The US education system comes in for a lot of trash talk in the media and by politicians and business people. This has seeped into the public consciousness and it is now taken as a given that the US educational system is in dire straits and needs radical changes in order to be rescued from …
Category Archive: Education and learning
Apr 22 2012
The hare and the pineapple
You may have heard about the infamous question on New York State’s test for all eighth graders that gave them a fable about a hare and a pineapple and then asked them two questions. (You can read the fable and the questions here.) This caused a lot of head scratching by students, parents, and educators …
Apr 17 2012
Those dangerous dinosaurs
I am a little late to this story about how in the US extreme sensitivity to religious people’s beliefs can result in the most bizarre policies being implemented. For example, the New York City department of education has banned certain words in citywide tests because they may upset students. What words? ‘Dinosaur’ for one.
Apr 06 2012
Using education to entrench privilege
Suppose you are in charge of a community college and there turns out to be a huge demand for math and English classes so that students are being repeatedly turned away because they are full. You might think that it is a good thing that people are seeking more education and that the solution is …
Feb 29 2012
Critical thinking and argumentation
If there is one thing that people can agree on as a universal good in education, it is that we should seek to increase the critical thinking abilities in people. Actually, that is not quite true. During the days when the debate over intelligent design was raging in Ohio in 2003, one letter to the …
Feb 21 2012
Unintended consequences
One of the many things I have been fighting against as an educator is the growing tendency to treat students as if they will only learn if they are subjected to a regime of carrots and sticks. Instead of trying to make learning enjoyable for its own sake, many have
Nov 28 2011
Teenager faces down Kansas governor and school principal
High schooler Emma Sullivan refuses to apologize to the governor of Kansas Sam Brownback for criticizing him on Twitter. The governor’s staff apparently scours the internet for unflattering things about him and noticed her tweet and reported her to her school principal who, rather than stand up for Emma’s free speech rights (after all, if …
Feb 08 2011
Case Connection Zone
One of the best things about working at Case Western Reserve University is that it has been very forward-looking and supportive in providing technology to serve the needs of its students, employees, and the community. In the early days of the internet CWRU, with its Freenet system, was the first in the nation to provide …
Dec 28 2010
The secrets of an academic ghostwriter
The Chronicle of Higher Education recently had an article by someone who has made a good living (about $66,000 this year) by writing custom research papers on almost any topic for undergraduate and graduate students who hire him to do their assignments. I’ve written toward a master’s degree in cognitive psychology, a Ph.D. in sociology, …
Aug 25 2009
College as a Disney World of Learning
(Talk given at Case Western Reserve University’s Share the Vision program, Severance Hall, Friday, August 21, 2009 1:00 pm. This program is to welcome all incoming first year students. My comments centered on the common reading book selection Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. Mortenson will be the speaker at …
About the Author
Recent Comments