SHOP TILL YOU DROPShopping for 'Cut Scores'
…In a phenomenon test administrators say they have known about for years, some savvy students are deliberately seeking out institutions with lower entrance test benchmarks that will either place them out of remedial coursework or require them to take less of it. Among discussions of ballooning enrollments and constricted budgets, this student tactic was a point of much discussion at last week's meeting of the American Association of Community Colleges…. (Inside Higher Ed)
WHAT, ME WORRY?Scientists fear worst on global warming
Politicians insist that urgent and widespread action can yet prevent the worst of global warming but the cracks in that argument have been showing for some time.
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Today's Guardian poll of attendees at a climate conference last month ... exposes the gulf between political rhetoric and scientific thinking. Of more than 250 experts surveyed, more than half said the 2C target could still be achieved but only 18 thought that it would be. By the end of the century, most thought average temperatures would rise by some 4C.
…The authoritative report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007 laid it out in simple terms. If carbon emissions continue to rise at present rates, then the IPCC's best guess is a 4C rise by 2100. The Guardian poll merely highlights a belief that the warning has simply failed to penetrate. As one said: "I think a full understanding of what must be done quickly, and the consequences of insufficient action, is lacking among the policy makers and the public." Another said: "Current government actions are playing into the hands of ... an electorate that doesn't quite understand how serious climate change is."
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Bob Doppelt, director of the climate leadership initiative at the University of Oregon, said: "One of the problems is that the issue is still being framed as a scientific and environmental issue. This is a major mistake. Climate change is just a symptom of dysfunctional social and economic practices and policies. It is a social and economic issue. The emphasis needs to shift away from the biophysical sciences now to the social sciences if we have any hope of solving this problem."…. (The Guardian)
9 comments:
These two stories seem depressingly related to me. In both cases, we see how humans, evolved to react to primarily short-term threats and not to do very good long-term assessments, sacrifice crucial long-term interests, both their own and others', for short-term gains.
Students don't even remember (did they ever get it at all?) that *being educated* is the best reason to go to college. They do all they can to sacrifice an authentic education, for the sake of getting in and getting a degree (whatever its value).
The public/policy-makers can't see past today's weather and today's finances. They end up sacrificing their own descendants' and everyone else's welfare for the sake of a false but pleasant sense of well-being, or to save money, or to avoid present discomforts.
It is so tempting to think that we're doomed. Yet I'm hoping we're not. (Why does this hope persist? I really don't know.)
You've hit the nail on the head as usual, MAH.
It's true MAH. That even explains why it is so hard to find good Lab partners at IVC. The attitude is "get in, get out."
My friend credits Noam Chomsky for his own personal in'n'out-itude. Apparently there is a video on YouTube where Chomsky says something like, "The smart students BS through all the crap lower classes to get to the good stuff" (I doubt Chomsky said it like that, but this seems to be the idea my friend finds crucial to arguing to me as those are his words).
Apparently, because Chomsky is such a well regarded thinker, this makes him right. Oy!
Chunk, you have had some truly great articles the past few days. It has been a pleasure to read and think about them.
High praise coming from you, BS. BTW, "in'n'out-itude" is an excellent phrase. Yours? I do think that Chomsky is being hyperbolic with such remarks (which I've heard him say). Part of what he means, I think, is that one can always find levels or degrees of "received," albeit dubious, thinking/assuming in teaching. Teaching, at least until grad school, is always at least in part an imparting of prejudices and sage nuggets that are in reality no more than working (and soon-to-be-demolished) hypotheses.
--RB
In'n'out-itude is all mine. You can borrow it if you want, though.
RE Chomsky (whose name I spell wrong every time): I still have an iffy feeling about Chomsky's advice, but it seems to not be well founded. I'll dwell on it in private while making a late dinner.
Thanks for your clarification Chunsky.
Global warming = SCAM
5:54 = uneducated fool
Uneducated mouthpieces like 5:54 have to share some responsibility for the impending horrors that may now be too firmly in place to reverse.
5:54, are you suggesting that a conspiracy is afoot? Please explain and defend your view. Otherwise, why bother to give it?
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