Wednesday, March 13. 2013
How Napoleon Chagnon Became Our Most Controversial Anthropologist.
Apparently Chagnon's field research did not support Marxist interpretations of stone-age tribal behavior, so he was attacked and smeared. Is there a Marxist interpretation for academia's tribal warfare against Chagnon?
Of course, Edward O. Wilson got some of the same treatment, but not quite as diabolical, for his work on sociobiology. There are lots of Thought Police in academia.
Tuesday, March 12. 2013
When academia becomes politicized, everything gets insane: The Long PC Battle in Anthropology.
The tenured radicals turned learning into a political enterprise of propaganda for young, malleable minds. It is disgusting, deceitful, and has nothing to do with education.
Monday, March 11. 2013
In the public education world, it's considered a promotion to get out of daily teaching.
When I went to prep (boarding) school, all of the administrators taught at least one course, including the Headmaster and the coaches. My Headmaster taught Calc. - and, being an Episcopalian priest, also conducted the daily chapel service where he taught the word of God. Preaching to adolescents works, but it takes about 20 years to sink in.
A good guy. Eagle Scout, US Army vet. He had pet otters that followed him around campus. He was also the Varsity Hockey coach, had been Captain of the Harvard team in his youth. We had serious hockey. He checked me quite hard one time in a student vs. faculty game. Three outdoor rinks, and one under a roof. Each faculty person also had to coach a sport, but we had tons of intramural sports. A daily sport was required of all. Morning classes, afternoon athletics, then chapel, dinner, and study hall. A Spartan life-style, with no chicks around for distraction other than the deliciously-appealing and refined faculty wives with whom we all fell in love.
But I am getting a bit off topic. Here's the link: Administrative bloat in US public schools
Thursday, March 7. 2013
Northwestern Creates Mandatory Diversity Program.
I find myself wondering how the college students of today can be so full of hate and intolerance that they require mandatory regrooving. Perhaps there is only so much sanctimonious bs one can absorb without vomiting or laughing.
This reminds me of a local town employee who got in a little trouble with his free speech at work and was sent to mandatory diversity training. He told me afterwards "I went to their classes, but it didn't take."
Wednesday, March 6. 2013
 By recreational drugs, I mean everything from pot to crystal meth and heroin.
They are all readily available on most streets in the US (but at far-above free market prices despite being free of sales taxes) and are widely popular. I find it difficult, from a libertarian point of view, to make a continuing argument for our Federal ongoing, attempted but failed prohibition. If some people want to live in a haze for a few hours - or all the time, why not (as long as I do not have to support them)?
In a free country, having things be legal does not mean that you condone them morally, spiritually, or in any other way. Adultery is not illegal, and neither is devil-worship nor alcohol abuse. Recreational drugs used to be legal in the US, and I doubt there were more social problems with them back then. Maybe less, because when they were not illegal they were cheap. Are any of our readers old enough to remember when there was cocaine in Coke?
Funnily enough, now a Large Coke without coke is illegal in New York. Crazy world in which it is easier to buy cocaine in front of the minimart than it is to buy a Big Gulp inside.
What's your opinion?
Just don't make the argument that "It's bad for people." That will not fly, because driving is dangerous too. So is mountain-climbing.
Please review the debate in comments before commenting. Pretty good debate.
Tuesday, March 5. 2013
The book seems to deal with the issues with which the American founders grappled. Comments on the book here: Huemer’s “The Problem of Political Authority”. A quote:
Huemer systematically addresses the justifications that have been articulated for political authority over the centuries, from hypothetical social contract theory to consequentialism and everything in between. I will give away the punchline by noting that his arguments would appear to fatally damage all of them.
Political philosophers generally start by attempting to construct a complete moral framework within which they justify their positions. Huemer takes an entirely different approach. He does not assume that we all agree on a single universal moral framework. He only assumes that most of us generally share similar moral intuitions about certain sorts of situations in the average case. (The strongest sort of assumption he demands is that his reader agree that beating people up without provocation is usually bad.)
Because he demands that the reader agree with him on so few things and so weakly, Huemer’s argument gains enormous strength, since there is no need to accept an all-encompassing ethical theory to believe the rest of his arguments.
 Mead's post quotes this:
Half of those surveyed…said they had trouble finding recent graduates qualified to fill positions at their company or organization. Nearly a third gave colleges just fair to poor marks for producing successful employees. And they dinged bachelor’s-degree holders for lacking basic workplace proficiencies like adaptability, communication skills, and the ability to solve complex problems.
Related, What College Graduates Lack - Americans have lost their competitive edge. Can college restore it?
As I have said here many times, a Liberal Arts education is not job training. It's designed to be about life-enrichment and about molding civilized and thoughtful citizens with deeper understanding of the world and of their own civilization than secondary schools can offer.
If people want job credentials, I'd advise majoring in Medieval History, Classics, or Renaissance Literature, and minoring in Accounting, Engineering, hard sciences, or Econ (or the other way around) - combining the life-enhancement with the utilitarian.
The kids should consider this: anything that can be learned just as well at The Great Courses/Teaching Company should not be studied at great expense in college. With all the alternative ways of learning higher ed material nowadays, spending big bucks for it makes no sense. And if you need a class and exams to provide the discipline, then one should work on one's discipline.
You can obtain a top-notch Liberal Arts education with them, with as much breadth or depth as you desire. I eagerly await the day that the company will offer their courses for college credit.
Monday, March 4. 2013
Article here.
If you ask me, America could use more cowboy capitalism. The only jobs that 74,000 pages of regs provide is jobs for lawyers.
Furthermore, stifling regs just put us on The Road to Oligarchy because rules, laws, and regs always end up raising the barriers to entry of upstarts. See Subway Restaurant Founder Slams Destructive Federal Regulations
Sunday, March 3. 2013
Well, because it's just what most people do unless they are either Catholic or prosperous, or want to take on home-schooling. It's just normal. My own kids mostly avoided public schools because I could (barely, and not really) afford to.
In the end, though, isn't most primary education ultimately home-schooling anyway? I think it is.
Why Are Your Children Still In Public School?
Saturday, March 2. 2013
I think it's insane. Rotten to the Core.
Since when was public education an area of control by the Feds?
Friday, March 1. 2013
Here's the article.
Too many have
enrolled in college believing they could have four years of fun and graduate
from any four-year college after
majoring in any field -- gender studies, sociology, ethnic
studies-- and obtain well-paying jobs easily.
In fact, the market for college graduates has changed. Except for
graduates of pre-professional curricula like engineering or pharmacy,
employers
can afford to be choosey, even for entry-level jobs. For young,
inexperienced
graduates who majored in liberal arts fields, prospective employers can
afford
to look nowadays for graduates who have taken difficult courses, have
internships
on their resumes, and have gotten top grades. As a result, some college
graduates find jobs quickly and others drift for months and even years,
unemployed or employed in jobs that do not require a college education,
earning
so little that they are compelled to move back with their parents and
extend
their adolescence. In short, too many students enroll in college without
realizing that learning is difficult and that recruiters are
sophisticated
enough to distinguish graduates who majored in fun from graduates who
took
education seriously and had the ability to profit from diligent study. -
See more at:
http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2013/02/the_market_for_college_grads_k.html#sthash.MFEViYmo.dpuf
Too many have
enrolled in college believing they could have four years of fun and graduate
from any four-year college after
majoring in any field -- gender studies, sociology, ethnic
studies-- and obtain well-paying jobs easily.
In fact, the market for college graduates has changed. Except for
graduates of pre-professional curricula like engineering or pharmacy,
employers
can afford to be choosey, even for entry-level jobs. For young,
inexperienced
graduates who majored in liberal arts fields, prospective employers can
afford
to look nowadays for graduates who have taken difficult courses, have
internships
on their resumes, and have gotten top grades. As a result, some college
graduates find jobs quickly and others drift for months and even years,
unemployed or employed in jobs that do not require a college education,
earning
so little that they are compelled to move back with their parents and
extend
their adolescence. In short, too many students enroll in college without
realizing that learning is difficult and that recruiters are
sophisticated
enough to distinguish graduates who majored in fun from graduates who
took
education seriously and had the ability to profit from diligent study. -
See more at:
http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2013/02/the_market_for_college_grads_k.html#sthash.MFEViYmo.dpuf
Too many have
enrolled in college believing they could have four years of fun and graduate
from any four-year college after
majoring in any field -- gender studies, sociology, ethnic
studies-- and obtain well-paying jobs easily.
In fact, the market for college graduates has changed. Except for
graduates of pre-professional curricula like engineering or pharmacy,
employers
can afford to be choosey, even for entry-level jobs. For young,
inexperienced
graduates who majored in liberal arts fields, prospective employers can
afford
to look nowadays for graduates who have taken difficult courses, have
internships
on their resumes, and have gotten top grades. As a result, some college
graduates find jobs quickly and others drift for months and even years,
unemployed or employed in jobs that do not require a college education,
earning
so little that they are compelled to move back with their parents and
extend
their adolescence. In short, too many students enroll in college without
realizing that learning is difficult and that recruiters are
sophisticated
enough to distinguish graduates who majored in fun from graduates who
took
education seriously and had the ability to profit from diligent study. -
See more at:
http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2013/02/the_market_for_college_grads_k.html#sthash.MFEViYmo.dpuf
Too many have
enrolled in college believing they could have four years of fun and graduate
from any four-year college after
majoring in any field -- gender studies, sociology, ethnic
studies-- and obtain well-paying jobs easily.
In fact, the market for college graduates has changed. Except for
graduates of pre-professional curricula like engineering or pharmacy,
employers
can afford to be choosey, even for entry-level jobs. For young,
inexperienced
graduates who majored in liberal arts fields, prospective employers can
afford
to look nowadays for graduates who have taken difficult courses, have
internships
on their resumes, and have gotten top grades. As a result, some college
graduates find jobs quickly and others drift for months and even years,
unemployed or employed in jobs that do not require a college education,
earning
so little that they are compelled to move back with their parents and
extend
their adolescence. In short, too many students enroll in college without
realizing that learning is difficult and that recruiters are
sophisticated
enough to distinguish graduates who majored in fun from graduates who
took
education seriously and had the ability to profit from diligent study. -
See more at:
http://www.mindingthecampus.com/originals/2013/02/the_market_for_college_grads_k.html#sthash.MFEViYmo.dpuf
Thursday, February 28. 2013
From Lionel Tiger, The Problem of Males on the Feminized Campus.
A
consistent failure
of the school system is reflected in its failure to educate males and
females
equally effectively. If the problem category were race or religion it
would be
politically intolerable. But boys and men--no problem. - See more at:
http://www.mindingthecampus.com/forum/2013/02/the_problem_of_males_on_the_fe.html#sthash.HvTrEsx1.dpuf
A
consistent failure
of the school system is reflected in its failure to educate males and
females
equally effectively. If the problem category were race or religion it
would be
politically intolerable. But boys and men--no problem. - See more at:
http://www.mindingthecampus.com/forum/2013/02/the_problem_of_males_on_the_fe.html#sthash.HvTrEsx1.dpuf
The Problem of Males on the Feminized Campus
The Problem of Males on the Feminized Campus
The Problem of Males on the Feminized Campus
Wednesday, February 27. 2013
A charter snowball - Try stopping good schools. It begins:
A whopping one-third of the children enrolled in kindergarten in Harlem
these days attend charter schools — an under-appreciated yet critical
fact, and perhaps the hinge upon which the future of public-school
choice in New York City swings...
Tuesday, February 26. 2013
From Latino & Black Students Prisoners of Dem-Run L.A. Schools:
As with other big city school districts, the ham-fisted attempt to stifle competition should come as no surprise. The unions and their political lackeys in both the city government of LA and the state legislature are more than willing to protect the status quo for the simplest of reasons: as this devastating exposé of the California Teachers Association (CTA) reveals, that union’s approximately 325,000 members represent the most powerful special interest group in the state.
Monday, February 25. 2013
"Men are qualified for liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites,—in proportion as their love of justice is above their rapacity — in proportion as their soundness and sobriety and understanding is above their vanity and presumption — in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters."
Edmund Burke
Sunday, February 24. 2013
It's about Mickey Mouse grades. 43% of American students get As.
Saturday, February 23. 2013
The Age of the Essay
His essay is a rambling one, touching on essay construction, why English profs got involved with composition, why modern lit became college study, etc.
Friday, February 22. 2013
Thursday, February 21. 2013
The study says:
Beginning as early as kindergarten, the authors explained, girls have better average social and behavioral skills than boys, and that relates to girls’ higher average grades at each stage of school and why girls are more likely to earn a degree.
“The grade gap isn’t about ability,” said Claudia Buchmann, co-author and sociology professor at Ohio State University, “it’s really more about effort and engagement in school…”
Hmm. Boys are not girls?
Wednesday, February 20. 2013
So why do we need more of it?
"Pre-school" is a fancy word for group babysitting. If government provides it, though, it is union jobs. Suddenly, babysitters are converted into "educators." That means union dues, and votes.
Mrs. B. and I are also "experts in pre-school education." We spent enough years providing it, for free, to our clan. It worked out just fine. We have nothing against group baby-sitting, which is fine too.
Tuesday, February 19. 2013
The only way to test a theory is to make predictions. It is not science to make a prediction (eg "There will be no more snow" or "Arctic ice will disappear") and then to pull an excuse out of your behind when the prediction turns out to be wrong.
You cannot say "We're still right, even if our predictions were wrong because we failed to consider so-and-so."
The example: Climate Astrology: Global Warming Means More Blizzards.
The warmist claims attempt to set themselves up to be unfalsifiable. Snow or no snow, floods or drought, all explainable on an ex post facto basis. That's the problem.
As for a little warming, that would be just fine and preferable to the next ice age.
From Dalrymple, re apocalyptic pessimists:
He is so earnest that he could almost be an optimist. He believes that the end of the world is nigh, and secretly is rather pleased about it. If he is of a scientific bent, he does the following: he takes an undesirable trend and projects it indefinitely into the future until whatever is the object of the trend destroys the world. For example, he might take the fact that Staphylococci reproduce exponentially on a Petri dish to mean that, within the week, the entire biosphere will consist of Staphylococci and nothing else. Man will be crushed under the weight of bacteria.
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