Of late I’ve been reading a book by an Australian academic, detailing the decline of the higher education system in Australia. Much like in the United States, a great part of this collapse is due to the influence of the wildly incompetent Educationists (or, as they apparently are called in Australia, “Educationalists”). Like any real […] … learn more→

It has been more than three years since a series of protests and uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East ushered a new sets of dynamics that promised more freedom, economic prosperity, dignity and democracy. Some analysts view the Arab Spring as a critical and significant challenge to the status-quo, even for countries in […] … learn more→

My new book has an odd intellectual provenance—it starts with me being wrong. Back in the fall of 2008, I was convinced that the open global economic order, centered on the unfettered cross-border exchange of goods, services, and ideas, was about to collapse as quickly as Lehman Brothers. A half-decade later, the closer I looked […] … learn more→

As you may have noticed, technologies are developing with a lightning speed right now. Twenty years ago we couldn’t even imagine that computers would have so many functions and accompany us every step we go. Here’s the story: nowadays every more or less well-off person has a tablet, a mobile device and a desktop computer […] … learn more→

This year’s World Cup was supposed to be the “greenest ever”, with FIFA taking measures to account for the event’s greenhouse gas emissions, including an estimated 2.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. As the biggest sporting event on the planet, FIFA is under pressure to take its sustainability measures seriously. It provides a unique opportunity […] … learn more→

I’ve written much of the debasement of higher education, but I primarily focus on things I’ve seen with my own eyes, or things that confirm what I’ve seen. There’s much crud on the internet, and I do not wish to add to it. This focus means that I’ve primarily discussed the dastardly deeds of American […] … learn more→

The “real problem” behind the exploitation of adjunct faculty is quite obvious: universities have continued to produce a reasonable number of Ph.D.’s but no longer are willing to hire a reasonable number of them into full-time, never mind tenure-track, positions. This situation will change when enrollment in graduate programs starts to contract, and even to […] … learn more→

Early in 2013, I was appointed the first full professor of psychology at the University of the South Pacific, which serves more than 25,000 students throughout the 12 island nations in this vast and often breathtakingly beautiful part of the world. It was a late-career adventure for me and my wife. Full professorships are rare […] … learn more→

The making of graphic marks in the form of letters was one of the first activities of early humans. Written words are the visual representation of our spoken language, and handwriting is a personal representation of the diversity of language. Handwriting or “penmanship” has played an integral role in the education of many generations of […] … learn more→

My father used to ask for a student volunteer to come to the chalkboard the first day of the semester. He would then ask that student to draw a line a meter long. A little puzzled, the student would pick up a piece of chalk and draw a line. My father would shake his head […] … learn more→