Just got around to digging all the crap out of my boxes and decorating my office here at school. Posters (one promoting reading, another celebrating Chavez-Cesar not Hugo, Postcards (Crazy Horse, Holden Village, Chichen Itza, etc.), and a little printout of an interesting little exercise called “Books that Make You Dumb.” You can see it here. Basically it correlates SAT/ACT scores with 10 most popular books as aggregated from Facebook for each university. Thus we find that students at the school with the highest scores (California Institute of Technology) list the following books as their favorite: Enders Game, 1984, Harry Potter, Dune, Lord of the Rings. The Bible or The Holy Bible is basically tied for first place among most popular books with the entire Harry Potter series but has a standardized test score correlation that places it in the lower 10% of the books. In other words, you could conclude (erroneously) that reading the Bible will make you stupid.
So I posted the full list of books on my door along with the institutional profile for my university which includes books like The Bible, Harry Potter, 1984, Catcher in the Rye, DaVinci Code, and an standardized test score ranking which places us pretty much near the middle of the pack. Then I posed the question: Is this good social science? The correct answer is that of course it’s not. Correlation does not equal causation. There are a myriad of other factors that predict this relationship, and furthermore, SAT/ACT scores don’t actually predict anything other than one’s ability to perform on standardized exams (I’d provide the links to the studies, but I’ve got other things to do), causing many schools to drop them altogether.
Anyway, today a student/person felt the need to tape the following email forward up over the Books that Make you Dumb printout:
We have enjoyed the redneck jokes for years. It’s time to take a reflective look at the core beliefs of a culture that values home, family, country and God. If I had to stand before a dozen terrorists who threaten my life, I’d choose a half dozen or so rednecks to back me up. Tire irons, squirrel guns and grit — that’s what rednecks are made of. I hope I a m one of those. If you feel the same, pass this on to your redneck friends. Ya’ll know who ya’ are.
You might be a redneck if: It never occurred to you to be offended by the phrase, ‘One nation, under God.’
You might be a redneck if: You’ve never protested about seeing the 10 Commandments posted in public places.
You might be a redneck if: You still say ‘ Christmas’ instead of ‘Winter Festival.’
You might be a redneck if: You bow your head when someone prays.
You might be a redneck if: You stand and place your hand over your heart when they play the National Anthem.
You might be a redneck if: You treat our armed forces veterans with great respect, and always have.
You might be a redneck if: You’ve never burned an American flag, nor intend to.
You might be a redneck if: You know what you believe and you aren’t afraid to say so, no matter who is listening.
You might be a redneck if: You respect your elders and raised your kids to do the same.
You might be a redneck if: You’d give your last dollar to a friend.
If you got this email from me, it is because I believe that you, like me, have just enough Red Neck in you to have the same beliefs as those talked about in this email.
God Bless the USA !
Oh, but here’s the best part. The words “no matter who is listening” from the third to last item have been replaced with “no matter what professor is listening.” Oh, and those words have been bolded just in case I might have missed them.
We’re still three weeks away from the beginning of the semester, and I’m already making friends! I can tell that teaching here is going to be very interesting.
