Tuesday, November 14, 2006

disconcerting moment of the day

Told to me by an instructor:

When she asked her class to name the major religion of Israel, no one could.

When I asked her if they at least made an attempt to thrown something out, any religion any religion at all say, oh I don't know, Christianity.

She said they did say Christianity and Islam.

I wanted to make sure I heard her correctly. "You said, Israel, right?"

"Yep."

I then told her I was going to ask her a question, but then realized how dumb the question would have been to ask. I was going to ask if they knew the history behind Israel and why there is such turmoil in the country. Obviously if they don't even know what the dominate religion is they aren't going to know the history of the country.

Oh, we got a good laugh out of that one.

I sat and stared. Sadly it wasn't in stunned disbelief.

I just shake my head and hang it in shame.

College, people. This is college.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Since you didn't give the answer, I will: Isrealianity.

Jay Adkins said...

And people wonder why the world hates us.

eccentric recluse said...

I agree the many (not all) college programs are simply a means for some to drain money from others, and the 'education' that they provide is pretty irrelevant in our world. To paraphrase an old addage, "those that can, do; those that can't, go to college".

It is tragic that (apparently) so many don't bother to delve into the potential causes of the conflicts of the world. Perhaps it should be posted on the internet, between The Simpsons and South Park, to get their attention...

THE DUKE said...

That's seriously scary!

Baron Ectar said...

Then they leave school and become the leaders of our country ...

Party Girl said...

JJ: Never will know peace. That area of the world will never know peace.

GG: Ignorance is rampant, apathy is nowhere to be found, and the future generation stands blindly in front of us.

Jay: it is a mystery isn't it?

Eccentric: Although many state colleges and bigger name U's are guilty of this, I have to say not the case in this instance. The instructors do truly care. A few perhaps, too much if that is possible. Old age and a hefty dose of cynicism is alive and well, but so is a good heart.

Duke: Yep. it became their homework lesson for the day. See, perhaps something good will come from ignorance.

Yeah, I know. My eternal optimism always shines through.

Baron: This is why that comment was so funny to me:
Mere minutes before I saw your comment I had talked with another instructor about big name U's who take money for admissions and by-pass those who deserve entrance. Of course, W. came up. Of course his quote of, "...those who received C's,... can become president one day...."

Yes, and get us into a conflict that we have no hopes of resolving Mr. I got a C in history.


That same instructor who I had this conversation with earlier in the day, I then told her about another student who is a shining example of what a student should be.
She was grading papers when I said this.
She agreed with me about the student I was talking about.
She told me she would give the other students one more day to prove her wrong in terms of their ability.
I told her I would tell her a story about one good student each day.
Oozing cynicism she told me she would try to hold out hope.

Needless to say they all think I'm crazy in my hopes and goal of staying in my current position and my hopes for the future of teaching.

Again, that eternal optimism keeps shining through.