A ‘Magisterial’ Work on Affirmative Action
“Mend it, don’t end it” was the famous advice on affirmative action from Bill Clinton, who did neither. There are, of course, other useful slogans, such as “Muddle it,” which…
“Mend it, don’t end it” was the famous advice on affirmative action from Bill Clinton, who did neither. There are, of course, other useful slogans, such as “Muddle it,” which…
…Grants, but there are numerous examples of not-for-profit schools doing similar things. The scam here is much broader than the good senatorial critics claim. Most Pell Recipients Don’t Graduate Then…
…classrooms all over the country. The teacher should not stand in front of a class imparting knowledge, goes this philosophy. (Don’t be “a sage on the stage” is the mantra.)…
…colleges often have results of tests like the Critical Learning Assessment that are very useful. The reason colleges don’t want to provide this information is simple: it is embarrassing and…
…freshmen on the first day that they don’t need to study moral reasoning since Harvard College already knows what is right and will show the way to goodness. It’s backwards…
…elite schools. France and England spend much less on physical plant for colleges and universities. Faculty salaries don’t get as high there. The buildings at my French-born wife’s alma mater don’t look…
…them. There certainly are some jobs like that – jobs that absolutely require skills and knowledge that even the sharpest high school graduates don’t have. What I don’t think is…
…mendacious cover stories gone (“we don’t use race but it just so happens….”), the public will now see how the university really operates, for better or worse. Freedom to admit…
…high school teachers to teach the Standards. Whether students learn–and what they learn–depends largely upon what happens inside the classroom as they and their teachers interact over the curriculum….
…The best of the rest would be offered renewable, long-term contracts, say 5-10 years. The next coterie would be offered short-term contracts, say 2-4 years. And finally, those who don’t…
…glimpse of itself, I don’t know. But it is that time of year when it seems allowable to offer a metaphor instead of an argument. Something like throwing marshmallows to…
…saying is, don’t delude yourself that the powerful cultural values that wrecked the lives of so many of my classmates have vanished from the earth. Don’t let the New York…
…out of credentials. I think of science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, who once announced, “I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don’t have…
…workers to compete in the global marketplace. But students don’t need cheaper loans. What they need are loans that give them an incentive to get good enough college educations to…
…me or your lying eyes?” Non-academics cannot imagine just how easily this “don’t believe your eyes” cosmology can be built and imposed on wide-eyed students. Students have already been softened…
…course materials just don’t excite them, or because they don’t seem relevant to their backgrounds and futures. But another reason is that neither the pace of the course nor the…
…not because they have great respect for faculty members. They really don’t, if you really analyze it. But because they have no respect for the speech rights of students. And…
…“I guess people who look like me don’t matter when it comes to discrimination,” she concluded. Equally myopic in her inability to see that “diversity” requires racial discrimination was Barbara…
…could then turn its attention to other matters. But, of course, we don’t have a perfect academy–far from it. As a result, those interested in academic quality, now more than…
…famously said, “Grab a brew. Don’t cost nothing”) suffering the obligatory freshperson lectures given by a feminist counselor on non-alcoholic alternatives to beer and on the need for informed consent…
…benefits of Finnish reform: teacher autonomy in grades 1-9, no external tests or test-based accountability, and a collaborative approach at the school level to the curriculum. But they don’t seem…
…M. Anderson is dean of Humanities, Fine Arts, and Social Sciences at Illinois Valley Community College, and author of The Skinny on Teaching: What You Don’t Learn in Graduate School….
…they assent to the proposition that we are losing productivity because we don’t have a higher college graduation rate. If you don’t have time for Professor Wolf’s book, however, I’ll…
…succeeded in ways that these self-defined outsiders do not grasp. They want to replace “The data show….” with “I feel this to be the truth and don’t contradict me since…
…premium.” We know that many college graduates have to accept jobs that don’t call for any academic preparation whatsoever, and don’t pay more just because the worker happens to have…
…so many Americans don’t hire lawyers” when they genuinely need legal assistance or advice. One reason for that is that lawyers who incur a fortune in student loans need to…
…attending to the issue at hand, and actually learn less in the process. As UCLA psychology professor Russell Poldrak discovered, “multi-tasking adversely affects how you learn. Even if you learn…
…years of college, in large part because colleges don’t make academics a priority,” according to a widely-publicized January report from experts like NYU’s Richard Arum. “36% showed little” gain after…
…expensive system of higher education. So what are students learning? They’re learning about music, movies and the party scene. At Vanderbilt University, a course called “Country Music” can serve as…
…what you don’t know.” Even the venerable American Council of Trustees and Alumni maintains that a college education is ultimately about employability. “A college education is rightly part of the…