Michigan State University’s College of Education is under scrutiny for its radical training materials for teachers as part of its program, “Social Foundations of Justice and Equity in Education.” The material includes radical race theories and a video of Communist and Black Panther Angela Davis explaining that “racism is integrally linked to capitalism.”
The Federalist reported on the material, which includes a warning to educators that those “who cling to their Whiteness cannot participate in abolitionist teaching because they are a distraction, are unproductive, and will undermine freedom at every step, sometimes in the name of social justice.”
Imagine if material told black or other minority teachers that they had to drop identities to their race if they want to teach. “Clinging to your Whiteness” is often a complaint leveled against those who do not repeat race-based mantras or statements in these sessions. Such public demonstrations have long been a part of the academic orthodoxy. Years ago, I noted with concern how academics were expected to engage in public confessions like the one at Northwestern University School of Law when Northwestern Law Dean declared publicly, “I am James Speta and I am a racist.” He was followed by Emily Mullin, executive director of major gifts, who said, “I am a racist and a gatekeeper of white supremacy. I will work to be better.”
MSU requires teachers to listen to Davis make the absurd claim that capitalism is inherently racist. Another video claims that “America can never be a meritocracy” without fundamental changes to create an “equal starting point and equal resources.”
Telling teachers that they cannot succeed unless they give up their racial identity can be an environment of extreme intolerance and orthodoxy. It is one thing to address racism (in all forms) and singling out white teachers as having to address their race. Some students may assume that public demonstrations or affirmations are required to counter assumptions about their bias or inherent racism.
As for the use of Davis to claim that capitalism is the driver of racism, it ignores how capitalism fuels the advancement and empowerment of citizens. There is nothing inherently racist about a system emphasizing individual productivity and success. My Sicilian grandparents faced prejudices and extreme poverty in arriving in our country. They soon found that hard work allowed them to secure a better life for themselves and their children.
While she later left the party over internal disputes, Davis previously declared:
“I am a Communist because … If we are going to rise out of our oppression, our poverty, if we are going to cease being the targets of the racist-minded mentality of racist policemen, we will have to destroy the American capitalist system. We will have to obliterate a system in which a few wealthy capitalists are guaranteed the privilege of becoming richer and richer, whereas the people who are forced to work for the rich, and especially Black people, never take any significant step forward.”
I actually think that Davis’s views on capitalism and racism would be valuable in a course on those subjects to explore different views on such subjects. The question is why MSU would select Davis to be part of the mandatory material for new teachers as part of an education training and whether there is true balance offered in the material from figures like Milton Friedman or others on the benefits of capitalism. That does not appear to be the case at MSU.
MSU should address these concerns and show how, if such material is included in required reading, there is also material that offers real balance and counterpoints to these radical views.
. . . the material, which includes a warning to educators that those “who cling to their Whiteness cannot participate in abolitionist teaching . . .
(1) So, railing against racism and “whiteness” in the same breath?
(2) So, slavery has not yet been abolished? So there was no civil war, no 13th Amendment?
We are not dealing with healthy minds here. Yet, this garbage is endorsed in the institutions of higher learning?
Will the foolish liberals of the 1960’s and 70’s every go away? Angela was and most likely still is, an avoid Communist, having run for Vice President for the Communist Party USA ticket ‘1980 & 84’. She could fit right in with the newly elected mayor of NYC as the liaison to the NYPD. She is one example of many why America started to slide into the abyss of unreasoned minds taking the levers of government under some misguided notion their grass will be greener.
“Angela Davis speaks of grievances and slavery, yet her message of indoctrination seeks to enslave the mind instead of liberating it.
I wonder whether those on the left, on the blog, recognize the cognitive dissonance.”
Yes indeed we recognize the grievances, the indoctrination, the enslavement and the cognitive dissonance.
We recognize the constant stream of grievances spewing forth from Donald Trump.
We recognize the indoctrination that is inherent in the MAGA cult.
We recognize the enslavement of the minds of the MAGA cultists.
Yes indeed, S. Meyer we see all of the cognitive dissonance of the MAGA cult.
^ Stage 4, hospital level TDS ^
“We recognize the constant stream of grievances spewing forth from Donald Trump.”
Yet you are unable to list and debate them. Why?
Perhaps you should consider listing the grievances of Angela Davis and debating them instead of making disingenuous and hypocritical accusations
Why did you not do that ??
Once again Anonymous proves he is a member of the moron class.
You confirm you know nothing about “grievances spewing forth from Donald Trump.”, and that your comment was based on intellectual deficiency rather than knowledge.
Once again S. Meyer proves he is a member of the moron class.
You confirm you know nothing about “Angela Davis speaks of grievances”, and that your comment was based on intellectual deficiency rather than knowledge.
The lack of clarity in your use of language and the need to copy and paste make your arguments difficult to take seriously. Given that, remaining anonymous may be the wisest choice.
The lack of clarity in your use of language and your hypocrisy in criticizing others for doing exactly what you do makes it difficult to take you seriously. Given that, remaining a member of the moron class may be the wisest choice.
A parrot has more common sense than you. Thank you for confirming that you are a moron. You can now continue to demonstrate it as a coward, who, unlike a parrot, is masked.
“I wonder whether those on the left, on the blog, recognize the cognitive dissonance.”
I’ve always considered “cognitive dissonance” to be a fancy term designed to pretty up what it describes. I prefer to call it “rank hypocrisy”.
As I have previously noted, Meyer likes to use “fancy” words of which he has absolutely no understanding, to make what he believes are profoundly insightful and philosophical points.
In reality he is just stringing words together without any real purpose or meaning, apart from the need to satisfy his many delusional psychiatric disorders.
He uses these “fancy words” in statements that are completely devoid of content, meaning and context, but which “sound good” to his disturbed mind.
He is a sad example of an individual with many untreated psychiatric disorders, much like Donald Trump, the leader of his cult.
Right out of the nuthouse we see one of their residents demonstrating his cognitive dissonance..
Here we note a typical response from the mentally impaired Meyer.
A short meaningless insult. No meaningful content or substance. No attempt to address the criticism.
Individuals with narcissistic personality disorder often resort to such petty and childish insults as a defense mechanism to denigrate others and thus reinforce their delusions of superiority and grandiosity. In making these insults they believe that they can assert their dominance over those they believe to be inferior, which, in their view, is everyone else.
We also note the repetitive nature of the insult. He uses the term “nuthouse” and “nutcase” here and in multiple other comments here today that are directed at us.
This perseveration with the same insult is strong evidence for obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Very sad case of severe mental impairment.
Nutcase.
Will there ever come a time in America when the largest consensus of black leaders will emerge to replace the antiquated leadership that continues to endure for over eight generations reminding their followers that they have not really been freed and are in effect still enslaved? When will the new leaders rise to galvanize the masses into believing that being led to always think and act as a mournful group has become wholly ineffective and far more impotent than to think and act as enterprising individuals engaging in free market economics? Just as capitalism brought generations of whites out of their abject and pervasive poverty that had long preexisted, so too can it be offered to promote the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness yearnings equally cherished by blacks. The realities of socialism will never leave the woeful less oppressed. They will forever be enslaved to the forces that constantly remind them of their plaintiveness enough to keep them always mournful. It is a shackle that only a new and enlightened leadership can remove.
SCOTUS To Decide Whether States Can Accept Mail Ballots Received After Election Day
Before Covid, most states held voting on Election Day, and the results were tallied after the polls closed.
By: Beth Brelje ~ November 11, 2025
https://thefederalist.com/2025/11/11/scotus-to-decide-whether-states-can-accept-mail-ballots-received-after-election-day/
Evidence Contradicts Comey’s Claim That His Indictment Is Purely Political
U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan backed up the James Comey charges with evidence far surpassing what is necessary to survive a motion to dismiss.
By: Mike Davis ~ November 11, 2025
https://thefederalist.com/2025/11/11/evidence-contradicts-comeys-claim-that-his-indictment-is-purely-political/
Heck in WA state they take up to a week or more…
OT
I can imagine no greater insolence, indignity, or contempt for those laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery than for the commands to the soldiers at the National Veterans Day Ceremony to be muttered in a weak or faltering voice by a woman on an affirmative action assignment.
It’s the thought that counts.
Imagine subjecting students to ideas! They must be told WHAT to think, not HOW.
*. It’s a race to the bottom.
Let’s change our children’s stories. The tortoise and the hare is changed into a centric of the tortoise breaking the rabbit’s legs before the race begins. Now you’re as slow as I am. It’s neck and neck and the tortoise says I’d better break his shoulders, too.
Cinderella changes into Pretty Woman with Gere and Roberts. Cinderella is now the ho Ala Sydney who gets the Lotus.
Values are important. The talk of freedom when the only value is money. Why immigration? I want to make money.
Today is Veterans Day. Remembering our families today and battles fought and won and those lost is the order.
😂 awww^^^^the censor didn’t like my stories. Awww…centric? Scenario…ya, I’m hip not hep.
Obama made a beeline straight for the drugs and legalizing. Right… cry me a river.
WOW
(DCNF)—GOP lawmakers secured a provision in the shutdown deal taking aim at the Biden FBI’s “Arctic Frost” surveillance campaign into a vast swath of Republicans and conservative entities.
The measure, tucked inside a Senate legislative branch appropriation bill that passed Monday night, allows senators whose phone records were seized without their knowledge during former special counsel Jack Smith‘s probe to sue the government — and be awarded at least $500,000 for every violation.
Good Post Dustoff 👍
FYI -Re:(Citation)
Shutdown Deal Will Allow Senators To Sue Over ‘Arctic Frost’ Probe
By: Adam Pack ~ November 11, 2025
https://dailycaller.com/2025/11/11/shutdown-deal-senators-sue-arctic-frost/
This is going to get nasty.
Dustoff-Just a caution because taxpayers will shoulder the cost if the government loses. Maybe there there should be some personal liability also.
GEB.
I so agree.
Great, do the taxpayers pay for that too!
They’ll collect whatever the perp owns.
Just like everything else. But you knew that, before you posted this.
We quibble with one another over the misuse or mislabeling of transgenders, -yet we mostly acquiesce when the more ubiquitous Angela Davises of the world unabatedly and rampantly misuse or mislabel others as “Racist!” or “Fascist!” or “Dictator!” or “far-right,” or “Capitalist!” or Nazi!” etc. A new meaning for a Monty Python-esque “Everybody, Let’s get Stoned!”
Forget the medieval Inquisition or Salem Witch hunts or Joe McCarthy! Today, this is Label without Inquiry and with Immunity!
Oh the Power we have yielded to dissidents with their trawling dragnets, as they impose their buzz words or trigger words on the rest of us, to fire up the rage and force acceptance of their world, their way.
(oops grammar correction, should read “unabatedly and rampantly misusing or mislabeling others”
(nope, I was correct the first time, sorry)
This comment presents a false equivalence between mislabeling one’s identity vs mislabeling one’s political views.
It is way worse to attack someone for who they are rather than for what they believe.
I regret that the point went over your head. The point is: the eager use of disparaging terms and words -without validity or consequence for mislabeling, -whether for immutability OR political origin. Go back and read what I said. thanks, and try again.
know-it-all anonymous seems to have missed Turley’s sentence, where he combines the two, “I actually think that Davis’s views on capitalism and racism would be valuable in a course on those subjects to explore different views on such subjects.”
poor reading comprehension?
PT always throws a bones to the dogs. I wouldn’t read too much into it except nit doing so inflames his sensibilities.
“PT always throws a bones to the dogs.”
Is that why you are here, every day, starting in the morning?
I don’t throw bones.
This is how I take breaks. Someone shed some light on Ms Davis ‘ idea about race and capitalism? Michael Jordan is quite the capitalist utilizing that cheap Chinese labor?
I’m not looking up what she means. Anyone know? Enlighten us.
Racism is as real as the nose on your faces. It’s biological and laws are enacted to prevent it. Preventing it is a personal duty. That’s not my opinion. I have observed all Chinese people once lived in China. All Africans once lived in Africa. Show me the indigenous white tribe in Africa.
Some things are self evident…
* throws a bone…
Not
Score: Lin 3 Anonymous 12:37 0
I believe subsequent evidence showed that Joe McCarthy was mostly correct.
Hello, I am certain that I read someplace that just a handful of McCarthy’s accused turned out to be communists or communism-aligned. Since it wasn’t important to me at the time, I didn’t save or index the reference. However, it is unequivocally accurate and widespread held to say that more harm of innocents was caused than good results, as a result of his trawling.
And wasn’t he censured for same? Wasn’t his proclivity for throwing out accusations without evidence, and failing to follow up with evidence, the very reason for the word “McCarthyism?”
thanks
(p.s the only place I could now find reference to “less than 10%” was by AI Search Assist. Don’t have time to read thru the sources:
“Less than 10% of the individuals accused by Joe McCarthy were actually found to be communists or had any ties to communist organizations. Most of his accusations were based on unfounded claims, leading to widespread fear and damage to many innocent people’s lives and careers. Sky HISTORY TV Channel Wikipedia”
“ “Less than 10% of the individuals accused by Joe McCarthy were actually found to be communists or had any ties to communist organizations.”
Isn’t that like saying there were only a few turds in the punchbowl?
yes, but that also makes true that 90%+ of the punch had to be destroyed and thrown out for nothing.
(well, at least more partygoers went home without being drunk, ha ha.)
( Listen, this thread has strayed so far. All I originally said was that there appears a tendency to fling out “buzzword” labels-not specifically to accuse, but rather to create perceptions that could be used politically, -and they seem to be done with impunity. McCarthy’s career tanked because of it, although he made a few good hits.
No, it’s like saying that in a bowl full of mysterious brown substances, only 10% was positively identified as turds, while the other 90% was not tested and some of it may have been something else.
No, it isn’t true at all. Not a single person he accused has EVER been shown to have been innocent.
The quote your AI found for you is typical: ““Less than 10% of the individuals accused by Joe McCarthy were actually found to be communists or had any ties to communist organizations.” That doesn’t mean the other 90% weren’t communists, just that a deeply compromised establishment, that did all it could to cover up for communists, didn’t find them guilty. Then came Venona and suddenly we found that all those people they’d trumpeted as innocent were guilty as sin.
Yes, McCarthy was censured. He shouldn’t have been. The censure was wrong, and was pushed by the anti-anti-communists in the Democrat Party, i.e. Communist collaborators. People who, while not themselves communist didn’t really believe there was anything wrong with communists. They would never take the same attitude to nazis, and yet there is literally no moral difference whatsoever between a communist and a nazi.
Innocence is presumed until proved guilty. McCarthy failed to do that. Mainly, he failed to prove that any harm to the United States was done by those he accused.
“Controversy arose in 2009 over the Texas State Board of Education’s revision of their high school history class curricula to suggest Venona shows Senator Joseph McCarthy to have been justified in his zeal in exposing those whom he believed to be Soviet spies or communist sympathizers.
Critics such as Emory University history professor Harvey Klehr assert most people and organizations identified by McCarthy, such as those brought forward in the Army-McCarthy hearings or rival politicians in the Democratic Party, were not mentioned in the Venona content and that his accusations remain largely unsupported by evidence.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venona_project#Texas_textbook_controversy
“Innocence is presumed until proved guilty. McCarthy failed to do that.”
Who did McCarthy say publicly was guilty? I know of only one name that he mentioned. Further, he didn’t say any were guilty. He wanted “the names” kept away from sensitive material until they were investigated. I am not judging the man one way or the other, but it is time for people to actually look at the data.
“Twenty-first-century fans of McCarthy have cited VENONA, which was declassified in the 1990s, as evidence that McCarthy was right. Klehr, one of the first to see the declassified VENONA cables, said that of the roughly 200 people accused by McCarthy, perhaps 10 had a connection to Soviet intelligence, and a few of them had been named as alleged spies before McCarthy came along.
“’Overall, he didn’t have a great track record,’ Klehr said.
“https://www.annistonstar.com/news/fact-check-was-sen-joseph-mccarthy-right-truth-rating-1-out-of-5/article_0d6b19e3-d778-5036-b4e3-2e2709746881.html
“Were there in fact communists in America?
The answer is undoubtedly yes. But many of the accused had attended party rallies 15 or more years before the hearings — it had been fashionable to do so in the 1930s.
“Although the Soviet spy ring did penetrate the highest levels of the American government, the vast majority of the accused were innocent victims. All across America, state legislatures and school boards mimicked McCarthy and HUAC. Thousands of people lost their jobs and had their reputations tarnished.
a.asp?source=post_page—————————#google_vignette
Ongoing Judicial Coup Proves Alito, Thomas Were Right About Weak SCOTUS Injunction Ruling
Alito predicted that the court’s decision would ‘have very little value if district courts award relief to broadly defined classes without following “Rule 23’s procedural protections” for class certification.’
By: Shawn Fleetwood ~ November 11, 2025
https://thefederalist.com/2025/11/11/ongoing-judicial-coup-proves-alito-thomas-were-right-about-weak-scotus-injunction-ruling/
Judicial Oversight of District Courts After CASA [2025 NLC]
In recent years, leaders of both parties have invoked emergency powers to address issues from the COVID-19 pandemic, immigration and drug trafficking, trade deficits, and more. President Trump has faced legal challenges to his executive orders and emergency powers in the form of universal injunctions and temporary restraining orders. In Trump v. CASA, the Supreme Court held under the Judiciary Act of 1789, it is beyond the scope of the judicial power for federal courts to issue “universal” injunctions. The Court made this holding in the context of lower courts granting universal injunctions against President Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment, and the Court’s decision only returns cases to the district courts.
Some argue that courts should defer to executive assertions of emergency powers. Others contend courts should engage in strong judicial review to forestall threats to civil liberties and the separation of powers. This panel will discuss the scope of judicial power, conflict between the executive and judicial branches, and CASA’s broader impact on federalism and individual rights.
Featuring:
Mr. Ted Frank, Director of Litigation and Senior Attorney, Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute
Prof. Merritt E. McAlister, Interim Dean and Levin, Mabie, & Levin Professor, University of Florida Levin College of Law
Mr. Chad R. Mizelle, Former Chief of Staff and Acting Associate Attorney General, United States Department of Justice
Mr. Stephen Spaulding, Managing Director, Kohlberg Center, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law
Prof. E. Garrett West, Associate Professor of Law, Yale Law School
Moderator: Hon. William H. Pryor, Jr., United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit
The Federalist Society ~ November 6th 2025
Dear Mr. Turley, It seems as though folks have forgotten just how scary Angela Davis was (and still is) back in those days when she was active. She helped to kill someone and had a terrible influence on thousands. We should not be giving her the time of day. If the States are that bad, then leave and head to Cuba, North Korea or China. See how far you get criticizing
those governments.
I’m not surprised by the professed allegiance to Angela Davis. These clowns need to come up with some new lines, this sounds nearly identical to the BS propaganda that was used by the Symbionese Liberation Army to successfully brainwash Patty Hurst in the 1970s. Unfortunately, our morally and intellectually bankrupt public education system produces more and more children all the time who are susceptible to that same brainwashing.
Cui bono? It’s almost as if the damned CCP is writing this curricular garbage and running our colleges and universities. When do we take up our pitchforks and light our torches?
First, we have to focus on who the true enemy is.
Here we have yet anther example of Meyer’s many psychiatric disorders
The symptom of alogia is associated with many disorders, most commonly bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
Alogia is a pattern of paucity of speech where the statements are short and terse, and devoid of content or meaning that is obvious to the sane observer.
Apparently, Meyer believes that his statement “First, we have to focus on who the true enemy is.” has some deep philosophical and intellectual meaning, when in fact it is completely meaningless.
Who is the true enemy???
What exactly are they the enemy of ???
This statement is completely without meaning, content or context, but Meyer apparently believes it is a very profound and insightful comment.
you left out logorrhea, the opposite of alogia, and which you seem to suffer from, Sigmund Fraud.
The nutcase again rises from the nuthouse.
Meyer continues to perseverate with the “nutcase” and “nuthouse” insults.
This is clearly projection resulting from the fact that he is involuntarily confined somewhere in an institution for his own protection.
And what is the DSM diagnosis that defines a person who hides behind a moniker of “Sigmund Fraud,” who strangely and obsessively focuses on one other person (Meyer) for no particular reason, barreling down with fifth-grade level insults, and uses a third-party forum for expressing same? Get thee to a real medical professional, Sigmund, and stop plugging up this blog with silliness. (I’m expecting that you will start ‘anonymously’ attacking my comments in retribution. Hit me with your best shot, because I am for real.) Thank you in advance.
Thank you, Lin. I need not say more, for you said it all.
Here we note another display of Meyer’s dependent personality disorder.
Those with dependent personality disorder tend to rely heavily on others for support and actively seek reassurance that they are normal. They tend to be excessively sensitive to criticism and make frequent, overt appeals to others for approval and social acceptance. When someone reassures them of their normalcy they usually become overly patronizing and thankful to that person. This clinging behavior to those who “take care of them” is one of the most common findings in dependent personality disorder
Here we see Meyer responding to support from lin in a manner typical of dependent personality disorder.
He obsequiously and excessively lavishes praise on lin in a particularly servile display of attention seeking to satisfy his need for social reassurance and acceptance. His feelings of inferiority are assuaged by the reassurance he receives from lin, and in return he indulges in a remarkable, ingratiating display of excessive gratitude.
Textbook example of dependent personality disorder !!!!
Nutcase.
The true enemy? Twin Towers, as the story goes towers. Any towers will do. It is clever because every language was spoken within those towers. 🤔 world trade center?
Who did that and why? Who took out the world trade center?
All together now, “I’m a man, but I can change, if I have to, I guess”.
The academic Bolshevists have the formula down, pat. Slap the logotypes, “justice” and “equity,” on any topic and they get not only departmental courses and campus wide acceptance, they then qualify for funds and support, colloquiums and conferences. This inbuilt system is quite devious and incestuous
The college system needs to be scrapped and rebuilt.
“The college system needs to be scrapped and rebuilt.”
K – 12 needs to come first. Otherwise the action you recommend would be a complete squandering of time, effort, and money.
AGREED! The purple-haired teachers of the most vulnerable of students is absolutely the place to begin scrapping of the liberal-indoctrination camps we call K-12….Unfortunately, a new generation of parents’ represent 2-parents-working and relying upon these camps to babysit and train their children. Serious, systemic, problems afoot.
Correction: “Emily Mullin, executive director of major g[r]ifts”
These progressives are like termites or cockroaches. They live within the “walls” of this nation and you can play a sort of “whack-a-mole” with them but you are only putting a bandaid on one spot while they scurry inside the systems and reappear somewhere else with their destruction.
Ask your Orkin man how you get rid of those types of infestations?
“Ask your Orkin man how you get rid of those types of infestations?”
Too bad the predilection to collectivism cannot be postiviely linked to some specific DNA signature…
Colleges and universities are getting wackier and wackier everyday. They need to start actually teaching useful things again instead of all this crap.
jeanne,
The good news is, a lot of Gen Z no longer see the value vs cost of a degree. They are turning to trade skills. Who could blame them? Go into debt for what could be the rest of your life, to be lectured to by a bunch of woke leftists.
I have said that for years. I would much rather send a kid to trade school than to college. 🙂
20+ years ago, yes, it would be worth the up front costs of a college degree vs the income a degree commanded in annual salary over ones lifespan.
Not any more. Not when you are well into your 50 or even 60s and still paying on college debt.
And with the possibility of AI taking a lot of white collar jobs, the risk is becoming even greater.
AI cannot fix a leaky faucet. AI cannot wire a electrical outlet. AI cannot put a new roof on a house.
Exactly!
Why do you think we’re really deporting 40M illegal interlopers?
They have to go. No other country in the world can support illegal aliens. We don’t have enough jobs and resources to support our own citizens, let alone the rest of the world.
The economy? There wasn’t a system used. Jobs aren’t available unless planned. There’s not one reason but many reasons including criminal records. Why?
“20+ years ago, yes, it would be worth the up front costs of a college degree vs the income a degree commanded in annual salary over ones lifespan.”
Even that is not universally true. My parents had saved a college fund for me, and when I graduated HS at 17, I was told that I was going, no debate allowed. I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life, but they only cared about using that money for the purpose it had been saved. I had very good Scholastic Aptitude Test scores my senior year even though my grades had fallen precipitously. I was accepted at 7 colleges on the strength of those scores, and selected the one that was the furthest from my parents residence, for that exact reason. I proceeded to work very hard: at spending all of the money in that fund as quickly as possible so that I could find something that I wanted to do, and get on with that. I ended up with a <2.0 GPA my freshman year, and was cordially informed by the college that they trusted that I wasn't planning on continuing my education there 🙂 I has also spent about 85% of my fund in that year (ignoring cafeteria and eating every meal out, along with sponsoring undergrad drinking parties helped immensely). So the following year I attended an area non-resident college, and boasted a sub 1.0 GPA. That finally quashed the college mandate from my parents. I moved between generally satisfying, but not terribly lucrative, jobs for the next 9 years. I then found myself in an evening Fortran class at a local vo-tech. I had been reading Byte magazine, and was somewhat interested in the burgeoning role of computers. I had simultaneously taken a technical vocational course in a different line that I thought might actually lead to a career, and the Fortran class was taken as an evening time killer every other night, one that I thought might bore me to tears. Turns out that Fortran coding (and computer programming in general) fascinated me, and I had little interest in the other subject. Near the end of the term, I found a job doing data entry for a payroll and cost accountant. I also ran the batch jobs and read the log as they ran, which (I confess to having a slightly strange mind) I also found captivating. So I started taking 500 page log printouts home with me from work, and reading them until I understood that the computer was being asked to do. I then became a computer operator for a local heating contractor, and continued to read everything about that system that I could get my hands on. The provider of the application software for that contractor was expanding; he hired me away and had me do tech support for his customers across the US while I learned to do programming and systems design. I was at that job for 5 years and became so proficient in one aspect of the target systems that IBM (the manufacturer) acknowledged that I knew more about that aspect than anyone in their employ. IBM offered me a job, but I didn't like the idea of dealing with such an immense bureaucracy, so I pursued a series of other jobs of ever increasing responsibility using their equipment. I ended up working for a multi-national company based in New England with an Information Security and Corporate Technical Advisor position that reported directly to the C-suite, with appropriate compensation. I retired when that company was bought out by a competitor that would likely be able to afford me that responsibility. I got started making a good salary about 5 years after I would have done so as a college graduate, but I had no lingering expense from such an education, either. I made the correct choice of career a very few years after snubbing college education in the late 1960's, and that choice turned out to be very beneficial financially. Sorry this ran long, but I felt it necessary to thoroughly corroborate my statement.
“had spent”
*. Enjoyable telling of your life story and you hit the high points. It’s possible to plot your story year by year.
What are the low points in your life’s history? Do you think the money put away for you could have been spent better?
If you knew some person would inherit your life story, not you but some other person, how would you change it for the better?
It’s a form of morality. Giving more than you received in your lifetime to an inheritor unknown to you.
Thanks for your story, anon.
” Do you think the money put away for you could have been spent better? ”
Absolutely. But I wasn’t given the option. Nor was I given the latitude to find out for myself by experiment what I could do for a living that was both enjoyable and lucrative. I would have much rather the money not be wasted, and I didn’t intend my account of that as bragging. To me, the choice was to waste the money, or allow myself to become trapped in some career that I had no ambition to pursue, and that I might well hate. Sometimes every option available to us is sub-optimal, and we are stuck choosing the one that is least bad. That is what I did. I got carried away with personal details, and that may have detracted from the main point I wanted to make, which was that even ~60 years ago the idea that merely obtaining a college degree was automatically both cost-justified, and a viable path to the good life for everyone, was at least somewhat of a delusion.
Thank you, anon. So someone would be getting a good life.
This column about the MSU Dept of Education reminds me of Spaceship B from Douglas Adams’ “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”
It seems that three enormous ship set out from a dying planet to colonize new planets. Spaceship A consisted of people whose minds were essential to the progress of society. Spaceship C consisted of the people who did the work of keeping society going. But Spaceship B consisted of everyone in the middle, who could be easily missed. Hairdressers and insurance salesmen were prime examples. Arthur Dent and his guide drop into Spaceship B by accident. They find that only the captain is unfrozen.
As Adams wrote:
“You mean you’ve got a hold full of frozen hairdressers?” he said.
“Oh yes,” said the Captain, “Millions of them. Hairdressers, tired TV producers, insurance salesmen, personnel officers, security guards, public relations executives, management consultants, you name them. We’re going to colonize another planet.”
. . . .
“Yes, so anyway,” he resumed, “the idea was that into the first ship, the ‘A’ ship, would go all the brilliant leaders, the scientists, the great artists, you know, all the achievers; and into the third, or ‘C’ ship, would go all the people who did the actual work, who made things and did things, and then into the `B’ ship — that’s us — would go everyone else, the middlemen you see.”
Quoted from https://rockysmith.net/2009/12/11/the-b-ark/
Unfortunately, Arc B colonized the earth.
It goes without saying that everyone associated with a useless organization like the “Dept of Education” would find themselves thrown in with the frozen hairdressers.
Best comment, Edward.
That would place Ms. “X” squarely in Arc B.
We’d have good hair. ☺