College Porn and Other Wastes of Time and Money

Some colleges are now offering courses on pornography. They are ostensibly studying the effect of porn on modern society, but in reality seem to be little more than porno promo classes. Mandatory reading includes such jerk-off magazines a “Hustler”, none of which demonstrate any redeeming value (I know because I have seen such magazines as a teenager). I can see it now, a student’s review of the class: “We read titty mags and watched porno flicks every class, then those of us who didn’t leave to go beat off discussed the philosophical points of what we had just seen.” Oh yeah, real higher learning.

This is just the most recent in a series of colossal wastes of time and money being perpetrated in the name of “diversified learning” at our universities. There are social science classes that do nothing but have the students review episodes of “The Simpsons” and write about the social relevancy of what they have seen. There are various craftwork classes where people learn such marketable skills as wickerwork. There are so many classes that barely apply to anything educational or vocational it’s a wonder college students ever get a useful degree.

This is all just part of the greater trend of the failing education system. Gone are the days when we learned social responsibility and government in high school civics class. Gone are classes about the Constitution, at least as it is written rather than simply on the ways to philosophically apply any meaning you want to the document. Gone are the days when being a high school, or even a college graduate meant you could read.

I remember my first year of college. I had to take so many classes that were just repeats of everything I had already learned in grades K-12 that I didn’t bother to apply myself out sheer boredom. Of course, while I was busy doodling in science, math, and grammar classes, other students were busy building bottle rockets . . . AS PART OF A COLLEGE CLASS! How did we get so low so as to require the recycling of grade school projects to demonstrate the exact same basic concepts in college? And this at an engineering university! (UCCS)

On the college level though, I think the real problem with waste of time courses is the combining of liberal arts and the sciences in the same colleges. The very nature of the people who go into the liberal arts is vastly different from the nature of the people who go into applied sciences, research, and vocational training. The sciences people really have no need to learn art appreciation, the need mathematics, biology, chemistry, and physics. The vocational people don’t need to learn how to review old movies. They need the courses that directly apply to their chosen field. At the same time, what is an art major going to do with algebra? Geometry maybe, but algebra? What does a sculptor need with cellular biology? And what the hell does ANYONE need with porno studies?

Our education system is seriously flawed from top to bottom. We need to push for a massive overhaul, not just of how things are taught, but what is taught and who gets to teach it. I say we start with the fruitcakes who are getting rid of the important classes and replacing them with worthless crap like “Studies in Pornography”.