1981: Over-Educated Housewives
September 15, 2021
By AHNZ
Today in history, 15 September, 1981, the Prime Minister took a swing at over-educated housewives in Auckland University’s student magazine Craccum.
These days, universities have expanded their ‘services’ to most everybody they can get. No more is higher education for the intellectual high performers, it’s for everyone who come with $$$$ attached.
This means the inflation of the value of what tertiary qualifications mean. Many are educated beyond their intelligence. The thinking seems to be that people are smart because they have qualifications rather than that they are awarded qualifications because they are smart/educated.
Some universities even lower their entry standards to include Maoris and Pacific Islanders who would not otherwise make the cut. I assume the students on those courses, if they are white, are excluded from extra help on the course to help them pass. In the news this week, Otago University are concerned there are too many Affirmative Action students and are seeking to draw a line by capping it!
Otago University says it will fight a legal challenge to its scheme designed to boost the numbers of Māori and Pasifika students entering its medical school. The Mirror on Society Policy, introduced in 2012, means domestic students fitting into special categories…get preferential entry into Otago medical school. – Stuff (2020)
Otago University medical school’s closed-door discussions about capping the number of special entry students….The Medical Council and the Race Relations Commissioner have joined Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield in stressing that the sooner the medical workforce reflects the communities it serves, the better.- Caution urged over ‘out of blue’ proposal to limit special pathway for Māori, Pasifika at Otago Med School, Stuff (2020)
Craccum: Well then, is a Bachelor of Arts in English a waste?Muldoon: In come cases, yes. In the arts schools we are spending vast sums of money producing well educated housewives.CRACCUM: Is that such a bad thing?Muldoon: Well, providing they can cook, no.
ref. Craccum (1981,) thebookshelf.auckland.ac.nz
Ref. Covid 19 coronavirus: University agrees to admit some students without University Entrance due to Covid lockdowns, NZ Herald (2020)
Update Sep 2021: “”People say you have to be brainy and smart to be a doctor, but….”..Hunter said the support she had received had been amazing.” Oh dear. Ref. Mum of five, Dr Tawa Hunter, named New Zealand Junior Doctor of the Year, NZ Herald
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