Monthly Archives: September 2014

English lessons alone won’t boost employment in South Asia

With a joint population of 1.6 billion, the South Asian countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are home to nearly one quarter of the world’s population. It is the most densely populated geographical region in the world, and one of the poorest. Despite their political, economic and linguistic differences, the countries […] … learn more→

NYU eats world

New York University’s students arrived in August at an institution embroiled in scandal. Universities usually make headlines with sports-related meltdowns, but NYU—the very model of the modern, inflating mega-university—was fending off charges of outlandish payouts and perks to some high-level executives, and of labor and human-rights abuses at its branch campus in the Middle East. […] … learn more→

Colleges must learn how to pay their bills

We have reached a tipping point in public opinion with forecasts by some that as many as one-third of America’s private colleges and universities may not survive the next ten years in their current form. While this represents perhaps three percent of the total enrollment in American colleges and universities, the impact on breadth, access […] … learn more→

Vaccines and Autism, Part 3

So I’m continuing to dissect a CNN article that, despite the title, seems to be mostly about defending vaccines. Nothing wrong with that, but the article doesn’t seem to realize that nearly every tactic that discredits vaccine studies that show a link between vaccines and autism can be just as easily applied to studies that […] … learn more→

Climate Change News from New York

….what WILL NOT happen.   This is from a news story from the Associated Press – flash! The United States WILL NOT join 73 other countries to support a price on carbon. Brazil WILL NOT sign a pledge to halt deforestation by 2030. China WILL NOT agree to President Obama\’s declaration that \”nobody gets a […] … learn more→

Celebrating Freedom: Banned Books Week 2014

I couldn\’t think of a better way to celebrate the power of Banned Books Week than to share something wonderful and deeply touching. In the last several months leading up to this year\’s Banned Books Week I have been humbled and honored to read and share comments and letters I have received from people all […] … learn more→

Hunger games: changing targets and the politics of global nutrition

During the United Nations General Assembly meetings this week, Ban Ki-Moon has convened a high-level side event on the Zero Hunger Challenge. This initiative by the UN Secretary-General bears the tag line “Hunger can be eliminated in our lifetimes”. Specifically, the challenge asks the global community to pledge commitment to meeting five goals: zero stunted […] … learn more→

The kids are all right!

History has always been contested. After all, whoever controls the past controls the future and whoever controls the present controls the past, or so George Orwell once famously put it. The latest example is the brouhaha raised by some conservatives over the College Board’s rather modest revision of the “curriculum framework” for high school Advanced […] … learn more→

Vaccines and Autism, Part 2

Ok, so it’s clear the assumptions of the pro-vaccine crowd are so strong, that it’s reasonable to at least consider the possibility that they’re wrong, that vaccines can actually cause problems, for some people, at least sometimes. I’m not picking on CNN here, but the article is pretty much a template for how mainstream media […] … learn more→

How does temperament affect online student success and retention?

Do certain personality traits increase students’ chances of success in the online learning environment? It’s an intriguing question that has not received much attention, an oversight that Ben Meredith, director of the Center for Distance Education at Southwestern Oklahoma State University, has sought to remedy. “We hear all the time that online education is not […] … learn more→