It’s been about 37 years since I started my college education but there are still some great memories burned into my brain. Stockton, CA was home of the University of the Pacific. Not a very exciting city, but I can tell you that the college life was great.
Looking back as an adult in the workforce for about 30 years I can tell you one of the things I learned about college is that all the adults who told me to enjoy college as they would be the best years of my life were absolutely RIGHT. Think about it, the only responsibility I had was to get good grades…are you kidding me. So to all of you young’uns who are reading this.. Enjoy college..it is the bomb (Josh and Joey..please take note).
I got a degree in chemistry, but sometimes I feel like if I went through it one more time I would actually own the knowledge instead of having borrowed it to get good grades. That is the one beef I have with our college educational system, the emphasis is on getting grades, not actual retention of knowledge. Students need good grades to get to the next level so students have learned how to cram and get grades. Nothing about learning here.
Lucky for me I took a few courses outside of my major for my requirements and was lucky enough to take Sociology. I think I can sum up the entire class with ‘you are a product of your environment’. Of course, as with any statement or rule there are always exceptions, but in general I think this is a fair synopsis of the class.
The most important thing I learned in college, academically speaking, came from my statistics class. The very first thing the professor said and I quote “statistics don’t lie, statisticians do”.
We have seen this numerous times in research where the hypotheses was changed because the data supported a different statement.
I have tried to stay away from politics in my blog and social media(facebook etc) because it is a very hot subject for some people. I have yet to find a reliable source of data that is not somewhat distorted by which ever side is presenting the data. Makes it kinda hard to make an educated decision on your own. If you got a source for me let me know, I hate being lied to by statisticians.
By the way there is something I remember from Chemistry. The second law of thermodynamics states that left to its own everything moves away from order to disorder. I think that Washington DC is a perfect example of this second law of thermodynamics.
Political statement over.