While I'm not trying to be gratuitously harsh, I ask what have any of the adjunct lecturers in this article really contributed to the world? Not much in my opinion. You don't need someone with a doctorate to teach a student critical thinking. These people are living in a fantasy land and are mentally ill; who becomes homeless, putting any children they have at financial risk, or lives in a car or a dilapidated mobile home with no shower, and doesn't get the clue that what they're doing is stupid and that they should get a real job and start working up the ladder? Can they not get a real job and teach evening classes as adjuncts like many of their peers do at community colleges across the country? Oh no, they're "dedicated to scholarship" and have "taken a vow of poverty." Give me a break. These people have superman complexes. We should stop glorifying them and glorifying academia. Lectures came about back when most people were illiterate and printed books were scarce and that was the most effective way to get the knowledge out to the students. We have books and a literate populace now, and of course the Internet. The United States is one of the only places that glorify and sentimentalizes higher education so acutely; visiting students from other countries have remarked that universities here are basically vacation resorts for rich people. Modern academia is a joke.
Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars
361–370 of 449 posts
Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars
#362If someone had written an article about struggling actors turning to sex work and sleeping in cars, nobody would blink an eye. Acting pays little for the same reason being an academic pays little. Lots of people want to do it, but there is limited demand, hence only the really exceptional folks make any money doing it. Obviously, people shouldn't need to sleep in cars. But the answer to that is a basic income. It's n…
I want to comment that academics provide such an incredible amount to the world we live in. In a time of bullshit thought leaders and companies like Equifax who will tell you obvious lies, the academic discipline with its rigor, criticalness, and policing against self-promotion is a kind of last-bastion for intellect in the West. And even that is sort of cracking. BTW one country has already tried the “you can only g…
you may have a very idealistic idea of academia.
Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars
#363If you can't make enough money to survive doing what you do, you should probably look at doing something else. It's not like someone smart enough to be a college lecturer can't possibly learn a different skill.
Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars
#364Earlier quoted context omitted.
> That only works in industries like software etc. If one wants to be a lawyer, doctor etc they have no choice but to go to college, right? For lawyers in some US jurisdictions, including California, no; California, for instance, requires general education of two years of college or “demonstrated equivalent intellectual achievement” prior to study of law, and several options for the study of law, including what amoun…
Except that all the top law firms hire exclusively from top law schools. And the legal field is generally oversupplied with lawyers so if you don't work at a top law firm you won't be making a great living for a long time.
> Except that all the top law firms hire exclusively from top law schools
The top law firms employ small percentage of employed lawyers. And not even a huge percentage of graduates of top law schools. And aren't even the kind of work some people going into law want to do.
Confusing “what you need to get a job at a top law firm” with “what you need to be a lawyer” is like confusing “what you need to get a job at Google” with “what you need to be a programmer”.
> And the legal field is generally oversupplied with lawyers so if you don't work at a top law firm you won't be making a great living for a long time.
If you avoid undergraduate and law school debt (and especially if you are a paid employee instead of a paying student during your legal education), you can make a great living at a substantially lower salary than if you don't; and olif you do a legal apprenticeship, you come out with real-world experience most law students won't have (and quite often a job in the office you apprenticed in, if it was a law office and not a judges chambers.)
Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars
#365How come nobody asks whether what these people are teaching is actually useful stuff. I mean useful in the sense that someone would voluntarily pay money for it with full knowledge of the benefits. I have not been impressed with the colleges in the Bay Area and Sacramento. Except for some programs in the UC system and Stanford, the vast majority of educational programs seem to be run for the benefit of administrators…
> How come nobody asks whether what these people are teaching is actually useful stuff. I mean useful in the sense that someone would voluntarily pay money for it with full knowledge of the benefits.
The same can be asked about sugary drinks, and cable news television. Fortunately, since all of those things make a lot of money, nobody ever questions whether or not those things should still be sold.
Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars
#366They should go to china to teach English. There is a very high demand of native english-speaking teachers. I bet they will have a much better life than in US.
Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars
#367Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's true in software. Source: mid 6 figures principal engineer w/ high school diploma. Other jobs are pickier.
I'd say it used to be true in software. Try repeating that achievement starting out today. You'll be lucky to get any sort of tech job at all.
I started learning to code in 2011 when I was 28. I've been steadily employed in this industry for over 5 years now. I have a music degree.
Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars
#368If someone had written an article about struggling actors turning to sex work and sleeping in cars, nobody would blink an eye. Acting pays little for the same reason being an academic pays little. Lots of people want to do it, but there is limited demand, hence only the really exceptional folks make any money doing it. Obviously, people shouldn't need to sleep in cars. But the answer to that is a basic income. It's n…
Does Chelsea Handler fit your definition of "exceptional"? She's made it as far as I'm concerned.
Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars
#369Re: Facing poverty, academics turn to sex work and sleeping in cars
#370Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Most jobs don't care - it's technology that's unusual. TBH I am far more likely to hire an English major with demonstrated technical skills than a technical person with a purely technical education. Learning the technical skills to live up to the expectations of an entry level software or coding job is just not that hard for a decently smart person. I want to see evidence that you can think more broadly too rather…
To be fair, I graduated from a good uni with honors, so not to say this out of spite, but in my experience this evidence you speak of--in non-technical courses--says more about whether the prof liked you and you stuck to affirming or regurgitating their ideas. Additionally hearsay is one of the worst kinds of evidence, scientifically speaking. I wish there was more development into standardized testing... People pret…
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