Should math be taught in schools?
Props, yo. (And thanks to Wendy Redal for passing it along….)
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A note to the Penn State community: We support you
I love sports and have my whole life. Ask anyone who knows me. But thanks to my upbringing, I have never been one to lose perspective where athletics are concerned. My grandparents never let me think for a second, for instance, that playing was as important as studying and the lesson stuck. The state of big money college sports appalls
Read moreObama is talking the talk. Must be campaign season…
Yesterday, on Facebook, one of my friends posted a graphic of the president and this recent quote, which is making the rounds: I reject the idea that asking a hedge fund manager to pay the same tax rate as a plumber or a teacher is class warfare… And today, over at the Great Orange Satan, msblucow has an interesting poll
Read moreGetting hired and getting ahead: five important tips for the career-minded college student or recent grad
My alma mater, Wake Forest University, has a “career connectors” group on LinkedIn, and there’s currently a thread where one of the university’s career dev folks asks for some input on a project she’s working. Specifically, she asks: “If you were hiring a recent graduate, what top five professional skills do you want him/her to possess to be a strong
Read moreSaturday Video Roundup: beauty queens, history and current events
This morning, a pop quiz. One question. Compare and contrast the following two videos. First video (the money shot begins around 0:13).
Read moreThe University of Colorado provides a handy how-not-to lesson in re-branding
The University of Colorado recently announced that it “will be phasing out its hodgepodge of logos, replacing them with a standard CU symbol.” University spokesman Ken McConnellogue says that “It’s important for the University of Colorado to be consistent and coordinated with its messages and images. In a world where people are bombarded by images and messages, we can’t afford
Read moreWhy don’t the free marketeers of education believe in, you know, the free market?
If I’m a parent, or a prospective employer, or the admissions committee of a university, what I really want to know is whether a particular young man or woman is qualified at X level, however we define that, right? I can look at the transcript and see that she had a 3.24 GPA and that tells me something. But it
Read morePositive freedom vs. negative freedom: what are your dreams on Martin Luther King Day?
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream, and by now hopefully most of us have heard the famous speech where he explained that magnificent vision. We have dreams, too, every one of us. Not all of our dreams are lofty and worthy, though. Not all of our dreams make the world a better place. Some of our dreams are
Read moreCalifornia should secede from the Union: a semi-modest proposal
You may have heard that the State of California is facing a monster deficit. Figures bounce around a bit, but most estimates have the shortfall at or near $28 billion, and the mess has Gov. Jerry Brown pondering Armageddon: enough posturing and arguing – he seems prepared to let the citizenry see how it feels about the reality of shutting
Read moreDo we really need journalism programs in order to have great journalists?
Back in August, the University of Colorado proposed the discontinuance of its School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Since I hold a doctoral degree from the SJMC, I was more than a little bit interested. The move stood to affect people I know and regard highly, and I couldn’t help wondering how badly shutting the doors would devalue my degree.
Read moreWhat would a progressive society look like? The Tricentennial Manifesto
One of my lists is currently engaged in a fairly dynamic discussion about “what is a progressive?” In thinking about the issue, I realized that it might help to ask the question a slightly different way: what would a progressive society look like? Maybe I can better understand what it means to be progressive in 2010 if I reverse-engineer the
Read moreEducation: shifting paradigms
If you haven’t seen this video, which is built around a talk from Sir Ken Robinson, it’s 11:40 well spent. I tend to be skeptical about many approaches to “reforming” education because all too often they’re either about enriching somebody at the expense of student and social well-being or they’re pandering to leveling impulses that are guaranteed to make us
Read moreAmusing ourselves to death, circa 2010
This is the future – people, translated as data. – Bryce, Network 23 The future has always interested me, even when it scares me to death. I wrote a doctoral dissertation that spent a good deal of time examining our culture’s ideologies of technology and development, for instance (and built some discussion of William Gibson and cyberpunk into the mix).
Read moreWhen professors attack (each other): a response to “What exactly is a doctorate?”
A friend and colleague passed along a Gizmodo article today entitled “What exactly is a doctorate?” First, take a second to look it over, and make sure you sift through the comments, as well, because I think they’re important to the point I want to make. I’ll begin by acknowledging three important things. First, the writer (Dr. Matt Might of
Read moreSpoken Word: Sam Smith at Writing the Rockies
I spent the weekend up in Gunnison at the annual Writing the Rockies Conference, hosted by Western State College. While there, I got to enjoy weather that was staggeringly beautiful, great beer from the Gunnison Brewery and the Crested Butte Brewing Company (Gunnison’s GABF Gold Medal-winning Summertime 69 was righteous, by the way), outstanding readings and seminars from the likes
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lullaby pit 