06-09-2010, 03:54 AM
I know that times must change to keep up with current society which degenerates daily. However, history makes us and our countries who we are and it is history that in the end dictates what happens today. Any thought that history is not directly related to the current status of things is living in another world.
The diploma written in latin is not a bad thing. The idea that breaking with tradition just because people re-invent it daily is really poor logic since many people keep to tradition as an identifying marker of who they are. As a matter of fact is it not pretentious to have it written in English so that EVERYONE can read your achievements? My chemistry PhD diploma is in latin and I do not have it hung in my office to show it off (even in English I would not show it off). I know that I have it and I know what I had to do to get it so who cares if anyone else can read it or not. If I have to make it a point to display it then it is I who is insecure and must show off. If you want to show off, then show your profound knowledge not a piece of paper.
I just think that saying that people re-invent traditions everyday is rather unfounded. What sort of people do you deal with, Jona? As an Italian I believe in my traditions and will pass them along to my children. If I thought of it like you, then what exactly would make me Italian? My birth certificate? Another piece of paper that says nothing about me unless I live, behave, and comport myself as an Italian.
Here in the States the university system has totally become about money. At my college, students will take a course over not once but two and three times because they want to become doctors that make lots of money. The entire system is a re-suffling of money. Very few student care about education. For them classes are a means to an end and the universities are preying on this by making students load up on courses they cannot possibly pass together and then let them repeat the ones they failed by having them pay for it again. Some colleges charge over $800/credit. Thus Organic Chemistry which is 5 credits costs $4,000 not including registration fees and books. If you then add all the other courses, and you are attending a premier private university like New York University, then tution for and undergraduate student looking to get a bachelors degree is over $30,000/year. Private medical schools? The tuition is out of control ranging over $250,000 to become a medical doctor.
The diploma written in latin is not a bad thing. The idea that breaking with tradition just because people re-invent it daily is really poor logic since many people keep to tradition as an identifying marker of who they are. As a matter of fact is it not pretentious to have it written in English so that EVERYONE can read your achievements? My chemistry PhD diploma is in latin and I do not have it hung in my office to show it off (even in English I would not show it off). I know that I have it and I know what I had to do to get it so who cares if anyone else can read it or not. If I have to make it a point to display it then it is I who is insecure and must show off. If you want to show off, then show your profound knowledge not a piece of paper.
I just think that saying that people re-invent traditions everyday is rather unfounded. What sort of people do you deal with, Jona? As an Italian I believe in my traditions and will pass them along to my children. If I thought of it like you, then what exactly would make me Italian? My birth certificate? Another piece of paper that says nothing about me unless I live, behave, and comport myself as an Italian.
Here in the States the university system has totally become about money. At my college, students will take a course over not once but two and three times because they want to become doctors that make lots of money. The entire system is a re-suffling of money. Very few student care about education. For them classes are a means to an end and the universities are preying on this by making students load up on courses they cannot possibly pass together and then let them repeat the ones they failed by having them pay for it again. Some colleges charge over $800/credit. Thus Organic Chemistry which is 5 credits costs $4,000 not including registration fees and books. If you then add all the other courses, and you are attending a premier private university like New York University, then tution for and undergraduate student looking to get a bachelors degree is over $30,000/year. Private medical schools? The tuition is out of control ranging over $250,000 to become a medical doctor.
"You have to laugh at life or else what are you going to laugh at?" (Joseph Rosen)
Paolo
Paolo
