They Even Rob Their Education!

I used to have this manager. Whenever someone would do something wrong or quirky or rude, he'd bark out this particular way of saying "unbelievable". He'd hold out the 'un' really long, and then quickly blurt out the 'believable'. "That was unnnnn......believeable." It was his distinct phrase, something everyone at my job would say at really any opportune time.

Right now, in my head, I am hearing his voice say it over and over again. Unnnn...believeable! Unnn....believeable!

Why am I in such a state of disbelief? Because I came across some of the "rigorous" requirements of a certain bible college's classes. What are these awfully difficult class reqs? Well, for a Ph.D level course, 20% of a certain grade comes down to planning a Sunday School lesson. Another, for a Master's course, gives 20% of a students final grade for leaving comments on websites. They even have one unabashedly biased course--"Intelligent Design or Unintelligent Evolution."

What a flagrant perversion of education! What a flippant abandon of the pursuit of truth! Schools like this are just sick, because they are raking in thousands upon thousands of dollars from students, and in return they so horrendously rob them of their education. They hand out unaccredited pieces of paper that are supposed to represent a Bachelor's Degree, but with class selections like this, how can one learn?

I have sat through my fair share of Women's Studies and Sociology classes. Been through my biology, physics and chemistry. Knocked out four classes of Calculus. I have never had a grade handout in college. It has never been easy. But it has rounded me out and opened my eyes to new perspectives and ways of thinking. But if my college degree was based upon the foundation that everyone around me thinks the same way I do, what type of development could I claim? How could I have grown at all?

Specifically one of my professors comes to mind. He was a stout man with a tiny head and huge body. He wore Big Dogs hoodies to lecture. He frequently flirted with the ladies. But his outlook on life was so peculiar and so precise that it forever changed how I read books, how I watch movies and really how I take in anything in life.

I got an A in his class, but it didn't come easy. I read 9 novels, wrote 7 papers (all over 2,000 words), turned in a 20-page thesis paper and didn't miss a single class. There was no extra credit, there weren't take-home exams...and it was a basic GEC! The fact that I have been pushed by my Professors is what has encouraged me to continue to pursue education in every direction I take.

So that is why I am so outraged at this pathetic "institution". (I won't even call it a college or seminary). Writing comments on blogs should never be credit in any college course, much less worth 20% at a Master's level! It is such a disservice to themselves, their students, their institution and even to education itself. I feel horrible for these students. When they graduate they will be no better when they started.