College going online see more fundies attend?

[YPestis]

There's recent trends in mainstream colleges to put classes online. Some are even allowing free access to their curriculum (ie. MIT). There's even talk in med school that the first two years of basic sciences could predominately be streaming online (with attendance for the clinical aspects).

With this trend, would that make it easier to convince fundies to try 'real' college? Isn't their main issue with colleges that it's a cesspool of debauchery and hedonism? If their daughters can get their liberal arts degrees at home and at a respectable state school, what would their objection be? Well, other than content. But people can pick and choose their majors and avoid learning about evolution, Big Bang, evil feminism etc. IT classes, engineering, business majors can all avoid subjects fundie find offensive.

I was just wondering since we often talk about how beneficial a "real" education would be for some of the smarter fundie kids. Just that exposure to real academics, to new ideas would be better than CollegePlus or questionable online "universities", right? And the parents will have fewer objections since their children would be at home and won't interact with other heathen students. We all know that even a little bit of real education, of exposure to different ideas could change these kids' lives and make them think about what they've been taught. I think the trend to online classes could be a positive thing for super fundies like the Maxwells and Duggars.

[Miranda]

"We all know that even a little bit of real education, of exposure to different ideas could change these kids' lives and make them think about what they've been taught."

This is exactly what prevents most of these parents from permitting their children to attend college, even online. They simply can't have that and it's to be avoided at all costs.

[E Street Fan]

"We all know that even a little bit of real education, of exposure to different ideas could change these kids' lives and make them think about what they've been taught."

This is exactly what prevents most of these parents from permitting their children to attend college, even online. They simply can't have that and it's to be avoided at all costs.

QFT. It isn't the actual going to class that bothers them; it's the idea that their kids will learn their way of life is bullshit and dump it and them.

[ElphabaGalinda]

I think they still wouldn`t go for it. Anything taught at a ``real`` college wouldn`t be acceptable to the girls, who are only allowed to be homemakers anyways, plus they seem to not like their kids to learn critical thinking skills or how to form real arguments, which online normal college courses would teach. Probably figure if their children learn how to form a proper argument, no way are they staying in the lifestyle. Anything science realted is out of course, but so is anything involving history, since the SOTDRT prefers a religious version. Then they couldn`t take literature, since so many books are considered inappropriate. IT classes are a maybe, and maybe business classes though I think those involve too much critical thinking, but engineering you still need to know science.

So no way will they allow real college. Their belief system doesn`t stand up to any real questioning, and in my experience colleges teach you to question and analyze, no matter the discipline.

[YPestis]

QFT. It isn't the actual going to class that bothers them; it's the idea that their kids will learn their way of life is bullshit and dump it and them.

But we do know they find some professions like nursing and IT do be respectable. Fundies don't mind their kids taking engineering classes but don't want them exposed to evil liberal arts classes or the social side of college. I figure online college classes would mitigate some of that worry but still expose fundies kids (serendipitously) to new ideas. As an engineering student, I had to take a few liberal arts classes but of my own choosing. Maybe knowing that their kids can choose the few liberal arts classes they are forced to take will make fundie parents less concerned that their kids will learn about lesbianism but still force their kids to study subjects in ways they've never been exposed to before. Maybe I'm being too optimistic.

[Arete]

Most of these fundies would not even be able to take advantage of engineering and technology(in terms of being areas of study where they wouldn't have to study history or social issues) due to their poor math skills. SDRT does not cut it for incoming freshman who need to be familiar with Calculus to survive the core curiculum.

Nursing students are exposed to concepts like antibotic resistance (E-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-N) :shhh:, and everybody else needs to be able to write a decent paper. So no, I don't think online college is going to make any inroads with the fundies who are studying themselves into stupidity.

[snarkbillie]

I think they still wouldn`t go for it. Anything taught at a ``real`` college wouldn`t be acceptable to the girls, who are only allowed to be homemakers anyways, plus they seem to not like their kids to learn critical thinking skills or how to form real arguments, which online normal college courses would teach. Probably figure if their children learn how to form a proper argument, no way are they staying in the lifestyle. Anything science realted is out of course, but so is anything involving history, since the SOTDRT prefers a religious version. Then they couldn`t take literature, since so many books are considered inappropriate. IT classes are a maybe, and maybe business classes though I think those involve too much critical thinking, but engineering you still need to know science.

So no way will they allow real college. Their belief system doesn`t stand up to any real questioning, and in my experience colleges teach you to question and analyze, no matter the discipline.

My husband has a Master's in IT and he still had to take things like world history, psychology, biology and etc. Fundies may be able to pick and choose courses but any real degree programs will include humanities and lab sciences and Fundies won't sit for it.

[Sweetpea1]

But we do know they find some professions like nursing and IT do be respectable. Fundies don't mind their kids taking engineering classes but don't want them exposed to evil liberal arts classes or the social side of college. I figure online college classes would mitigate some of that worry but still expose fundies kids (serendipitously) to new ideas. As an engineering student, I had to take a few liberal arts classes but of my own choosing. Maybe knowing that their kids can choose the few liberal arts classes they are forced to take will make fundie parents less concerned that their kids will learn about lesbianism but still force their kids to study subjects in ways they've never been exposed to before. Maybe I'm being too optimistic.

I think they would still be concerned about what would be taught in the class. It might be something that would challenge their belief system and that would be (according to their line of non-reasoning) a bad thing.

[emmiedahl]

I am in a lot of internet classes right now. I can see both sides of it. On one hand, your kid can go to college and not experience the whole college thing--parties, lack of supervision, ungodly friends, etc.

On the other hand, we are still expected to read and think and participate in discussions. The course material is not altered so you will still be learning how mitochondria evolved. My school has a pretty awesome selection of online classes but they are mainly upper division, which means you need to do the first two years in a brick and mortar school. You need to be independent enough to look at the course schedule to see what is due and when, to set up exam proctoring ahead of time, etc. Also, it requires the same amount of time as going to regular classes, and I am not sure fundies are up to the workload. Very few of them strike me as having the work ethic needed. Not to mention the writing skills. :roll:

If you were more concerned about the college environment, then online classes are the way to go. But if you were concerned about exposure to outside ideas or your child being able to clean your house and watch their 27 younger siblings while in class, not so much.

My online state university costs less than CollegePlus once you factor in grants. So that is a bonus. But it only accepts a handful of CLEP credits.

Right now I am taking the most liberal of liberal classes, learning about sex and evolution and women's issues. This is a semester that would make a fundie flip their shit.

[E Street Fan]

Right now I am taking the most liberal of liberal classes, learning about sex and evolution and women's issues. This is a semester that would make a fundie flip their shit.

:lol: This semester, I've got two anthropology classes (Understanding Africa and Lost and Ancient Civilizations--I'm an anthro major), French, and an honors seminar called Class, Race, and American Politics. Now all I can picture is the fundies' response. Maybe they'd pray for me.

[patsymae]

I don't think fundies consider real nursing, which is a demanding profession, to be acceptable. For one thing, you have to have studied science, so if you come in believing Jesus walked with the dinosaurs and the world's population could live in Jacksonville, Fla., you'd be at a distinct disadvantage. Also, you have to understand how bodies work, including those of the opposite sex, and you have to see naked bodies and touch actual people, some of whom are male (assuming fundies see nursing as a female profession), and many of whom are religiously unacceptable. When they talk about nursing methinks they are talking about bandaging booboos maybe up to being a (hopefully supervised) lay midwife, and even then, would they be allowed to nurse, say, an unmarried mom or someone with an STD? Also, I think they see their version of "nursing" as a chance to proseltyze (sorry abut spelling), as opposed to just living out their Christian faith by alleviating human suffering. That wouldn't go over well in most legit medical settings.

[Gil]

My husband has a Master's in IT and he still had to take things like world history, psychology, biology and etc. Fundies may be able to pick and choose courses but any real degree programs will include humanities and lab sciences and Fundies won't sit for it.

Not necessarily. Smith College, I believe, only has one required course -- a composition class of some sort, iirc. Different colleges have different standards.

No matter what they say, I think it has to do with control. It's not about exposure, it's certainly not about graduating debt free -- it's just the same reason fundies have to choose their children's spouses and have their homes within a mile of theirs and homeschool them for all their lives and censor any media they see. They don't want to raise kids, just perfectly manipulable arrows.

Sometimes I feel sorry for the fundie kids around my age. I know for the last two years especially, college has been a huge part of my life and my peers'. It's something to celebrate, finding your place in the world and having opportunities open up to you, etc, etc. I'd be devastated if I were a fundie girl, realizing that from here on out, life will just be a succession of children to care for -- first your mother's kids, then your own.

[luckystone]

I don't think it matters - they will still dislike the content.

[chaotic life]

Even in an online format, you have to learn to see outside of your own ethnocentrism.

Most Fundies preach that there is NO value to education. Most belief systems that thrive in ignorance don't encourage education.

Heck, I took Astronomy online last year (never, ever take a lab science course online without personal access to a scientist). I didn't escape having to learn scientific theories that directly contradicted YEC or even OEC. I still had to learn how suns, planets, solar systems and moons were formed, all the theories on them, as well as form opinions on which seems more plausible explanations and discrediting the theories was NOT an option at ALL, nor was the theory that a sentient being waved his hands and the universe was formed. In fact, I was required to know exactly how old scientists currently believe the universe is and why, as well as how some of the formation theories are discredited based upon the fact that if they were true by themselves, it would put the universe twice as old as scientists currently believe it to me--and that number was in the billions not thousands!