Clemson University professor C. Bradley Thompson has a good article answering the question “Do Corporate Donors Threaten Academic Freedom?” It prompts me to post here my remarks from 2008, then published as “The Ethics of Outside Funding” [pdf]. The text follows: THE ETHICS OF OUTSIDE FUNDING Stephen R. C. Hicks Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship […]
Corporate funding and academic freedom Read More »
Interview conducted at Rockford University by Stephen Hicks and sponsored by the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship. Hicks: I’m Stephen Hicks. My guest this evening is Professor Jerry Kirkpatrick from California State Polytechnic University in Pomona. He is the author of a new book, Montessori, Dewey and Capitalism. Tonight he gave a lecture to the
Jerry Kirkpatrick on Montessori and Dewey (interview transcript) Read More »
The opening of my latest column at EveryJoe: “Many people complain about how education has become so expensive. Mostly, they are wrong. “Schooling has become more expensive, but consider the cost of the following awesome education resources: Khan Academy for learning math: Free. Louvre Online for experiencing and studying art history: Free. Google Translate for
Is Education Really Too Expensive? [new The Good Life column] Read More »
I gave a talk in June at a conference sponsored by Fundación para la Responsabilidad Intelectual (FRI), Junior Achievement Argentina, and the John Templeton Foundation. When I was in Buenos Aires, FRI also did three short videos of me addressing questions. Here is a 6-minute video of me on “What Is a Real Education?”: More information on Fundación para la
“What Is Real Education?” — short video from Buenos Aires Read More »
An example of using social fear to intimidate students who might ask the “wrong questions.” From a review of Rebecca Goldstein’s Betraying Spinoza: Goldstein tells of “the particularly Jewish way in which Spinoza entered her life. It initially happened, she tells us, in a yeshiva high school for girls. Her favorite teacher, Mrs. Schoenfeld, told
Spinoza as cautionary tale about asking the wrong questions Read More »
Data on faculty composition in higher education: 1969: 21.7% non-tenure track and 78.3% tenure-track positions. 2009: 66.5% ineligible for tenure and 33.5% tenure-track positions.[1] Three questions about quality in higher education, in light of the data. 1. Do adjuncts or tenure-trackers deliver better instruction? Adjuncts tend to be younger, hungrier, more excited about being instructors,
Adjuncts and academic quality in higher education Read More »
Here is the PDF of my chapter “How Can We Make Entrepreneurs?”, which was published in Shawn Klein’s edited volume Steve Jobs and Philosophy (Open Court, 2015), pp. 53-66. Click on the image at left to see a larger view of the cover. My chapter begins by noting Steve Jobs’s troubles within the formal school
How Can We Make Entrepreneurs? *Steve Jobs and Philosophy* Read More »
Arguments for government involvement in education are many. They include the views that many parents cannot afford to educate their children, that private philanthropy cannot make up the deficit, that too many parents don’t care enough about education, and more. At the same time, government involvement in education has risks: * Less parental control over
Education’s “Public Choice” Dynamic Read More »