re: Universities should scale back SJW curricula.

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Depending on what you mean by SJW curricula,

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What I mean by SJW curricula in majors like women studies.

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I'd argue that focus on arts is what separates us from the rest of the world, as the thing China specifically lags behind in is creative thinking

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I 100% agree. I've dealt with Chinese companies and the people that I've worked with I have found their abilities to think creatively is nil. They are however very good at following instructions.

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Art and humanities bad.

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These are a luxury.

Professions that evolve out of STEM curricula are not.

Schools will “goose” the grades of certain types of students who are borderline to push them along.

Most schools have their ways of weeding people out.

Southern Miss, for example, has a world class Polymer Science program and a huge percentage of incoming students declare that as their major.

The school weeds out the non-hackers quickly by forcing them to take high level calculus and certain lab sciences which are much harder than alternatives open to other majors.

If you bomb calculus, chemistry, or certain other subjects, you’re barred from taking upper level classes in the school of Polymer Science until you pass it with a minimum grade level.

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STEM is now ate up with SJWs, though.

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Not at LSU. ChemE professor senior year went on a rant after the election and basically said everything but “screw that murderous Clinton bitch.” Guy was the fricking man.

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I think you could do things like introduce inter-disciplinary majors which combine philosophical, statistical, and scientific principles with the humanities. A philosophy of science course where people read Karl Popper and apply him is to current debates is very valuable. That method exposes students to the history of the topic, the methodology of science, and its applicability. If they read Popper there, they might read Popper on their own. But who wants to train people who understand Popper enough to design a course with those aims? That's why the myopia of these curriculum debates come in. The particular richness of Western culture is the ability to free associate seemingly disparate subjects and see how they relate. I'd rather never lose that ethic.

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You really are the most sane person on these boards. If the Poli Board is nearly all id, you are the super ego.

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I think you could do things like introduce inter-disciplinary majors which combine philosophical, statistical, and scientific principles with the humanities. A philosophy of science course where people read Karl Popper and apply him is to current debates is very valuable. That method exposes students to the history of the topic, the methodology of science, and its applicability. If they read Popper there, they might read Popper on their own. But who wants to train people who understand Popper enough to design a course with those aims? That's why the myopia of these curriculum debates come in. The particular richness of Western culture is the ability to free associate seemingly disparate subjects and see how they relate. I'd rather never lose that ethic.

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First, Popper is one of my favorite political philosophers. The Open Society and Its Enemies had a huge impact on the development of my current socio-political views.

To address your post however, while I agree with you in theory, I just don't think it's possible to squeeze all that in to a typical four year STEM degree. Most of my fraternity brothers were electrical/aerospace/optical engineers and their course load was BRUTAL to say the least.

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You serious? How is that possible? STEM fields are extremely objective. STEM is based on the laws of nature and mathematics. There is no subjectivity.

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Have you not been following the drama from google, facebook, etc? Their leaders hate Trump and white people and they actively work to censor them. The top tech companies are all based on the west coast. That culture permeates down through the rest of the country.


As a recent STEM graduate who can barely get an interview, I have to say its pretty over rated. That might be just a Louisiana problem though.

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First, Popper is one of my favorite political philosophers. The Open Society and Its Enemies had a huge impact on the development of my current socio-political views.

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I love Popper as well. The Logic of Scientific Discovery has been a very valuable book for me.

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To address your post however, while I agree with you in theory, I just don't think it's possible to squeeze all that in to a typical four year STEM degree. Most of my fraternity brothers were electrical/aerospace/optical engineers and their course load was BRUTAL to say the least.

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I completely understand how difficult it would be, but I think the last two years of high school and the first two years of college should be combined, as those are a wasteland of survey courses desperately trying to get students caught up to the vernacular of the subject. Then the last two to three years of all degree programs become more precarious, especially because of the lock-step nature of many of the classes, where students won't have another chance to take the class if they fail until two semesters later. I don't know how to streamline that process so that kids could maximize their learning time, and become fluent in both the concepts needed for their desired degree, and concepts that help them understand why things like philosophy, history, literature, etc., are valuable. What I fear the most is that our fantastic system of universities becomes nothing more than vocational training, and the humanities and arts are left to the children of the rich in private institutions built for the elite classes, as we would lose a tremendous amount of talent that way.

One suggestion I had for students when I taught was that if they could, try to pursue two majors, one technical and one theoretical. This would require, obviously, elongating the amount of time a student stays in school, but the long-term effects are amazing. I did this in school, and what it mainly taught me was that I had to be auto-didactic. While my technical degree (meaning degree meant to get a job) was not on the level of engineering, I think the value of an approach is apparent. Another way of doing this is adding either a philosophical, ethical, or technical component (for humanities majors) which requires combining disparate subjects together.

Ultimately, I don't want to sacrifice arts and humanities to the degree that it would hurt technical education. Most engineering degrees require at least some hours in the humanities, but I think we could maximize that time through changing some aspects of our schooling.

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There should be federal assistance for STEM majors. STEM majors are a net positive to society and should have inexpensive to zero cost tuition. SJW majors should be charged double.

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I have no problem with changing incentives to encourage STEM majors but those not deciding to major in STEM fields are doing so of their own volition, I see no reason to punish them.