Elitism

It is somewhat odd that I can connect Mark Zuckerburg to the Higher Education Report. But oh, I can.

First to Mark Zuckerburg. For my (few) readers who might not know, this is the guy who came up with facebook. I admit, I like facebook, I like being able to keep in touch with friends from college and reconnect with people I knew when I was younger. Realistically, without this medium, I would have lost a lot of these contacts. However, this whole opening to the whole world really defeats the purpose of the service. If you want to be connected to the whole world, then you go to myspace. Facebook was first for "elite" colleges, then for most all colleges, then for high schoolers, too, then for some businesses, and now... I am not arguing that Facebook was some utopian online community where there weren't weird people (oh there were and are), but if you create a niche product (which is what it arguably was), then why do you make it leave its niche when there are other products available that serve the non-niche market?

Add to this the fact that every time I hear the guy speak, I want to throw something. Perhaps he is aware of it and perhaps he is not, but his tone is really quite arrogant and frustrating. When it's available, listen to the way he says things on his NPR Morning Edition interview. Yes, he wants us to use our service, but he obviously *knows* better than we do what it is that we want. He can do whatever he wants with the business model, but when it comes to reading the minds of millions of college students (and now, the world!), please. Learn humility, because you certainly don't show it.

So what, you might ask, does this have to do with the Higher Education Commission's report? There has been much written about the report in various venues, some extolling the report, others taking it down point by point, and yet others showing something approximating a middle ground. I think that the problem with the Higher Education Commission's report is that it fails to recognize what the varied purposes of higher education are. Perhaps my view is slanted, because I did attend and succeed at one of the "elite" schools. Perhaps I have higher expectations than I should of what students should know and be able to do coming out of high school. Perhaps I am bitter that this Commission appears to care more about the degree as a certification towards getting a better job without considering the vast range of motivations behind attending colleges of any kind. Again, I'm biased towards the liberal arts, learn for learning's sake form of higher education. But the idea of testing a liberal arts education mandated by the government doesn't sit right with me.

Why, you might ask, does it not sit well with me? I think standardized testing is inherently flawed as it reinforced societal biases, as well as taking valuable classroom time away from actual pedagogical exercise to teach students how to succeed on said standardized tests. Higher education, though today used as just another credential to get a job, isn't necessarily for everyone. There, I said it. Call me elitist if you well, but not everyone is suited or desires the challenges that higher education provides. In the ideal world, employers would not require a bachelor's degree if the job did not require skills and knowledge acquired through said degree. However, we do not live in an ideal world. Employers' demands and business world trained trustees and administrators have, in my mind unfortunately, changed the atmosphere of higher education as have student expectations of a product or services. News flash to the world: education is not fundamentally a business enterprise. It should not be run as such. We need to value actual learning outcomes and processes; I especially emphasize the processes as they are many times much more useful in life than the actual outcomes.

So, in this mania to quantify and assess everything, how can we assess a learning process? In my mind, we shouldn't even have to assess it, but the presence in higher education of many students who are not there to learn, but rather to get the degree, would necessitate such action. My gut reaction as someone who loves learning and had to sit in classes with people who really didn't would be to get rid of the people who don't want to learn, but that would only help the small number of us who actually appear to care about learning. To be honest, I am not sure that most higher education is necessarily "broken" right now, with the exception of the high price tag and partisan (ahem Horowitz) attacks on academics. As much as I would love to live in a world where all students wanted to learn, realistically, that would never happen. I admit, I don't have a solution. I think whoever does would be an awesome person, but that no one would ever listen. Because that happens.

Another issue brought up by the Commission's suggestion of assessment of outcomes is a placement of worth on higher education. Specifically, it deals with a single body standardizing an infinite number of varieties in curriculum and specialization. It also brings ideological issues into play much more starkly than in the current system; in a field such as my own, who decides what the canon is? This is infinitely problematic within my own field and is constantly being revisited and revised; no program has the exact same canonical list. How can a governmental body assume that a student in X literature should know A, B, and C? Would that not just reinforce simplistic understandings of material and make ideological judgments of the worth of A, B, and C, not to mention J, K, and L that were left off the test?

The connection between these disparate ideas? Both Mark Zuckerburg and the Commission's narrow view of worth in higher education are "reforms" that ostensibly democratize their areas, that is, facebook and higher education. However, these entities thrive on elitism! Removing the intellectual from both of these removes the unique identity of both. Making facebook open to everyone defeats the purpose of the service. Everyone having equal ACCESS to higher education is key. However, the people of the US need to recognize that our country is not filled with people who want to study for itself, rather, they study for the certificate and learn nothing along the way. If we truly wish to reform higher education, it should be from within each institution (as opposed to governmentally imposed) with a focus as to the profile of student that it serves. The function of a community college is dramatically different from that of an R1 university.

All of this worry about the *quality* of higher education, in my mind, is not really important until we get our K-12 system to a better place. How can we expect students to succeed in higher education when they do not recieve the tools to do so in K-12? The answer is not to lower the expectations in higher education, for that hurts everyone involved. Hold students, teachers, administrators, parents, politicans (ugh school boards) accountable, but don't limit imagination through excessive testing. And don't forget that we don't all have to be the same thing in the end.

And it's Monday night.

I've gone into crazy study mode... which is fine, I guess, but I do find myself wondering what it is I was doing before I was in study mode. It's somewhat odd.

I've also lately felt quite lonely. Though I am doing well what with school and all, I really miss S, and my parents, and my siblings, and yeah. To be honest, I prefer to be alone if I can't be with S or my family. I'm not sure if that is a good thing, though.

I had to watch El Crimen del Padre Amaro which I have seen several times before, and it was quite interesting yet again. I did, however, get quite annoyed when reading through IMDB's reader reviews - over half of them were Latin American males (who of course have to proclaim their condition as such for *credibility*) who say that the movie is bad because the characters are poorly drawn, it's too much like a telenovela, it shouldn't criticize the Church, it should criticize other types of corruption because religion *doesn't matter,* etc, etc. Besides their attempts to establish authority, they had vapid comments that did not contribute to a coherent view of the film. Besides which, if they had paid attention to detail while they were watching the film, they might understand it better. Then they complain that nothing was resolved in the end - without realizing it is not the point for everyone to live happily ever after. While they complain about it being too much like a telenovela, they don't like it when it doesn't resolve as a telenovela would. If you are going to go out of your way to write a comment about a film, at least be consistent.

I do admit, I have quite a bit more to say about the film. And I know that I didn't qualify all of my above statements, despite my complaint about consistency in online film criticism - though part of it may have to do with different definitions of criticism. For me it is more about interpretation, whereas for many of these reviewers, it is simply about complaints. I did, however, appreciate the comment that brought Brechtian theory into it. Also - why were there no women writing these reviews? Yet another mystery to be solved...

Quick update

This weekend has been somewhat, well, odd. I spent most of yesterday working on a paper topic, and went to a very late concert with a friend. While it was nice to be out with my friend, I will admit the music wasn't what I expected, at all. But it was a nice time, just somewhat odd.

This morning I got installed as a church school teacher. Go us. Though they didn't put any of the teachers above 5th grade in the bulletin. But I am OK with that, since half the time they print my name they manage to spell it incorrectly. Oh, well.

The rest of my day is scheduled for studying and cooking. Hopefully more studying than cooking.

Darth Colbert

You can't go wrong with this clip. It joins two of the things I appreciate most - Star Wars and criticizing Bush. Enjoy!

the chef

Continuing with my fondness for faux-ethnic food (ie recipes that I sort of make up myself - were I a chef, I might call them something fusion, but I'm not), I made a bastardized version of Sukiyaki, which the Joy of Cooking book as well as about.com inform me is known as the "Japanese Friendship Dish." Now, I am not overly fond of Japanese food, mostly because I don't eat anything that comes out of the sea or shoreline. I do, however, like gyoza, as well as beef. Hmmm beef. So I made Sukiyaki, to my own tastes.

My version had beef, tofu (yay for protein), scallions, onions, water chestnuts, and bamboo shoots. I just used broth, soy sauce, and sugar for the bit at the end. And I admit, it was mighty delicious. I just finished it up for lunch. And it was still mighty delicious. So here I have yet another recipe that I like. A lot. I did leave out the raw egg part, which didn't appeal to me. And I couldn't find some ingredients that I might want to try in my next one. Either way it was lots of fun, partially because I had never cooked with tofu before.

Leaves aren't quite falling but

Happy Autumn! Arriving to this day means that we have (in the Northern Hemisphere, at least) survived the hell that is summer weather and are now moving into the *best* time of year! The air gets cooler and crisper, and there is just something that makes me happy in the scent on a crisp fall day. I don't know what it is, to be exact, but it is one of my favorite moments. Huzzah for autumn!

Sniff

Things were going so well. And then I wake up all stuffy again. Not cool.

Was it S having to blow his nose every 5 minutes over the phone? Can you transmit a cold through a phone line and across continents? Or are my allergies back? ugh. This sucks.

Chilean Independence and Medieval storytelling...

Feliz 18! Today is Chilean Independence Day. I wish I were there so that I could have the day off, spend it with family, have asado, drink pisco sour, chicha, and wine, dance cueca, and basically enjoy myself.

I have been watching a lot of Cadfael recently. It is ostensibly a way to "get into" an early 13th century Spanish text, but I really just like Cafael a lot. Unfortunately the library doesn't have all of the episodes - there are only two left there that I haven't watched yet. Oh, I love Cadfael. As much as I enjoy Poirot and other Mystery! series, I really like Cadfael best. Woohoo for Derek Jacobi as a Benedictine monk who solves crimes, usually murder. Je, je.

They had so many books...

I saw something very cute this morning. A mother and her son were walking out of one of the libraries on campus and the boy pointed to another building, which also happens to be a library, and asked what was there. His mother said "That is another library, because they have so many books that they didn't all fit in there!" (there being the library they just left) The little boy grinned, said "cool!" and started running towards the other building.

Seriously, it warmed my heart.

Random information, in chapters!

These are silly, but I want a break from Medieval Spanish Poetry. I especially appreciate that it is broken into chapters.

1. Where did you take or get your profile picture?
Woohoo for Yahoo Avatars. Especially when I get to make "me" wear leggings. But not those stirrup leggings, those were uncomfortable when I was a kid.
2. What exactly are you wearing right now?
Brown corduroys, blue lace trim tank top under a dark red vneck. Plus garnet earrings and my favorite necklace (faith, hope, and love!), watch, 2 rings.
3. What is your current problem?
oooh dear... I suppose the most current one is the pile of dishes in the sink.
4. What makes you most happy?
Being with S, playing organ or piano, dancing, seeing good films, watching my teleserie, being with my family... Republicans losing... so many little every day things, too.
5. What's the name of the song that you're listening to?
Well I am now listening to NPR's All Things Considered, but before that came on a bit ago I was listening to Camille Saint-Saëns' Rhapsodies (3) on Breton Themes for organ.
6. Has anyone you've been really close with passed away?
well, my grandparents...
7. Do you ever watch MTV?
Present tense? No.
8. What's something that really annoys you?
Oh so many things... but most of all, rude people. In other words, people sucking, that would be the #1 annoying thing in my life.

Chapter 1: All About Me
1. Middle name: I've got 2!
2. Nickname(s): I hate nicknames.
3. Current location: Here
4. Eye color: Green (duh. Look at the avatar...)

Chapter 2: Family
1. Do you live with your parents?: No, they are far away. :-(
2. Do you get along with your parent(s)?:Yes. Basically, my parents are awesome.
3. Are your parents married/separated/divorced?: No one's business but theirs, but I will say that I see them as a model of a good marriage.
4. Do you have any Siblings?: Oh si. 2.

Chapter 3: favourite...
1. Ice Cream: CHOCOLATE. Though just chocolate, I don't like it with nuts or any of that crap. Occasionally fudge swirl strikes my fancy, though.
2. Season: Fall!
3. Shampoo/conditioner: Hm. I like Redken's Fresh Curls, but I don't use it all the time for budgetary reasons.

Chapter 4: Do You..
1. Dance in the shower?: Dance? No. Sing? yes.
2. Write on your hand?: No, Dad's yelling at me for it finally broke me of the habit. That, and it hurts!
3. Call people back?: I try to.
4. Believe in love?: Yes, obvio.
5. Sleep on a certain side of the bed: Usually. Except for when I decide to sleep in the middle.
6. Any bad habits?: If you know me, you know what most of them are.

Chapter 5: Have You...
1. Broken a bone?: No. I'm that cool.
2. Sprained stuff?: Have I? I don't think that time in elementary school was really a sprain.
3. Had physical therapy?: I don't think so.
4. Gotten stitches?: Nope.
5. Taken Pain killers?: Ibuprofen! Acetominophen! (note that I use the generic names, jejeje.)
6. Gone SCUBA diving or snorkeling?: eh no.
7. Been stung by a bee?: Yes, once, I was about 5 and it was going after my soda, which was unacceptable. But then, oddly enough, the adult put a closed cold can of soda on the sting. Hm. Yes, odd.
8. Thrown up at the dentist?: Yuck, no.
9. Sworn in front of your parents?: Have I? I don't think so but I might be mistaken.
10. Had detention?: Of course not.

Chapter 6: Who/What was the last
1. Movie(s)?: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. (i've had a lot of reading)
2. Person to text you?: S
3. Person you called?: Student loan peeps
4. Person you hugged?: Was it S? because that means I haven't hugged anyone in a long time.
5. Person you tackled?: I generally don't tackle people.
6. Thing you touched?: My green pen, which I use to underline important passages in photocopies.
7. Thing you ate?: My Wowie cake with Buttercream frosting. So delicious!
8. Thing you drank?: A glass of Santa Ema cab with lunch. (though I admit it didn't go so well with the stir fry. And now I know.)
9.Thing you said?: "Idiots," muttered under my breath when I got off the phone with formentioned student loan peeps.
10. Friend you miss the most that has moved?: All of them!