The Off Topic Topic

[lustindarkness]

@Lusti- she is not skinny, just because she's not fat. She appears to eat sufficiently and have an active lifestyle.

Looks like a pretty skeleton with skin still attached to me. To each his own I guess.

[Admiral Yi]

Jake: that meshes quite a bit with what I picked up about education and the job market in Sweden from reading The Girl With the Dragoon Tattoo.  There's room for about 20 new journalists a year, so there are 20 spots for journalists in universities.

[Ideologue]

Jake: that meshes quite a bit with what I picked up about education and the job market in Sweden from reading The Girl With the Dragoon Tattoo.  There's room for about 20 new journalists a year, so there are 20 spots for journalists in universities.

It really prompts the question: Why is Scandinavia so perfect when we are so shitty?  Is it the colder it gets, the better human brains work?

[Admiral Yi]

It really prompts the question: Why is Scandinavia so perfect when we are so shitty?  Is it the colder it gets, the better human brains work?

Would you be singing the same tune if your grades have landed you in the dishwasher career track?

[Ideologue]

In Scandinavia all workers are treated with respect and dignity.  But no.

[Jacob]

In Scandinavia all workers are treated with respect and dignity.  But no.

There's still plenty of bullshit in Scandinavia, and people being people will still find ways to be dicks to one another.

That said, I doubt you'd be on the dishwashing track if you'd grown up in Scandinavia.

@Yi - I don't think it's quite as dirigiste as you're implying.

[Valmy]

Jake: that meshes quite a bit with what I picked up about education and the job market in Sweden from reading The Girl With the Dragoon Tattoo.  There's room for about 20 new journalists a year, so there are 20 spots for journalists in universities.

That sounds kind of risky.  What if a significant number drop out or turn out to be terrible journalists?

[Ideologue]

@Yi - I don't think it's quite as dirigiste as you're implying.

That is an awesome word.  Thanks.

That sounds kind of risky.  What if a significant number drop out or turn out to be terrible journalists?

Hire people who don't have journalism degrees or even leave demand unmet, and produce slightly more next year?  It's a decent question but unless the mismatch is catastrophic (ala American law programs, or American architecture programs, or American liberal arts programs, or American pharamacy programs, or America) in reverse, it doesn't seem like it'd be a tremendous problem.

[Jacob]

That sounds kind of risky.  What if a significant number drop out or turn out to be terrible journalists?

Well, I suspect (having been absent for a number of years) that it's not quite as one-to-one on the nose as that. In part, I imagine, it's too complex to manage in that level of detail; secondly it'd be pretty silly as you suggest.

I don't know how the numbers are set or managed, however, so I can't shed any light on it - but I expect it's on a broader scale than what you're suggesting. My uncle is a retired teacher (after a very varied career) and he's visiting me this September - I'll ask him how it's done.

I was poking around a bit on Danish sites about education and it appears it's not just your grades that are considered, but life experience adds as well - so taking two years off to travel in Africa or whatever may very well improve your chances of going to med-school later. So it's far from uncommon to get mediocre grades, fail to get into the uni-course you want, and then spend some time doing other activities - including supplemental education - to get into the program you want at a later date. The whole system is a bit opaque to me be at first glance, but there's a system and it seems reasonably satisfying to the people in it and it's definitely not the Chinese model of "this one set of grades sets the course of your life, you better not fuck it up."

... and to rub it in at a bit more (sorry Ide) - the government gives you a stipend if you're going to school. I.e. the pay you to study, not the other way around.

[Ideologue]

Man, I bet it's hard to pay that stipend back, though, right?

[Jacob]

Man, I bet it's hard to pay that stipend back, though, right?

It's a stipend, you don't pay it back. I guess I should have said "grant" instead.

[Malthus]

Man, I bet it's hard to pay that stipend back, though, right?

It's a stipend, you don't pay it back. I guess I should have said "grant" instead.

Are you *trying* to make Ide's head explode? 

[Grey Fox]

Finnally, someone championing another education system then the bullshit Anglo-Saxon one.

[Admiral Yi]

What percentage of high school graduates go on to college in Denmark?

[11B4V]

I just watched that Miley Cyrus clip from the VMA'S. Yuk.

Taylor Swift: yum. Even though she is a man eater.

I watched that shit. VMA's what a joke.