David Kirp has spent worked on higher education issues for a long time and can be outspoken. I was a little surprised at this op-ed http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/09/opinion/how-to-help-college-students-graduate.html?ref=opinion&_r=0. Here is why. “Professor Kirp must realize that the programs that he advocates would be instituted in universities where “”the pursuit of money…has become a virtue” and where “Nowhere […]
Archives for January 2014
Political Science: University of Michigan, too?
January 6, 2014 by
Here is what I found. They use the same text as Washington University, except that I don’t think they have outside readings. On the other hand, if, as is apparently true in Wash. U.’s case, the readings don’t matter, what does it matter what text they use? (See my previous post.) The link to the […]
Political Science Courses – Content Deflation? Just How Bad Is It?
January 6, 2014 by
I recently had a discussion with someone who felt that I might be overreacting to changes in education. My friend felt that it was important to interest students in a subject even if that meant teaching them less. Of course, we agreed that it is a matter of degree. My friend worried that I was wrong about […]
Former Dep’t. of Education official “…thought we were doing God’s work…” when they were WHAT?
January 3, 2014 by
When they were strengthening collection of students loans through what the New York Times characterizes as “ruthless tactics”. (See today’s NY Times article http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/02/us/loan-monitor-is-accused-of-ruthless-tactics-on-student-debt.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=us) Here was my response, “The former Department of Education official “…thought we were doing God’s work…” when they were strengthening collection of money from students, many of whom had paid that […]
Duke University Professor Calls It Like It Is
Michael Allen Gillespie, a professor of political science and of philosophy at Duke University, has written a revealing piece in The Chronicle of Higher Education. I recommend it for its honesty about grading (or not really grading) and about professors “cheating” students by not fairly grading them in a way that shows them what they […]