I think part of that collective attitude is also that Germans do not have much tolerance for people and subcultures which are belligerent to the idea of education. It is much easier to have a socialist system when you don't have radically different values in different subcultures within your society.

Most liberal arts studies are not progressive once you've completed Composition 1 & 2. At that point there is very little that is not based primarily on study of a specific area (i.e. Existential Philosophers, Renaissance Art, Modern American Literature) that typically doesn't have more than two semesters of study at the undergrad level (i.e. there is really no such thing as a English Lit 4, it is just a matter of adding fungible study areas).

Applied fields like medicine, science, engineering, accounting, and the fine and performing arts are very different, and tend to be more progressive. But I thought it was somewhat clear that we are talking about the "enrichment" areas of study in this thread.

Which is why I specifically suggested private lessons and referenced my 7 years of study, or night classes, in addition to self-directed study.

And your comment should not have been modded flamebait!

Fair enough - and you definitely didn't create that dichotomy (I shouldn't have said that), but the prevailing view, as I see it, is that education is seen as a thing segregated to professional educators in a classroom situation, and that universities or technical for-profit schools have status as recognized educational authorities, and to some extent your post feeds that view.

Lots of expensive for-profit technical schools and 4-year universities take money from students and offer little in return. Even an art history degree, if it isn't rigorous, has little intrinsic value.

I think part of the issue is the specific mindset that locks people in to giving money to colleges DESPITE the ridiculous costs. Next, asking better questions about why it's so expensive is a good place to start: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04...

Why is a university the only way to learn about art history or philosophy? Go to the library. Take a night class. Enrichment doesn't require 4 years in an accredited institution. You're creating a false dichotomy. I've been studying music (performance and theory) with a private teacher for 7 years. I don't have a degree, but I have about the equivalent of a degree in music. I'm not looking to USE that for a job, so a lack of accreditation is fine. I also paid a fraction what I would have for a music degree, and got a self-paced, customized curriculum.

You left out an option: I'm knowingly mocking myself for being an arrogant jerk.

Statistics show that concealed carry license holders are less likely to be involved in crime and violent crime than the general population. Concealed carry holders generally have to pass a criminal background check, and in many states get certified training. It's not unreasonable to think a plane full of CCWs is safer than a plane not full of them. You're the one making an unsubstantiated claim: http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba324

...is you have to work a 140 hour week assembling it first.

What asshole modded this "funny"?

I was right all the time from day one. But no matter where I go, these morons I'm surrounded by just don't see it, and give me crap work to do when I should be running things MY way.

They got a name for the people in the world

I want a name for 3PO

The closest we got is Honda's bot

They call him Asimo

Should be an interesting bioengineering project for instruments like saxophone, which transmit sound to the inner ears through teeth and bone.

Agreed. I can't play Wii when not using "game mode" to reduce delay on my TV, or record & monitor multitrack audio above a 6-8 ms delay. No way would I trust a surgery to anything more than 10ms in case something unexpected happened during surgery.

I had the sense that the Chinese students at my college formed a group in which a few males learned English and effectively segregated their female members away from interacting with the American students (no idea if this is common). so, for them, not really a matter of cannot learn the language, but more like "don't want to integrate, especially to allow the females to integrate". It worked OK until a professor required an oral presentation, which I'm certain was at least somewhat intentionally done to deny the Chinese students an easy "A".