Archive for the Schooling Industrial Complex Category

Back To School.  “Credentialists” Versus “Human Capitalists”: STEM Classes – Arts & Crafts Classes – Education Classes (August 21, 2023)

Posted in Education, Propoganda, Schooling, Schooling Industrial Complex on August 21, 2023 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K         “Most of the Arts & Crafts programs d/b/a Arts & Sciences at the most profitable universities are simply certifying that its graduates are obedient to and compliant with the Dominant Narrative.”

J          “That is what the System wants and that is what the System produces and that is what the System gets.  Yet some elements of the Dominant Narrative are dominant for a sound reason.”

. . .   

K          “Most STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs do create some human capital.  Arts & Crafts Schools provide a mix of some useful skills along with the certificate of conforming behavior.  The Arts & Sciences Schools certify that the individual is properly potty trained.”

. . .

J          “Most education degrees could be distilled into four fundamental classes rather than slow rolled over four years.  Education Schools leave their graduates with more student debt in a world that underpays teachers.  How about a three year program and thirty percent increase in pay?”

.  .  .

Bumper sticker of the week:

Education breeds confidence.  Confidence breeds hope.  Hope breeds peace.  Confucius

Student Loan Forgiveness? (September 12, 2022)

Posted in Education, Schooling, Schooling Industrial Complex on September 12, 2022 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J          “Forgive. 

K          “But do not forget how we as a society got into this mess.”

. . .

J          “Everyone else has a hand in the government pocket for less beneficial undertakings.  Why not let the kids belly up to the trough.”

K          “If some of the graduates are not relieved of the financial yoke, the economy might further stagnate because they cannot participate.”

. . .

K          “The cost of the SIC (Schooling Industrial Complex) is so expensive because it feeds layer upon layer upon layer upon layer of bureaucrats who do not teach but instead leach.  What teaching is done is done by adjunkts.  And the real cost of an education is the cost to really educate oneself after the schooling/indoctrination process.”

J          “Going to college today is not worth it, but not going to college today is not worth it.  College is still the gateway and the choke point to economic success in our society.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at Is College Worthless? (July 25, 2011), The Staggering Cost Of Schooling And Then The Staggering Cost Of A Real Education (March 18, 2019) and “Adjunktification” In The S.I.C. (Schooling Industrial Complex) (March 13, 2017).]

Bumper stickers Sweatshirt of the week:

College

Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague:  Into The Eye Of The Storm (August 3, 2020)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Education, Schooling, Schooling Industrial Complex, Sports on August 3, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “We are moving from the halcyon days into the eye of the (cytokine and economic) storm.  The clouds are forming.  The winds are building.”

J          “There is great fear and great uncertainty and great fear of the great uncertainty.  Everyone is moving through the motions, drifting in a daze, traveling in a trance and flying in the fog.”

K          “We are all flying in the clouds in the winds in the dark on autopilot without a flight plan and no one in the distant control tower.”

. . .

J          “Each e-mail suggests that the kids may be back on campus, but they will be almost as distanced from other students as if they were taking the classes on-line.  They may be assigned a specific time to go to the cafeteria and . . . also then move through the line six feet apart and . . . also then sit six feet apart.  Because of the separation, the chatting and bickering will be louder which will just turbocharge the aerosolization in the room.  One is forced to ask, why go?”

K          “I have asked that question for decades.  They will need to cancel contact sports, but how many sports are not contact sports.  And they were not being paid any way.  The athletes or the adjuncts.  If you cherish the free expression of ideas, the loss may not be that big.”

. . .

J          “The big loss will be labs that cannot be conducted on-line.”

K          “And when they need to mothball the labs and the classrooms, the cost to keep them heated when there are no warm bodies to pay the tuition will heat up the predicament.”

. . .

K          “Many parents will be without unemployment assistance and will be confronting the possibility of being evicted from their own dorms.”

J          “Just covering their own room and board is the daily challenge.”

. . .

K          “And then there are the states and state universities that cannot legally print money or legally deficit spend or legally file bankruptcy.”

J          “Something will yield because something must yield.”

. . .

J          “Junior’s senior year was dislocating for him.  With junior not taking off to Tech this Fall and seniors not taking off to Tahiti this Winter, society is taking off in a new direction and heading to a new destination.  Less international and national and more regional and local, the bounds and boundaries of the New Covid World are emerging.”

K          “Schooling is now dependent on a fragile infrastructure and an often intermittent Internet.  We may be forced to return to using Analog Knowledge Devices soon.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Is College Worthless? (July 25, 2011)”, “The Staggering Cost Of Schooling And Then The Staggering Cost Of A Real Education (March 18, 2019)”, “Unionizing Athletes And Adjuncts (And Sherpas) (April 21, 2014)”, “‘Analog Knowledge Devices’ (‘AKD’):  The Next ‘Currency’ (July 10, 2017)”, “Foot Longs and Football (September 2, 2013)” and “Adjunktification” In The S.I.C. (Schooling Industrial Complex) (March 13, 2017)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Make masks great again

Get two weeks ahead

“I don’t believe in colleges and universities.  I believe in libraries because most students don’t have any money.  When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money.  I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.”  Ray Bradbury

The Staggering Cost Of Schooling And Then The Staggering Cost Of A Real Education (March 18, 2019)

Posted in Education, MICAC, Schooling, Schooling Industrial Complex on March 18, 2019 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “First there is the tremendous cost to endure and ingest the myths and the memes, the false hoods and the fabrications, and the illusions and the delusions perpetrated by the SIC to advance the interests of the MICAC.  Then, if possible, the rare conscientious individual must undertake the lifetime pursuit of the Truth, on one’s own spare precious time and at one’s own expense, that is the real cost and the real challenge.”

J          “Kids today are enslaved by the obscenely and unnecessarily inflated costs of the SIC and are too burdened with debt ever to find the time or the money to move from the stage of enslavement to the start of enlightenment.”

. . .

J          “In the next few weeks the kids will be blissfully signing their contracts of indentured servitude and then report for induction this Fall.”

K          “The rich kids and kids of the ‘lums are still a school within a school, a universe within a universe.  Harvard and Yale are always for sale.  Spoiled parents fund the University of Spoiled Children.  Georgetown, Duke and so many profitable colleges are profitable because they are profit-maximizing.”

J          “If the kids dutifully obey, they are on their way.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “The ‘Intellectual Infrastructure Investment Act’ (‘III’)  Oh, And Happy Valentine’s Day! (February 11, 2019)” and other e-commentary on “Schooling” and “Education”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.

I have let my schooling interfere with my education.

Venderse

The “Intellectual Infrastructure Investment Act” (“III”)  Oh, And Happy Valentine’s Day! (February 11, 2019)

Posted in Courts, Economics, Education, Law, Law School, Schooling, Schooling Industrial Complex on February 11, 2019 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Who is doing the thinking in America?”

J          “Who is even thinking about who is doing the thinking in America?”

K          “Troubling, when you think about it.”

J          “America has the chattering class and the blabbering class and the blogging class and the twittering twit class, but not really a thinking class.”

. . .

K          “We can draw on the bipartisan enthusiasm for infrastructure.  Think about the ‘Intellectual Infrastructure Investment Act’ (‘III’) or the Triple ‘I’ as it is known in the vernacular.”

J          “Would you first establish and endow a great School of Economics or a great School of Law?  Thought must be given to establishing and endowing a great School of Foreign Policy and not long after that a great School of Journalism.”

K          “We need greatness.  We may have to settle for goodness.  We may have to settle for okayness.  We may have to settle for notcrappyness.  Some institutions need to respond to that must elusive thing in recent American experience:  Competition.  Competition with the Schooling Industrial Complex (‘SIC’).”

J          “But we really need to put the SIC out of business.”

. . .

K          “In a delightful irony, the SIC will fund the new paradigm.  A billion dollar judgment in the CTJ against Harvard Law School for damages from Pompeo’s criminal activity and a billion dollar judgment in the CTJ against Yale Law School for damages from Bolton’s criminal activity provide enough seed money to fund the undertaking.  If necessary, the judgments can be satisfied from the assets of the respective parent corporations.  Just transfer the assets digitally.”

J          “Brilliant.  Shift resources from ‘Schooling’ to ‘Education’ without any government dollars.  The project also should aspire to take the ‘A’ out of the MICAC and to substitute a real ‘A’ for clear thinking.  Let’s get going.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Suing Law Schools; Suing Gun Makers.  Oh, And Happy Law Day! (April 30, 2018)”, “Close the Harvard Business School (February 23, 2009)”, “The Court Of Truth And Justice (CTJ) (August 29, 2016)”, “On The Digital Revolution (March 22, 2010)”, “‘Adjunktification’ In The S.I.C. (Schooling Industrial Complex) (March 13, 2017)”, “Schooling The Apparatchiks For the Kleptocrats (December 7, 2015)”, “On Merit and the Meritocracy (January 11, 2010)”, “Clinton, Inc., Trump, Inc., Bush, Inc., Kennedy, Inc., O’Bama, Inc. (October 24, 2016)”, “MPP / MPA:  Are They Really Masters? (November 13, 2017)” and “Johnnie Bolton:  The Triumph Of the Chickenhawks And Neo-Cons.  Join Fellow Patriots For The ‘April 14 Rally’ And The Memorial Day ‘March For America’.  Oh, And Happy April Fool’s Day. (April 2, 2018)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

I support the “III Act”

Think big, think long

MPP / MPA:  Are They Really Masters?  (November 13, 2017)

Posted in Bureaucracy, Bush, Clinton, Education, Kennedy, O'Bama, Pogo Plight, Schooling, Schooling Industrial Complex, Trumpi on November 13, 2017 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “These Masters of Public Policy and Masters of Public Administration types all suffer from a collective groupthink.”

J          “That they are the Masters of the Universe.  They are actually the errand boys and errand girls for the real Masters of the Universe.” 

K          “Apparatchik manufacturing.  The law schools historically have manufactured them.”

J          “These programs are a ‘law school substitute’ or a ‘law school light’ program.”

K          “The most important part of the curriculum is ‘Excuses 101’ that salvages any ill-conceived whim.”

. . .

K          “Maintaining groupthink is the overriding concern and the unifying doctrine.”

J          “And building the old boy network to divide the spoils.”

. . .

K          “Look at the responses on the mid-term.”

  1.      What choice did we have?
  2.      Nobody saw it coming.
  3.      All policies have unintended consequences.
  4.      All of the above.

J          “They are the ‘D’ students.”

K          “Are we all the ‘D’ students?”

. . .

K          “Better to get an MFA?”

J          “Better to skip the classroom, boycott the S.I.C. and teach yourself.”

K          “Have you ever seen the syllabus for a Master of Coarse Arts degree?”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Schooling The Apparatchiks For The Kleptocrats (December 7, 2015)” and “Clinton, Inc., Trump, Inc., Bush, Inc., Kennedy, Inc., O’Bama, Inc. (October 24, 2016).”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

“Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.”  Frederick Douglass

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble.  It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”  Mark Twain

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world.  The unreasonable man adapts the world to himself.  Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”  George Bernard Shaw

There but for the grace of God go I

Appropriately Proud Single Mom:  “My three ‘D’ students took their mom out to dinner for her birthday.  My M.D. student, my J.D. student and my Ph.D. student.”

“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”  Eric Hoffer

Five Red Rich Republican “Catholic” Corporatist “White” Boys . . . Versus . . .  Four Blue Comfortable Democratic “Jewish” Individualist White “Girls” . . . And All By-Products Of The S.I.C.  (October 2, 2017)

Posted in Courts, First Monday In October, Judges, Judicial Arrogance, Judiciary, Justice, Kleptocracy, Law, Schooling Industrial Complex, Supreme Court, Technology on October 2, 2017 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “They . . . are . . . back.”

J          “And now a majority does not have our back.”

K          “They are now poised to foist the burdens of existence on the backs of the common man.”

. . .

J          “That is the common thread.  They are all by-products of the S.I.C.”

K          “We need different products, by and by.”

J          “The common thread is that they responded to or rejected the conventional doctrine at the same narrow-minded indoctrinating institutions of the Schooling Industrial Complex (SIC).”

K          “What no one seems to get because no one seems to know and no one seems to care is that scrounging up Supreme Court Justices from the pool of Federal Appellate Court Judges is drawing the worst from the worst.”

J          “I agree.  But no one knows and no one cares.”

. . .

K          “Gorsuch may be a phenotypic Episcopalian, but he is at core a genotypic Catholic.  Thomas acquired deep scars on his journey to ‘Whitehood’ and acceptance and is also a congenital Catholic.  Breyer is intellectually female.  Sotomayor is a secular Jew.  The chasm between the five red rich Republican ‘Catholic’ corporatist ‘white’ boys and the four blue comfortable Democratic ‘Jewish’ individualist white ‘girls’ on the Supreme Court is stark and unprecedented in American history.”

J          “The country believed that it needed to get over and move beyond a debate that arose around Kennedy and his Catholicism that now cannot be raised or even intimated.”

K          “John not Tony.”

J          “John and Tony.  A person simply cannot pledge fealty and loyalty to Rome and to the U.S. Constitution.  Period.”

. . .

K          “To describe it as a war between those who want to ‘Immanentize The Eschaton’ and those who do not want to let others ‘Immanentize The Eschaton’ is too blatant for polite company.  Better to be more discrete and intimate that a group of five is quietly and surreptitiously imposing its religion as the national religion in America.”

J          “What troubles me is that the ‘Immanentize The Eschaton’ wing of the Catholics did not get a foot hold or even one lobbyist on the Court.” 

K          “What if the Court granted the current Pope the right to file an amicus curiae brief in every case?  The current Pope is a member of the ‘Immanentize The Eschaton’ wing.  Would the Supremes be obligated to listen?  To follow without question or hesitation?  That may not be so bad.”

. . .

K          “The Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology is to be announced today.  In the next few decades, the person who proves that an individual is born with the ‘I’ Gene or with the ‘We’ Gene may receive a much deserved Nobel.  At heart, 4.5 Justices have the ‘I’ Gene and 4.5 Justices have the ‘We’ Gene.  Kennedy may still have a heart and a soul and a recessive ‘We’ Gene.”

J          “Tony not John.  The helicopter beanie folks are developing AI (Artificial Intelligence).  They may need to develop AI (Artificial Ignorance) to substitute for the poor decisions and worse judgment of the judges and justices in America.  That is more of a challenge than anyone has contemplated.”

K          “A typical judge pays attention to a high profile case, dismisses the other cases and goes home.  The naïve engineers may not recognize that reality and instead create a sophisticated Digital Decision Device (DDD) that marshals the facts, discerns the law, finds truth, and does justice.”

J          “Unprecedented.  One can only hope.”

. . .

K          “The Supremes are deciding whether we live in a democracy or an oligopoly/kleptocracy in the context of a scam named after Governor Gerry.  The majority on the court owes their jobs to a broken political system and is not likely to fix it.”

J          “The privacy issues turn on whether each Justice personally feels threatened by the changes brought by technology not whether the ordinary person is threatened.”           

. . .

K          “The nascent thought is growing that the Supremes lack legitimacy and accountability in America.  Only the power they exercise that derives from the sword and purse maintains their dominion and domination.”

J          “They have transformed into a lobbying institution on First Street rather than on K Street with the disturbing ability to send out storm troopers to enforce their edicts.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “The ‘I’ Gene; The ‘We’ Gene:  Searching For The Genie In All Of Us (April 3, 2017)”, “Immanentizing The Eschaton: Your Supreme Court And The Great Religious War (October 7, 2013)”, “Adjunktification” In The S.I.C. (Schooling Industrial Complex) (March 13, 2017)”, “One Gun Per White Adult Male? A Flintlock Musket? The “One Man, One Gun” Decision (October 4, 2010)”, “Are Courts Irrelevant? Are Courts Illegitimate? (October 3, 2011)” and “The Supreme Court – Unrepresentative And Illegitimate: The 33.3 Percent Solution (October 1, 2012) and the “First Monday In October” e-commentary in 2014, 2015 and 2016.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

There is no law; there is only ideology

Fall falling; leaves leaving; winter winning

Charlottesville . . . Chancellorsville? (August 14, 2017)

Posted in Economics, Education, Military, Race, Schooling, Schooling Industrial Complex, Trumpi on August 14, 2017 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Hate may abate, but it will never sate.”

J          “Despite what is in the Constitution, hate is in our constitution.”

. . .

K          “Academia is one of the battlefields.  Education is part of the solution and may impart some tolerance and understanding.” 

J          “At core, the battle is economic.  To make it, one must be schooled.  Those not making it need to blame someone or something else for their circumstances.”

K          “Tolerance and understanding are easier to swallow if one also has some chow to swallow.”

. . .

K          “Two of the racist rabble rousers were schooled at the University that is still addressing and assessing its racist history.”

J          “So much for schooling.  Schooling can only do so much.”

. . .

J          “At Chancellorsville, Lee divided his armies.  In the Charlottesville campaign, Lee’s contemporary clans united their armies under the sham pretense of protecting his statue.”

K          “Scrutinize the flags, banners and gonfalons carried by the goons.  The White Supremacists, Neo-Nazis, Freikorps and other malcontents and discontents are mobilized and mobilizing for an uncivil war.”

J          “And awaiting the spark.  Donaldo Trumpi as President is doing nothing to provide them with economic opportunity and everything as the ‘Dog-Whistler In Chief’ to promote the conflict.”

. . .

J          “What heroes should we celebrate to replace Fort Benning and Fort Bragg?”

K          “Fort E. Shinseki and Fort S. Butler?”

. . .

K          “And yet we as a society must do everything reasonable to promote and foster the right of peaceful assembly – even for the goons – subject to reasonable time, place and manner restrictions.”

J          “But they were not assembling themselves, they were intimidating others.  And the authorities knew what would erupt when the two groups were allowed to collide.”

. . .

[This week, consider considering the e-commentary at “Rerouting History (February 15, 2016)”, “The Confederate Flag:  What Does It Mean To You? (July 6, 2015)”, “Celebrate Virginia’s ‘Celebrate Slavery Month’ (April 12, 2010)”, “King Daze (January 20, 2014)” “Columbus And The Redskins (October 14, 2013)” and Brown Is The New Black (February 18, 2008)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Remove the statues; end the idolatry

“Adjunktification” In The S.I.C. (Schooling Industrial Complex) (March 13, 2017)  

Posted in Adjunktification, Education, Federal Reserve, Schooling, Schooling Industrial Complex, Sports, Trumpi on March 13, 2017 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “I love ideas.  I think there are others who also like them.  But not many others.”

J          “Finding a critical mass of folks who are interested in ideas is challenging.  Everyone is too busy struggling desperately to make it through the day economically, emotionally and physically.  Unrestrained contemplation is an unaffordable luxury today.”

K          “College is that rare, brief and fleeting period of time when one is free to think.”

J          “Sometimes it seems that only a few folks are actually thinking in college.  And it sure is far from free.”

. . .

K          “Does even one percent (1%) of the money spent on the American Schooling Industrial Complex (S.I.C.) get spent on the creation and transmission of ideas?”

J          “Between foot/basketball and bureaucrats, surely not much more than two percent (2%) of the money is committed to ideas.”

K          “Someone should calculate the historic ratio of dollars spent on bureaucrats versus students and calibrate a percentage ceiling on expenditures for ballers and bureaucrats.  Some Assistant Provost Dean may need to go back to teaching or go.”

. . .

K          “‘Adjunktification’ is the new paradigm.  The adjunkts now carry the burden of transmitting ideas, although they may not have enough free time to create ideas.  They are not junk, but they are treated like junk.”

J          “Academia is replicating life.  A bloated mass of overpaid bureaucrats at the top exploit a small underpaid cadre at the bottom doing the work.”

K          “When you reflect on it, perhaps academia does prepare one for life.”

. . .

K          “In the election, so many voters for Trump realized that those who pass themselves off as the intellectual elite in America are a fraud.”

J          “The apparatchiks and the nomenklatura are the errand boys and the errand girls with gilded certificates serving the interests of the gilded class.”

K          “And making a little gold.  The S.I.C. is parcel and part of the carefully calibrated system of checks and balances that advances the obedient and the compliant through the system.”

. . .

K          “So many departments of academia today are not even about ideas.  They are about credentials from top to bottom.  The only realistic and economically viable solution is to bestow a Ph.D. on every citizen at the age of eighteen.  Particularly in economics which is a religion calculated to obscure the truth and protect the wealthy.”

J          “Would they have to show up to get it?”

. . .  

[See “The 2016 Nobel Prizes in Economics Go to those Who Pushed Criminogenic Policies” in “New Economic Perspectives” by William K. Black dated February 27, 2017 and the e-commentary at “First Annual Noble Prize In Eco-nomics (October 10, 2016).”]

[See the e-commentary at “Unionizing Athletes And Adjuncts (And Sherpas) (April 21, 2104)” and review the previous e-commentary on “Education” and “Schooling.”]

Bumper stickers of the week / Foam Fingers of the week:       

The Federal Reserve is “checkmated” by moves it alone commandeered and engineered.  The “king” now is in check with no way to remove the threat.  The Fed cannot maintain rates and cannot raise rates and cannot lower rates.  . . .  If you are the only one who can make the moves on a board you control, how can you maneuver yourself into checkmate?

We’re Number 1 (at something)

March Madness seems like a delightfully ironic phrase.

Do you fill in your brackets?

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been.  The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’”  Isaac Asimov, “A Cult of Ignorance”, Newsweek, January 21, 1980.