If you were maybe sticking your head in the sand and hoping to wait this economic slump out by pretending it’s not happening, then don’t read these denial-crushing articles.

The New York Times is reporting that college students (and/or their ‘rents) are paying more for less. Excellent.

College students are covering more of what it costs to educate them, even as most colleges are spending less on students, according to a new study.

The study, based on data that colleges and universities report to the federal government, also found that the share of higher education budgets that goes to instruction has declined, while the portion spent on administrative costs has increased.

And the Associated Press has an equally optimism-crushing article about tuition rates rising at exactly the same time that college-money stockpiles have been decimated by a sucky stock market and limited access to second mortgages.

Most high school seniors and their families have not made final college plans for next fall. But they know this: It’s probably going to cost more than they had planned.

Even in good economic times, states and colleges have largely failed to hold tuition increases in line with inflation. Now as the slumping economy forces states to slash spending, students can expect the sharpest increases in years.

I would advise next year’s freshmen to wait a few years on attending the four-year schools and head to a community college instead. Unfortunately, that’s what everyone else is probably going to do, which means it’ll be hard to get in, let alone get the classes they’ll need. Taking online versions of some general ed courses through a community college would circumvent the overcrowding issue (making sure the credits are transferable is a necessary step in that process).

Taking a gap year doesn’t really work because, you know, that takes money.

The only other option I can see would be for students to head off to college as planned, but to take a light enough course load so that working part-time won’t derail the knowledge absorption.

There’s also the live-at-home, work-at-the-convenience-store option, which will no doubt inspire all takers to higher-education greatness once they’ve escaped and have catapulted themselves into college and beyond. Those kids will do whatever it takes to never ever have to return to either home or minimum wage. See how I pulled that shred of optimism out at the last second?

Related Previous Posts:

“Wobbly Time for College Tuition”
Pokémon Economics
Higher Ed Budget Cuts in California and Washington
Adventures in Education: Paying for College
Investing in Students’ Futures

Posted by Alexa Harrington

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If I were going to be in the Purchase, NY area on February 2nd, I would buy my tickets immediately so I could attend author Frank McCourt’s talk about his childhood, his teaching career and his writing life.

McCourt’s discussion is part of Purchase College’s “Conversations on Creativity, Craft and Career” series. I’ve read McCourt’s first two memoirs, Angela’s Ashes and ‘Tis, and am currently reading his most recent book, Teacher Man.

It would be a happy way to spend an evening, to sit in a room with someone who has led such an interesting life and to listen to them tell the story of how and why they went from Point A to Point B, and what bits and threads went in to making them the sort of educator they turned out to be. McCourt was never considered a conventional teacher, and it’s almost always the odd ducks that have the better story to tell.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

image credit: simon and schuster

I use “awesome,” “great” and “amazing” way too often, so today we’ll be using the word “resplendent,” as in: Please check out MakeUseOf.com’s resplendent list of 10 Online Learning Tools for Students.

I have always had a thing for old, high-ceilinged chemistry lab classrooms full of blackened, soapstone-topped lab tables, and have therefore always preferred my periodic tables dusty, curling at the corners, yellowed with age and hanging high on lab classroom walls. But for sheer information-density and doohickey-depth, the Dynamic Periodic Table is a close second to the authentic version.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

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An informational interview is one of the more valuable modes of discovery for really understanding a given career. There’s no better way of figuring out what the job actually entails on a daily basis, what the education requirements might be, and what type of person would do well/be happy in said career. And that right there is the best part of the interview: figuring out the personality type that meshes so well with someone’s chosen field, and listening to them explain how they got from Point A to Point B on their career path.

The circuitous routes are fascinating, the direct I-Knew-What-I-Wanted-To-Be-Before-I-Could-Walk routes are compelling for their intense focus, and then there are the one-eighties who about-face partway through and head in the complete opposite direction. Honestly, when I’m at a dinner or a party and I’m forced to abandon my reclusive tendencies and talk to humans I don’t know, finding out how they got where they are professionally is much more interesting to me than what it is they do all day.

The Pursue the Passion project has an entire section of their site devoted to archived informational interviews. The idea behind the project is amazing all on its own:

Pursue the Passion started as a group of college students who had no idea what to do with their lives after graduation. The solution to their dilemma was to hit the road and explore different career options by interviewing people about their career paths. They found a sponsor in Jobing.com, bought an RV, and started exploring the possibilities. Sixteen thousand miles and hundreds of interviews later, their concept has turned into a flagship program of the Jobing Foundation.

Equally fabulous is the collection of interviews they’ve archived. Most of the interviews are conducted by the PTP team during the annual tours they take in their RV. Interviews are also conducted by high school students who’ve hit the school project jackpot and get to pick the brain of an adult currently living the teenage interviewer’s career dream (stuntman, video game designer, etc.). It’s a learning experience, so the teachers approve, and it gives the kids a much more realistic picture of what their fantasy job involves.

Pursue the Passion interviews are listed by Industry, by Name, by State or by Title.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

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At one time in the not-so-distant past, home-schooling was an option chosen mostly by parents who wanted their kids out of the mainstream education system for religious or moral reasons. As either a sign that parents these days are much more involved with their kids’ education, or that the education system in this country is so broken that parents feel they can do a better job of educating their kiddos than the schools can, more parents are choosing the home-school route.

The number of home-schooled kids hit 1.5 million in 2007, up 74% from when the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics started keeping track in 1999, and up 36% since 2003. The percentage of the school-age population that was home-schooled increased from 2.2% in 2003 to 2.9% in 2007.

Some of the newer motivations parents have these days for wanting to home-school their kids are financial, increased family time, and “unschooling.” The unschoolers are the parents who want to move away from standardized curriculum and toward a non-traditional approach to teaching and learning.

As a parent interested in education, I tend to come across a lot of parenting and education blogs. There exists a solid contingent of parenting blogs by dads who have opted to stay home with the kids and do the home-schooling themselves. It’s like modern-day Sensitive Dad DIY stuff. And you know those dads win at any playground they go to; not only do they care enough about their kids’ well-being to opt out of the rat race, they also want to be in charge of the big learning project and do it all themselves.

As long as kids are being educated and have access to frequent social interactions with other kids, I don’t really care where their schooling takes place. I, myself, have nowhere near the level of patience required for staying home all day and teaching my kids what they need to know to survive. I can barely handle the weekly play dates my children have with their friends. The parents who are comfortable being home all day with kids AND who can spend hours every day teaching them have my utmost respect.

Since home-schooling will clearly never be an option for my family, I will always need to be involved with my kids’ schools and their policies on the two issues that would tempt me to jump ship and teach my kids myself: teaching to the test and recess reduction. Thus far, my daughter’s elementary school and my son’s preschool are maintaining a safe distance from my Limit Fence on those two issues.

Should recess time be reduced or should I catch a whiff of anyone teaching to the test, I’ll go from being a cooperative parent who helps out with classroom stuff and sympathizes with the teachers, to a cranky b**ch who takes her kids out of school everyday for their 20-minute “dentist appointment” so they can run laps around the block, and who oddly goes on a family vacation every spring and takes her kids out of school during NCLB standardized-testing week.

Home-Schooling Resources and Links of Note:

Getting Started and Homeschooling Basics
Alltop Homeschooling
Why Homeschool
Pass the Torch: Homeschool Tips and Advice
American Homeschool Association Resource Links
Homeschool.com’s Top 100 Educational Web Sites of 2008
Home Schooling Links
LD Online: Homeschooling
NY Times: The Anti-Schoolers
NY Times: There Are Benefits in Homeschooling
1.5 Million Homeschooled Students in the United States in 2007

Posted by Alexa Harrington

image sources: flowers and soil

If you live under a rock and weren’t aware, President Barack H. Obama was sworn into office today. The cafeteria and gymnasium of my daughter’s elementary school were filled with students, parents, siblings, teachers and staff, all watching the inauguration on the big screen. I took it as a really good sign that a school full of kids (and my three-year-old) sat still for over an hour and quietly watched a bunch of adults make speeches. Happy Inauguration Day.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

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Joanne Jacobs brought to my attention the funny list compiled by Oxford University researchers: The Top Ten Most Irritating Phrases of 2008.

It’s not relegated to 2008, but I take intense issue with people misusing the word “literally.” As in, “I was in line at the post office literally[italics] forever.” No, you weren’t, because if you had, in fact, been in line at the post office “forever,” then you wouldn’t be standing here right damn now misusing the word “literally” and pissing me off.

The Top 10 Most Irritating Phrases According to Oxford University Researchers:

1 – At the end of the day
2 – Fairly unique
3 – I personally
4 – At this moment in time
5 – With all due respect
6 – Absolutely
7 – It’s a nightmare
8 – Shouldn’t of
9 – 24/7
10 – It’s not rocket science

Posted by Alexa Harrington

I want to be all cranky and yammer on about how it serves a plagiarizing professor right to lose his job, etc., but I’m mostly just sad. James Twitchell was a tenured professor at the University of Florida until last month, when he opted for early retirement in lieu of a five-year, unpaid suspension. He plagiarized the work of some fairly well-known writers, which calls into question (for me, at least) his survival skills.

I’m a black-and-white girl when it comes to rule following, and, according to everyone—especially academia—plagiarizing is bad and you’re not supposed to do it. If you ARE going to use other people’s writing and claim it as your own, then for pete’s sake, at least be smart enough to steal some unknown’s stuff and try to avoid the spotlight yourself. Which, I realize, goes totally against the entire point of publishing or perishing; being well-known and widely read is pretty much what the publishing professor-types are going for. And that brings us back to the original rule: Plagiarizing Is Bad, Don’t Do It. Sheesh.

I’m sad for Twitchell that his heretofore great career is going down in flames. I can’t imagine it was worth it in the end. And for the record, I’m not naïve enough to think of academe as some floaty, rose-colored land where colleagues support each other and backs are never stabbed and data is never tweaked in the name of grant-eligibility. Lawyers and boxers are at least honest about being hell-bent on taking their opponent down; professors who’ve gone a bit too far round the bend competing for tenure, research monies and article publication are a tad more underhanded about colleague annihilation.

Further Reading:

UF Professor Twitchell Admits He Plagiarized in Several of His Books

Student vs. Faculty Plagiarism

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Ever wonder how it is that we make the choices we do? How does the brain process a decision, be it the split-second or the month-long rumination variety? Why did you choose that particular major? When you’re halfway across the street and a car is speeding toward mortal you, do you run across or turn back? Which first-date ensemble to wear, the obviously smoking hot one, or the more subtly smoking hot one? Paper or plastic? Large, Extra Large, Ridiculous, American, or Gigantic? Public or private? Which house should you buy, the one with enough bedrooms or the one with the amazing view?

Next month Jonah Lehrer’s newest book, How We Decide, comes out. Reading it will shed some light on the fascinating process that is human decision-making; how we make the choices we do, and how we can learn from the less-than-stellar ones and make better choices next time. Sometimes understanding the science behind it all helps.

A few reviews:

“Starred Review. Lehrer is a delight to read, and this is a fascinating book (some of which appeared recently, in a slightly different form, in the New Yorker) that will help everyone better understand themselves and their decision making.” – Publishers Weekly.

“Over the past two decades, research in neuroscience and behavioral economics has revolutionized our understanding of human decision-making. Jonah Lehrer brings it all together in this insightful and enjoyable book, giving readers the information they need to make the smartest decisions.” – Antonio Damasio, author of Descartes’ Error and Looking for Spinoza.

“An inviting, high-velocity ride through our most treasured mental act-deciding. This is truly one of the most accessible and richly-informed books on human choice. It’s a must read for anyone interested in the human mind and how cutting-edge research changes the way we think about ourselves. A marvelous success.” – Read Montague, Brown Foundation Professor of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Scrabble teaches kids how to argue convincingly that their totally made-up word is real. Poker teaches kids that good luck and better lying wins the most cash. Monopoly teaches kids about capitalism and that to win you must crush everyone in your path so as to acquire and control as much of the world as possible. Memory is pretty self-explanatory (I’m hoping). And now, so we can teach our kiddos about the grisly effects of global warming, there’s Penguin Rescuer. It’s made by Wonderworld, which has not only created an eco-learning toy, they’ve also implemented eco-friendly manufacturing practices.

The game is for ages 3 and up, and is oddly not available in the U.S. I’m not entirely sure why, unless there’s some holdup admitting we have a problem with global warming. The game can be procured via Amazon UK or through a South African site (because those countries are capable of dealing with their global warming issues), but I haven’t been able to find it in the U.S., strangely enough.

Further Reading (for those still in denial):

Penguins Now Threatened by Global Warming
Penguins Helped and Hurt by Changing Climate
Arctic Ice Melting at Alarming Pace as Temperatures Rise
Penguins in Decline Due to Global Warming
The Shrinking World of Penguins

Posted by Alexa Harrington