unskilled

Napoleon Dynamite: Well, nobody's going to go out with me!
Pedro: Have you asked anybody yet?
Napoleon Dynamite: No, but who would? I don't even have any good skills.
Pedro: What do you mean?
Napoleon Dynamite: You know, like nunchuku skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills... Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills.
Pedro: Aren't you pretty good at drawing, like animals and warriors and stuff?
Napoleon Dynamite: Yes... probably the best that I know of.
Pedro: Just draw a picture of the girl you want to take out... and give it to her for like a gift or something.
Napoleon Dynamite: That's a pretty good idea.

JMU was recently successful in its bid to get a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. This has been a long time in coming since the first two attempts to get a chapter were unsuccessful. For those of you unfamiliar with PBK, it's the oldest academic honor society in the United States and was founded at William and Mary in 1776. I was inducted into the Alpha chapter of South Dakota as an undergrad, and now that JMU has a chapter, any faculty or staff members who are already PBK are considered charter members.

We had an organizational meeting last week Friday. Part of our discussions revolved around which majors and courses would make a student eligible for induction into PBK. PBK supports and honors traditional liberal arts and sciences education, and evidently any course or major that is "skill based" is automatically discounted. Business, education, and journalism are suspect because "they involve skills."

This leads me to assume that as a PBK member I must be unskilled. I just wanted to let you all know in case you ever expected me to accomplish something that involved the use of practical skills, you will be severely disappointed as I am highly educated but completely unskilled.