mid-late 30's. Know my sister-in-law wants to upgrade from an AA to a BA, but not starting for at least 5 years, so she'd be in her early 40s.

[piqaboo]

60% of degrees are awarded to women, 40% to men, approximately.
This is a flipflop of 30 years ago.
What are these dramatic and negative consequences you foresee, haggis?
Why do you think these will come to be?

More interesting to me - why do more women graduate than men?
Does the gender track with the type of degrees awarded?

[Haggis@wk]

What are these dramatic and negative consequences you foresee, haggis?

Why do you think these will come to be?

In the 70's women were screaming about gender equality. If a gender equality that favored men over women was bad isn't the same thing in reverse equally bad? Every college in America has programs to help women graduate but I'm not aware (from googling) that they are similar programs for men.

Maybe in a generation we'll learn that women in charge of almost every branch of business, government and academia is a good thing, I suspect it will not be.

Men are being feminized (or criminalized) in a degree in campuses across America that is shocking. Did you know by virtue of being a college athlete at Duke any male student who has sex with a female student is de facto guilty of rape?

Or that any level of consumption of alcohol by a female student regardless of level of intoxication renders her incapable of informed consent to mutual sex, again casting the male student a rapist?

Newsweek tells us that unemployed men beat their wives and no one raised an eyebrow?

During our current economic woes more men are unemployed and have fewer job prospects than women.

Incremental changes like these over decades are pushing the American male (white and black, there's finally some common description of equality) into defensive postures and almost guaranteed failures.

Failure to secure adequate education has always been reflected in wages and careers, do you consider this a good thing? Lots of families in the U.S. came about from campus romances, if there are no guys on campus, who will be available for matrimony?

Are women of the future ('Toid) going to want to marry a guy who is poorly educated and a financial liability?

[dai bread]

Are women of the future ('Toid) going to want to marry a guy who is poorly educated and a financial liability?

From what I've seen, yes they are. Granted I know lots of well matched couples, but I've come across a surprising number of good, competent women who are partnered with total losers. I simply don't understand it. There's more to a relationship than bed. Is it a question of dominance?

The putting down of men has been going on for 60 years at least. I remember an Aussie radio program broadcast here in the late '40s or early '50s called "Life with Dexter". Dexter was always getting into trouble and being got out of it by his sensible wife and children. It was a comedy show, and well done, but the father was the fall guy.

As far as education goes, it is now possible for a boy to go through his entire school career without being taught by any male teachers. Unlikely in High School, but possible in a co-ed. school such as the one in this town. The effect of this feminisation of education is still being debated. Even the single-sex boys' school I had dealings with in Auckland had a couple of female teachers. They weren't ugly or old, either.

So far, in my experience, women do not make good managers. I'm not sure why. Too dictatorial is one of their problems. I've come across very few men who I consider to be good managers, so maybe it's a matter of numbers.

[piqaboo]

We had Jackie Gleason and Lucille Ball. That's one ditz per gender.
On my campus, we had programs by race/ethnicity, nothing by gender.

Overall, the total number of degrees awarded is increasing, so its not that fewer men are getting degrees, its just that women are getting even more.
On the otherhand, the vast majority of small business owners I know do not have college degrees, so perhaps its just a trend away from 'salary-man' culture.

Altoid will look for a smart funny partner, regardless of education. Formal education will probably rate lower with her than overall resourcefulness. Granted, a good background (aka education) is a marvelous tool for supplementing native creativity. She'll probably find the self-educating type attractive because she tends that way.

As for the slamming of men as the cause of all wrong, it was funny but its gone a bit far. On the other hand, we have never been free of ditzy blondes (female) on TV. It will swing to a happy medium where no one will be untargeted.

[dai bread]

One or two of the more rabid lesbians at TVNZ used to put up anti-man posters on their cubicle walls. I'd go around on night shift and attach little notes saying "substitute Maori for man. Are you still laughing?"

Political correctness has its uses. The posters disappeared after a while.

[Haggis@wk]

JERRY POURNELLE:

“There is never going to be a national school system much better than what we have now. It may get worse, but it won’t get much better.”

I have always thought that Congress, which has the undoubted right to run the DC school system any way it wants to, should make that the shining example of how schools ought to operate. THEN we might listen when the Department of Education tells the rest of the country what to do. But for the moment I believe the DC school system is actually the worst in the US. Of course the Washington educrats still assert the right to tell the rest of the country what to do. Why not?

[jamiebk]

No Child Left Behind............ NOT! Mandates without funding

[Haggis@wk]

Sigh.

[Shapley]

One of our local schools printed T-shirts supporting their local sports team. The shirts read: "Your in Bulldog Country".

Now, it is not uncommon to confuse your and you're, their, there, and they're, etc., particularly when typing on bulletin boards (I know I've done it many a time), but I would hope the school would show a little more attention to proofreading, particularly if the shirts are going to be sent out to represent your school, and the product you produce.

[piqaboo]

The current 'thing' is to have young kids do lots of writing by sounding out.
It fails more than it works because english is so very not phonetic.
Altoid is convinced there are chrees. I understand because at her age I knew there were chrucks.

[jamiebk]

Unfortuately, it goes beyond grammar/writing/spelling skills. It's math as well. Case-in-point. I walked into our local "Coddy, Fish and Chips" store to get some of their coleslaw that I like. I recognized the girl behind the counter as a local high school kid...nearly or just graduated. I asked for one quart of cole slaw. The answer??? " I'm sorry sir...I can't sell you a quart. We only have pints. My answer: OK...well, why don't you just give me two of those pints then?. Her answer: Well. OK...will that be enough?...I'm sorry. DUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

The current 'thing' is to have young kids do lots of writing by sounding out.
It fails more than it works because english is so very not phonetic.
Altoid is convinced there are chrees. I understand because at her age I knew there were chrucks.

It's still worthwhile. Not doing the "sounding out" stuff early on leaves you with too many of what are called "word unit recognition" readers. I know this because my sister told me so - and she apparently is one. One of my nephews is another. They actually read the word by recognizing the shapes of the first and last letters and the word as a unit rather than by seeing all the letters that comprise the word.

This word-unit thing seems weirder than duck teeth to me. I get a whole other set of arcane descriptors applied to my reading style - there's something about early-spontaneous and root-associative and phonetic and some other stuff I can't remember. And all I ever really cared about was getting the story out of the book and into the air inside my head. Still is...

[Haggis@wk]

Unfortuately, it goes beyond grammar/writing/spelling skills. It's math as well. Case-in-point. I walked into our local "Coddy, Fish and Chips" store to get some of their coleslaw that I like. I recognized the girl behind the counter as a local high school kid...nearly or just graduated. I asked for one quart of cole slaw. The answer??? " I'm sorry sir...I can't sell you a quart. We only have pints. My answer: OK...well, why don't you just give me two of those pints then?. Her answer: Well. OK...will that be enough?...I'm sorry. DUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

It's not just for efficency that fast food joints put in cash registers that have pictures of the food.

[piqaboo]

The schools also teach lists of sight words.
The idea, I think is FAB. There are a ton of english words that cannot be sounded out no matter how creative you are. "Night" comes to mind.
He, she, we, me are also good to memorize.

In practice, the list is expanded to be commonly used short words. I'd rather 'recognition' came with repeated exposure, because I think sounding out "out" and "our" is a good idea. "And" isnt so hard either.

Reading the sounded out words is a hoot. Children seem to understand the concept of dipthongs, without always knowing which letters are involved. Their transcriptions may be more accurate. Aootsad == outside

its fun

[Shapley]

"Children seem to understand the concept of dipthongs"

They just like the sound of the word...

Aren't those the things goofy people wear on the beach?

[piqaboo]

Oh my - if only they would teach that word, and what it means, in kindergarten. Those little folk love long words.

They still teach ch, th, sh and leave ph for later.
Dont know why.
I tot (sic) Altoid all 4 at once. ph amused her so its the one she remembers best. (it also comes attached to cool words like Phooey!)

[Shapley]

My son had an alphabet puzzle when he was two. At three, he knew his alphabet, plus the extra characters on the puzzle. He particularly like the 'ampersand', after I taught him the name for it. He used to point out ampersands around town whenever he'd see one: Barnes & Noble, Edwards & Assoc., Bilkem, Hookem, Shyster & Crook, etc.

When he was in the hospital at the age of three, he stunned the nurses by pointing out ampersands whenever he saw them.

There was a mobile lithotripter that would park outside his window every Tuesday. It had an ampersand on the side, so it attracted his attention, and he asked me what it was. I told him. When the nurses came in one Tuesday, he asked them if the lithotripter was there yet. They were shocked. He loved big words.

I haven't heard him say 'ampersand' in ages, and I don't know if he can remember what a lithotripter is. I like to think that knowledge is still embedded somewhere in his head.

[piqaboo]

"parasauralophus"