If a rose is a rose, then a college degree from anywhere smells the same? :)

I am homesick :)

Students ponder about what comes after Occupy Wall Street

I love it: Occupy Fort Lauderdale :)

BTW, speaking of students, "Paterno State U." students rioting because the pope Paterno was fired is a pathetic statement of the times.

I would have thought that students would have been ashamed of how the power of college football made it so convenient to cover up such a tragedy of the rape of preteen and teenage boys.

So ashamed that they should have demanded an immediate cancellation of the rest of the football season.

Or, at least, forfeit the upcoming game as a token of self-inflicted punishment.

But, the rioting seems to clearly convey the supreme priority for college football!

I am all the more impressed, therefore, with the student in this video (ht):

Poverty in America: Eat our heart out, Bangladesh!

I am not sure, however, what the bottom line is that Trudeau wants to get across to readers.  Is he pointing out the fact that we have poverty?  Or that our poor are better off than the poor in Bangladesh?  Or that ... oh well!

In any case, if you prefer a few words to compare the poor in the US versus the poor elsewhere, then let me quote from a previous post:

The typical person in the top 5 percent of the Indian population, for example, makes the same as or less than the typical person in the bottom 5 percent of the American population. That’s right: America’s poorest are, on average, richer than India’s richest — extravagant Mumbai mansions notwithstanding.

BTW, I thought Bangladesh was no longer the poster child for poverty, and that it was Somalia or Ethiopia :(

Breaking news: Sarah Palin can read!

Trudeau's comic strip reacts to a preview of an upcoming book on Sarah Palin

Doonesbury explains what college is for. Hint: not for learning!

My students know all too well that I emphasize understanding and analysis in my classes, and none of the assignments or exams is a test of their ability to memorize facts.  And, thus, they know how much I hate the bubbling-in-answers scantron approach to education, particularly at the undergraduate level.  I even allow them to use laptops and smartphones in the class--I try my best to push them beyond a simple and simplistic access to information, and get them to think about the information.

Towards the end of the last term, one student, "K," raised her her hand as we regrouped after a ten-minute break.

"Do all professors teach the way you do, or did we luck out taking your class?"

I gave her a dull boring answer because I had to ensure that I did not use the class time to critique colleagues, not only at my college but in higher education, who, even in this new world of Google and iPhone apps, think that undergraduate education is all about access to facts and testing students about those facts.

What I would have liked to tell "K" and the rest of the class, with a big grin on my face: "thanks for the compliments."

In this cartoon here, Trudeau conveys the same idea, and also the explanation that Bill Gates gave some time ago on why we have colleges anymore:

'Place-based colleges' are good for parties, but are becoming less crucial for learning thanks to the Internet