maybe the housekeepers and nannies on certain especially prurient eps of SVU

And even there -- you're not legally allowed to rape and beat your housekeeper in modern American society. And if you do it anyway, she has legal rights to turn around and have you put in jail because you don't own her. Which is a pretty key distinction in my mind.

Aimee, your classmates never cease to amaze.

Uh huh.

I just got a free sample of the Weight Watchers Everything Pretzel Thins. I guess it's supposed to be all the stuff that's on an everything bagel, but I think they're forgetting that one component of both a pretzel and an everything bagel is salt. Unsalty pretzels = ick.

Also, I was just looking through the Weight Watchers book that tells the number of points in stuff from pretty much every chain restaurant, and a cheese quesadilla from Baja Fresh is 30 points. That's more than I'm supposed to eat in an entire day. Freaky. (And a vegetable burrito without sour cream, which I'd figured was a relatively healthy option, is something like 12 points.)

(And a vegetable burrito without sour cream, which I'd figured was a relatively healthy option, is something like 12 points.)

It's the tortilla, I bet -- I was browsing Chipotle's online nutritional info one day, and was amazed at the calorie difference between an otherwise identical burrito and burrito bol.

The burrito bol is my master. crazy love that food!

I was planning a road trip recently that was contingent on how many Chipoltles we would pass.

Aimee, your classmates never cease to amaze.

Yeah, they never cease to amaze me either. I know that in any classroom setting, you get a myriad of levels of knowledge and intelligence. And I love that about classrooms. Most everyone has something to contribute.

However, and this is going to come off as totally arrgoant and in general horrible, but I'm begining to see the downside of going to a school that admits anyone and everyone. Sometimes, I feel like the discussions are not furthering my knowledge and learning because it feels like I'm lecturing to people and no one responds to my stuff. I mean, I am learning. Learning is my responsibility, not my classmates to help me learn. I just don't feel like I get as much out of it as I could if there were more of, well, people like us. The discussion we;ve been having here about slavery is like, a billion times more in depth and thoughtful and not chock full of, "Yeah! I agree with that! Good thoughts!"

Also? The typos and misspelling and made up words drive me nuts.

Aimee, your school experience sounds a lot like mine, although I think some of your fellow classmates win the ignorant award this week. We need Buffista University!

Aimee - I had a similar experience at my local community college. As far as with my current classes, I have learned that it isn't worth my sanity to engage those who are only interested in their own, often illformed, opinions and not in learning.

However, and this is going to come off as totally arrgoant and in general horrible, but I'm begining to see the downside of going to a school that admits anyone and everyone. Sometimes, I feel like the discussions are not furthering my knowledge and learning because it feels like I'm lecturing to people and no one responds to my stuff. I mean, I am learning. Learning is my responsibility, not my classmates to help me learn. I just don't feel like I get as much out of it as I could if there were more of, well, people like us. The discussion we;ve been having here about slavery is like, a billion times more in depth and thoughtful and not chock full of, "Yeah! I agree with that! Good thoughts!"

This was completely my experience of the coursework I did with Capella. In, I suppose I should add, PhD coursework.

The 'thank you for sharing' responses to hours of thoughtful analysis made me what to scream.

I went into it thinking, what the hey, it's convenient, in some ways cheaper, and I can just gut my way through it because it won't take that long to complete the degree. I quit after 5 classes because I felt the group experience was draining my soul and eating my brain from the bottom.

It IS my education, and I know that one gets out of it what one puts in, but it just ended up being painful.

The final straw was a classmate who wrote his human development final project on 'curing the gays.' After I swallowed my tongue and kept my brain from exploding, I wrote to the professor. She said she would address it...never did.

Tragically, online learning seems to be promoting craxy thinking as education.

I had a weird dream last night.

I think my future wife is the Indian version of Amanda Palmer.

I mean, I am learning. Learning is my responsibility, not my classmates to help me learn.

Well, yeah, and yet... Isn't the whole group experience, butting your brain up against other people's and using group discussion to, at the very least, illuminate why you think what you think and force you to be more articulate in stating it, part of the whole point of capital-E Education?

Er, well, I suppose the whole getting-a-degree thing is the central goal, but there's a reason you can only get a degree by enrolling in a school and having good meaty interactions with, at the very least, your professors if not all your classmates, instead of just by shutting yourself up in a wing of your local library and leaving when you feel like you've read enough.

It's not your classmates' responsibility to help you learn, but if all they're giving you is "Thanks!" and "Cool!" and "Nuh-uh!" they're not even helping themselves.

I can't imagine what it's like to actually slog through these classes -- I get frustrated enough just reading you and Suzi describing your interactions with your classmates. (And, Beej, holy shit, that's awful.)