entropy

Well well. I remember my grandfather telling things about the Soviet Union. I remember Suvorov writing similar things about the Soviet Army. The things were: the reward of certain institutions/people per person graduating, and the Equal Chances™. The more people a teacher allowed to pass, the better she was according to the government. And since failed students were the fault of the teacher, everyone was equal and schools had to be adapted for everyone.

I thought that Europe would be different. But no, the Leftist Church has caught me here. And this time it's personal.

My faculty of Engineering is known to have the hardest preparation years (first two) of all possible educations. It is a trip to hell. But some people, including me, choose it, because they want to improve themselves maximally and do a creative job that they always have dreamt about.
No one of us has a problem with the tough standards, and no one here would wish for lowered standards. Lower standards = less self-improvement = less problem solving qualities = less engineering skills.

But the government thinks otherwise. In the name of the Holy European Trinity: Tolerance™ , Equal Chances™ and Political Correctness™, the government decided to allow every student to become whatever he wanted.
I can hear the morons think "ooh, wouldn't it be nice if everyone could do whatever they want, if the weak could become police officers, the anumerates could become engineers and we would all dance on the rainbow with the unicorns..."
There are no unicorns, moron. Wake up. Engineers have to be top notch, as do doctors, pilots, managers, everyone in fact. Jeden das Seine.

But nevertheless, it happened. The maths-heavy program of my beloved University of Ghent has been put in stirs. The first-year students now have to visit courses with funny names like "mahematical basic tools" when they are taught high school thingies such as differentation. The level of calculus, geometry and algebra has schrunk (algebra and geometry have become one, FFS! ) .

Oh yes, and

RIP

Discrete mathematics

Philosophy of science


This means that the engineering students are being robbed of their personal development and problem solving skills to let more people in. People that shouldn't become Civil Engineers. There is an excellent, more practical orientation called Industrial Engineering. Good wages, more practical jobs, something those people could pursue. I might sound elitarian, but it is simply the truth. Many of you are soldiers, you know that only the best is good certain tasks. If I couldn't cope with the pressure, I would drop off and go Industrial or something like that. I wouldn't complain.

The way of the govah-ment to implement these abominations is by starting to pay the university per student graduated. Soviet system. The biggest suicide system. I think that even bacteria with a minimum of schooling understand that. So the universities bend and start to change their program, telling us that "You don't need the math! You need new funky courses such as making water rockets and building papier-mache models."

The worst thing is, if I fail my exams (some of them didn't went too well so I will have to remake them in the summer), I can't take the course with me to the next year. I will have to learn a new course instead!


So first Belgium killed the police by removing physical training, now they are clubbing down education, that already is kneeling.

Oh, education is dying. Wiser Heads™ have decided that many things are boring and no longer necessary in high school. Children need fun, children need to play. My girlfriend is a teacher, and hearing her talk is depressing for me.

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If memory serves...

gunnut

HA! You just decribed the essence of American public education system and why it sucks ass. Thank you.

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"Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

entropy

What to do about it?

Belgian high education was the best in Europe as long as the government paid a standard sum to every faculty. Education was almost free, universities were good, output was of high quality, and input too (the poor could still study, which is good, but the less gifted were sorted out).

But then came European tolerance. Sickening.

Expat Canuck

At least with skycrapers falling over you'll always have a job!!

Feanor

Be careful about listening to Suvorov. He's not a very reliable source, and is known for misquoting.