When I first moved to Chico, I thought maybe I could take some courses at the State University here. So I went to the admissions office and asked if I could take courses without registering for a degree. I'm 61 and retired, so I don't need a qualification. They said I could join an senior's program, but I needed to go to a different office, and was given a map to it. I'd got turned around on the way to their office, and it was a cloudy day, so I asked which way North was. The person who had handed the map didn't know, and asked the entire office. No one answered. After a long embarrassing pause, I asked if they were all new. "No, we've all been here at least two years," one answered.
So I figured out how to get to the second office. The same thing happened there, as it did at the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth offices. The sixth office told me to go back to the first office, so I gave up. I've since come to appreciate most Americans don't want to take university courses simply to learn something, and my request was extremely rare on its campus of 16,000 students.
As I was walking back to my car, I reasoned, maybe they just all thought me stupid, because all students usually know which way is North. it was some kind of open enrollment day and a crowd of about 70 prospective students was getting a campus tour. So I was bold enough to stop them for a moment and ask them all to point to the North. Not one of them could. Not even the tour guide.
I have a couple of observations to add. This is a phenomenon of the information age. In prior generations, people needed to know where the sun rose and set to get their bearings, but with our noses buried in computers, most people don't even care that much anymore. Second, in terms of maps, there is a physical north, defined by compass, and a 'virtual north' defined by city road grids. In Chico, the grid is alongside a freeway. which in most city maps is shown running Northwards, although it actually follows the California coastline and runs NorthWest. It may be this difference is too confusing for people who don't want to take University courses unless it's for a degree. The fact that there's more than one kind of North is too formidable for contemplation.
Anyway, after several dozen attempts to find the University's senior's program, I finally figured out what I needed to do. I offered to buy a half-million-dollar house for a new student housing which would give honors students a place to live for free. Chico is in separate need of affordable housing, let alone, free housing, and Id been wanting to give away the money for some time. But I was immediately told Chico State University has no programs to support buying free housing for students, then succinctly told what existing programs I could donate to. I tried calling some attorneys to set it up as an independent non-profit organization, and when the University learned that, I was put on its spam list. So I couldn't even get the names of honors students to offer free housing. The university had no interest in doing anything to help me set up a new student housing even though it was closing its own dorms due to covid. I was repeatedly requested to donate the money to their own programs.
But I did get attention of a Vice President long enough to ask about the senior's program, and found out that's it's actually called an 'elder's program.' So I was able to find the web page for it. But the elder's program is now shut down, because of covid. It was going to open this year, but it got postponed again. So I still haven't been able to take a course.
Regarding the charitable donation, I called my boarding school, which was in the UK, and gave it to them. They didn't need new housing at all, so they are building a new gymnasium. No bureaucratic problems at all. Not one. Also they asked me to a ball.
Anyway, my conclusion is this. There might be no real point in going to State University at all, but as I've been unable to sit a course despite having sat a Masters at Oxford University, I can't know if that's just some undeserved arrogance on my part.
But I can observe, if people have so little interest in the world that they don't even want to know which way is North from their desk jobs, and people almost never take a university course unless it's for a work qualification, then it's not surprising that education standards are falling, and not surprising the USA has little actual respect for real intelligence. We get dismissed as 'elitists' by people like George Bush II. I still feel bad for the honors students in Chico but I did try. That's just a general observation. You're welcome to disagree.
The people who already downvoted this without making any comment on it, presumably administrators, should consider they are proving I am right. Wishing you a nice day.
Submitted September 07, 2021 at 04:47PM by emeyer4444 https://ift.tt/3nqe5cD
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