How NOT to Encourage Interest in STEM

I don’t know how much I can add to this item from the political blog Talking Points Memo (the headline says it all):  “Police in Texas Arrest Muslim Teen Who Brought Homemade Clock to School.”  Read it and weep! UPDATE:  President Obama has invited the teenage scientist to the White House for Astronomy Night, to…

Computers May Be an Obstacle to Learning

A recent international study has thrown a bucket of cold water on the heated frenzy for computer-assisted and online education.  The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which has an authoritative program for assessing school education quality in its 34 member countries, has published a report demonstrating that increased computer use in classrooms may…

Marco Rubio and the Silliness of Some Politicians

Intrastate athletic rivalries between public universities (e.g., Michigan-Michigan State) frequently spill over into the silliest sorts of comparisons between institutions, which usually ignore their differing missions.  That some politicians embrace such comparisons may offer a small glimpse into the extent of their knowledge and the level of their insight into higher education.  Take the case…

LSU, F. King Alexander, Profanity, and Harassment

Last week the AAUP released a supplementary report about the dismissal of tenured professor Teresa Buchanan from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, which has been on the AAUP’s list of censured administrations since 2012.  The report raises questions about the extent to which LSU followed its own policies and AAUP-approved principles of due process in…

The Accreditation Wars: Where are the Faculty?

Inside Higher Ed has since its creation some years ago earned a largely justified reputation as a site more hospitable to views outside of the educational establishment and, in particular, views reflecting faculty experiences than other media covering higher education.  Therefore it was disappointing this morning to read Doug Lederman’s lengthy article on debates over…

Should Dissenting Professors Be Military Targets?

In an apparently unintentional proof of the old adage that the term “military intelligence” is an oxymoron, an assistant professor in the law department of the US Military Academy at West Point has argued that legal scholars critical of the war on terrorism represent a “treasonous” fifth column that should be attacked as enemy combatants. …