For Those in Pursuit of Higher Education!

[GRACE]

Thanks all for the well wishes and for those of you in the same boat--Good Luck as well!

Sounds like alot of you have some really interesting and (difficult?) classes ahead of you!

I can't believe I am taking this many classes but I will graduate next semester after completing my internship.

Jarhead, your book sounds like a lot of the books I have had in the past. It is amazing how one-sided the authors are!

Heck, anything over 12 units is alot of work especially when you are working but as said in previous posts it pays off in the end.

My final rant though is the cost of textbooks these days!!! Mine were over $500 this semester, ouch (no more beer money )........

[ 09-07-2002, 04:12 AM: Message edited by: GRACE ]

[Godside]

Books For This Semester: $255.00
Tuition,Food & Lodge: $7,000.00+
Getting Married in May: Much more than the above combined.

Me graduating college: Priceless.

[Sam]

One line from one of my textbooks went like this "The riots in Los Angelos following the Rodney King verdict were a result of the racism within the police department." No explaination provided beyond that.

[555]

I'm taking 13 credits. That's four classes. Four nights a week, 720-10pm, after working from 8am to 6pm. Never mind commuting time in Northern VA. I spend most of class trying to stay awake or fighting the urge to toss my pen at the Professor.

[RachelR]

I was feeling adventureous and signed up for 6 classes this quarter. I'm recently changing majors from criminal justice to New Media and have a lot of catching up to do.

On the plus side.. my classes sounds like they will all be interesting and might even be fun. I don't start until the end of September.

[ 09-07-2002, 11:17 PM: Message edited by: RaychelR ]

[MK219]

I've enrolled in a CJ course, it works well for my situation, which is married with 2kids, working 50+ full-time, researching departments to get hired on.

my course load

It is an accredited colllege,each course is 3 crdits x 20 courses = 60 credits(associate degree).
Right now I'm studying personal finances, P.I.T.A. but it all for a good cause. Me being a LEO!

But as for the Legal/policing courses, I'm learning alot.
I don't think I could handle having to go back to school right now, not with my schedule. Best of luck to you all

[Delta_V]

I'm taking 18 hours this semester and also working 24 hours a week. Glad that I've only got two semesters to go after this one.

Speaking of bad CJ textbooks, try looking at "The Mythology of Crime and Criminal Justice" By Kappeler and Potter. Some of the topics...

The MYTH of police stress
The MYTH of police suicide
The MYTH of police alchoholism
The MYTH of police divorce

...etc. etc, you get the idea. It's also a piece of propoganda for drug legalization.

[ 09-08-2002, 09:15 PM: Message edited by: PatrickM98 ]

[555]

Has anyone used Clockers 'Thinkimg About Police'?

I'd be interested in anyones take on this.

[jarhead6073]

It bugs me to have text books that are so left slanted. It would bug me to have books that are very slanted to the right too but I don't have any of those. It just seems to me that text books, especially for intro courses, should be more balanced. Talk about the far left if you want to but talk about the far right too.

[CinaC]

I agree with that: text books should be balanced. I remember one text that had an intro by the authors that pointed out that they had liberal political leanings. They had tried to write an objective text, but pointed out that bias might unintentionaly creep in, and I liked that the authors brought it to the students attention (assuming said student bothered to do any of the reading).

I also found my Criminology Text. Adler, Mueller, Laufer.

[Delta_V]

quote:

---

Originally posted by jarhead6073:
Talk about the far left if you want to but talk about the far right too.

---

The thing is, there really aren't many textbooks written with conservative views since most professors (especially the well-known ones who write the most commonly used books) are liberals. That is especially true with professors of the social sciences.

[Sparky]

It's exactly that severe liberal slant that keeps me from continuing towards my degree in CJ.

Like some folks have said, I want thorough and balanced education. Sure, I want the stuff from the left, but I also want the stuff from the right. Leave it to me to form my own opinions and conclusions, thank you.

And they will tell you all of this in the same breath as advocating a formal education because it is "needed" so that yo can be "well rounded" and learn to study things in a fair and objective manner. BULLSH*T! Don't pee on my leg and tell me its raining! I don't need a college degree to figure THAT one out!

Interesting that someone posted about getting a security post job. That's how I got into LE. I had no plans or inclination to be the po-po. I was going to school part-time working the usuall BS jobs when a friend of mine got a job working a guard shack.

He came back and said it was great getting paid to do homework and actually getting more hours in.

I went for it and it was a good gig. Through this, I got to know a bunch of off-duty cops working second jobs and the rest is history.

I ended up working in LE with plans of finishing my degree... but I never have.

Every now and then I think about going back, but I don't think I would study CJ. I'd really enjoy ancient history, but they don't offer any programs in that locally. And I'm not moving and starting over just so I can be close to a university. I've got Amazon.com bookmarked in my favorites folder!

[555]

Why is it that so many learned people tend to be liberals? Most police text books are written by people who are former police or have some involvement in LE? Being that police tend to be so conservative what sets the ones writing the books apart from the rest?

[Sparky]

555,

I'll take exception to that. I know plenty of "learned people" who aren't liberals.

And whether or not a book has a liberal or conservative slant depends on the text. None of my books on homicide investigation, pathology, etc. have a liberal or conservative slant because things such as sociological theories and opinions have no place in those texts.

The liberal slant tends to come in your sociology courses where the authors, professors, deans, etc. tend to be very liberal and, for the most part, tend to not have ever been cops. They might have what you call "some involvement" (which is a pretty broad brush that most defendants would fall into, I'd reckon).

And even within sociology, there are plenty of texts written with either a more balanced or a completely conservativ view. But these do not tend to be chosen by the commitees that choose the text books if those commitees tend to be liberal. And most academics tend to be liberal. Not a hard fast rule, but certainly a tendency.

But do not take this to mean that most "learned people" are liberals. Perhaps people who tend to be professional accademics and teaching professors tend to be liberals, but there are tons of "learned people" out there who represent a very wide variety of views and opinions.

[555]

Sparky,

I wasn't implying that there are no conservatives among learned people. However, from my experiences as well as text book authors it seems that the majority of them do tend to have liberal leanings.