This is my response to a front page article in the Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304851104579361451951384512 Who knows, maybe I’m being unfair. Maybe it is a fine topic for study. But I don’t think so. (Speaking of English, I think I had better go to my “English Usage” book to make sure I used “who knows” […]
Excellent Op-Ed But, Again, The Author Seems Not Aware of the Fundamental Problem.
March 3, 2014 by
In her New York Times Op-Ed, SUZANNE METTLER, points out how college now increases inequality. This is no surprise to readers of this blog. Here are the relevant posts. American 15-Year-Olds Fall Further Back in Math No Jobs for Ph.D’s? Depends on what you mean by Ph.D. Professor Alfred Doesn’t Know What is Wrong with […]
The Start of Grade Inflation Wonderfully Described by Someone Who Was There
March 3, 2014 by
There is a new comment on my post Education First? or, Endowment First? . I recommend reading the whole comment; but, here, I want to call attention to the excellent description of how much everything changed in such a short time. I will add some thoughts at the end. “When I first started college in 1967, the […]
Princeton Giving Up on Using Grades As Motivation and Feedback?
February 25, 2014 by
“That is my worry. I will state my position as briefly as I can: If the same material is taught to similar students, then the times it is taught with a higher standard for an A, B, etc…. will be the times that, on average, more students will learn more. Now on to what is happening at Princeton. The […]
Tom Friedman’s “How to Get a Job at Google”
February 24, 2014 by
It is good because it quotes the Sr. VP in charge of hiring on the five attributes that companies like Google are looking for in an employee. Here is the link http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/23/opinion/sunday/friedman-how-to-get-a-job-at-google.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&_r=0 I want to point out the following statement from Tom Friedman, “…For most young people…going to college and doing well is still the […]
Good News: WSJ article notes that “Cash-Conscious Families Clamor for Numbers on How Much Students Learn”
February 21, 2014 by
The article is here. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304899704579391513428597546 Here is my comment. “I am a former professor. Far too many universities cater to their naive and uneducated customers – once quiantly called “students”. They do this even when it means NOT educating them – just fooling them into believing they are getting the education they need. This new […]
New York Times Editorial Board: “…the new college campus…does not seem geared to fulfill…the major mission of universities: educating students.”
February 17, 2014 by
This is not the first Editorial from the New York Times on education. But it is the first that I have seen where The Editorial Board seems to be realizing that too many universities don’t see the “new college campus” as a place for education. I have posted here about most of the previous editorials. (I will […]
A Comment on Nicholas Kristoff’s Op-Ed in the New York Times
February 16, 2014 by
I tell him what I think Clark Kerr’s explanation would be for why there are fewer public intellectuals. I also, comment on my own situation in trying to address important public issues. Here is a link to his blogpost, which, in turn contains a link to his Sunday column. I commented on his blog. “I […]
Education First? or, Endowment First?
There is a new post on the Economist site (http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2014/02/higher-education-0) that discusses new research on how universities spend their endowments when times are hard, and when times are good. Essentially, they “hoard” as much as possible, no matter what. The article summarizes the paper better than I can here. I also recommend looking at the paper. […]