college grads a minority

[Wahoo Redux]

I'll say it again: there is a healthy part of any population that would love to see college grads----and particularly profs----put back in their place.

Just out of curiosity, what, exactly, is my place?

(Don't judge on the commas...grammar was never a strong suit)

Sorry man, but water boys are usually waiting on the bench.

[waterboy]

Well played! But seriously, not sure what you meant by that (previous) comment.

[Wahoo Redux]

Well played! But seriously, not sure what you meant by that (previous) comment.

To "put someone in their place" is a colloquialism for defeating a person's arrogance and reminding them that they are not better than anyone else.  I believe the phrase is a reference to the British caste system, but I am not sure. 

In the context of this discussion, my comment "there is a healthy part of any population that would love to see college grads----and particularly profs----put back in their place" refers to the defensiveness of some non-college-grad people who assume educated people "look down on them" (also a colloquialism).

[little bongo]

    Non college educated persons have no idea what goes on in a classroom and don't care to know, in my experience. They undervalue it unless the degree brings a good job and a lot of money! Something tangible.
Really, the attitude is very old. I recall it in the Sixties on campuses.
  I agree with the poster who said that Ph.D. professors can spew nonsense within or outside their expertise. I know two or three.

The attitude is even older than that. The term "school of hard knocks" dates from the turn of the 20th century, and distrust of college appears in a great deal of popular culture from the early part of the century (such as the Marx Brothers in "Horsefeathers" and how the Scarecrow gets his "brain" in "The Wizard of Oz," for example). In general, the biggest knuckleheads in comedies and farces of the period were recent college graduates.

Well...it's not totally off-base.  I'm sure all of us here have seen some real "knuckleheads" who managed to graduate while continuing to exhibit knucklehead behavior.  More seriously, many recent college grads do find themselves kind of adrift and wondering what to do next.  I've seen this called "the quarter-life crisis."  These recent grads have traditionally been a principal recruiting ground for graduate programs, but they seem to have less fertile hunting now.  They certainly succeeded in snaring me three decades ago!

Oh, I'm in complete agreement there. I was well past my quarter-life crisis when I entered the snare myself.