[General Battuta]

Let's not descend into humanities bashing when the fundamental problem here is that people can't write. That skill happens to fall into the humanities right now.

[IronBeer]

Man, studying engineering is so much harder, because instead of these 'term papers' I have to learn **** and do exams.

I feel your pain, brother.

[Mongoose]

As do I.  If you don't want to write papers, go into a major like physics.

...wait, no.  Don't go into physics.  Ever.

[Klaustrophobia]

Let's not descend into humanities bashing when the fundamental problem here is that people can't write. That skill happens to fall into the humanities right now.

that's one of the humanities i can respect.  i hate doing it, but i've made myself good at it because it's important.  i'd put my senior design final report up against the best papers of an english major.  i've read lab reports from otherwise brilliant students that make me cringe. 

now why the hell spending one's life arguing over what shakespeare actually wrote or not is important to the advancement of humanity is beyond me.  why my university feels the need to force such study on engineers is further still beyond my comprehension.  or "communications" classes that are nothing but slapping official terms to common sense ideas.  but hey, i'll take the easy A.

anyyyyywho.... cheating.  yeah.  it's bad.  even in the humanities. 

[Pred the Penguin]

now why the hell spending one's life arguing over what shakespeare actually wrote or not is important to the advancement of humanity is beyond me.  why my university feels the need to force such study on engineers is further still beyond my comprehension.  or "communications" classes that are nothing but slapping official terms to common sense ideas.  but hey, i'll take the easy A.

That sounds suspiciously like what happens in the country I'm in now.
If that's actually from a country I'll be going to soon, I think I'm going to puke.

Please do elaborate...

[Kolgena]

Regardless of discipline, it's useful to know how to at least write a term paper. Not being able to do so, but thinking it's okay, is like forgetting long division, and thinking that's okay. Sure, there are pocket calculators, but you should still have the basic skills for these things.

[newman]

We're talking about high levels of education here, they're not studying to bag groceries. Nobody's saying they need to become first class writers, but if someone who wants a PhD can't put together a coherent paper on a subject matter that he/she spent years studying, then something is clearly wrong and that person shouldn't get said qualification. Challenges they'll face in the real world will be far worse than putting together a paper. If this is somehow a huge problem how the hell will they get on with their career? The society will just get more underachievers that leech resources, fly under the radar and just get their regular paychecks for being incompetent. Or worse, politicians

[MP-Ryan]

Granted, writing has always come easy to me, but cheating in academia absolutely disgusts me.  Some people care nothing for achievement and only for perception.  I'm sure I took classes with more than a few halfwit customers of this fellow.

On the off-topic:  while scoring a high grade in some humanities courses may be easier for hard science students (because logical arguments come naturally), the subject material is not inherently easier.  I say this as someone with a B.Sc Specialization in Molecular Genetics and a B.A. with Distinction in Sociology and Psychology.  Trust me - if you're bashing the humanities for being easy, you either missed the point or didn't take the right courses.

[Grizzly]

They go into politics.

And then cut education budgets.

[Thaeris]

"One hour later, I received another message:

"did u get the sorce I send

please where you are now?

Desprit to pass spring projict"

---

Not only was this student going to be a constant thorn in my side
But she also communicated in haiku
Oh lord

Fixed for the great justice.

[Solatar]

On the off-topic:  while scoring a high grade in some humanities courses may be easier for hard science students

Keep in mind the level of the class you're taking in the humanities.  I can easily make the inverse claim that scoring a high grade in some science courses may be easier for humanities students (because logical arguments come naturally).

History majors don't take higher level math, and math/science students don't take upper level courses in history.  You also have to evaluate your biases: if you're a math/science major, your school probably does that stuff better and the students that come THERE for the humanities may not be the cream of the crop - they went to more humanities specialized schools.

Many, MANY people I know fall into the trap of "I took American History and it was easy, therefore History is an easy subject/major".  I took Calculus and it was easy, therefore I could easily be a math major if I wanted to.

Basically my point is: most science/math students don't know anything more about REAL humanities than humanities students know about REAL science.  Academic elitism, pure and simple.

. . .and cheating isn't cool.

[Galemp]

Are they hiring? I wanna be a well-paid freelance researcher and writer.

Also I first read the thread title as being about ICANN upgrading its standards to reflect contemporary Internet usage.

[MR_T3D]

"One hour later, I received another message:

"did u get the sorce I send

please where you are now?

Desprit to pass spring projict"

---

Not only was this student going to be a constant thorn in my side
But she also communicated in haiku
Oh lord

Fixed for the great justice.

I see what you did there
AND I LOVE IT!

[redsniper]

Alright seriously guys, we should try to be Renaissance men. None of this "bawww I dun wanna study Shakespeare, this will never be useful ever! I only want to learn things that will directly lead to making me money!" It's good to learn stuff, ANY stuff and be well-rounded. That said, I did find it amusing in the first post that there weren't any technical fields mentioned...

This kind of **** really pisses me off though, since it devalues a college education. All these middle class suburban children go off to college and feel they're entitled to a degree and when they can't hack it, they just buy their way through rather than drop out.... I guess it would be such a waste to fail though, so I can see why they do it.

[Kosh]

Humanities majors in America have it so easy. Where else can you bull**** the homework assignments and wing the final but still come out with a B+ because the class average was 50%?

[Klaustrophobia]

we'll i've come out with a b+ when the class average was a 50% (if that), but it was in NO way, shape, or form due to BSing or lazyness on the part of any of the students.  doing a complete thermal hydraulic analysis of a nuclear plant in 4 hours without a calculator is just plain hard. 

redsniper, i'm not at all against learing ANYTHING out of interest.  but the thing is, i'm NOT interested in it, and it WON'T be useful ever.  and i'm not talking about money or my career, i'm talking about worth to society in general outside of personal interest.  what i'm against is such studies being put on a pedestal of grand enlightenment and being touted as critical and necessary to general education.  and i realize that most people don't in fact take it that far, but the problem is the ones who teach the class and set the curriculum ARE that type.  if only you could sit in on just one of this self-righeous wanker's lectures.   

[Kosh]

we'll i've come out with a b+ when the class average was a 50% (if that), but it was in NO way, shape, or form due to BSing or lazyness on the part of any of the students.  doing a complete thermal hydraulic analysis of a nuclear plant in 4 hours without a calculator is just plain hard. 

You're not a humanities major, it's ok. Btw, what was your major?

[karajorma]

Are they hiring? I wanna be a well-paid freelance researcher and writer.

After writing that number of term papers you would be able get pretty much any degree you wanted and you'd have been paid to do it.

[General Battuta]

redsniper, i'm not at all against learing ANYTHING out of interest.  but the thing is, i'm NOT interested in it, and it WON'T be useful ever.  and i'm not talking about money or my career, i'm talking about worth to society in general outside of personal interest.  what i'm against is such studies being put on a pedestal of grand enlightenment and being touted as critical and necessary to general education.  and i realize that most people don't in fact take it that far, but the problem is the ones who teach the class and set the curriculum ARE that type.  if only you could sit in on just one of this self-righeous wanker's lectures.   

You don't think knowing Shakespeare is of any worth to society? Jeez.

[Kosh]

Most people go into humanities because they consider it to be easy, not because of its percieved usefullness.