Have you ever wondered the quiddity of academia, or those who spend their lives in academia? With little reflection we may consider them all qued, after that one instructor who was surely the spawn of Satan. Perhaps it was that instructor who refused to use less than quaternion when speaking, or writing – particularly exams.
We have all had that instructor who was thersitical, albeit in a very acroamatic form. I can recall sitting in the auditorium for several classes, and simply fading out, the words from the Almighty standing on the stage acataleptic, and my trying to decide if he was a blatherskite or was the answer equally as evident – he was bombastic, pedantic, and a true qued.
Years later, I decided none of the instructors were queds, a few were bombastic, and all tried to be didantic, engaging in an occasional discourse, more often simply lecturing to us, the masses who were more often than not linked by what we all felt – dyspeptic.
There were the toady obsequious types, but generally, when class ended we did not sit pensively as the last words dripped from the Almighty’s mouth – we fled.
So what is the purpose of the preceding 150+ words?
Communication.
It occasionally sounds brilliant using words like bombastic or pedantic, toady, pretentious, or even qued (The word is not mispelled. Try and find that word and if you can, you are a rare person with skills/abilities that extend beyond the mere mortal). More often, it causes the listener/reader to become dyspectic.
Academia values the 3-4 syllable words, prefers those which are 5 or 6, and abhors the 1-2 syllable words, preferring them for the uneducated masses. I know because I went through their hoops and spent seven years in graduate university after I received the BA. It also matters where one does their graduate work - a state university will not find the same noetic drivel as in a private 'Ivy league' type school - particularly at the PhD level.
What we need in academia - teaching at the collegiate level or higher, are people who can communicate with the masses, for the masses are who and what we are doing all of this for - not for the elite, not for the top 2%, you enter teaching to teach, not perpetuate class structures. It is brilliantly ironic - the liberal fools in academia who look down so condescendingly upon the masses are the same ones who spit when they screeched about Bush and all his elite friends getting the perks of eight years. Yet these same incults are all about elitism - they very nearly loathe the masses as a waste of their time and energy. The condescension drips from their mouths, the hate is palpable, and if you cannot understand your professor - you must be one of 'them' - the putrid mass.
One does not need to be an academic, nor does one have to complete a graduate degree to be perspicicacious. One simply needs to be wise - something academia does not teach you.
I would prefer a nation of wise people, keen in understanding, compassionate, and passionate about their country, than a nation full of academics. I would prefer that I can speak to 99% of the people and be unable to speak clearly to the 1% than the other way around.
And professors wonder why students do not like them and do not do well in their classes.
Sidenote:
Pull out a schedule of classes from UCLA or UC Berkeley, USC, Claremont, or NYU ... look at the vast array of class options available to you. I know most people do not waste their time, so I will help:
Climate Change (it is not taught as a theory but as a fact)
'Women in Nazi Germany 1933-1939
'Bodily Functions: Histories of Bare Life and Biopower'
'Alcohol in Subsahara Africa'
'Care of the Soul'
'Children under Augustus in the Early Roman Empire'
'The Human Eye' (This class is for Freshmen - not graduates)
'The Japanese Family as Seen in the Japanese Novel'
'Looking at Berkeley Buildings' (Send me the brochure and we'll pretend I took that class)
'Cultural Diversity in Islam' (I assume this is not taught as theory but again, as fact)
'Natural Disasters' (Why take a class on something you can wait for to happen and partiocpate in directly)
'Truth or Dare: Writing and Telling Your Own Story' (6th grade anyone)
'The Palestinians' (I am near certain that a 14-16 week course will not conclude with any conclusion but - give them their land back)
'Cowboy Up: The American Cowboy in Fact and Fiction' (I have no problem spending thousands of dollars on a Cowboy class)
'Sensual Science' (as opposed to what, Stephen Hawking Science)
'Being Gay in Upper Mongolia in 1986'
'Animals in European History'
'Changing Minds - A discussion on Palestine' (assuming you can change anyones mind and which mind do you want to change - the student who favor Israel? Why? Because you know THE correct answer/truth.).
Truly enlightening our youth, and wasting their time and money (and their parents).
Instead of complaining about your students, try communicating effectively. They deserve better than to be treated like they are cast members from Idiocracy.
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