Through the Keyhole

A profound struggle

There is a profound struggle between two incompatible forms of instruction: passive teaching and active learning.

– Tadeusz Lemanczyk

Everyone can learn from each other

Everyone can learn from each other, independent of time, space and place.

– Ryan Bretag (courtesy of David Jakes)

Ragamuffin irreverence

It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it. 

– Jacob Bronowski

Academic discourse

The politics of the university are so intense because the stakes are so low.

 – Wallace Sayre, Columbia University

Ivy League v. incarceration

There is no cost difference between incarceration and an Ivy League education. The main difference is the curriculum.

 – Paul Hawkens, Social Waste

Thoughts on tenure

An excerpt from an interesting blog post about tenure:

Think about just how extraordinary it sounds to people who aren’t part of the academic system. In a one-hour meeting of colleagues who’ve already survived the process, a lifetime fate is decided. A 36-year-old teacher/scholar has undergone six years of graduate school, a year (or two or three) as a lecturer or adjunct, then five-and-a-half years as a junior professor building up a teaching portfolio, delivering conference papers, issuing some quarterly publications, and, above all, securing a letter of acceptance from a decent scholarly press. And now it comes down to a few peer review reports and to what a few colleagues down the hall think of what you’ve done.

The outcome determines the rest of your life. It’s all or nothing. A paycheck to eternity or unemployment a few months later. The stakes couldn’t be higher. I know of few other career passages that involve such an extreme transition, a decisive step from insecurity to security — personal, professional, economic.

While we examine standards and procedures of tenure, then, we might also pose a basic question: Is tenure a healthy element in higher education?

Dr. Mark Bauerlein, The Amazing and Perverse Power of Tenure

Is Harvard worth it?

Here’s an excerpt from Seth Godin’s marketing view of elite colleges and universities:

According to The Chosen, an exhaustive study of college admissions, there's no measurable difference between the outcomes of education with the most exclusive schools and the next few tiers. Graduates don't end up happier. They don't end up with better paying jobs. They don't end up richer or even healthier. The whole thing is a sham (which costs a quarter of a million dollars a person at the top end).

There's no question that a Harvard degree helps (or is even required) in a few fields. There's also no doubt that spending four years at Yale is a mind-changing experience. The question isn't, "are they wonderful?" The question is, "Is it worth it?"

It's almost as if every single high school student and her parents insisted on having a $200,000 stereo because it was better than the $1,000 stereo. Sure, it might be a bit better, but is it better enough?

Tags: Harvard, Yale, Ivy+League, The+Chosen, Seth+Godin

Effective lectures

Courtesy of Scott Elias, here's a great article on the topic of giving lectures as a classroom instructional strategy. I'm going to have to check out Eric Mazur's book!

Poor teachers are still too plentiful

Hooray for Dan Butin for exposing the shamefulness of Hugo Schwyzer's refusal to hold himself responsible in any way whatsoever for his students' learning. Unfortunately, there still are too many teachers like Mr. Schwyzer in both K-12 and higher ed. As Dan notes, there can be no teaching without learning.

A different twist on elite college admissions

An interesting perspective on elite college admissions: 

Practically everyone thinks that someone who went to MIT or Harvard or Stanford must be smart. Even people who hate you for it believe it.

But when you think about what it means to have gone to an elite college, how could this be true? We're talking about a decision made by admissions officers—basically, HR people—based on a cursory examination of a huge pile of depressingly similar applications submitted by seventeen year olds. And what do they have to go on? An easily gamed standardized test; a short essay telling you what the kid thinks you want to hear; an interview with a random alum; a high school record that's largely an index of obedience. Who would rely on such a test?

News from the Front (courtesy of Matthew Tabor