OPINION
10A
MONDAY. APRIL 7,2008
COMMENTARY
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
What's the point of going to college?
Recent high school graduates intimidated into higher education
College. Once in, it envelopes you completely. You work, you go to school, you study, you party, and then you study some more.
But for what?
I thought the answer was easy.
You come to college to learn.
But has society corrupted the real principle and replaced it with an idea of conformity and social acceptance? Now if you don't go to college, it is assumed that you won't succeed. Sometimes it feels like youth are being intimidated into higher education.
A widely used credo around this University is "It's not what you know, it's who you know."
There are holes in the system.
Just because you went to college
doesn't mean you're smart.
If we have this mentality, why even go to college? If your education isn't going to mean anything, what's the point?
I know a lot of kids who pissed away their education doing just enough not to fail and getting wasted every night.
My head starts to spin as I point my clicker up at the giant overhead, and I wonder if sitting in a lecture of 500 people and jotting down notes is really learning.
Learning is not about blindly
accepting what is up on the board. It's about asking questions and challenging these supposed truths.
How much of college is about actually learning, and how much of it is about getting the "A"?
We have been graded and evaluated our whole lives, from the time we could form sentences until laying out career goals.
If it's just about the grade, that's academic conformity. Do what the professors say, and they'll give you a good grade. That's really worth your money.
I used to say I wanted to be a roller coaster tester when I grew up. It was a fake job, but I just said it so people would stop asking the question.
After four years at this University, I still don't know if it was worth it. I question my education every day. I worry that I won't succeed.
I want to feel like my time an money were worthwhile and that I was not just a sheep coming here.
I thought college was supposed to give me that reassurance, I have gained a lot of knowledge, but I still don't feel like an intellectual.
I'll make it my own way. If I struggle, then so be it.
Simmermon is a Leawood senior in journalism.
COMMENTARY
Bar owners call the shots on ladies night promotions
The idea discussed in the April 3 column "Possible violation of the Civil Rights Act?" about bars using the promotional play of a "ladies night" is discrimination and a violation of the Civil Rights Act is simply absurd.
When I walk into Wescow,
and I see a woman behind me,
I gladly open the door for her. She replies,
"Thank you," and I return with,
"No problem."
Do I cry discrimination because she did not try to open it for me? No, because there are certain things that are polite to do.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was designed to ensure equal treatment of people in public businesses no matter the race, religion or gender. A bar having a ladies night does not prevent anyone from entering an establishment and ordering a drink and having a good time. There is no discrimination involved. This practice is no different from giving senior discounts or kids-eatfree promotions. Is this is a form of ageism? No, it's just a nice thing to do.
Some men complain about how they are "discriminated" against because they have to pay to go to a bar. Using this word to describe their situation is a slap in the face to people who have faced real discrimination.
Instead, don't go to an establishment if you don't agree with its policies. If a bar doesn't allow people to wear gang colors and you want to rep your hood, go somewhere else.
If there is a ladies night and you don't agree with that, go somewhere else.
Don't throw around the "d-word" where it isn't needed.
Would any ladies at the bar care to enjoy a Captain and Coke with me?
Alex Gertsma, a Wichita sophomore in French
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》 FROM THE DRAWING BOARD
Supporting the troops despite political qualms
COMMENTARY
Tyler Doehring
The seven core Army values were being barked out by my brother and his fellow graduates. I hardly listened to them but one caught my attention: selfless-service.
I was expecting the graduation ceremony to have an apparent "support your country" atmosphere, but I could sense it was an effective and personal experience for the graduates and the attendees. The graduates believe in these seven values that their officers drilled into them the past 10 weeks, but I started to have my doubts concerning the selfless-service value as the ceremony proceeded.
My brother enlisted because he did not know what direction to take in his life. He dropped out of college, worked odd jobs for about a year and, on a whim, drove to the recruiting office in Kansas City and signed up. He saw no way out of his drifting state and the Army was his light at the end of the tunnel.
Three reasons why young people join the Army cycled through my head as I talked with my brother about his experience: aimlessness, benefits and patriotism.
But many other options were
That's reason enough for me to put aside my patriotic reservations aside and give my brother a reassuring pat on the back.
present in his life that could have influenced him in another direction. Re-enrolling in school, learning a trade or moving to a more productive environment (i.e. out of Dad's house) could have pointed him in the right path. He saw it as the Army's job to discipline him and set him on the straight and narrow. It must have been those "Strength for now, strength for later" ads that got him.
Hirschfeld is a Augusta junior in journalism.
Education benefits should not be the primary reason to enlist. College is expensive, but scholarships, grants and jobs have helped lighten this burden that students' suffer. 1 could not fathom taking any amount of years of personal freedom just to avoid debt.
A reason for joining that my brother seldom brought up was the benefits the Army offered, with tuition reimbursement having the most effect on young people.
Four Senators are pushing a revised GI Bill that would make getting educated (or re-educated) even easier and more beneficial for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who have served two years of post-9/11 active duty. It would include veterans receiving payments covering charges of their program and a monthly stipend of $1,000 for housing and books. It would also increase the time veterans have to use these benefits to 15 years from 10 years.
ing his graduation, though, I could tell this reasoning was thoroughly instilled in his mind.
My brother did not address seeing the Army as a duty to his country before enlisting. After attend-
This reason is brought up most frequently when outsiders discuss why young people join the service, but I doubt this is at the top of the recruits' reasons for enlisting. Protecting one's country is the most selfless reason I can think of and should be No. 1 on every enlistee's list.
My brother was the same person after boot camp. Just a more matured, refined version of the guy I've known for 20 years. His 10-week "version of hell," as he called it, gave him direction and he's a more focused individual. The Army gave him a career path, and he's finally taking a hold of his life.
In all reality, though, with the Iraq war and the rising cost of, well, everything, I can't blame them for not considering the protection of the U.S. as their primary reason. The American culture lives for the idea of individualism, so using the Army to alleviate aimlessness or receive benefits is pretty aligned with the culture most of the recruits were raised in.
editorials around the world
Zimbabwe elections show turning point
The silence from the ruling party in Zimbabwe could mean one of two things. It might mean that a massive rigging operation is taking place at the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission... to turn around what looks like a resounding electoral defeat for President Robert Mugabe and make it look like he has just scraped past the 51 percent of the vote needed to avoid a second round of voting, and give his party a majority in parliament. Or it might be that the ruling elite is engaged in a frantic process of negotiation over who will tell the ageing despair that the time has come when he really does have to step down. We can be hopeful it is the latter.
Mr. Mugabe has fiddled the result in at least two previous
The Movement for Democratic Change claims its leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the March 29 presidential ballot outright, said it would not accept a recount, did not want a runoff and pressed ahead with attempts to force the publication of the results.
elections, in 2002 and 2005. But things are different this time. The Mugabe regime can stay in power only with a heavy show of force from the army and police, whose chiefs were, as recently as Sunday evening, publicly declaring
that they would not allow a victory by (opposition leader Morgan) Tsvangarai.
The leader of neighboring African countries must now make clear that the will of the Zimbabwean people must be upheld. The opposition must not be persuaded to go to the courts, a strategy they tried last time without success. Nor is there now a case of international mediation of the kind that Kofi Annan conducted in Kenya, where so many ballot boxes were destroyed that it was impossible to know the outcome of the poll. The vote in Zimbabwe has already been recorded locally.
For one thing is clear, whatever happens in the days ahead, things can never go back to how they were a week ago. A turning point has been reached in Zimbabwe. And not before time.
The Independent, London April 1 editorial
To contribute to Free For All, visit Kansan.com or call 785-864-0500. Free For All callers have 20 seconds to talk about anything they choose.
The band on Mass Street Saturday night was awesome.
--man.
Strike UNC. Now on to Memphis.
--man.
Irony? Almost being run over by a SafeRide car.
--man.
Sonic commercials used to be good when it was the two
--man.
To the chick struggling to smash all her hit into the trunk of her Cavalier in the Oliver parking lot: You bright ened up my day.
For those of us not going anywhere exciting, is there a way to block new Facebook albums with beach pictures? I don't want to see them.
--man.
--man.
Maybe if you shaved your legs boys would actually like you.
KU's lack of green today is disgraceful. Go green!
Chancellor Robert Hemenway you must construct additional millions
I know the secret that will prevent God from destroying the world. But I won't tell anybody this because I'm afraid God will destroy the world when I say it.
Girls, just be honest with every guy you meet (tell him directly if you like him or not), and you will have so much more success finding your
He asked me out for coffee. I wish everyone could be as happy as me right now.
Latin has become the death of me.
Does anyone else find it odd that ESPN hasn't gotten any flak for the "Don't let 'em question your fanhood" commercials?
--ment at KU.
The pool is stupid. The only thing more stupid is not voting for Students of Liberty.
Are you kidding me? A pool?
Is this a university or a country club?
--ment at KU.
--ment at KU.
I'm rubber. You're glue. Whatever I say bounces off me and sticks to you
STDs and golf. Oh, Free For All you are truly reflective of the conducive learning environment at KU.
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