Archive for January, 2009

Increased Tuition Increases Some More

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 [ READ MORE ]

Teacher Man Frank McCourt

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 [ READ MORE ]

10 Online Learning Tools For College Students

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 [ READ MORE ]

The Informational Interview Mother Lode

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 [ READ MORE ]

Home-Schooling Grows

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 [ READ MORE ]

Happy Inauguration Day

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 [ READ MORE ]

Oxford’s Top Ten

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 [ READ MORE ]

Plagiarizing Never Ends Well

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 [ READ MORE ]

How We Decide

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 [ READ MORE ]

Penguin Games

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 [ READ MORE ]