Monthly Archives: May 2015

Reverting to the slave economy

A recent column by Noam Chomsky on The Death of American Universities touches on a few of the concepts in higher education in my blog, but also mentions a theme of modern society, one that hasn’t been seriously investigated. That theme? We’re turning into a slave economy. For most of human history, societies were based […] … learn more→

What’s the “value added” of a College degree?

In a recent release titled “Beyond College Rankings,” Jonathan Rothwell, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, examined the “value added” of two- and four-year colleges in the United States. In doing so, Mr. Rothwell assessed the difference in the expected economic success of alumni and the actual outcomes of graduates. The conclusions are based on […] … learn more→

Skip the department meeting

In a controversial recent essay, Emily E. VanDette recounted how a search to fill a tenure-track position — that increasingly rare object of legend — ultimately failed because the non-tenure-track faculty insisted on having a voice in the search and a vote on the hire. The column did not accuse the non-tenure-track faculty members of […] … learn more→

Competence, performance, and climate

Noam Chomsky’s distinction between competence and performance has been controversial in linguistics and psycholinguistics for 50 years. The proponents of generative grammar presuppose it and rely on it, and have tried explaining the distinction many times, often unsuccessfully. I recently came across a neat way to encapsulate it that comes not from a linguist but […] … learn more→

Professor gives Christian a hard time…admin doesn’t care.

So, last time around, we saw a professor give a student zero after zero on writing assignments, in an era of higher education where it’s extraordinarily rare to give out such grades. It’s very clear the professor has an agenda of indoctrination into his own particular mythology, one I won’t honor with a discussion of […] … learn more→

Have I got “advice” for you…

I want you to imagine that you are going to build a fence. You have a wide choice of potential materials and style. Well and good. But you haven’t build a fence before, so where do you go for some advice? You can: (1) go to someone who has built a fence – yes one […] … learn more→

Professor unfairly treats a Christian…admin pleased?

Previously we had a professor fail an entire class because of their cheating and wildly disrespectful behavior…admin stepped in and will pass the students, because administration feels the professor is being unfair. Ok, the professor was being unfair…but that actually is how it works. As a great counterpoint, I would like the gentle reader to […] … learn more→

Students are opting out of testing. How did we get here?

“Opt Out,” a civil disobedience movement against state-mandated testing in elementary and secondary education, is growing rapidly across the United States. Last year, Opt Out protests occurred in about half the states. This year, the movement has found support across all 50 states. In New York state alone, the number of students opting out has […] … learn more→

Does fracking induce earthquakes? Yes, but maybe not why you think

Hydraulic fracturing — less formally known as fracking — has drawn the ire of many environmentalists due to earthquakes and other issues, despite its positive contribution to United State’s shale oil boom. For those in need of a quick refresher, fracking is a high-pressure drilling method that recovers oil and gas from shale rocks deep […] … learn more→