More rantings

I guess today is one of my "being an old fart" days. Two op-eds in today's Boston Globe are almost perfect fodder for praising the good old days when I was young.

Kevin Cullen, a regular Globe columnist, has a funny piece about our 21st century attitude towards snow. Yes, we listened to weather reports back in the days, but there was a lot less 'forward planning' by the powers that be. My parents did not receive a telephone call at 6 a.m. informing them that school was canceled today because of the weather forecast. Nor were government workers told to stay home because a storm was expected. But such practices are becoming de rigeur even in the hardy New England state of New Hampshire.

Ellen Shell, a professor in the graduate program of BU, laments the practice of aspiring scholars focusing on grades rather than knowledge in their college days. Just about all of the applications for graduate school that she sees are from students with an average of A. Although she does not mention grade inflation, she identifies a reason why the grades are so high and that is because the students are taking easy courses, where they can get an A, rather than challenging courses, which would better prepare them to be teaching the citizens of the future.

In other words, we are adopting practices that will eventually give us a world where people are afraid to venture outside or run the risk of not being considered a genius. It was more rigourous, challenging and better in the 20th century.