on January 12, 2017

Sticky

Driving Occasionally on the Right

Chances are you’ve seen commercials on television as part of the University of Minnesota’s long-running “Driven to Discover” campaign. Typical ones have faculty members standing in front of Northrop Auditorium saying things such as “I am driven to end world hunger.” Or “I am driven to grow more food with fewer resources.” Or “I am driven to end addiction.” Goals like these are as noble as noble gets, free of politically correct skewing. At least a portion, though, of the campaign’s print component has a different flavor, with one ad in particular saying: “I am driven to train activists to develop...

0 Comments

on January 06, 2017

Sticky

Proudly Detailing Sexual Assaults

Written by Mitch Pearlstein

in Culture, Education

Silly antediluvian me. Until my early teens, when daydreaming about what college was like, I’d envision guys wearing elbow-patched tweed jackets and smoking pipes. I imagined them dressed up at fraternity parties along with coifed-up coeds. And my mind’s eye saw the young men – who seemed quite old – playing football. While I couldn’t replay conversations they might be having, I did have a sense college men enjoyed talking about Great Books and Big Ideas, at least when they weren’t talking about Big Games and Big Dances. What can I say? For a lazy and incompetent junior high school student,...

0 Comments

on December 21, 2016

Sticky

Increasing Educational Alternatives is the Opposite of Tracking

Written by Mitch Pearlstein

in Education

There seems to be a movement in American education to call young students “scholars,” with the salutation more prevalent in schools with high proportions of minority and low-incomes boys and girls. The idea and aim being that kids should start, as early as possible, envisioning themselves as eventually attending and graduating college, and working diligently every day to get there. Question: How might this benign news fit with American Experiment’s new project aimed at encouraging more young people – if that is their choice – to consider educational options other than four-year collegiate degrees as routes to good jobs and solid...

0 Comments

on December 10, 2016

Sticky

Why are Scooby Doo and Michael Scott on MN Sanctuary Campus Petition?

Written by Tom Steward

in Education

The movement to declare institutions of higher learning sanctuary campuses "for students who face potential deportation under the new President-elect" appears to be losing momentum. The University of Illinois, New Mexico State University and others have declined to go out of their way to pick a fight with the new administration by declaring their campuses off-limits to immigration enforcement. It might fizzle out even faster if administrators and media take the petitions presented to them at more than face value. A closer look at a Minnesota college petition reveals more issues with undocumented signatories than undocumented students on campus. At the College...

0 Comments

on December 08, 2016

Sticky

Universities Face Loss of Funding Over Sanctuary Campuses

Written by Tom Steward

in Education

Donald Trump's pledge to crack down on sanctuary cities like Minneapolis and St. Paul and roll back Obama's executive amnesty orders for students, among others, has led to calls for sanctuary campuses across the country. Many of the college students and faculty clamoring for such sanctuaries would be hard-pressed to explain what the designation means in practice. But that hasn't stopped 1,500 from supporting a petition at the University of Minnesota to ban campus police from investigating immigration cases and help immigrant students facing deportation to lawyer up. UOM President Erik Kaler released a statement that on the surface offers his support. “The...

0 Comments

on December 05, 2016

Sticky

Chicago Tribune: Betsy DeVos’s Education Department Could Create Incentives for States to Expand Vouchers

Written by Peter Zeller

in Education

The Chicago Tribune just penned an excellent editorial in support of reformer Betsy DeVos to head the U.S. Department of Education: A few weeks ago, Massachusetts voters rejected a major expansion of charter schools statewide. In Chicago, a new teachers union contract limits charter capacity and threatens to strangle the growth of excellent charter schools in the city. The NAACP has demanded a moratorium on charter expansion nationally. Into this charter-chilling atmosphere steps Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to head the U.S. Department of Education. We like DeVos. Opinions vary: Karen Lewis, head of the Chicago Teachers Union, calls her a...

0 Comments

on October 21, 2016

Sticky

Reading on the One Hand, Writing on the Disjointed Other

Written by Mitch Pearlstein

in Education

It was reported this week that national high school graduation rates reached an all-time high of 83.2 percent for the 2014-15 school year. This is good news. As is the fact that there were improvements among all racial and ethnic groups. Good news again. But the Associated Press reported that the “gains come against a backdrop of decreasing scores on national math and reading tests.” This is not good at all. It’s also confusing, or at least intriguing news, as one might imagine that if students are doing better when it comes to attainment (graduating high school), they also should be doing...

0 Comments

on September 26, 2016

Sticky

Students Need to Take Responsibility, Too

Written by Tom Steward

in Education

It’s not exactly rocket science. Students can't learn much if they skip class. More than 100,000 Minnesota students were AWOL for 15 days or more in the 2013-14 school year--nearly 13 percent of students statewide. School districts from Anoka-Hennepin to St. Cloud and Bemidji report a problem with chronic absenteeism. A recent Star Tribune editorial highlighted the issue, citing a laundry list of reasons at home and at school behind the problem. As to why so many kids aren’t showing up, local districts report a variety of causes. Physical and mental health (student and family), poverty-related challenges, suspensions, homelessness and bullying are among the...

0 Comments

on September 21, 2016

Sticky

An Invitation to More Violence in the St. Paul Public Schools

Written by Katherine Kersten

in Education

St. Paul public school officials continue their hapless quest to staunch the growing in-school violence that is terrifying teachers and driving families out of the district. The task force was created in response to attacks on teachers last year. These included an assault that left a teacher with a traumatic brain injury, and another attack—during a “classroom invasion”—whose victim required staples to close a head wound. Last night, a “school climate task force” presented its recommendations on controlling student-on-staff violence to the St. Paul School Board. The task force—an august group of principals, administrators and other important folks—has met since February. What new...

0 Comments

on August 30, 2016

Sticky

Little League baseball: Youth sports’ lessons are lasting

Written by Mitch Pearlstein

in Education

Here’s a sports story that climbs even higher than Colin Kaepernick’s backside sinks low. The Little League baseball team from Maine-Endwell, New York, won the 2016 United States championship last Saturday, beating a team from Tennessee 4-2, and then won the championship of the whole wide world on Sunday, beating a team from South Korea 2-1, all in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. I assume I wouldn’t be writing about this if I hadn’t lived only a few miles from Endwell when I lived in upstate New York in the late '60s and early '70s. But I found myself taking chauvinistic pride in how well...

Latest Posts