I had a completely different blog written for today, but I looked at it, and it was somewhat complicated, and in truth, the situation is still working itself out.....
No, I decided to change gears when I read this morning that 750+ families had cheated or bribed their children's way into an elite university.
And I wonder, if those colleges in the end are actually worth it?
I know part of it is the parents get to brag on their children.
But, how much are these kids actually learning at these schools?
There are degrees in subjects in which you look at and ask, "This doesn't even help them in law school, or medical school, or getting a job teaching school.......or getting a job doing much of anything."
You get out of college what you put into it.
I read where one of the wealthy families' child had placed a video online in which they planned to spend their college time, " Partying." And she was on a yacht owned by her universities' president during spring break. Her parents had spent $500,000 to get her into the elite university.
Looks like she really is taking advantage of a situation that other kids would give their right arm for, if only they had not been bumped by money donated so a rich person's kid could get into that college. ( Sarcasm folks)
I have told these stories I know, and I am sure times have changed. This was 40 years ago.
When I went to divinity school, I worried about " Am I bright enough to 'hang' with these people."
There were Baylor, UT-Austin, A&M, Rice, LSU, OLE Miss, Virginia,( there was even a Yale) grads in a Church History class I was taking. In those days, Church History was a "weed out" class. A way to get rid of students not serious.
Within the first two weeks, I realized I was as bright, if not "brighter than this bunch."
Several were history majors, and the Yalie was a religion grad.
They either learned, or were taught nothing in their classes.
I earned one of the few "As" in the class. A large section of the course, I had already been taught in ole Dr. Bill MacDonald's Reformation Class at Lamar.
Look, I ain't that bright, I am not really.
But, it made me feel really secure about my Lamar education. Lamar ( and I can only speak about then) turns out good products.
Second story-
When I was at Lamar, in order to get a government teacher's certificate, in those days, you had a take a Political Philosophy class.
The course was taught by a professor who had received his PhD from the Univ. of Geneva in Switzerland. And his notes were in French. He translated them as he lectured in the course.
In college especially in history, government classes, all exams were in essay form( sounds familiar doesn't it Buna grads.) and the essays were to be written in what was called a 'Blue Book" which was a composition book made just for writing essay tests.
On the day of the final in the class, the professor walked in, wrote the questions on the chalkboard and we went to work. ( Also sounds familiar doesn't it Buna grads)
One minute into the test, a student in the class turned in his "Blue Book" and left for the holiday. ( It was Christmastime)
The above student was from a prominent family in the community. So prominent, they named streets after the family...The student was at Lamar because he was trying to "get his grades back up" so he could return to school in Dallas...He had been booted for poor grades from the Dallas school.
About 3 hours after the examination had completed, My friend Leonard and myself decided to venture to the professor's office to see if he had completed grading the finals.
The professor had, and after we saw our scores, Leonard made the remark, " What is the deal on XXXXXX's test?"
At which point the professor reached into his desk, pulled out the prominate family's student's Blue Book opened it, in which nothing was written.
From the center of the book, the professor pulled two First-Class Tickets, Air France, to Paris round-trip.
Leonard made the remark, " well, I guess XXXXXX passed."
To which the professor replied, " Oh no, he failed, but my wife and I will be in Paris when he receives his grades."
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