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Sophomoric

Sophomoric—adjective

This is a combination of two Greek words “wise” and “foolish.” The word “sophomore” goes back to 1684. “Sophomoric” got invented two hundred years later. Here is the definition: “conceited and overconfident of knowledge but poorly informed and immature.”

I never liked the word. It seemed to me to be a “put down” word and I did not appreciate those kinds of expressions. It got worse when it seemed to me to be used by “sophomoric” people. Over the years I have seen many sophomoric people, not all of them sophomores, but I do not recall using the word to describe them.

This is a preamble to tell you that I am about to use the word. It is a descriptive word. It does not take much wisdom and discernment to recognize the characteristics of people pretending to be informed and authoritative. For hundreds of years the male of our species has bragged about his sexual prowess and multiple women. Add to this how much he could drink and not get drunk, or how drunk he could get and how often. There is more; he could also brag about his knowledge, and his athletic prowess and do it all with profanity. There would be competition in actions and in talk but mostly talk. I have lived with this for over 60 years. During this same period of time, university newspapers have been leading the charge in grossness. The editors are sophomoric.

We cannot expect natural men to act like spiritual men; however we can expect some educated men to act like educated men. They are in the university so they should be graded by professors in the Journalism Departments and the English Departments. They should be graded for being sophomoric and flunk.

“Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.” Romans 1:22- This describes these men.

These editors may exercise the freedom of the press granted in the First Amendment to the Constitution. How they have used this freedom is an embarrassment to the university, to the student body, and should be an embarrassment to themselves on their lack of education alone. Because they are free to be “conceited and overconfident of knowledge and be poorly informed and immature” does not mean that this is a prerequisite to be an editor or a writer of a university newspaper.

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