Comments by "Harry Mills" (@harrymills2770) on "Astonishing Identity Politics at a School of Engineering (THE SAAD TRUTH_750)" video.

  1. They're trying to attract females to STEM. That means more collaborative work, more "portfolios" and other busy work, and more emphasis on "working well with others." It's all the rage, and has infiltrated the Education Cartel's "research-based best practices." In mathematics, the education research has consisted of running an experiment on an honors class cohort, who will excel no matter what you put them through. The experiment is an unqualified success. Then that experiment becomes "best practices" and the Establishment passes down recommendations that they really WANT to make MANDATORY, but that don't work with the average class, unless you eliminate "high-stakes testing," which is ALSO a no-no, nowadays. See how it works? So what you turn out are engineers who work very well, together, but no single one of them is as competent as their predecessors from 20 years ago. You can wall-paper it over in group work assignments, as long as there's at least one student/engineer carrying everybody else's water. Meanwhile, the nerdy types who used to go into engineering, because they could lose themselves in the subject matter and "geek out" are being turned off, because they are obliged to learn collaboratively. If I'm looking for an engineer, I don't much care about their personality, if they are COMPETENT. Our best and brightest geeks are getting turned off. But at least everybody feels "included," nowadays, except the semi anti-social genius types who might come up with a new idea or raise a red flag when "the group" doesn't know what it's doing.
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  2. That's very difficult for many of us to pull off. If you can't be true to yourself, it's very difficult to excel in your studies. All motivation tends to be lost.
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  3. They're only protecting themselves from company-destroying lawsuits from lunatics. And it sucks.
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  4. Yup.
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  5. Don't get me wrong. There are still some fine engineering programs run by crusty old bastards who will not accept or excuse failure, and DGAF what color your skin is or what's between your legs. But in mathematics, the people who go to all the conferences and make waves in Education Circles tend not to want to do actual applications in math. No time for that. Too busy making a portfolio they can use during the tests and writing papers. The HOMEWORK is the writing, dufus! Teach them to write the kinds of short reports they will be expected to write in the workplace. Give them tough application problems and demand they write up the problem like a report (like all homework). Then they'll be able to pull their own weight, rather than asking somebody for help, or search in vain for the geek who carried them in their group-work projects in school.
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  6. As long as the U.S. Constitution remains in force, it will crumble under the weight of its own ineptitude and shaky foundations. These are the policies of incompetents, and Darwin always has an answer for that. We're getting to the point where the majority are realizing that the 5-10% of the most rabid have had FAR more influence than their actual numbers and actual efficacy would indicate. We're a nation that does its best to give the benefit of the doubt, but when you finally wear out the suspension of disbelief, people will give these clowns short shrift. They're marginal people who have no understanding of the FACT that if the average person can't benefit from the sweat of their brow, but have all their fruits taken from them by force, then NONE of us will be prosperous.
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