What did you "learn" in college?

[Zoe Girl]

In college I have learned:

 

"Parochial schools are outdated.  Kids who go to parochial schools aren't taught the proper rules of grammar, and when they get to college they have to relearn everything."  (Composition I, my first semester in college) Funny since I (graduate of a Christian school) was the only one in that class of 20 or so who knew how to do the grammar worksheets he gave us every day.  It was all stuff I had done in junior high.  The public school kids had never even seen it before (didn't know what an adverb was...)  I'm not dogging on public school education, just stating the facts about the specific class I was in.

"Missionaries are ruining the lives, traditions and customs of the native people of other countries.  They need to keep their religion and money out of these unique cultures where people are still living without modern technology."  (Anthropology something or another about the study of different cultures)

"The Bible is clearly false, it was a rip off from all the other religions at that time.  If you believe in the Bible well, ha ha ha (smirking laugh of contempt)..." ("Understanding the Bible", or as I retitled it to better fit it's description based on the professors lectures: "Understanding How the Bible is Completely False and You Really Are a Moron if You Believe It)  -so sad too, since the gta was the hottest guy at the entire university. 

"Conservative architects always design terrible buildings, and conservative architects are always conservative politically.  It's one of those strange coincidences." (Arch. Design Studio 300) I'm a closet conservative at school.  Don't want to risk a lower grade because of who I voted for

"I am an athiest." (Philosphy) -he wanted to philosphize about everything but God.  Everyone was allowed in the class debates except me.  Hmmmmmm...... (I also got an A on every test, homework assignment and paper in that class, yet got a B overall.  Go figure.)

I could go on.  Something new everyday, really...

Anybody else "learn" anything in college?

 

[seebs]

I actually learned a lot of stuff in college, but I guess YMMV.

 

[JillLars]

Yesterday at 11:48 PM Zoe Girl said this in Post #1

In college I have learned: 


"Parochial schools are outdated.  Kids who go to parochial schools aren't taught the proper rules of grammar, and when they get to college they have to relearn everything."  (Composition I, my first semester in college) Funny since I (graduate of a Christian school) was the only one in that class of 20 or so who knew how to do the grammar worksheets he gave us every day.  It was all stuff I had done in junior high.  The public school kids had never even seen it before (didn't know what an adverb was...)  I'm not dogging on public school education, just stating the facts about the specific class I was in.

I went to public school and learned grammar and all the other rules of reading and writing that I needed to know.  You also need to keep in mind that some teachers explain things differently than others (especially when dealing with literary and grammar terms).  Which can make that subject very confusing.

"Missionaries are ruining the lives, traditions and customs of the native people of other countries.  They need to keep their religion and money out of these unique cultures where people are still living without modern technology."  (Anthropology something or another about the study of different cultures)

 

  This statement makes me quite angry.  If you paid attention in your anth. class you may have found that changing cultures is a very hard thing to do.  Introducing new technologies and money is often an extremely complicated process that can easily disrupt the entire equalibrium of a society if not done right, leaving the people worse off than before.  I suggest you do a little more research on the topic before you come forward with the cynical attitude that Anthropologists are just anti-missionary.

"The Bible is clearly false, it was a rip off from all the other religions at that time.  If you believe in the Bible well, ha ha ha (smirking laugh of contempt)..." ("Understanding the Bible", or as I retitled it to better fit it's description based on the professors lectures: "Understanding How the Bible is Completely False and You Really Are a Moron if You Believe It)  -so sad too, since the gta was the hottest guy at the entire university. 

Maybe your professor was extremely biased on this issue, if that is the case, I would have filed a complaint with the Dean of the department. My experience with learning about religion is that the facts are given and no religon was looked down on or treated any different than another.  It could be that your attitude is just skewing the facts making it seem like everyone is against you and your beliefs, maybe not, but like I said if it was really that bad, you should've filed a complaint.

  I'm sorry but so many people nowadays have the attitude that colleges are against Christians.  That everything they teach is liberal rhetoric.  I'll agree that there may be certain professors who aren't very good who only preach their own rhetoric...but I haven't found that at all at my school, if your school is really that bad, maybe you should consider switching to a different one.

 

[Zoe Girl]

These are just the extreme cases.  I do go to a very, very liberal school, and I have learned a lot, educationally speaking.  I just wanted to share what other things I have "learned".

In reply to what you pointed out, let me be a little more clear (I'm not trying to be cynical, I'm really not a cynical person, I was just saying what was actually said in my classes.  It was the teacher's who often had a chip on their shoulders.)

In the composition class, the teacher, from the very first day started spouting his opinions about Christians.  He had issues with Baptists, he had issues with non-denominational's, he had issues with conservative politics.  All this stuff should really have never even been brought up in a composition class.  (And please note that I didn't say public schools aren't any good, I'm saying that in this particular classroom of students..., my point for this statement was that he insulted me in front of the entire class when I was the one they were all coming to for help on those worksheets.)

In the anthropology class, that was a direct quote from my teacher.  I don't think anthropologists are anti-missionary, but I know that this specific one was.

For the Bible class.  My attitude is definitely not skewing the facts.  The entire class was devoted to disproving the Bible.  The professor had a very haughty air to him.  You are right, I should have complained about it (I did in the teacher evaluations, but I'm sure that didn't do any good.)  But when you go to a school like this one, sometimes you have to put up with this stuff.

I'm sorry if you guys think I'm being cynical and skewed.  I'm just telling you, actually I was trying to be kinda funny, about what I've "learned" in college.  I know that not all colleges are like this (what I would give to go to a religious college), and that even within each college each of the schools are different.  Obviously the poly sci, journalism, and architecture (among the other performing and visual arts schools) are going to be a little bit more biased than some of the other schools.  Some people don't have the option of changing schools, and as for me, I wouldn't change simply because I can't handle the rhetoric.  That's wimping out, and that's letting these teachers know that they are being effective. 

I think this is a serious problem, and if you haven't seen it at your school then you are very fortunate.  I have lost a lot of my Christian friends to these kind of teachers.  They have a certain authority over their classes, kids look up to them and respect them and are often "in awe" of them.  They abuse their authority when they bring in their personal opinions about subjects like this.

Again, I'm sorry if you think I'm being cynical and that my attitude is bad.  I was writing that post in a lighthearted way.  I shoud've used more smilies or something.  It was hard initially to hear each of those comments and all the others I didn't even get to.  But I'm glad that I can look back on it and go .  I'm just being honest with the stuff that has been said to me in the name of "education".

 

 

[JillLars]

I'm sorry that I perceived your post as being cynical and skewed. I do not deny that there is a problem with teachers preaching their rhetoric. I would definatly be complaining about it though, then again, that's my I'm a complainer I hope that in your schooling experience you have a chance to encounter some professors like the great ones I've had (as I'm sure you probably have already) Its sad that a few teachers feel their need to press their personal beliefs on the students. I was saddened to see that many of the teachers have anti-war posters on their doors. While I do believe they have the right to express their opinions, I think they need to keep in mind the authority position that they are in and their influence over other people. They should stick to influencing students on the subject they are teaching, not on religion, the war, or any other issue that is a personal belief. Sorry for sounding a little crazy.

 

[Zoe Girl]

I agree.  I even think it's okay for teachers to have their opinions and say them too, they just need to say them for what they are, opinions, not solid fact.

One of my problems is that I'm sooo shy that it is hard for me to go up to a teacher and say, "Hey, you know what???  Keep your opinions to yourself, huh?"

And you don't sound crazy

 

[Mr.Cheese]

Your anthropology teacher was out of date.
Missionaries did stuff like that, like, 100 years ago.
But far be it from a liberal college to pay any attention to facts that don't support their agenda.
Funny that when I went to a state school I made A's and B's on papers which would earn F's in the classes at the Private uinversity I go to now. We had a freshman girl who miraculously KLEPed out of her first year of English. I proof read a letter she wrote. It was about on par with the South Korean I tutor who has been studying English for 6 months. What kinds of morons are writing these tests? I don't see how this girl is going to get through any English classes here. Each grammatical error is a one letter grade penalty, including documentation.
However, I have been to a private school where I believe, now that I've been around, the instruction was worthless.
I guess it depends on the college. Colleges are being overtaken by liberals. They make the same error as the Baptist school I went to in Phoenix. They teach their dogma instead of educate you.

 

[Zoe Girl]

Today at 10:50 AM Mr.Cheese said this in Post #7

Funny that when I went to a state school I made A's and B's on papers which would earn F's in the classes at the Private uinversity I go to now.

No kidding!  It's the exact opposite for me.  When I was in Christian school (k-12) there was such a high standard for everything we did.  We had to work so hard to get an A on a paper.  They always told us they were preparing us for college.  Now that I'm in college, I can throw the papers out like nothing, with really no substance at all, and still get A's on them.  No effort on my part.  The standards are much lower in my college than in my high school (of course I'm not complaining   since I never liked writing papers to begin with.)

 

[JOYfulbeliever]

Jumping in here, just because I'm bored at work and this caught my eye! I, too, went to a very, VERY liberal college/university, and I heard much of the same things that you did, ZoeGirl. Sometimes it was really hard not to jump the professor when things like that would come out of their mouth, but I finally came to realize that it was the devil trying to sway me in my beliefs and that I just needed to stay grounded. I think I actually grew in my faith because of it. I don't think COLLEGES are anti-Christian, but I think CERTAIN instructors can be. Like I said, my college was extremely liberal, but I had so many Christian professors along the way. They never pushed their beliefs on anyone, but I found them to be great support for me. I don't even want to begin to remember some of the things that I "learned" in college.

Oh, and on a little side note, I also graduated from a private, Christian high school, and I worked like a dog to maintain my A average there. I left high school and went to a highly selective state university that is supposedly well known for their high academic standards and realized that I could do half the work that I did in high school and come out with a HIGHER GPA than I had in high school! It depends a lot on the professors though...some classes were definitely harder than others!!!

 

[Mr.Cheese]

I wish universities wouldn't get politically oriented. We went over this in my lit theory class of all places. The best you can do is wade through the dogma and keep hold of what is good knowledge. In an anthropology class, you can pick out what part is the science class and what part is political ideology. I went through the same thing. I want to learn about man in an anthropology class, not about the dirty greedy capitalist american pig that I am.

 

[Mr.Cheese]

P.S.

I'm thinking about calling my Grammar Paper "Deconstruction Junction."
You'd have to be a child of the early 80's to appreciate that.

 

[Zoe Girl]

School House Rock!

 

[JoieDeVivre]

What did I learn in college? True learning happens not inside but outside the classroom.

 

[Glenn316]

Let's see, I learned college was just as lonely as high school. I learned how to go to parties with lots of other people who didn't have a clue what they were doing, and were trying to impress everyone. I learned how "fun" it was to get drunk and the joys of being hung over    I did learn how to be on my own, and that was about the only useful thing I did learn. I don't want to sound too down about my college experience because I did meet a key person in my fraternity who later, after I became a Chriatian, helped me get plugged in to a local Christian group for college students.

 

[Zoe Girl]

I thought of one that I can't believe I forgot about!  In an environmental planning class (urban design) we had a guest speaker one day.  She was really active in working in Africa to better their living conditions.  This was the semester that Bush became president.  She was describing the environment in Africa, how unsanitary it is, how so many people are getting aids, etc.  when she said that "Bush shouldn't be president because his pro-life position is destroying the natural environment in Africa."

hmmmm......

The whole class sat there nodding and agreeing (as if she had just said something really profound).  

 

[Dryhtenes]

I learned that you're supposed to worship Clinton as God and despise anybody conservative as the Devil' minion. Thankfully, I tend to go against the norm.

 

[paulewog]

Heh... grammar..

The junior college I go to is full of people that don't know English right.

And yet they say that homeschoolers are just horribly taught and don't know anything and it shouldn't be allowed.

All I can do is laugh I'm at the top of both my JC classes, Spanish and Music theory... and I actually don't study

I know some public schools (especially in midwest states) are a lot different, but in California, they aren't generally that great. Not around my area anyways.

 

[Lotar]

I guess since I go to an engineering school, I haven't really had to put up with hardcore liberals that much. And atleast 10% of what I learn, I will actually use, which I hear is way more than average 

 

[paulewog]

I think so hehe!

 

[LilMissNiles]

I'm not dogging on public school education, just stating the facts about the specific class I was in.

It should read, "I'm not dogging on public school education, just stating the facts about the specific in which I attended." You ended your sentence in a preposition. hehehe Sorry I could NOT resist the urge to say that. I'm soon to be an English Education major. So I'm always correcting people. I don't mean to come across as disrespectful. It's like a reflex.