[Rhodes22-list] Free Education

[Alex Bell]

Speaking of Ethiopians...

A new friend and resident here has relocated from the Peoples Republic
of Masschusetts told me that the state of Maine is having troubles with
a heavy influx of immigrants. Seems the state has good social programs
established to help it's citizens and the word got out. Now they have an
influx of uneducated Ethiopians tapping into the system..

It boggles the mind. Ethiopians in Maine. Imagine the adaptaion their
bodies need to make living in cold Maine after living in hot Ethiopia
all their lives. Wonder what kind of jobs they are going to look for up
there. 

Alex

lcrowther wrote:
> 
> Don't know anything about Cuba but I worked for the Imperial Highway
> Authority in Ethiopia in 1960-1962 as their Training Engineer.  Went back
> for a short assignment in 1984/5(?) for the World Bank.  At that time
> communism was in full flower and Americans were not welcome but the WB and
> my previous experience there made things possible, i.e., the WB had money to
> give.  Talked to an Ethiopian who had worked for me there before and asked
> him what the Reds were doing to his country.  He said he felt that the
> longest range damage they had done and were doing to the country was to make
> a college education free to anyone who wanted it.  The government soon
> learned that everybody couldn't hack a college education so they began to
> dumb down the educational content in order to continue to give everybody who
> wanted one a college degree.  Bear in mind that most Ethiopians couldn't
> read, and still can not, so there was physical room at the university for
> people with connections and any pretense of an grade school education.  My
> previous employee, who had graduated from Perdue in the early 50's, felt
> that the government was wasting a whole generation of possible further
> country leaders by graduating people who were trained to believe they were
> leadership material but couldn't screw in a light bulb.  Maybe he was right!
> 
> Lloyd
> s/v Uhuru II (Swahili meaning Freedom)
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Steve Alm" <salm@mn.rr.com>
> To: "Rhodes" <rhodes22-list@rhodes22.org>
> Sent: Thursday, January 23, 2003 5:24 PM
> Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Free Education
> 
> > As our illustrious former Gov. Jesse Ventura said after cutting millions
> > from the Univ. of MN spurring an immediate tuition hike, "If you're smart
> > enough to get into college, you should be able to figure out how to pay
> for
> > it."
> >
> > Although it was yet another example of his shoot-from-the-hip comments, I
> > think there's a little wisdom there.  Maybe just a little.  But if a
> college
> > education was a free and easy thing, wouldn't that make any advanced
> degree
> > more common and less distinguishing?  Further, in order to make their
> > programs look like they're working, there would be a big push to get
> > everybody graduated--so they'd have to dumb down the programs to achieve
> > this.  Instead of "No child left behind" it would be "No dorm-squatting,
> > reefer-blowing coed left behind."  [grin]
> >
> > Show me the money!  We have enough trouble funding K-12.  But I'm in favor
> > of finding ways to make college more available to more people.  Bush is
> now
> > at loggerheads within his own cabinet on Affirmative Action.
> > Quotas...whatever!  Let them in.  Let everybody in.  Even ere on the side
> of
> > letting anybody in.  But Don't lower the bar to get out!!!!  Not even the
> > first class.  Calculus 101 isn't supposed to be easy.
> >
> > But for the good students, we need to find more creative ways of helping
> > them get through.  For you parents out there who are putting your kids
> > through college, OWCH!  I feel your pain.  Tuition is outrageous.  Bring
> > back the GI Bill.  What do you say we make a new tax (gasp!) on companies
> > that require a college degree for employment?  That money goes to the
> > colleges and universities (but not Bob Jones University) and offsets the
> > tuition. We could call it the dorm-squatting, reefer-blowing tax.
> >
> > Last thought: Cuba has one of, if not the highest literacy rate in the
> > world.  And almost everybody goes to college.  Has that helped Cubans or
> > Cuba herself?  I'd like hearing from any of you who know more about higher
> > ed in Cuba.
> >
> > Slim
> >
> > _________________________________________________
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> 
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