This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
But you don't! Don't touch high schools. Don't touch colleges.
Only change med school to admit based on entrance exam that tests qualifications for studying medicine (ie. a bunch of medicine textbooks) and having graduated high school. Nothing more. Afterall, med school admission is already an entirely separate track (due to requiring a college degree or significant studies).
What you're suggesting gives kids coming out of high school two options:
Go to a normal college. If you don't know what you want to major in you can just take core classes the first couple years, since that's mostly what you'll be taking anyway. If you decide on a program that's too difficult or that you don't like, you can change your major at little to no additional cost, depending on when you do it and what your credit situation looks like.
Go to medical school where you'll immediately lock yourself into a career path. It will be more difficult and more expensive than going to a regular college, and if you can't cut it or decide you don't like it, you'll have to drop out and effectively start your education over having wasted a lot of time and money. There may also be even more of a time delay because medical schools operate on an entirely different academic calendar than the rest of the college. We also have to have duplicative faculty here, since US medical schools don't currently teach core courses.
I'm not saying that literally nobody will select option 2. What I'm saying is that it's not particularly attractive to a graduating senior, at least not enough that I think it would significantly increase the number of people going to med school. Deciding to take the plunge at age 22, after you already have a college degree and have experience with taking college-level courses is a lot different than getting thrown into the fire when you don't know what to expect.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link