Re: The Great Debate

[K S Swigart <katswig@deltanet.com>]

On Sat, 14 Mar 1998, Cyberpony wrote:

> I graduated from college when I was 31 years old.  Does that make my college
> degree worth less because I didn't whiz through it in four years.  

It would make your college degree worth less if it was issued to you
despite the fact that you only took 10th grade level classes.

> Sometimes
> life and circumstances dictate our pace.

And you can get a 1,000 mile horse medallion by riding one 50 mile ride a
year for 20 years.  If that is the quickest that your circumstances allow.

> I feel that my journey to a degree
> in psychology was an exercise in endurance.

But presumably you didn't expect a 1,000 mile horse medallion for this
exercise in endurance.  No matter how much you endured, you were not
endurance "riding." And presumably you didn't expect to get a degree in
Astro Physics for having taken courses in psychology.  And, presumably,
you would feel that your psychology degree that you endured many years of
hard work and perseverance to attain would be cheapened if the college
were to hand these degrees out to anybody who took nothing but high-school
level math classes, because that was all they had the proficiency
for--even if they had also "worked hard and persevered." 

> I didn't give up.  I worked hard.
> I played by the rules.  I endured.  That lesson in life taught me that I could
> still "have a piece of it", even if things around me weren't perfect.

Presumably, however, this lesson did not teach you that you could still
"have a piece of it" (i.e. the college degree), without taking any college
level classes.

> AERC sanctions the LD rides that my horse and I do.  The "E" in AERC stands
> for "Endurance".  What's the big deal?!   

And the "LD" in LD stands for Limited Distance (i.e. NOT endurance).  The
RULES that you say you play by specifically state that a Limited Distance
ride is NOT and endurance ride. (Just as taking Subject A level English in
college doesn't count towards your college degree, EVEN if they require
you to take it.  Subject A is not a college level course, despite the fact
that colleges offer it.  Limited Distance rides are not Endurance level
rides, despite the fact that the AERC sanctions them.) 

> If AERC invites us to compete and is
> willing to take our money we should be able to use the word "endurance" in
> connection with what we do.  

The college will also take your tuition money to provide you with a class
in highschool level English; but they still won't give you college credit
for it.  You can, of course, opt out of this expense by learning high
school level English before you go to college; but if you take the class,
you bear the expense.  And if you never progress beyond the level of
Suject A english, you will never get any college credit, no matter how
many times you take Subject A.

kat
Orange COunty, Calif.

p.s. "Subjet A" is what it was called when I went to college.  It may be
that colleges have since changed the names of thier classes.