I am a comfortable college professor...but I couldn't sleep...

[one_voice]

[tblue]

1. Hits you right in the gut.

Well done, Mr. Professor Sir.

Thanks for the post, one_voice!

[Lint Head]

2. Unlike the right wing fakes I've seen he shows his face.

Right on Professor!

[Warpy]

3. I know exactly where he's coming from

I inherited enough to live on, enough that I don't have to be afraid all the time, but a serious illness can wipe it all out within six months. I also see everyone around me suffering even more, suffering the way I did when I wasn't living on the edge, but had fallen off and was clinging to it by my fingernails. I know how much hunger hurts.

I spend the same sort of sleepless nights worrying about my friends and neighbors and hoping my wreck of a body doesn't come up with anything worse than it already has.

I am the 99%

[me b zola]

14. .

:hug:

[TBF]

41. With you there Warpy -

we are high income, but have massive debt. For us the day to day is not so worrisome, we can pay our medical premiums and groceries, but we wonder if we'll even have our student loans paid off by the time our kids are ready for college. There are certainly others like us in the top 10%, paying more for everything than our parents did and certainly not living the lifestyles they did. And yet we are pretty well off compared to most. That is screwed up.

It is completely ridiculous that at the very top they are controlling most of the wealth in this country --

[uponit7771]

71. +1

[geardaddy]

4. Excellent!

You're in good company.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=160x42301

[laundry_queen]

21. One of the things I learned in business school

shockingly enough - was the the social benefit of post secondary education almost always outweighs the cost to society. For example, for every tax dollar the government gives to post secondary institutions or students they get back more than that dollar.

This is common knowledge. I just have to wonder if those looking to make post secondary education out of reach for the middle class are just stupid or there is some nefarious reason I have yet to figure out why they don't want society (and thus themselves) to benefit?

[diane in sf]

31. The people making education out of reach want a pack of slaves to do their bidding

[JDPriestly]

63. Student loans create the equivalent of an indentured servant class.

A borrower can only be freed from his debt if he dies or works until he pays the debt off.

The period of indenture, therefore, is generally longer than it was in early America.

Many early Americans including Europeans and the some if not all of the very early African-Americans to arrive here came as indentured servants. This includes at least one, possibly more, of my ancestors. (If you have ancestors who came to this country during the 17th, 18th, possibly early 19th century, you might be surprised to discover that they paid for their fare to the US as indentured servants.)

Their stories were sometimes tragic as are the stories of today's Americans who cannot get jobs and cannot repay their student loans.

By the way, indentured servitude was, if I understand it correctly, uncommon in the 19th century, but not actually prohibited until passage of the 13th Amendment.

The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution officially abolished and continues to prohibit slavery and involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime. It was passed by the Senate on April 8, 1864, passed by the House on January 31, 1865, and adopted on December 6, 1865. On December 18, Secretary of State William H. Seward, in a proclamation, declared it to have been adopted. It was the first of the Reconstruction Amendments.

President Lincoln was concerned that the Emancipation Proclamation, which outlawed slavery in the ten Confederate states still in rebellion in 1863, would be seen as a temporary war measure, since it was based on his war powers and did not abolish slavery in the border states or any other areas where slavery was still technically legal.<1>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

[abelenkpe]

65. 17 years of paying off mine

Never bought a home because of it. O well, at least I missed the housing bubble.

[Remember Me]

34. Yes, there is something you're not thinking about - it's absolutely key

Educated people vote Democrat. Educated people are progressive. Educated people can't be conned as easily as the ignorant.

A populace that can't think straight or reason well, that buys whatever's handed out to them (remember, for example, how thoroughly WRONG and ILL-INFORMED Fox viewers are about the FACTS in current affairs, not to mention politics and history) can be led and manipulated very easily. We see ample evidence of that already with all the Tea Party supporters and followers.

In fact, DU has seen evidence right here on its pages of the poor education (or intelligence) of the followers of the rightwing. Sometimes they come here with their poor spelling, grammar, and punctuation, and sometimes they just show us their protest signs with all the mistakes. Now, I'm not saying that poor communication skills "cause" people to be rightwingers, but that this is an example of the poor education that is in stark contrast to most people on the left. I once saw a thread here on DU -- in the Lounge I think it was -- where DUers were listing their education. Wow. Virtually everyone had college degrees and there was an astonishing number of post-graduate credentials as well. I was seriously impressed (LOL -- and I don't impress all that easily).

Yes, they don't want an educated America. They want power -- for themselves - and the money it brings, and that's about all.

[Missy Vixen]

37. Just a note

>Now, I'm not saying that poor communication skills "cause" people to be rightwingers, but that this is an example of the poor education that is in stark contrast to most people on the left.<

I grew up in a lower-class suburb of Seattle. The schools weren't optimal. I started reading at 4. This was considered "advanced," so I missed the typical grammar instruction offered in elementary school.

I didn't finish college due to lack of financial opportunity. However, I have read in excess of 300 books a year since I was four years old. I'm now an author. I still make grammatical errors. It doesn't mean I'm stupid. It just means I work twice as hard to eliminate those errors.

I believe in education, but anyone can claim on an Internet forum to have "post-graduate credentials". Some of the brightest people I've met are not necessarily those with even a bachelor's degree. I know someone who has a MD and 2 Master's degrees. He is a former pediatrician with no bedside manner. It's not the letters behind one's name, it's how they're used. Those who spend their time berating and bullying others for spelling or grammatical errors obviously aren't using their superior education. are they?

I might also mention I am a lifelong Democrat.

[oldhippydude]

51. bingo

I'm dyslexic... you don't want to see my typing without a spell checker...despite that i read a lot.. hell i can even tell you what the right wingers are trying to say.. please remember grammar is not always a sign of inteligence..

[Remember Me]

53. I hope you'll read my other reply -- very, very carefully nt

[999998th word]

54. 10th grade education here. GED @ 35

Guessing 'C' on multiple choice saved my ass on that test.Late life diagnosis of ASD. Always loved to play with language, read and ask tons of questions.

As long as I get the gist of the message OK.

Single mom w/out help- w/shit job & both of my kids graduated HS. One has some college the other is 3ed year UWM -and working. I was able to help him out some, the debt load

these kids have to incur makes me sick. Want to help more but forced early 'retirement' prevents me from doing much.

They cant steal my kids future too.:mad: just WONT let them.

[Remember Me]

52. Oh, good grief

I really tripped your trigger, didn't I?

I'm about the least education AND literacy snob that you can find and not nearly the classist you read me as either. Yes, education isn't an indication of intelligence, nor is a degree indicative of anything other than that the degree holder had the wherewithall, perseverence and, for want of a better word, cleverness to get through 4 years of college.

I was merely trying to point out that it's simply a demonstrable FACT that written communications from rightwing voters will, as a generality, contain more errors than those from people on the left.

Because I have a natural affinity for the language, I am KEENLY sensitive to the fact that not everyone does, and as a rule I do not fault them for it. I believe that the underlying IDEAS are more important than spelling, grammar and punctuation and people like me, who have an affinity for the language and enjoy employing it can be hired to clothe those IDEAS in the proper or best language. But that doesn't change the demonstrable FACT that the rightwing base is overwhelmingly deficient in that area. They can still be very bright, and also still uneducated -- as well as quite ignorant.

I'm sorry that your life experiences have led you to be so distrustful of people. I almost always take people at their word, especially people whose values align with mine (which means their politics pretty much echo mine), and especially when they as individuals haven't even given me any reason to distrust them. So I don't usually anticipate most DUers are liars. Oh, I've seen a few, but very few, and usually they've either got OTHER problems as well, or they're not really here for the sheer enjoyment of it, if you get my drift. So yeah, I believed every single one of those 100+ DUers in that thread.

I'm a published author myself and yes, virtually everyone makes errors -- I've caught myself using the wrong homonyms, struggling yet again with some of the same few words I've always had trouble spelling (hierarchy for some reason), splitting infinitives with abandon, mixing metaphors, and every now and then getting subject-verb agreement wrong. Lord only knows what things I haven't caught.

Sorry to raise your hackles so.

[999998th word]

56. Everyone is on edge these days, it's sad.

They want us fighting w/ea other and sometimes I have to remember who the real enemy is. Have never seen it this bad.OWS is inspiring.

[ieoeja]

70. John Adams rose to fame fighting King George III's attempt to shut down public education.

Before the end of the Civil War, all northern states had public education and an almost unheard of 98% literacy rate. No southern state had public education. A few even had state laws making public education illegal so no municipality or private entity could provide free education to all comers. Southern leadership was dominated by descendants of European aristocracy who wanted commoners to trust their betters and not start thinking for themselves. Literacy tests and poll taxes pre-date the Civil War and were originally intended to keep the White working class from voting.

This is one of those never ending fights.

[ceile]

5. Wow. K&R

[yurbud]

6. as a college instructor too, that sums it up pretty well

[City Lights]

7. K&R!

:thumbsup:

[Tsiyu]

8. Sweet

This is who America is when it comes to her people.

Repukes and teabaggers and corporate-owned politicians are only seeing the tip of the 99% iceberg.

K&R

[itsallhappening]

9. Wonder if his students turn in papers in all caps?

[Hissyspit]

12. Yes, because a photographed statement on the Internet is the same thing as a 8-page research paper.

[harun]

66. lol

[FarCenter]

10. Is the professor teaching something worth $150/hour per student?

Is the course enabling the student to pay off those loans?

[Hissyspit]

11. All education is valuable.

Or do you agree with Gov. Scott that we don't need anthropologists?

[FarCenter]

16. Not all education is valuable in the sense of increasing the earning power of the student

So if the student is not bent on becoming an anthropologist (and there is limited market for those, especially ones without a PhD), a course in anthropology is a poor expenditure of borrowed money at a burn rate of $50/hour.

Once the student is able to earn a living and can afford the $50/hour fee out of current income, then the student can attend lectures on anthropology.

[sinkingfeeling]

18. So you think education is only for creating earning power?

[FarCenter]

22. I don't, but higher education promotes the idea that you need a degee to get a good job

They also have been attacking the for profit colleges on the basis that the graduates of for profit colleges can't get jobs that will pay for their loans. This would leave one with the impression that the non-profit colleges are superior with respect to preparing student to earn enough to pay off their loans.

So higher education can't argue that a degee is needed in order to make a good living and simultaneously argue that it doesn't matter whether individual courses help prepare the student to get a job.

Otherwise they are just perpetrating a fraud.

[sinkingfeeling]

23. You still can't break away from education=job preparation, can you?

[FarCenter]

25. Not as long as HS career counselors and college admissions recruiters are selling it to students

Education in the broader sense is something that should be undertaken throughout life.

It's not something that you do before you are 22 years old and stop then.

[mod mom]

50. Some of us didn't choose our degrees based on earning power.

:eyes:

[quakerboy]

62. Way to miss the point

Indulging this side-track attempt though, they actually may be.

Can courses which are non-vocational still offer measurable monetary value over the course of a lifetime? Sure as hell they can. I can use things I learned in college level weight lifting to better my health today. Which has a monetary value, if that's all you chose to focus on. Different professors may catch and illuminate different parts of the brain, teaching you skills that work across fields. Communication was not my major, it was a fill in course, but I learned lessons there that I still use. That was at the core of my success at my last job. If I had not been who I am, the anthropology course that I took would have presented me a better tool box for working across cultures. Which is again, something rather important to many fields today.

[msongs]

13. highly unlikely he is paid that much. nt

[FarCenter]

20. I was calculating from the student point of view -- Should have been $50 / hour

$30,000 per year / (40 weeks of instruction * 15 hours/week) = $50 / hour.

Less at your local public institution.

[sinkingfeeling]

17. The professor isn't making the $150 an hour. Just like my old computer company charing a client

$350 an hour for my time. I sure didn't get it.

[Malikshah]

26. Wow--wish I could make a modicum of that as a college prof

where do you teach??

[FarCenter]

28. $50 / hour of instruction is about what it cost the student to attend college

It's not what the professor makes. There are all those other expenses, like the grounds and buildings, utilities, laboratories, libraries, adminitration, cafeterias, student unions, dormitories, student services, athletic facilities and staff, data centers, etc. besides academic salaries and benefits.

[defendandprotect]

59. What we should recall is that neither schools nor universities invent languages or

computer languages nor mathmatics nor anything they teach --

and that we could just as easily be making all of this info available to the public

while still equally rewarding the teacher/professor/instructor --

And this could be done simply by LIVE TV and by taping classes/lectures and making them available

across the ntion --

at the beginning thru libbraries, perhaps -- but anywhere, really.

Of course this is obvious --


Question is -- "Do we want exhorbitant profits for the few or do we want educated citizens --"


The first clue that education has been wrong for so long is when we see a lack of

enthusias by children to go to schools. Children who can read can educate themselves,

seeking the info they feel they need as they go along. Learning is a circle, you'll

always end up where you should be one way or the other.

[Demstud]

69. It costs a lot more than that, generally ;-) -nt

[sad sally]

35. Here's what I'd like to know: are assistant football coaches overpaid and

do these hefty salaries really benefit most of the students?
###
Delving into pay records, the newspaper found at least 66 assistant football coaches making in excess of $300,000 a year with more than a third of them in the Southeastern Conference. One in four among 893 assistant coaches earned at least $200,000 a year. Five lucky guys pulled in more than $600,000 a year.

The average assistant coach at the University of Texas, for instance, makes more than $327,000. At the University of Tennessee, the nine assistants pull in an average of $369,000. In comparison, the typical full professor’s salary at Texas is $132,300 and at Tennessee it’s $100,800. The average salary for a full professor at state research universities across the country is $115,509.

When universities defend the hideous pay packages of head football coaches they often claim that these guys are irreplaceable. That’s certainly the argument you’d hear from administrators at my alma mater, the University of Missouri, to explain why the salary guarantee of its football coach Gary Pinkel has more than quadrupled in eight years to $2.52 million. During that time, the salaries of Mizzou’s assistant coaches have doubled.



Read more: http://moneywatch.bnet.com/spending/blog/college-solution/how-much-are-assistant-college-football-coaches-worth/1014/#ixzz1bGX1n1bW?du

[Raster]

46. The highest paid education "professional" in the State of Washington...

...is the head coach of the football team at the University of Washington. He makes almost $2 million a year.

[sad sally]

47. Nice - for him. Meanwhile the State faces an almost $5 billion

deficit and our (I live here) legislators have cut things like the Basic Health program, the Disability Lifeline program and the Maternity Support Services. But at least the UofW has a well-paid football coach.

[Raster]

48. It is a crime. Plain and simple.

[coalition_unwilling]

55. Acc. to my Dad, the U. of Kansas pays its head football coach in excess

of $1 million\year (perks not included), while new assistant profs in math and physics make just over $60,000.

Something is rotten in the state of . . . Kansas (and Texas, sounds like :)

This society is really, truly sick. And, believe it or not, there are many on DU who will attack and vilify anyone who brings this football coach compensation issue forward.

[defendandprotect]

61. Remember ... "Sports builds character" --- !! Does it?

Athletics are fine -- but they've been pushed to insane levels -- !!

Competition is overly pushed and encouraged -- and in the opinion of many

is counter-productive --

Athletics have been manipulated to be a huge distraction and in many cases a

threat to the intellectual growth and the physical health of students!


This is another issue where the line has been crossed turning a fair, healthy idea

into a monster.




PS: Ironically, as I'm making these comments I noticed that "Tea and Sympathy" is

playing on ATm -- Deborah Kerr and John Kerr -- 1956 -- a time when manhood was on

shakier ground than after the Youth Revolution - and "team" sports was one way that

males were molded. And ONLY males. Females didn't get to play.

"Manhood is a totally social construct" --

[Posteritatis]

36. What planet do you live on where professors get that kind of pay? (nt)

[RetroLounge]

43. Your concern is noted

Puked upon, kicked around, and laughed at.

But noted.

:puke:

FarRight indeed.

RL

[tropicanarose]

67. Most college teachers are part time and are grossly underpaid. The universities are investing in rop

their facilities (new buildings, etc) rather than their educators. There are very few full time faculty positions and as for the ones that do exist, they are more interested in doing their own research and getting published than teaching. The actual teaching is done by graduate assistants and part timers who don't get any health care benefits. The system stinks!

[sinkingfeeling]

15. Excellent! Exactly how I feel.

[Fire Walk With Me]

19. Bam. K&R!

[Uncle Joe]

24. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, one_voice.

[woo me with science]

27. Good one.

K&R

[Mimosa]

29. K&R Man with a conscience and a heart.

The man has a conscience and a heart.

[riderinthestorm]

30. Am I the only one who can't read all of it because it's blurry? nt

(maybe I need new glasses??)

[lunatica]

32. I can read it but it is pixilated and a little hard to read.

[kayakjohnny]

38. Try to right click .. then 'save as'... then it shows up in your pictures, where you can then

zoom in on it to enlarge.

Hope it works.

[riderinthestorm]

42. Thanks!!! Exposed as a techno-illiterate with bad eyesight!!!

But saved by a kind DUer (as usual!)

Hugs Johnny! Thanks for taking the time to help! I can't have been the only one.... (I think, maybe...)

[a la izquierda]

33. He probably has graduate students...

and undergrads who he sees kissing their futures goodbye. My adviser sees the very same thing.
My former adviser gave me the go ahead to write to the President. I chose to become a professor instead of an immigration attorney, a career in which I'd undoubtedly have made much more money. I'm saddled with the debt of 13 years of post-secondary education (state schools, paid out myself for tuition as an undergrad and MA student, and fees and living expenses as a PhD).

But as some on another DU thread have suggested, we just want ours and to say Fuck You. Yep, that's why I became a professor. To tell society to jag off.

[Swede Atlanta]

39. Wow...how poignant

[democrank]

40. K & R in solidarity

"A political system utterly indifferent to their fate".....indeed.

[Condem]

44. one.....

...that hit's it on the head for me. I've got what I need but other's don't. Isn't that why we're Democrats? 99%.

[mike_c]

45. I'm a university professor who is not so comfortable....

I'm a professor at the California State University. We teach the 99% and are mostly drawn from the 99%. Unfortunately, I come from a decidedly blue-collar background and was ONLY able to attend college and grad school by taking on $75K in student loans. The thing is, that didn't seem so awful at the time, but I've been paying nearly one thousand dollars a month on those loans since 1997 and still owe about $70K of the original $75K. At 56 years old, I won't work long enough at this rate to pay off more than another $5K or so of loan principle, despite sending the rat bastards a quarter of my pay check every month for twenty years. Well, the upside is that it prevented me from being ensnared by the real estate bubble, LOL. I mortgaged my future to go to school, so home ownership is simply impossible.

As a CSU prof my salary has been essentially flat since the late 1990s. During that time the consumer price index has risen nearly 40%. The cost of health care alone has increased so dramatically-- and my health insurance has become so piss poor because I live in a rural county-- that I cannot afford needed routine medical care even with what was a solidly middle class career just 20 years ago. And I'm one of the lucky folks with a job and-- so far-- a pension.

I'm the 99%.

[coalition_unwilling]

57. Wish I could rec your response. I hope you will consider

making it an OP and making up a sign about it.

Of my Ph.D. cohort, only 25% got tenure-track positions. This from a top-flight university, no less. The remaining 75% are like myself, journeymen scholars, troubadours, gypsy scholars, etc.

After reading your post, though, I take solace in remembering William Hurt's infamous line from "The Big Chill": "I didn't drop out of grad school. I chose not to continue." :)

[BillyJack]

60. Yes, please make this an OP

....we ARE the 99% - please share your "story". We all have our lives story to share.

Thanks for sharing and I hope you will make your story more visible by creating an OP with the same.

[stockholmer]

64. OP this! +1000

[Canuckistanian]

49. That's powerful

And if that message doesn't resonate, I don't know what will.

[readmoreoften]

58. I am an uncomfortable college professor with loads of student loan debt

and a salary that the WSJ calculator says puts me in the bottom 40%. And my partner is in the bottom 9%.

Still, my students' situation terrifies me.

[Beavker]

68. I love seeing other people have a conscience

He's fine. His family is doing well. But he STILL struggles with knowing that his fellow Americans (and humans I imagine as well) are struggling.

At this time I feel the same way. I've been lucky. If the rich pigs and their lobbyists just had this little batch of neurons or whatever group of ganglion in their brains that allowed them to empathize with human beings that are less fortunate (or actually listed to their Pastor and Jesus), we'd have none of these problems.

Thanks!

Your fellow restless sleeper.