Thursday, January 8, 2009

Field Trip

A friend of mine who is a senior in HS was taken on a field trip to Touro/Lander College.

Her school happens to be on a crusade against all colleges, saying things like; Ivy League schools are not at all any better than regular schools, they're just "brand names" and you pay extra for the name, YU is for people who pretend to be frum, but aren't really, just like to think they are, while CUNY is goyish, and so one may as well already go to Touro.

Since her school is full of people who either aren't frum or are pretty modern, from the realistic standpoint, advocating Touro is better than discouraging all colleges (because then the students may listen), so the school made a field trip.

Anyway, while she was there, we were texting back and forth, making sarcastic comments.

Then she texts me and says "One good thing about Touro."

I go "nu?"

And she says "Flatbush guys right across the street"

And I go "why would you want a HS guy when you're in college?"

And she says "To solve the shidduch crisis"

I started literally lmao. I was laughing out loud.

Anyway, she was laughing while at Touro, and she told her friend why, and her friend was all like "what? You better stop, they won't want to accept girls from our school."

To which we replied "that'll be a mitzvah." :-)

Anyway, she texted me later on in the day to say those bozo teachers she has were all talking about its better to choose SCAS over Kingsborough.

Now...I'm not fan of ANY Touro divisions, but SCAS is like dumbass of the dumbass of colleges.

Why do frum people feel that being stupid will perpetuate their lifestyle? If more of them were educated we wouldn't have a tuition crisis, a shidduch crisis (I don't believe in this disproportion in #'s, its a matter of refusing to date to prevent having to meet morons and in turn end up losing respect for all mankind) or a parnassa crisis.

14 comments:

Dina said...

Oh, where to start... First of all Touro is not cheap at all. It costs practically as much as an Ivy League school. The frum world is very anti-intellectual, and sees no value in knowledge that does not immediately result in earning money. Not only are the Ivies goyish, but most do not offer majors like accounting. For my part, I think schools like Touro are worse if you're worried about non-kosher environments. Not everyone who goes there is super-frum, or even shomer shabbos, yet people assume that anything that goes on must be OK.

OTD said...

If they got educated, they'd go off the derech.

David said...

"Why do frum people feel that being stupid will perpetuate their lifestyle?"

Because an education (a real one, not a frum one) teaches you how to think for yourself. The tragedy here is the fact that these people who are discouraging young frum Jews from going to college obviously don't believe that Torah Judaism can compete with other ideas.

Anonymous said...

I came very close to going to Touro because I got my Israel credits through them. I actually got turned off to Touro when they came to visit my seminary in Israel. Not so much because of their lack of educating, but because of their lack of respect for the head of our school. Now, I'm not one of those who thinks that the head of my school was awesome or anything, he was just an average guy, but he made one specific request that the guy from Touro not talk about something. I can't remember what that one thing is right now and doubt I'll ever remember it, but the guy made sure to specifically talk about that one thing. It just irked me... you're coming to someone elses school, you respect their wishes and not go off on your own agenda. I'm very happy I decided not to go to Touro.

mlevin said...

"If you don't know how to read and write, but always wanted to go to college. Go to Touro. Touro College"

Real Touro Ad from 1987

Ookamikun said...

One of the converts in our shul said that he became interested in Judaism after a talk with his pastor. He said that he came to the pastor with questions and the pastor told him to not question things and do as he's told. It's a good thing he's not from US or Israel because he'd hear the same from a rabbi.
Pathetic.

Anonymous said...

Cuny...goyish?! That's really funny....

Mikeinmidwood said...

Thinking for yourself, are you crazy, you could get hurt or even worse, use your brain. We have gedolei hador to think for us. How they became great is a different story, thats not to far related to this, but the fact is you cant think leave it to the rabbi.

frum single female said...

i actually went to touro in the city. there was a mix of religous and non-religious. stern seemed to have had a frummer crowd if you ask me. actually i thought it had a nice atmosphere. of course i would not have fit in at touro flatbush. touro flatbush was considered to be even less serious than touro manhatten, which speaks volumes.im actually just glad schools are advocating going to college at all. i seem to remember a time when ANY type of college education was shunned. i guess a weak economy will do that.

frumskeptic said...

Dina- I think the point of going to Touro isn't necessarily for the frum factor, but for the single-gender class factor. I think, they prefer you go to SCAS (which is coed) so that you realize its full of imbeciles, so that you transfer to Lander, which for them is a win/win, because even if you don't, you're still paying frummies money.


OTD- "If they got educated, they'd go off the derech."

or end up constantly pissed off at frum people, with a blog as a venting venue.

David- "obviously don't believe that Torah Judaism can compete with other ideas"

thats cuz they don't beleive in Torah Judaism, they believe in People Judaism. Most of them don't beleive in gd, if they did they wouldn't allow for such crap to go on, embezzlement, insurance fraud, swindling, child molestation... they'd care more about doing what is right than worrying about their rep's.

Lion of Zion said...

MOSHE:

"he'd hear the same from a rabbi."

have you ever considered that you've been talking to the wrong rabbis?

Ookamikun said...

I know I've been living in the wrong city, but I like the conveniences.

frumskeptic said...

moshe- Moshiach is coming Jan. 20, Inaugration day. :-)

Obama the anointed one. :-)

we won't have to worry about the Rabbi's.

Lion of Zion said...

MOSHE:

"I know I've been living in the wrong city"

nah, in this case it's just a matter of davening in the wrong shul.

you can find some rabbis in brooklyn that are more open, it's just a matter of you finding the wheat among all the chaff.