Making America Great Again Isn’t Just About Money and Power – The New York Times
No, it’s about education. Here is my comment. Op-Eds like this are insightful, well thought out, and well argued, but – and it’s a gigantic “but”, with a gigantically hard solution – what proportion of today’s voters will ever hear this argument, or even understand it if they did? And why? Let’s skip the obvious […]
Wash. Post Columnist Asks “Is a college degree the new high school diploma?”
Here is the link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/01/13/is-a-college-degree-the-new-high-school-diploma-heres-why-your-degrees-worth-is-stagnant/?utm_term=.de10fc02531b#comments I wrote, As a former math professor, I can assure the author that “a” college degree is not necessarily “just” a high school degree. That’s too optimistic. You have to start with college “courses”. Most are not your grandmother’s college course, maybe not even her her high school course. There are […]
Just Grade, Please.
Turning college into a zero-sum game hurts their chances of succeeding after graduation. Source: Why We Should Stop Grading Students on a Curve Here’s my take. I’m a former math professor. From my experience, all of this fuss about grading is really a fuss about how students “feel”; that is, how they feel about their […]
You Sure You Got That?
What Does the Graph Reveal?
In a novel experiment, the Education Department announced Tuesday up to $17 million in loans and grants for students to undergo training at eight entities that aren’t traditional colleges. Source: Obama Administration to Fund Nontraditional Training for Students – WSJ I wrote, After spending decades in one of the most corrupted businesses in America, it is obvious […]
Is a Ph.D. Holder a Qualified Ph.D.? Not Always
As the supply of doctorate holders grows and their academic job prospects dwindle, schools take steps to help graduates find work beyond the academy. Source: Job-Seeking Ph.D. Holders Look to Life Outside School My comment. Advice from a retired math professor: Don’t be fooled by a doctoral degree- or the offer of one. Here is […]
Frank Bruni Recognizes the “Customer” Mentality
“…It’s not only at Stanford and at Ivy League and Ivylike schools that students have gone from being competitors to clients. That’s a shift that’s occurred over recent decades and over the last decade in particular at scores if not hundreds of colleges. And I think customers is a better word for it than clients, […]
The US productivity puzzle – This Financial Times’ Article Implies That Most Economists Miss a Critical Factor
The dramatic slide in US productivity will be one of the defining features of the next president’s economic inheritance. Yet when it comes to diagnosing the causes of the slowdown, or coming up with cures, there is little consensus among economists. Source: The US productivity puzzle: what policies are needed – FT.com This was my comment. […]