Columbia professor calls for 'A Milliam Mogadishus'

MacBeth,

Your sig seem to be contradicting the very foundation of your moral philosophy.

 

Lol! I know...it is...I have thought of that before. I still find Twain a hilarious judge of human nature, like Wilde..." We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."

 

Speaking of folks with PhDs, I've certainly come across my fair share who might well have been brilliant in some field at some time, but who (likely because of being outside the bump and grind of the real world) had a somewhat distorted view of how things work in this day and age, even within their own fields.

I guess that's a dangerous trap that anyone can fall into, but earning a PhD while having only limited work experience in the field in which you teach can leave one with a view of the field that can be outdated, overly academic or even flat-out wrong.

Not to mention the time factor (if one receives their training 20 years ago, they may not be as up-to-date on current issues, etc).

Some of the PhDs I know fall into these categories. Of course, in theoretical pursuits, being an academic probably isn't a negative. But when you're attempting to teach people "real-world" applications, it often helps to have actually stepped out into the real world from time to time.

As it is, I've had professors who had a completely inaccurate view of how things worked in the "real world" of the subject they taught (in subjects like accounting or advertising or journalism). And some of the best professors I've had in this regard were those without advanced degrees who had recently (or currently) worked in their field.

But I won't say anything too negative about PhDs since my mother has one (in experimental psychology from UCONN).

 

Everyone is living in the "real world." The problem is, everybody is living in just parts of the real world. No one have comprehensive experience and perspective. The so-called commonsense is "common" only because it exists in the parts of the world most people live in.

The academic world is as "real" as any part of the real world. The problem many people see with the academia is that the part of the world they live in is not the same as the part of the world they teach or speak about. This is especially acute with "practical" fields such as accounting.

However, if we talk about intelligence, I think a lot of the abilities required to succeed in the academic world are actually very transferable to almost any kind of work that required some sort of intellectual capacity. Abilities such as analytical skills, critical thinking, and mental organization such as category/pattern/level recognition are very useful in many "real world" work.

The only important skills that academic people are not always well-trained are people skills. That why so many professors are weirdos.

 

Well, thank God you were there to live my experiences for me and analyze them for me.

 

I forgot the smiley after that.

 

Maybe people should stop going to college since academics are so bad. Especially since the things taught now are the same things taught in 1950, due to the stagnation.

 

According to my advertising media professor from last semester, fewer people are going to college (as a percentage of the population). Maybe now we know why.

 

I can't speak for all academia, but I do have to defend mine as an institution, and my life un particular...

1) My school, the University of Toronto, is a huge and prestigous school, essentailly the Harvard of Canada, but it is very much a City school, built right in the middle of the city, and has all kinds of interactions with 'real world' activities: Many of the newer labs have been sponsored by alumni who now are high up in thier filds, and there are many co-operative programs wherein experts in their fields come in to teach sessions, to get the practical aspect. The school itself is so involved in the 'real world' that the Building which houses the provincial governemnt's Parliament, Queen's Park, is on school property. Hardly the isolatedland of intellectual gentry described by some.

2) For myself, I don't live the typical life of an academic, as perceived in these streotypes,possibly because I am quite young by academic standards...Far from living in an ivory tower, I live in a large and nice 6 bedroom house near the University, and all 5 of my roommates are young women, mostly students, many of whom also work in the bar business, or with children. I myself have, in my past, held several occupations: I managed a bar/tended bar for 3 years, modelled for 3 years, worked with the developmentally handicapped for a couple of years, and dabbled in law for a little over a year...and there are others. I also play a regular twice a week basketball game all year,and in the summer belong to two baseball teams...and I play football whenever I can., it being my best sport.Does this slice of just one life of an academic maybe shake the perception of these port swilling pipe smoking cardigan wearing ivory tower dwelling group thinkers without any connection to the real world? Or, if not, and I am leading the life of a stereotypical academic, please tell me how...

I am resenting the fact that it seems ok to apply stereotypes to my proffession, but I would bet many of you would resent them were they apllied to yours.

Peace

JAG

 

Is it just me, or does MacBeth's life have the makings of an excellent sitcom?

Personally, I would not (and don't) resent the many stereotypes applied to my profession (any of them). I actually think many of them are quite funny.

So, let's add that to the list of things about PhDs we hate: "Too stuffy to laugh off stereotypes regarding PhDs"

 

1) Don't get the sitcom thing...please elaborate.

2) We're not talking jokes here, we're talking about dismissing the validity of learned opinions based on a prejudiced and largely outdated view of academics as being some osrt of intellectual zombies...

 

Just that we could have a character who teaches at the University, but who also lives with five women. Hilarious hijinks ensue.

Give you a meddling landlord and a wacky neighbor, and you've got yourself a hit show. Thirty share easy.

I'm not talking about jokes, either.

But I do think many of things that are attributed to people in my lines of work (be it advertising or film production or real estate investment, though I haven't made any real money yet in film production, so I guess that's not so much my profession so far) or previous lines of work (reporter, media relations, whathaveyou) are funny, oftentimes because they are so often based on such a very limited view of what we do. Or based on a few bad apples in the bunch or based on things that used to be true in a different time but aren't so much anymore.

I don't find them any more upsetting than this idea that Texans all own oil wells and ride around in F150s with rifles hanging from their rear windows and horns hanging off the hood.

These ideas may clash with the overall reality of my profession or my life or whatever, and because of that, I can laugh them off. If they were hitting too close to reality, I might be a little more upset. (And for some people, the stereotype is much like the reality. That's how a stereotype starts to become a stereotype).

 

I have no problem laughing off stereotypes such as "the absent-minded professor" if they are meant to be entertainment. Just like I often laugh at some ethnic jokes about Chinese people. I think they are funny and am not offended.

But when people dismiss you as irrelevant just because you are a PhD or just because you are in a theoretical or "ivory tower" field, then I think you should resent it.

 

Oh, and I agree that MacBeth's life could make a pretty interesting sitcom. . . especially the living with five young women part.

 

According to the NCES that is not really true (it is a bad chart and only goes to 2000, but it gives the general idea - it seems to fluctuate a bit).

In regards to the stereotypes in here, they make me want to get defensive but I don't and generally ignore them instead. I ultimately feel that it is each person's loss if they want to believe and promote ignorance. I just don't want them in my class - they can do without college.

So don't bother, Mac...just a waste of your time (and by the way I was just joking with you about the editing of your posts, I was not trying to be critical...I hope you got that).

 

Actually, I didn't think he was correct on that, which is why I made sure to attribute the stat to him rather than just putting it out there. But I wanted to go for the joke.

 

I can't believe all those students are sticking up for this scumbag. And to think their parents are actually paying for this 'education'.

 

Me either. Say what you want about the merits of this war, but hoping for anything like that is sick and disgusting.