In Praise of the Lower Bar
First of all, you should be grateful that I am me and not someone else. I say this because any other stay-at-home parent would make their blog all about the trials and tribulations of being a stay-at-home parent. They would probably even use trite phrases like "trails and tribulations".

The reason why this makes me exceptional and is a boon for you, dear reader, can be seen in the post-script of my last post. I avoided talking about the disturbing incident of Potty Training Reversal that came as a great shock to me yesterday. The really bad news for me (and fantastic news for you since I won't be talking about it at length) is that the same scenario replayed itself this morning in glorious Code Brown fashion.

And that is the end of that particular report. You are welcome.

I will say by way of passing advice, if you don't have kids never ever ever have kids. They look cute from afar, but up close they're smelly, noisy and messy in ways you can't possibly imagine. Granted today is not the best day to ask for advice of this nature.

OK, moving on, my main point of discussion today is the deterioration of support of publically funded higher education in my state, referencing this particular article from my local paper. In short summary, the California State University system is now bearing the brunt of our state budget woes. The separate (and vastly superior by association with Yours Truly) University of California has already felt the pinch.

I won't get into the fact that the Cal State system is basically a glorified community college or that with 20+ campuses, a Cal State school is easier to get in to than Paris Hilton. Seriously, call the Paris Hilton right now, they'll take your reservation no problem.

It seems in time of budgetary crisis the first thing to go is education, which is tragic. Probably. It undermines the foundation of the state's future by limiting access to proper training and instruction to create specialists to fill high-paying professional jobs with natives. One imagines.

So the individual schools, including my alma mater, do drastic and not at all hilarious things like raise admissions standards in order to necessarily limit both applicants and acceptances, keeping class-sizes to budget-friendly levels.

As a proponent of higher education and recipient of far too much of it myself, this should all be quite troubling, but I must admit I feel almost giddy with relief. My two diplomas hang on the wall just above my computer monitor. I think about higher admission standards and they start to fade, like Marty McFly from that picture he had of him and his siblings in Back to the Future.

See, you should know something about Pops. I sort of forgot to apply to college out of high school. I took the SAT and everything, but with a sub-2.0 GPA, you get an idea of where my motivation level was at the time. So I had to go to the local JC for 2+ years of spirit-deflating coursework. I failed two classes my first semester. I wish I were kidding.

But the rules back then, in the heyday if Oval Office oral sex and dizzy budget surpluses, if you put in the time at JC, they had to let you in to the state school of your choice.

And they still wouldn't let me in because I "forgot" to take a bunch of goddamn useless science classes. So I called the admissions office at UCR and begged. They said OK, I could come so long as I finished my Statistics class with a satisfactory grade.

My first and last A in a math class.

But now you have to demonstrate competence in order to get accepted even at my school, the bottom rung of the nine (soon to be ten) campus University of California ladder. I should be heart-broken, really.

I know it makes me a hypocrite in alot of ways, but I feel about today's college students the same way Republicans feel about immigrants: I gots mine. Pat Buchanan (two mentions in as many days... Congratulations Pat!) hates Africans, Latinos and Asians the way WASPs used to hate his Irish immigrant forebears and he hates with the same "Too late, suckers!" all-American zeal that used to say "Irish Need Not Apply".

So what can I say for my suffering successors in the state of California...

Study harder, suckers! Ahahhahahahahaha!


This post on the Narcissus Scale: 8.95


Pops

- posted by Pops @ 11:53 AM