Comments on: We are weird. And somewhat echoey.

We are weird. And somewhat echoey.

divabat — Mon, 26 May 2008 15:01:21 -0800

KnowHow2Go wants you to take on the tough classes - such as Biology, Foreign Languages, and Algebra II - to prepare yourself for college.

By: CitrusFreak12

CitrusFreak12 — Mon, 26 May 2008 15:07:52 -0800

How come the French guy wasn't dressed in an outrageous homogenization of stereotypical French clothing?

By: Kid Charlemagne

Kid Charlemagne — Mon, 26 May 2008 15:18:34 -0800

Knowing how to do a western blot and having a all the armour a man could want, I'm gonna have to point out that the two really don't rub up against one another as often as the Biology video might suggest.

By: nowonmai

nowonmai — Mon, 26 May 2008 15:39:58 -0800

What is this shit? Are this why our children isn't learning?

By: b1tr0t

b1tr0t — Mon, 26 May 2008 15:54:54 -0800

Don't forget Calcium

By: DU

DU — Mon, 26 May 2008 15:58:17 -0800

I. AM. ALGEBRA!

By: pyrex

pyrex — Mon, 26 May 2008 16:10:36 -0800

Yes, college is exactly like the thunder dome.

By: librarylis

librarylis — Mon, 26 May 2008 16:54:23 -0800

Ahhhh, I just saw an ad for this today. On a bus. At UCLA. Don't think that's quite the audience they were going for. But much thanks for the well-timed explanation!

By: LSK

LSK — Mon, 26 May 2008 16:55:23 -0800

Algebra 2 is a tough class? Why aren't they promoting Calculus?

By: abulafa

abulafa — Mon, 26 May 2008 17:40:29 -0800

Before I even watch this... stuff... can I just ask - are there really 11 other CitrusFreaks already registered? Mefi must love its fruit.

By: Hal Mumkin

Hal Mumkin — Mon, 26 May 2008 18:11:36 -0800

Biology? Seriously? Isn't that renowned for being what the dumbest people have to resort to in order to fulfill their science requirement?

By: RavinDave

RavinDave — Mon, 26 May 2008 18:12:21 -0800

At the risk of sounding like grouchy-old-get-off-my-lawn guy ... kids today don't have the slightest clue how wonderful the Intertubes are for foreign language acquisition. The sheer tonnage of resources is staggering. I recall spending $50 bucks for a tattered issue of "Америка" and 4 copies of "Правда" back in the day. Now I can read endless stuff on line, go into a chat room, subscribe to podcasts, stream radio and TV, or hook up with a Skype study-buddy. Sheesh, you could learn fluent Thai even if you're stuck in Dry Heaves, Wyoming.

By: Hal Mumkin

Hal Mumkin — Mon, 26 May 2008 18:15:07 -0800

And the last one sort of reminds me of that old Marines recruiting commercial they used to play...

By: DU

DU — Mon, 26 May 2008 18:32:37 -0800

You are thinking of Botany. Biology is the new hotness with the digital and computation and engineering and MONEY.

By: DU

DU — Mon, 26 May 2008 18:35:44 -0800

In order to turn students' college dreams into action-oriented goals, the American Council on Education, Lumina Foundation for Education and the Ad Council launched the KnowHow2GO campaign. Wait, what? I assumed this was from some hip and awesome private company. These are PSAs? Not your father's "Just Say No" that's for damn.

By: sonic meat machine

sonic meat machine — Mon, 26 May 2008 19:13:20 -0800

So then they go to college where they are prepared for jobs that don't exist. Take on the tough classes, kids! And the tough student loans! Social mobility is not a myth at all!

By: DU

DU — Mon, 26 May 2008 19:30:46 -0800

Yeah, no jobs out there for people who can do algebra or know the parts of the body.

By: sonic meat machine

sonic meat machine — Mon, 26 May 2008 19:45:36 -0800

DU, the message of these ads isn't about learning things for the sake of learning. It's about taking classes to prepare for college. It's a subtle distinction, but it's an important one. And you'd be surprised, I think, at the incredible malaise of the job market at the moment. There really aren't that many jobs for anybody. Many of the areas that aren't within driving distance of one of the top ten or fifteen MSAs have been in a state of collapse since the 70s.

By: porpoise

porpoise — Mon, 26 May 2008 19:57:05 -0800

I guess if someone's in college, they're probably not going to report unemployment and help further push down the statistics down a bit, for a while. There really aren't that many jobs for anybody. Across the board or in certain sectors? I'm really curious as to what mefites feel about the near-term economic future in terms of "pessimistic" or "optimistic?"

By: sonic meat machine

sonic meat machine — Mon, 26 May 2008 20:10:54 -0800

porpoise, in my area there seem to be jobs only in education and service. Manufacturing has been lost, with nothing to replace it. We have no corporate headquarters, and no prospects for them; we have no research parks, no office parks. There is a call center and there are still about 1.5 thousand jobs in heavy industry. Unemployment officially stands at 10%, but working in education (of course) I would peg the number closer to 25%. People who are seeking further education--even people who are 45 or 50 and can never expect to be employed in the sector for which they are being "retrained"--are not counted as "unemployed." Oh, and there are plenty of doctors. So many doctors, in fact, that some have begun to leave town because there aren't enough patients--or, rather, patients who can pay.

By: porpoise

porpoise — Mon, 26 May 2008 20:15:26 -0800

or, rather, patients who can pay. - ouch. That puts you in the pessimistic camp, no? After watching some more of these videos, the message to "go to college" never really got to me.

By: sonic meat machine

sonic meat machine — Mon, 26 May 2008 20:22:19 -0800

Sure it puts me in the pessimistic camp. Why not? I live in a city gutted by crime and unemployment. Doctors hang signs that say "Cash Only. Office Visit $75." A sizeable portion of the city--and it's only a small city!--consists of shattered ghetto where houses stand vacant and there are quite a few murders per year. (You can get a house there for $11k, though.) There are more towns like this than most people realize. What prospects for improvement are there? $5/gal gas isn't going to help, certainly. Rising food prices, of course... Optimism is predicated on the idea that "it'll all work out, somehow." I don't want to be offensive, but I find this infantile, and the overselling of American optimism is getting old. I guess pessimists just don't work as hard to buy stuff. We hurt the economy.

By: Solon and Thanks

Solon and Thanks — Mon, 26 May 2008 20:53:02 -0800

Pessimism vs. optimism? How about a healthy combination of the both, such as "the job market is really bad right now and may not be getting any better. It's better to learn some skills that will make you valuable to someone (fluency in rare but critical languages, anyone?) or get you a free college education than simply being a mediocre high school student."

By: MadamM

MadamM — Mon, 26 May 2008 21:17:33 -0800

Where the hell do you live, sonic meat machine?

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Mon, 26 May 2008 22:18:49 -0800

No wonder I never paid attention in math class. Algebra has an insanely ridiculous accent.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Mon, 26 May 2008 23:01:01 -0800

Biology? Seriously? Isn't that renowned for being what the dumbest people have to resort to in order to fulfill their science requirement? Um, no? What a bizarre thing to say. And you'd be surprised, I think, at the incredible malaise of the job market at the moment. There really aren't that many jobs for anybody. Another bizarre statement. The unemployment rate is up, but it isn't like a majority of people in the U.S. are unemployed. Furthermore, the unemployment rate for college graduates have always been far lower then that for non graduates. Whatever the situation in your own town, there are plenty of great places for graduates to live. San Fancisco, Austin, TX, New York, etc. Lots of smaller towns have booming economies as well. You don't need to return to the city you grew up in after graduating, and it's as you describe a lot of the kids from your town probably aren't.

By: TheophileEscargot

TheophileEscargot — Mon, 26 May 2008 23:06:27 -0800

As I undestand it, the "college premium", the extra income earned by college graduates over high-school graduates, is pretty big: you earn about 70% more with a degree. And you're considerably less likely to be unemployed. College is generally worth doing if you can. I'm not sure if this campaign will work. But it seems like a nice idea to try to persuade kids that studying is a challenge and not just something done by dorks to be dorky.

By: DU

DU — Tue, 27 May 2008 03:58:56 -0800

There are no jobs NOW so be sure to drift through HS and college for the next 5 to 8 years so you can flip burgers. Yes, incredible logic there.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Tue, 27 May 2008 06:39:33 -0800

I'm not sure if this campaign will work. But it seems like a nice idea to try to persuade kids that studying is a challenge and not just something done by dorks to be dorky. The problem, in my view is that more and more menial jobs are going to be automated away. So lots of low-skilled jobs are going to be replaced by one or two robot technicians.

By: greytape

greytape — Tue, 27 May 2008 07:26:53 -0800

I have to say I love this approach. These classes are hard, rise to the challenge! Like He-Man! As someone who always took the easy humanities way out, and who after graduation became really interested in maths and foreign languages, I wish I'd seen this stuff ten years ago. (Not that it would have changed my decisions, I was a lazy little pigshit.)

By: sonic meat machine

sonic meat machine — Tue, 27 May 2008 12:30:08 -0800

delmoi, I hope (and would pray if I did that sort of thing) that you're right, that the solution is just to tell people to move to the city. I hope that I'm hideously overly pessimistic, but I don't think I am. I think the failure of the hinterland--and I promise you that there are many more failing towns than small towns which are booming--will have an impact that you may not see in the city yet. People pulling up stakes in droves, well, that has implications.

By: CitrusFreak12

CitrusFreak12 — Thu, 29 May 2008 11:41:49 -0800

abulafa: Sorry for the late response. There are actually 10, but I mistakenly thought 11 was already taken.