A striking statement on school reform by U.S. Education Secretary, Arne Duncan. Duncan called the 2005 Hurricane Katrina “the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans.” Duncan continued: “That education system was a disaster, and it took Hurricane Katrina to wake up the community to say that ‘we have to do […]
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A warning to start: This video is repulsive, but I can’t stop thinking about it. The scene is Christmas morning, and we see a youth opening a present. He first thinks he’s gotten an Xbox — but then he realizes that his present is clothes packaged in an Xbox container. We see the kid’s emotions
Sadistic gift giving Read More »
[This excerpt is from Chapter 4 of Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault] Fichte on education as socialization Johann Fichte was a disciple of Kant. Born in 1762, he studied theology and philosophy at Jena, Wittenberg, and Leipzig. In 1788 he read Kant’s Critique of Practical Reason, and that reading changed Fichte’s
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Business education is often good at teaching useful business theories and skills, but it is less often good at teaching ethics. Ethics is often seen as irrelevant or as an obstacle, so business ethics is either not included in the core business curriculum or offered as an elective ornament. Claim: Ethics is organically central to
Character and entrepreneurship Read More »
The University of Alabama is canceling three days of classes for a football game in January. The university’s representative notes that “the three canceled class days will not be made up elsewhere on the calendar.” Meanwhile: The University of Wisconsin closed for one day last week when the city got 17.5 inches of snow. Professor
Two universities’ school closings Read More »
Mind becomes numb; Words do not mean; World out of plumb— Man needs caffeine.
A 3 p.m. poem, after hours and hours of exam-week grading Read More »
Over the semester I have been reading and enjoying Michael Strong’s The Habit of Thought: From Socratic Seminars to Socratic Practice. I was struck today by a quotation Strong draws from Peter Drucker’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship: “We have known, for instance, for several hundred years that mathematics is a problem subject in school. A small
Mathematics education Read More »
The estimable Adam Smith, writing over two centuries ago. When you read the following passage, do you find (as I do) that Smith is describing many current public schools and state universities? “In other universities, the teacher is prohibited from receiving any honorary or fee from his pupils, and his salary constitutes the whole of
Adam Smith on accountability in education Read More »