By Professor Doom
Sometimes it’s
really hard to believe the academic word works the way it does, and I’ve
highlighted many of the surreal aspects of higher ed. A recent article
highlights just how bizarre the endless emphasis on “must have more females in
STEM” obsession in higher ed today is:
It really is
amazing watching admin (and the faculty who eagerly do their bidding) bend over
for the prospect of a female, particularly one who shows talent and interest in
an ‘under-represented’ field, not that there’s a study showing what the proper
representation should be. I grant that far fewer females than males go into
most STEM fields. In my graduate mathematics cohort, we had 20 students, and
only three were female. All three had full ride scholarships, of course…and all
three dropped out by the end of the first year.
Still, it’s
amazing the bonuses and benefits for being a female going into STEM, and while
I personally have never seen an admin look at such a student lecherously, I’ve
noted a weird gleam in their eye at scooping another prospect with the right
set of (self-identified?) genitals.
So, yes, the
title of the article caught my eye, and I bookmarked it for later review.
With responses ranging from “squirming in discomfort” to
“completely discouraged from studying science and engineering,” a nationwide
poll group of high school-age girls revealed Tuesday that the nation’s young
women are being utterly creeped out by scientists twice their age constantly
attempting to lure them into the study of science, technology, engineering, and
math.
I know not to trust
polls outright, and I read the above line before saving the link. Some time
later I track down the origin of the poll, to see if it’s at least a little
credible.
“They’re always hanging around our classrooms and sending us
targeted messages online—they sometimes even offer us money if we’re into their
sort of thing. It’s so desperate,” said 13-year-old…
The
targeting of girls starts in the public school system. Any female child showing
aptitude has all her relevant information passed on to the guidance counselor,
who “helpfully” passes it on to the state higher education system. These kids
come out of high school with the STEM path all laid out for them—how can you
turn down all the scholarship money and other benefits? Everyone is all smiles,
doing everything they can to make STEM a warm, comforting environment.
It sounds nice on the surface, but, at the
risk of drawing ire from feminists, “guiding” female children like this into a
STEM career is every bit as questionable as steering them into an early
marriage and childbearing.
And this of course assumes it even works
as planned. All too often (much like the female grad students I started with),
the female ends up dropping out of the program, and fast. Now there’s a big
problem: the scholarships for being a female STEM student drain away if she’s
no longer majoring in STEM. As yet, a female hasn’t decided to become male
while remaining a STEM student, but in today’s lunatic world, we can’t rule
this problem out as occurring at some point, and I wonder what would become of
xer scholarship?
Most STEM programs/schools are expensive,
and so this poor student has now been guided into her own destruction—some
scholarships are only “free money” contingent upon completing the program. Admin
gets bonuses for luring in female STEM students, but doesn’t necessarily care
what happens after they sign up. With any luck, the student has only wasted a
year of her life, but it could go much worse.
Even if she graduates with her STEM
degree, there are problems, as there’s a big push to reduce STEM standards so the females will do
better. Her degree when she graduates
won’t even be worth as much as she was told, because it’s quite reasonable to
believe a “female friendly STEM” degree isn’t quite as attracting to employers
as previous (hard) degrees were.
I really, really, hate the idea of
identity politics infesting so much of higher education, as the capacity for
evil is great while the potential for good is effectively nil.
At long last, I
check where this strange study is coming from: The Onion. This is a phenomenal
parody site, though it’s been years since they “got me” with one of their fake
articles. The last time they got me was with an article
talking about a wide range of Hollywood stars, including legendary lothario
Jack Nicholson, “coming out” as homosexuals.
Higher education
is now so bizarre that even the most ridiculous Onion piece about it can be as
credible as something about Hollywood.
This is not a
good sign.
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