A Few Worthless College Classes

Dear Readers,

I’m starting to question the value of a college education. Especially when I see all these worthless classes that Northern Arizona University is offering in the course catalog:

SOC 319 POPULATION AND ENVIRONMENT (3)
Studies population growth as it relates to the social and natural environment. History of the emergence, growth, and organization of human populations. Examines contemporary population growth and distribution patterns in relation to natural resources and environmental stress.

Let me save you from a lifetime of guilt (and about $1,000) by summarizing the course for you: Students who complete this class successfully will undergo sterilization, inefficiently gather wild berries, abandon the Industrial Revolution, and sacrifice their quaint relics of Christianity to Mother Earth.

SOC 415 SOCIOLOGY OF GLOBALIZATION (3)
Processes of globalization and its impact on personal biographies, social institutions, and social structure. Theories of globalization, stratification, local-global linkages, transnational movements, and migration, labor, gender, race and ethnicity.

You’ll learn from this class that McDonald’s and Wal-Mart are evil and hippie communes are cool. You’ll learn that the British Empire was very very bad and that America is very very bad and that indigenous people are victims of the imperial Western Civilization. You'll learn that “Stratification,” is just a fancy way of saying, “Everybody’s not equal and that’s not fair. Things are unequal because mean people take it away from others.”

SUS 601 VISIONS OF GOOD AND SUSTAINABLE SOCIETIES: SELF, OTHER AND COMMUNITY (3)
Explores how we develop conceptions of ourselves, how such conceptions are related to those named as "other," and the ways in which we interact.

I think "SUS" stands for "sustainability studies." I’ve got a hunch that this class is worthless. What will students be able to do once they finish this class? How does it prepare them in any way to be productive citizens?

Remember when college students used to study law, religion, medicine, physical sciences, math, history, and business? Well, college students still study those things, but these days you can major in newfangled fields such as sociology, psychology, environmental studies, indigenous studies, ethnic studies, peace and conflict studies, queer studies, colonial studies, and gender studies.

I think women and liberals and communists are taking over college campuses and leading them in directions where they ought not to go. Liberal arts have gotten even more liberal and useless. There’s a whole graduate program at NAU about establishing sustainable communities. You know what my opinion is? Sustainable communities create themselves. Commonsense, Christianity, and capitalism organically create good communities. We don’t need a bunch of community organizers on government payrolls or bureaucrats from the Environmental Protection Agency making our communities “sustainable.” Lovers of big government are the type of idealists who think up the yellow bike program and make everyone pay for it.

Oh, I’m so glad that I’m out of college. I think I’m glad I went, though. I don’t know. I'm not using my college education now, in a direct way. Maybe I write better and think better thanks to my college experiences, but I don't use an ounce of my schooling at the movie-screen factory where I work. I almost feel bad that my parents and my fellow taxpayers subsidized my college education.

I feel sorry for all the college students who are enrolled in “Visions of Good and Sustainable Societies” and similar classes. I feel even sorrier for the students who are really enjoying those classes and who are dreaming of working for the government or working for a non-profit organization.

Did I ever tell you why I dropped out of the Master’s English program at Northern Arizona University? There were a lot of reasons, but it was partly because my last semester there was nothing but liberal indoctrination. I wanted to read great literature and learn to write like the masters. But the way my schedule worked out, during my final semester I was enrolled in a post-colonial literature class, a feminist literature class, and a communist literature class. No joke. I read liberal book after liberal book, and I listened to liberal lecture after liberal lecture, and it all go so overwhelming that I just needed to get out. I don’t regret leaving, and I don’t think I’ll ever go back. I see no point.

I just hope more people can escape the cave of college liberalism and see the light of real-world conservatism.

One last thought. You know how liberals insist that there should be a wall between church and state? Well, maybe conservatives should start insisting that there should be a wall between school and state.

Sincerely,
Telemoonfa