School Questions

I should think that, this being 2010, there are probably websites reviewing schools.At least there's a lot better odds of there being such a website than there are of one of us having been to the precise school that you're contemplating going to.As to the possibility of you being a "token black", my googling shows that PEA has 13% "students of color" as opposed to a 9% average for other schools in the state --- so you will not be a "token" in the sense that they need you to pad out their score to help them prove that they're not racist.This statistic also suggests that (see my first point) it wouldn't be too hard for you to find some black graduates of PEA who could tell you all about this point in some detail.Nowadays, nearly everything anyone wants to know can be answered by judicious use of the internet. Where, in this case, "judicious" means not asking this question of the EvC forum.

I suppose just taking them for who they are is completely out of the question?No. Avoid them. They're like lepers.Or rape victims, or something like that, but I guess they were asking for it.Sheesh.

OK, but you went out of your way to say that such people should be avoided. You needn't have said so. Not saying so would have taken even less "time or space". If you'd been a bit lazier and more casual with your advice, you'd have been less wrong. Instead you took the time and space to state that such people should be shunned --- as an explicit rule that you were passing down to a teenager as to how to live his life.Once more, I say: "Sheesh".Edited by Dr Adequate, : No reason given.

DP.Edited by Dr Adequate, : No reason given.Edited by Dr Adequate, : No reason given.

Oh, look, the conspiracy theorist speaks.He scents a conspiracy.Now, apart from the fact that you have no evidence, what would be the point? There's a reason why a teenager would pretend to be an adult, but why in the world would an adult pretend to be a teenager?And this would have to be a prolonged hoax. For example, last week lyx2no wrote: But also he's been posting here for more than a year, with over 1000 posts, and he's always come across as an honest straightforward kind of guy. But you think that now, suddenly, he's going to play us all for fools ... for no conceivable benefit for himself?I find it easier to believe that he is, as he represents himself, a smart teenager, than that he's a smart adult pretending to be a teenager for reasons that so far escape us.Edited by Dr Adequate, : No reason given.

Well, he definitely said "mom" last week, so we have only one conclusion to draw.HE IS REALLY TWO PEOPLE!!! Or possibly a zombie, I've heard that zombies do that.* sighs *

Yes. I have. Don't piss me off. I didn't know that, I admit that it lends some weight to the conspiracist take on events. Yes, there is a certain family resemblance ... oh, wait ... I can't even explain my own sexual perversions. Que sera sera. Yes, but the fact that people can do it doesn't mean that this is often done. I believe that you're a stand-up comedian, 'cos you say so. Presumably you believe that I have a doctorate in math. And lyx2no says he's 15. Why should we doubt him?I need a reason to believe that someone's a liar. So far everything lyx2no has said is consistent with him being just what he says he is.If I'm wrong, I lose nothing. At the most, I lose a few moments of my life by posting this stuff, and if I really cared about that I could give up smoking.But if you're wrong, you're being needlessly unpleasant to someone who by all the other available evidence is a nice guy.I prefer to err on the side of caution. I'm going to take him at face value until he actually starts asking me for money. What do I have to lose?Edited by Dr Adequate, : No reason given.

But I am. I try to think the very best of everyone. I give creationists exactly the same latitude and benefit of the doubt as I give lyx2no.However, within a few seconds the average creationist will tell me something that is definitely false, at which point I have to think that through laziness or dishonesty they are untruthful.Whereas lyx2no has not forced me into that position.

But maybe the "real skinny" is not "don't eat the meat loaf".I presented you with statistics showing that in no way are you a "token black" at that school. The words "thank you" would have been a sufficient reward.I begin to suspect that you just don't want to hear this. You've been homeschooled, and now you are frightened to step out into a society where you will be a minority and some people will overtly or covertly hate you for the color of your skin.But that, after all, is what you're eventually going to have to do one way or the other. Eventually, you're going to have to live in such a society. You will be best equipped to do so if you start now.Believe me, I know whereof I speak. I never talk about it in public, but feel free to contact me by a private message.