Fascination Award? No Thank You

On Monday I received an email notice that a post on this blog had caused it to be nominated for a "Fascination Award" in the category of "2012's Most Fascinating Creative Writing Teacher blog." "That's nice," I said to myself. Then, before I got all giddy and jumped around the room (I had better things to do that day, such as finish writing the first draft of Spinster's Folly), I did a Google web search on the Fascination Awards. An entry on the list caught my eye, so I clicked over to the Tai-Wiki-Widbee blog to learn why the proprietor thereof had declined the award. He or she gave compelling reasons why I did not wish to help spread the word, nor ask my readers to "vote" for me, and otherwise divert my attention from what is more important in my daily routine.

Basically, if I put up the "badge" denoting that my blog had been nominated, the link would go to a site that is ultimately involved in funneling students to private online institutions of higher learning that, as I see it from the perspective of having a friend in that industry who is desperately trying to get out of it, serves mostly to separate a student from their student loan money. Tax-payer-provided student loan money that saddles a student with debt for years, if not decades, to come.

My friend sees "doctoral degree" students, who, he or she says, can scarcely string three coherent words together. Draw your own conclusions as to the efficacy or scruples of such programs after you click the links included in Tai-Wiki-Widbee's post.

And that, folks, is why I'm also declining the Fascination Award.