And There Was Much Rejoicing
Nov. 23rd, 2005 11:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nemorathwaldMy teenage brother Andy called last night. Some of you met him at a meeting of the Macomb Oakland Fan Organization and you know he's a proto-fan. A fan who doesn't go to fandom events yet. I've blogged about his attendance at my alma mater, Pensacola Christian College, on two occasions, and needless to say, those were some of the most emotional and heartfelt journal entries I've ever written. This institution might be more appropriately named "Pensacola Concentration Camp" for the reasons I've detailed on my webpage about the topic.
Andy said he plans to take off next semester to earn college money. I'm ecstatic about this news! I'm in a celebrating mood!
Maybe we can somehow persuade him to attend a community college. His un-accredited credits would possibly not be accepted, but at least he'd start earning credits that count toward something. When I was in his situation I entered work study, a program in which a student pays for education by working for the college all year round without taking the regular winter or summer breaks, taking a few classes per semester. Through this program I managed to squeeze a four-year education into six years. Andy said he had considered this option for about 30 seconds before rejecting it. I applauded him for giving it precisely the amount of consideration it deserved.
Andy also reported that the college administration recently replaced the Communist-China style web filter, which let them into only a tiny percentage of sites, with a new one that allows-- for instance-- Wikipedia. This new filter means the educational resources of PCC students have now almost risen to the level of an internet-connected person not attending any college at all. :P Messageboards, webmail, and other means of potential file sharing are still disallowed, because the college knows they might be exposed to television, movies, and "worldly" music and it would be too difficult to catch them and expel them. And the college no doubt still remembers the underground student newspaper that spread through the internet in 1995 and caused them to ban all internet access until every single student attending the college at that time had either graduated or been expelled. They must have considered those students to be "contaminated" by that glimmer of light in the darkness.
Andy said he plans to take off next semester to earn college money. I'm ecstatic about this news! I'm in a celebrating mood!
Maybe we can somehow persuade him to attend a community college. His un-accredited credits would possibly not be accepted, but at least he'd start earning credits that count toward something. When I was in his situation I entered work study, a program in which a student pays for education by working for the college all year round without taking the regular winter or summer breaks, taking a few classes per semester. Through this program I managed to squeeze a four-year education into six years. Andy said he had considered this option for about 30 seconds before rejecting it. I applauded him for giving it precisely the amount of consideration it deserved.
Andy also reported that the college administration recently replaced the Communist-China style web filter, which let them into only a tiny percentage of sites, with a new one that allows-- for instance-- Wikipedia. This new filter means the educational resources of PCC students have now almost risen to the level of an internet-connected person not attending any college at all. :P Messageboards, webmail, and other means of potential file sharing are still disallowed, because the college knows they might be exposed to television, movies, and "worldly" music and it would be too difficult to catch them and expel them. And the college no doubt still remembers the underground student newspaper that spread through the internet in 1995 and caused them to ban all internet access until every single student attending the college at that time had either graduated or been expelled. They must have considered those students to be "contaminated" by that glimmer of light in the darkness.
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Date: 2005-11-23 05:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-23 05:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-24 06:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-26 09:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-26 07:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-27 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-23 08:09 pm (UTC)[deleted and reposted because of numerous typos]
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Date: 2005-11-24 04:48 am (UTC)I'm not too far from Pensacola. Let me know if I can ever be of service.
In the mean time, I'm off to get a copy of Animal Farm.
PCC sounds scary... even their webpage is scary...
Date: 2005-11-30 03:28 am (UTC)Re: PCC sounds scary... even their webpage is scary...
Date: 2005-11-30 04:36 am (UTC)