Hello, Liza (et al)

I really feel I must comment on this...

At 12:47 AM 7/2/99 -0400, you wrote:
>Achieving an academic degree DOES in fact, say that the person at
>least was exposed to some information, and most likely learned some
>things about attempting to be unbiased in research, and has also
>thought about ethics.

"Unbiased"??? Is this what you truly believe?

I have been struggling to educate myself in the field of Holistic
Nutrition,  and this is far from my experience with the institutions
of
academia.

There is so much misinformation and reiteration of the "conventional
wisdom" it boggles the mind. I made it my mission to educate the head
of
the Nutrition Department in a Minnesota college (unnamed at this
juncture)
I spent hours debating at length with him, doing research, editing
textbooks, showing him recent studies, and refuting department exams.
He
finally threw up his hands and said "Yes, I know you are probably
right
about all this, but I'll be damned if  I am going to change my entire
curriculum!"

My professor said I was seriously handicapped in his class because I
knew
too much, and I should forget about what I knew and just test out
according
to the bogus tripe he had been slopping us with. (my paraphrasing -not
his
exact words)

Tell me, do you truly believe this academic bulimia is good
preparation
for the real world?

Oh, yes, exposed to "some information" -but MIS-information is more
damaging to people who then become heady with the notion that they now
KNOW SOMETHING, because they have a degree!

>says something about a person's stick-to-it-iveness when it comes to the
>gruelingly awful demands of achieving an academic degree. It takes
>INCREDIBLE grit and determination to put in the years of solitary grinding
>away, to go deeply into debt, and put in endless hours of unpaid research,
>the sheer exhaustion, the unjust politics, and all that is required
>to get that degree.

Taking abuse at great personal and financial cost and sacrificing
yourself
at the altar of the "Higher Minds"? It certainly does say something
about
you, if you really believe this is healthy...It just means that you
have
become quite good at sucking up your integrity and parroting the
nonsense
of whatever BIAS your professors saddled you with, to get the grade,
to
pass the class, to get that degree. What an achievement!

>I guess I'm not sure why academic degrees are getting snubbed a
>little here lately. Seems a little short-sighted to me!  :)
>Love Liza>>>

 I understand where you may have gotten this rose-colored notion of
academia, but some of us continue to love science IN SPITE OF and
certainly
not BECAUSE  of " the conventional educational institutions". (The
accredited ones that give the almighty degrees.)

Having a degree is merely the badge of indoctrination bestowed upon
those
that can stomach the process. Some of the most brilliant people I know
are
self-taught. It takes a lot more TRUE GRIT to go your own path and
seek the
TRUTH rather than perpetuate the politically correct notion of current
academia.

Love,
Louise