Penn State University's Office of Student Affairs and President Graham Spanier...
produced a video featuring a "stereotypical "aggressive" veteran who threatens his professor." First and foremost, bravo on making yourselves look completely ignorant and uneducated. I do not know why this video was produced, I do not understand what point this video was attempting to make, and I do not understand why a group of people would go out of their way to make veterans seem unstable and irrational.
It’s hard enough to be a veteran and enrolled in college. Regardless, students and even professors already have preconceived notions about veterans. So not only do veterans have to prove they’re good students, intelligent, eager to learn…they also have to answer questions their peers may have, debunk absurd stereotypes, and show they are obtainable…not ticking time bombs like this video portrays them to be.
Veterans can only do so much. Somewhere along the line one can only hope the general public attempts to educate themselves…and produce a more accurate video. Maybe Penn State should invite a group of veteran students to speak at their school…this way we can speak for ourselves and allow the students to know what it’s really like to be a veteran in college.
Thanks for nothing Penn State and hats off to a brilliant President…clearly you’re all in good hands.
Here's the bullshit video...
It’s hard enough to be a veteran and enrolled in college. Regardless, students and even professors already have preconceived notions about veterans. So not only do veterans have to prove they’re good students, intelligent, eager to learn…they also have to answer questions their peers may have, debunk absurd stereotypes, and show they are obtainable…not ticking time bombs like this video portrays them to be.
Veterans can only do so much. Somewhere along the line one can only hope the general public attempts to educate themselves…and produce a more accurate video. Maybe Penn State should invite a group of veteran students to speak at their school…this way we can speak for ourselves and allow the students to know what it’s really like to be a veteran in college.
Thanks for nothing Penn State and hats off to a brilliant President…clearly you’re all in good hands.
Here's the bullshit video...
posted by GI Kate at 11:50 AM
5 Comments:
This comment has been removed by the author.
I understand your frustration but I think you give too much credit to people for their idiotic "targeting" of vets for this, that, and the other thing. I honestly think that most people are just morons who are easily taken to stereotypes and misconceptions as a result of their inability to properly reason. This includes those so called educated types from Penn State who make such videos. I don't think it's so much that they expect vets to go crazy as that they heard that "this one time one did" and therefore it could happen so we'll head it off before it does. The video should obviously be targeted at the behavior of "disturbed students" fitting some category that isn't just veteran but that's in a perfect world. You must keep in mind this is a video made by the left. Young people who go off and are trained to use guns and kill people who are different! They're obviously going to come back and need to kill more people who are different in other ways, it's the natural progression. I don't disagree with you but I guess I have far less optimism that society will ever recover from the level of retardation we have achieved. Bitching about it is good, we all need to but in the end it just gives us a heart attack and changes nothing. Stupid is stupid no matter how little we like it.
What is MATT is against the war and the prof. doesn't know it?
That's "What IF Matt..." sorry, typo.
I watched the video and also wondered, "Why did Penn State make this video?" So I looked it up. It turns out it's from a series of videos produced by their Office of Student Affairs called "Worrisome Student Behaviors." Other videos include students that are depressed, girls feeling sexually harassed, dealing with people, in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, that seem to bring up violence a lot in class, etc. Each video is followed by a discussion with faculty members about positives and negatives of the way the video faculty member dealt with the problem scenario and a list of resources the university offers to help faculty with situations they find troubling.
I am definitely a lefty, so some of your readers can write me off if you want, but my best friend was an Army Ranger for six years before an injury from a helicopter accident left him unable to serve, so I'm not unsympathetic to veteran needs. I read a lot of milblogs and have a lot of respect for veterans who decide to go to school after their service, veterans like you, Alex Horton, Jason from 13 Stoploss, and Suspect (when he finally gets out). From what I've read on several blogs of veterans (including yours), it's hard to be in school with a bunch of kids your age or slightly younger who have had such little interaction with the world, and who show little interest in how they got to their place in it. I'm not anywhere close to saying all veterans are like the guy in this video, but part of making it easier for veterans in to be in school is to make sure, when they show signs of significant frustration like this guy does, there are resources to help him do better and stay in school. I think it's reasonable to say you think Penn State could have handled it better, but do you really want to say it's not something Penn State should concern itself with? Penn State has 84,000 students spread out over 24 campuses (according to wikipedia). I caution you not to patronize their faculty by thinking this video would bias them against vets or unrealistically think no veteran or professor might struggle with each other.
No, I didn't go to Penn State. But it seems as though veterans feel abandoned when no one talks about what their needs might be (understandably so) but then attacked when someone tries to start the conversation. I'd hate to see someone as clearly intelligent and articulate as you are fall into that trap.
Post a Comment
<< Home