Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. By Chadarat Saibhut @ Shutterstock.com
Famed economist and academic, Walter E. Williams, explains to readers of LewRockwell.com that many of the most maddening trends in society find their start in academia. He warns of the Orwellian insanity of the approach to problem-solving taken by most academics. He writes (abridged):
Most of the diversity and inclusiveness insanity has its roots in academia.
An example is a paper titled “Equilibrium Grade Inflation with Implications for Female Interest in STEM Majors,” written by Naval Postgraduate School professor Thomas Ahn, Duke University economics professor Peter Arcidiacono, Duke University researcher Amy Hopson, and James R. Thomas of the Federal Trade Commission.
The authors argue that science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs at colleges and universities lacking female enrollment can be attributed largely to harsh grading policies in these fields.
Their solution to increase the number of women’s involvement in STEM is to standardize grading curves, in order to grade less “harshly.”
The insanity of this approach is to not only weaken standards for women but to weaken standards across the board. This is more evidence that George Orwell was absolutely right when he said, “There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them.”
Read more here.
