Forget an Essay; Earn a Scholarship With a Tweet

PolygamousRanchKid writes with this quote from a CNN article: "The Kentucky Fried Chicken Foundation is asking eligible high school seniors to tweet a photo that illustrates their commitment to education and enriching their communities. The KFC Colonel's Scholars winner, announced December 15, will receive up to $5,000 per year to pursue a bachelor's degree at a public university in his or her home state. ... Other organizations, perhaps weary of wading through applicants' lengthy essays, also are offering eager students ways to turn a 140-character message into money for college. ... Why a tweet? Jodi Schafer, the University of Iowa's director of MBA admissions and financial aid, told USA Today that application essays were 'becoming unoriginal.' She said 'we're hoping that incorporating social media in the process will help bring back some of that creativity.'"

Comments

Re:Wow

[forkfail]

As a society and nation, we cut funding for education from kindergarten through high school; we slash Pell grants and jack up the interest on student loans.

In a global economy where the one thing that we still do quite well is innovation and technology, we make it progressively harder and harder for the next generation to go to school.

On top of this, we allow science to become political and overly influenced by corporate interests, and all too often treat intelligence and knowledge with mistrust. We flock to watch Snookie, but refuse to take the time to teach our kids how to spell.

So - given this as a backdrop - tweeting for a chance to go to school just seems wrong. Not surprising, but it definitely feeds into the culture of mediocrity that we're building for ourselves.