First, a few of my beliefs, to clarify the provocative title and scare quotes: Our society doesn’t react strongly enough to the subtle racism, sexism, and generic cruelty experienced by minorities in many communities. The reaction to the specific situation with Danielle Lee is appropriate and useful. We should all be thankful, whatever our gender…
My piece for the Atlantic ran yesterday, on how student learning is not directly connected to exploitative labor policies. I had some interesting conversations, on twitter and over email, so I thought I would share those with my readers. It is also different to work with an editor for another outlet (for a broader readership)…
It seems a requirement that any conversation about higher education in America must begin and end with costs and economic outcomes. Along the way, our economic analysts nod to the power of knowledge (economic research shows it improves career prospects!), or the value of an educated citizenry (it produces more innovation, which of course produces…
“Get some burgers, get some beers data, a few laughs, Dude, our troubles are over.” http://www.metacafe.com/watch/an-KDCB4bbmbh24m/the_big_lebowski_1998_walters_plan/ I thought of Walter’s line in the Big Lebowski while reading Dylan Matthews piece in the Washington Post wonkblog on college costs (part X: How do we fix it?) this morning. Matthews seems to think that better data on…
The Common Core State Standards are an admirable effort to give our students a firm foundation of knowledge, and teachers guidance about content. I’m an advocate of a rich, content-based (rather than skills-based) curriculum, and I sincerely hope that the Common Core is a big step towards that. E.D. Hirsch seems hopeful here (in 2010), and…
I’m putting some finishing touches on my syllabi here the night before classes start, and I thought I would share with my blog readers a one-page statement of my teaching philosophy that I put on each of my syllabi. Anyone do anything similar? Please share in the comments. A note about my teaching philosophy I…
I am trying to be optimistic, and I will get there by the time the semester starts in a week and a half. But today, with the White House releasing its plan to make college more affordable, I am finding it hard. Here’s the bullet pointed version: A Better Bargain for the Middle Class: Making…
This week at the beach I also got a chance to read Chris Hayes’ superb social commentary, “Twilight of the Elites.” Instead of gathering thoughts later to write a blog post, I tweeted some thoughts as they occurred to me. For those of you not on twitter (or don’t follow me, or missed it) here…
So this post is going to be about fixing my house, my dad, and a great great book I’ve read recently. As is my inclination, I’ll find parallels between things and other things. This summer my dad and I (mostly my dad) renovated our front porch and replaced our front door. For a lot of…
Welcome new readers! One of the themes of this blog is how I apply my perspective as a college professor or a cognitive psychologist to a variety of different circumstances, like kindergarten, or feminism, or googling, or school reform. This post is in that spirit, about my experience as a summer camp chess coach. One…
