Trailer for sale or rent, rooms to let 50 cents ...
Perhaps the major problem with the highly lucrative rental industry in a college town like Amherst is an overabundance of rookie renters who flood the market. Annually.
And just as carnivorous coyotes can smell fear, Amherst slumlords can smell naivete.
Enter UMass/Amherst, like the Lone Ranger on his trusty white horse, doing what they do best: education.
Now students can take an online course designed to enlighten them about taking up residence in a rental unit away from home and the university. Probably for the first time.
And this innovative online program is not just for students moving into off campus housing, but also for the landlords who will rent to them. A win win situation.
Now students can learn from experienced professionals rather than learning the hard way, and landlords can show off their Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval from UMass, thus creating trust that they will uphold minimum standards of quality control.
Sort of like the Rental Registration & Permit Bylaw Amherst Town Meeting will enact next month.
The tide is changing.
Although I'm glad to learn that the "tide is changing" isn't it amazing, disheartening, frustrating and beyond irritating, that many young "adults" who apparently have the intelligence to attend college do so (also apparently) without common sense or common courtesy. It's bad enough that our grade schools/teachers often must now take the place of good parenting-now our colleges must try to retroactively do the same.
ReplyDeleteIn judging today's youth, people often fail to realize that they are also judging themselves. Who are the parents of today's college students? They are mostly in their late 40's. The real life skills and common sense should have been instilled in them by their parents. I'm a 'tweener' when it comes to this, as I am in my 30's, but I am sick of people in their 40's and 50's complaining about today's youth. It is somewhat your fault too.
ReplyDeleteExactly my point!
ReplyDeleteAs a matter of fact and as a former UMass student (70's) and parent to former Umass students (90's), I'd say that's where the majority of the fault lies.
Looks like they've been reading this blog and finally taking the suggestions so many offer.
ReplyDeleteAs for this latest generation, I have made numerous instruction videos for large corporations that teach the young folks that to communicate with someone you need to get up from your desk, approach theirs and talk to them in perosn, no not via emails and chat.
Instilled by their parents... funny. Look up the difference in the terms intelligence and emotional intelligence. The latter is the problem.
Walter,
ReplyDeleteI know I'm new to this blog and you but what the heck did you just say, I mean, mean????
I don't think anyone would dispute that a lack of emotional intelligence is a the root of the problem. Perhaps if the "trouble makers" had been properly parented, they wouldn't continue to need parenting.
Walter said...
ReplyDeleteLook up the difference in the terms intelligence and emotional intelligence.
That is, if you didn't learn the difference between those two "terms" in h.s.
This is related to EI.
ReplyDeleteWalter, do you perceive things through a "pink lens" or a "black lens"?
Dispositional Affect, similar to mood, is a personality trait or overall tendency to respond to situations in stable, predictable ways. This trait is expressed by the tendency to see things in a positive or negative way. People with high positive affectivity tend to perceive things through “pink lens” while people with high negative affectivity tend to perceive things through “black lens”.[1]