This is a good editorial. Source: Opinion | Turns Out There’s a Proper Way to Buy Your Kid a College Slot – The New York Times I commented as follows. What do you think those parents – and many others – want for grades? and for course content? And what do you think they get […]
Corporations and Government and Education – Excellent Analysis by Frank Bruni in NY Times
February 11, 2018 by
Source: Corporations Will Inherit the Earth – The New York Times I posted this comment on the page. Here is Thomas Jefferson on the importance of the type of education that is critical to democracy but not to corporations. “…Preach…a crusade against ignorance…improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know […]
David Brooks See the Symptom – But Not the Disease
June 23, 2017 by
Source: Mis-Educating the Young – The New York Times Here is my comment. You have described the symptoms well, but you have missed the disease. The disease is letting higher education operate as a market economy – while assuming that, as a non-profit, it is altruistic. Just listen to Clark Kerr and David Riesman on […]
Frank Bruni Recognizes the “Customer” Mentality
May 11, 2016 by
“…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 Counterfeit High School Diploma – The New York Times (Do They See the Connection?)
December 31, 2015 by
Most states still have weak curriculums and graduation requirements that make high school diplomas useless. Source: The Counterfeit High School Diploma – The New York Times I tried to point out the connection. As a former math professor, I am quite aware of the cause of the problem – and it’s not high school. It’s […]
Columnists at the NY Times Should Not be Making Erroneous Claims About What Universities Do…
October 6, 2015 by
On almost every campus faculty members and administrators are trying to stem…to widen the system’s narrow definition of achievement. Institutes are popping up…designed to cultivate the whole student: the emotional, spiritual and moral sides and not just the intellectual. Source: The Big University – The New York Times Here is my response. Are you kidding […]
New Data Gives Clearer Picture of Student Debt – But What About Student Assets? Do They Have Them? AND What Data? Appropriate Data? I’m Afraid Not
September 10, 2015 by
The increases in debt and default rates are concentrated among students at for-profit and community colleges, even though those students borrow less on average. Source: New Data Gives Clearer Picture of Student Debt – The New York Times Here was my comment. Two points, one just about data, the other simple business sense. First, the […]
“What Is the Point of College?” Asks Prof. Appiah With Faith That It Matters To Colleges
September 9, 2015 by
Is it supposed to train students, or transform them? Can these two perspectives be reconciled? Source: What Is the Point of College? My explanation Here is the real point of college, summed up succinctly by Bill Gross. “…Universities are run for the benefit of the adult establishment, both politically and financially, not students…” (Quoted with […]
Mystery? What Mystery?
Opinion | The Mystery of White Rural Rage – The New York Times (nytimes.com) In this piece Prof. Krugman admits that he is confused. He says he just doesn’t get it. I doubt if he will ever read my comment, but here is what I posted. Prof. Krugman doesn’t get it because it is beyond […]