B for just "Being" there?John Martin has got it right - why should students not feel "entitled to their entitlements". Everyone else does. I happen to be from the generation that once aspired to be as diligent, hard-working, (stupidly) chivalrous and yes even altruistic as Charles SHULTZ's cartoon character, Charlie Brown. Now, popular cartoon culture is defined by "The Simpsons" - a sarcastic, white trash, dysfunctional family headed by Homer, his wife Marge, son Bart, daughter Lisa and baby Maggie created and drawn by Matt Groening.
But the problem of marking is making teachers crazy! Heck, even Barbra KAY has weighted in on the issue.
Adding to the distemper has been a rash of news items that just illustrate how disconnected from reality the current cohort of University students have become.
- Queens' Student Association plans to hire "dialogue monitors" to randomly intervene on Social Justice issues like if they hear "hate speech" against gays or women! (They also canceled the Annual Alumni Homecoming Weekend next Fall as they just discovered it involves drinking!) [Update: 2008NOV29 They have "reconsidered"]
- Carleton University Student Council has decided to drop sponsorship of their traditional Annual Cystic Fibrosis "Shinearama" fundraiser since it is not "inclusive" enough. After 20 years of support they determined that because it predominately affects "only white men1" they wanted to find something a little catchier. [Update: 2008NOV29 SC President "maybe impeached"]
- York University Graduate Student TA's - represented by CUPE - has gone on strike over demands to reduce work hours, pay raises of 28% over 2 years and medical/maternity benefits. There have been efforts to include other Universities - like UofT and Queen's - but so far they have not had success. YorkU talks have broken down so upto 50,000 students will likely not be able to sit for Exams before Xmas.
- University of Calgary has severely curtailed a campus Pro-Life group from mounting an extremely grisly photo display of the results of abortion procedures. They may be arrested if they breech the terms which requires the images to turned in so one must enter the display area to view, rather than facing outwards so everyone outside can see them. In the past similarly shocking gruesome photo images/displays have been undertaken by campus "Rape/Violence Against Women" groups as well as "Holocaust Awareness", "Stop Landmines" and various others that advocate "Anti-war" cause. I myself would not want to be subjected to any of those campaigns either. What is the difference with the Pro-Life group?
- [Update: 2008DEC04 - Lakehead University, Thunder Bay ON. "[Student Union funded] Clubs must make their messages “positive,” cannot be seen to be offensive or disparaging and they are not allowed to impose their views on anyone else." Or so the Lakehead Student Union leaders decreed yesterday. A campus anti-abortion group - who has been seeking "Club" funding for over a year - believes the new rules make it impossible for them to ever spread their message effectively. "[The SU is] working to create a simple happy world, where expressing a single critical thought that may upset anyone is banned, and where [the student union] will be the final arbiter of what is acceptable." The student body should check if Spine transplants are a procedure covered by OHIP in Tbay.
Indoctrinate U anyone?
Footnotes:
1) Not entirely true as it affects many girls/women, although the disease does seem heavily represented among Caucasians in Europe and North America it is also present in North Africa, Asia, Japan, Australia and South America.
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