Category Archives: education

Re: Mitch Albom, “South Korean Education System Is a Wonder, But it Wouldn’t Work Here”

Mitch Albom, “South Korean Education System Is a Wonder, But it Wouldn’t Work Here” (h/t Josh) Ouch: South Koreans treat school like a full-time job plus a full-time marriage. They put in day hours and night hours, followed by weekend hours. It is not uncommon to see children in school uniforms walking home late at …

October 6, 2010 – 9:11 am | By ashok | Posted in education | Comments (0)

The Value of an Education, Perhaps

I spent this morning reading some of an essay by Heidegger, copying down a poem of Yeats’ into the journal (yes, I keep a pen and paper one). There’s Plato’s Gorgias to finish reading, and try to put together with the Protagoras and the Greater Hippias. I’m very happy with how the third part of …

August 27, 2010 – 12:54 pm | By ashok | Posted in education, personal | Comments (7)

Re: “Lines on Plagiarism Blur for Students in the Digital Age,” by Trip Gabriel

Trip Gabriel, “Lines on Plagiarism Blur for Students in the Digital Age” (h/t Kishore) I kinda feel sorry for the author of this article. There has to be this pretense of objectivity, this sense that there’s a real inquiry going on: “Now we have a whole generation of students who’ve grown up with information that …

August 4, 2010 – 3:12 pm | By ashok | Posted in academia, education | Comments (7)

For Discussion: The College Degree as Social Status

I honestly don’t think about this issue much. Most of my time is spent trying to figure out why reading old books is relevant to anything, and realizing that I’m probably fighting a losing battle. And I suspect many of us would initially go “pffft. How does a college give social status, unless it is …

June 10, 2010 – 5:59 pm | By ashok | Posted in education, links | Comments (3)

At the University of Dallas, 3/28/10

I’m trying to get the “vibe” of campus, and am trying to get to know as many people as possible. It does feel like things are more conservative here than when I started 7 years ago, but by “more conservative” I don’t mean people are busy putting up angry posters about liberals and health care …

March 27, 2010 – 4:17 pm | By ashok | Posted in academia, education, personal, politics | Comments (0)

So, Um, What’s the Value of a Liberal Arts Education Again?

From John Lingan’s “They’re All Zombies,” about a new craze sweeping colleges nationwide: Now that the game has been embraced by students at a dozen-odd other colleges, we can see its proponents for what they really are: kids who view college as a four-year playground. These students exists at any school—hence the popularity of H …

March 4, 2010 – 6:08 pm | By ashok | Posted in academia, education | Comments (3)

Briefly Noted: Kevin Carey, “That Old College Lie”

Kevin Carey, “That Old College Lie” The article is excellent and should be read by as many as possible as soon as possible. The primary call is for information: American colleges grant more than 300,000 bachelor’s degrees in business every year. Whose graduates are most successful in business? There are anecdotes, but no available, comparable …

December 17, 2009 – 3:05 pm | By ashok | Posted in academia, education | Comments (3)

MTV’s Jersey Shore, or the Impossibility of Enlightenment

The last two or three days I’ve been writing drafts for blog posts on the topic of academic cheating. I wanted to address how it seems to me our very culture encourages people to cheat, how valuing a piece of paper more than actual knowledge has become the default way we value anything. Of course …

December 12, 2009 – 11:47 am | By ashok | Posted in education, media | Comments (6)

Maybe we’re looking at education wrong. Maybe it’s student-athletes that are the model for any given student

From Michael Lewis’ “The Ballad of Big Mike,” in The New York Times: His senior year he made all A’s and B’s. It nearly killed him, but he did it. The Briarcrest academic marathon, in which Michael started out a distant last and had instantly fallen farther behind, came to a surprising end: in a …

November 29, 2009 – 10:23 pm | By ashok | Posted in education | Comments (1)

What does success on the Internet look like?

Still thinking about how all this adds up, if it does. I’m aware there are gaps in the reasoning. 1. Been saying to people recently stuff like “look at the top bloggers, look at Kos, who basically transformed the Democratic party into his vision – no one knows who these people are, yet you can …

September 30, 2009 – 5:44 pm | By ashok | Posted in academia, blogging, education | Comments (3)