US History

…as taught (or not) at Bowdoin College. Sadly, I suspect that it’s not alone in that regard.

[Update a while later]

Here’s a long-overdue idea: No repayment plan, no student loan:

Tidewater Community College, in Virginia, will soon require students to go above and beyond Education Department requirements to receive federal loan funds. Starting next fall, students who want the college to certify their eligibility for student loans must complete personal budget worksheets, outlining a “realistic picture of their financial situation” both before and after graduation, and a student loan repayment plan estimating how their monthly payments fit into those budgets.

As Glenn says, “If this were to catch on, it would have devastating effects on certain colleges and majors.”

Yeah, like maybe history majors at Bowdoin.

53 thoughts on “US History”

  1. If you mean how to build a bridge, solve the Schroedinger equation, or interpret an MRI of someone’s liver…well, this is where the classroom is an excellent substitute for trial-and-error or the School O’ Hard Knocks.

    Not Hard Knocks, Carl. I mean the time spent studying and practicing that which comes rapid-fire in the classroom. If students don’t take the time to integrate information into their worldview, it’s in one ear and out the other. Indeed, no one taught me how to learn; I had to figure that out myself. It came with non-zero effort.

  2. There is also the fact that very intelligent people fairly have no common sense. A depressingly long time ago, I was studying chemistry at Cambridge, and in one practical session I was unfortunate enough to be working next to someone who was doing what I was (doing a reaction in boiling, recondensing acetone) but had made a mistake in putting the apparatus together such that there were no outlets for vapour. Naturally, after not very long the setup started leaking – and caught fire. OK, she made a mistake – stuff happens. The real problem, though, is that she merely started again – without finding out what had caused the fire – and it caught fire again. One does not want people like that in a chemistry lab. Ever.

  3. Titus Quinn Says:

    “Indeed, no one taught me how to learn; I had to figure that out myself. It came with non-zero effort.”

    So did I. I hadn’t a clue how to learn anything through most of college. By grad school I had a glimmer. Only once in my 40’s did I really understand how I, personally, learn stuff.

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