What is it good for?

There are heated rooms containing paper relics.









There are shelves stacked high.

Noone goes there.

Perhaps they could save on the heating now?

I read through twenty pages of an academic's bibliography.

I couldn't concentrate.

I opened another tab.

News: KKK - Kim Kardashian Kimoji.

It broke the App Store.

1.99 $ you get a butt emoji.

That was worth knowing, I thought.

I opened another tab.

"When it comes down to it, what are unversities really for?"  screamed the article.

I thought that was a good question.

"Universities shouldn't be glorified providers of workplace training" it started.

I agreed...in part.

It made work sound rather vulgar.

Isn't a university a work place? I thought to myself.

"The reality is that work experience - and only that - will teach work skills. Universities needn't bother."

One of the skills that the author suggested as important to learn at university was exam technique.

I wasn't sure that I could agree with that.

I left the classroom.

I met the students on the car-park, talking about their studies.

"We have spent two years just memorising theoretical stuff for exams." they said.

"We haven't actually been able to put any of what we have learnt into practice."

I asked them if they had ever had a dialogue with teachers about what they were learning.

"What good would it do?" they asked.

They coached kids on Saturdays.

I opened another tab:

"My students have paid £9,000 and now they think they own me."   

I wondered what the students paying £9,000 considered that they were buying.

I wasn't too sure what the answer would be.

I opened another tab:

"In a fake online class with students paid to cheat, could professors catch the culprits?"

Nope!

The professors were unable to detect the cheats who passed with an A grade.

I thought of the archives and the floppy disks on the shelves.

Somewhere else, Kim Kardashian broke the App store.