Tag Archives: college

Absent Good Reasons and Evidence, Trust No One

Posted on April 15, 2014 by

I don’t like this t-shirt. It cheer-leads obfuscation, mystification, authority. A better statement would be, “I’m a professor. If I make a claim, doubt it and ask for the reasons and evidence I have in support of the claim. I … Continue reading →

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A Good Thing a Catholic Congregation is Doing in South Africa

Posted on March 3, 2014 by

Congregants recently pulled together enough funds to send to university 31 promising students from some of the poorest townships in South Africa: __________ I personally know of a Catholic priest in Southern California who is doing something similar (raising tuition … Continue reading →

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Read

Posted on August 19, 2013 by

At The Daily Beast, academics and writers were asked to name “one book that [college] students shouldn’t escape campus without having read.” MIT professor and Pulitzer Prize winner, Junot Diaz, picked Toni Morrison’s Beloved because it “stabs straight at the heart … Continue reading →

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Entered Emory, Fell Out of Emory, $60,000 in Debt

Posted on May 28, 2013 by

A cautionary tale of students from lumpen proletariat American families (families that sell their labor but have no assets to speak of) in the New York Times recently: Angelica Gonzales marched through high school in Goth armor — black boots, chains … Continue reading →

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David Foster Wallace’s “This is Water” 2005 Kenyon College Commencement Address

Posted on May 11, 2013 by

Wallace is totally the Buddha in this speech, preaching attentional choice, vigilance in looking, and imaginative awareness. It’s a shame he hit bottom in 2008 and, in the grip of a severe depression (a recurrent scourge that plagued his life), … Continue reading →

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Evolution Outside of the Science Classroom

Posted on March 28, 2013 by

If you’re a college instructor, and the subject of evolution comes up in a class, and you are not a scientist yourself, what should you say about it to your students? Here are some things that might help you think … Continue reading →

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Do MOOCs Spell the End of the Traditional College Experience?

Posted on February 8, 2013 by

At The American Interest Nathan Harden, playing prophet, makes a pretty alarming prediction: In fifty years, if not much sooner, half of the roughly 4,500 colleges and universities now operating in the United States will have ceased to exist. The technology … Continue reading →

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Cooperation, Collaboration, and Imitation for Intellectual Success

Posted on February 2, 2013 by

In a New York Times science article from March 10, 2011 titled “New View of How Humans Moved Away from Apes,” an astonishing finding was reported: a study of numerous hunter-gatherer peoples discovered “that the members of a band are not highly related.” Why is this … Continue reading →

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Look

Posted on December 19, 2012 by

Really. Look. __________ No method nor discipline can supersede the necessity of being forever on the alert. What is a course of history, or philosophy, or poetry, or the most admirable routine of life, compared with the discipline of looking … Continue reading →

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Jonathan Rauch Powerfully Defends Free Speech

Posted on November 21, 2012 by

“We’re not delicate flowers.” __________ I like Rauch’s distinction between purism and pluralism: purism, on his account, protects from offensive speech, presuming that the community must be kept clean from the public expression of certain ideas; pluralism protects dialogue, presuming that … Continue reading →

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The Next Financial Cliff

Posted on October 2, 2012 by

Troubling. Disconcerting.

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Not Waving, But Drowning

Posted on September 12, 2012 by

At the Daily Beast, Megan McArdle sees college as the American middle class’s last desperate bet for economic security in the fast-shifting global economy: If employers have mostly been using college degrees to weed out the inept and the unmotivated, then … Continue reading →

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Ask an Interesting Question, Get an Interesting Answer. Stephen Knapp and Walter Benn Michael’s Anti-Critical Theory Question: What Happens if We Don’t Separate Meaning from Intention and Knowledge from Interpretation? Will This Kill Critical Theory?

Posted on May 27, 2012 by

Within the humanities, contemporary critical theorizing typically entails political commitments, predominantly from the left, accompanied by some line of attack or qualification on Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle (his idea that every communicative act necessarily requires a speaker or author, a message, … Continue reading →

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Ask an Interesting Question, Get an Interesting Answer. Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s Question: Who Wins and Who Loses Under Globalization?

Posted on May 26, 2012 by

Some globalism questions for the object or subject of your contemplation. Of nature: How is this natural object or ecosystem affected by globalization? Of art, literature, architecture, goods-for-sale, photography, advertising, or media: How is this object of human fashioning changed … Continue reading →

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Christopher Hitchens’ Advice to Young People

Posted on April 15, 2012 by

A powerful appeal from Hitchens when he was clearly in decline. Carpe diem. _____ Hitchens would have had his 62nd birthday this past week, and Charlie Rose did a powerful roundtable discussion with four of his closest friends—Salmon Rushdie, Martin … Continue reading →

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Creative and Critical Thinking Watch: Susan Cain on the Power of Solitude

Posted on March 5, 2012 by
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Blessed are the Ignorant: Rick Santorum Adds a Beatitude to the Sermon on the Mount

Posted on February 28, 2012 by

“Blessed are ye who lack degrees, for such is the Party of God.” And they applauded. What manner of man is this? _____ “But woe unto those that are educated, for they art snobs.” Here’s a transcript of Rick Santorum’s exact … Continue reading →

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The Bright American Future

Posted on February 4, 2012 by
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Salman Khan’s TED Talk and Website

Posted on January 19, 2012 by

______ And here’s his exciting website.

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Parallel Universe Watch (the Evangelical One)

Posted on January 11, 2012 by

In the New York Times recently, evangelical Karl Giberson makes the following diagnosis on his own community, in response to advancing secularism: [M]any evangelicals [have] created what amounts to a “parallel culture,” nurtured by church, Sunday school, summer camps and … Continue reading →

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