August 31, 2011 Today’s Education Week has a worth-reading piece today called “A Teacher Finds Good in Testing.” In it, Ama Nyamekye recounts how she went from being a protester against testing to being a supporter. She acknowledges flaws, but … Continue reading
August 30, 2011 From Inside Higher Ed: Parking Shortage Leads Dalhousie Prof to Quit Dan Middlemiss, a professor at Dalhousie University, in Halifax, became so frustrated this week by the lack of parking that he quit, CBC News reported. Middlemiss … Continue reading
August 30, 2011 It’s hard not to notice that football season is once more upon us. Soon we will be inundated with games played on a gridiron. “Gridiron?” Why do we call it that? It’s a dead metaphor. According to … Continue reading
August 27, 2011 Dictionaries give you two different meanings of “statistic.” One has it that a “statistic” is “a numerical fact or datum.” I think this is the most common meaning — the most common way the word is used. … Continue reading
August 26, 2011 In this morning’s New York Times Sunday Styles section, Lisa Belkin (who writes a recurring column called Motherlode) has a must-read piece called “After Class, Skimpy Equality.” “What are we to make of the fact that lessons … Continue reading
August 25, 2011 (updated below) Jonah Lehrer, who writes The Frontal Cortex for Wired magazine, gave a Convocation address at Earlham on Monday. (He also wrote the books How We Decide and Proust was a Neuroscientist.) Here’s a snippet of … Continue reading
August 24, 2011 In today’s New York Times, Cornell University President David Skorton pledges to end fraternity hazing. I’m more than a little puzzled. As he acknowledges, “Hazing has been formally prohibited at Cornell since 1980 and a crime under … Continue reading
