“A lot of people in the last couple of days…they’ve mentioned ‘intellect,” Gibbs said. “I’m not sure what number they graduated in their class at Princeton, but my sense is it’s not second.”
Because we should all bow our knees and bang our foreheads when an Ivy League graduate comes near. Frankly, I think we mortals are fortunate that Sonia Sottomayor continues to bless us with her presence in this realm.
I mean, she finished second in her class! Has anyone ever done better than that? Um, well, presumably, if we could find the guy who finished first, he could criticize her. Though we’d migh have to compare SAT scores to determine whom to believe. I’m sure the richness of the experiences of this wise Latina woman would overwhelm whatever that guy had to offer.
The chairman of the Texas State Board of Education is a Creationist. Not an IDer who accepts the basic outlines of evolution with insistence that God has nudged things along, but someone who thinks the evidence for common descent is too shaky to be taught in public schools. Wowzers.
Every once in a while numbers leak out from universities showing the reality of racial preferences. Here’s some numbers from Duke. This one is super special, because it doesn’t just show the differing criteria for admitted students, it shows the different GPAs once the students are admitted. There’s half a point of GPA between Asians/whites and blacks.
The actual paper seems to cost $5, which is about $5 more than I’m willing to pay for an academic paper. It seems to be making the point, which anyone in their right mind realizes through common sense (thus college administrators are able to feign ignorance on the subject – we presume they have neither a right mind nor common sense), that admitted students with inferior credentials tend to do less well.
Apollo posted this at 3:10 PM EDT on Thursday, May 7th, 2009 as Edjamacation, Race
I’ve been seeing Kathryn Lopez link to this list of books that some people think “all” high schoolers should read before graduating. I’m definately with JohnDerbyshire on this. Back in high school I somehow got it into my head that I needed to read a bunch of Great Books in order to be smart. I read most of the stuff on that list (though I didn’t know of the list’s existence until a couple of days ago), as well as a few dozen books not on the list. I read a lot, honestly.
Then about half way through Anna Karenina, it dawned on me that virtually everything I was reading was a crashing bore. In the ten years since that reading spree, the only fiction I’ve read that wasn’t assigned to me in a class was Tolkien. Turning reading into something I had to do completely killed my desire to read. I think forcing any 16 year-old to read Virgil would have a similar effect; it’s simply more fun to watch television.
The negative consequences of forcing teenagers to read aside, I looked at the list, and I would actually advise against high schoolers reading most of what’s on there. Read the rest of this entry »
While we’re covering freedom of expression on campus, Republican Oklahoma State Rep. Todd Thomsen is trying to pressure the University of Oklahoma to un-invite Richard Dawkins from speaking on campus during a Darwin celebration.
Again, we have censorship in the name of open-mindedness, and bullying in the name of protecting feelings:
WHEREAS, the University of Oklahoma is a publicly funded institution which should be open to all ideas and should train students in all disciplines of study and research and to use independent thinking and free inquiry; and
WHEREAS, the University of Oklahoma has planned a year-long celebration of the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s theory of evolution, called the “Darwin 2009 Project”, which includes a series of lectures, public speakers, and a course on the history of evolution; and
WHEREAS, the University of Oklahoma, as a part of the Darwin 2009 Project, has invited as a public speaker on campus, Richard Dawkins of Oxford University, whose published opinions, as represented in his 2006 book “The God Delusion”, and public statements on the theory of evolution demonstrate an intolerance for cultural diversity and diversity of thinking and are views that are not shared and are not representative of the thinking of a majority of the citizens of Oklahoma; and
WHEREAS, the invitation for Richard Dawkins to speak on the campus of the University of Oklahoma on Friday, March 6, 2009, will only serve to present a biased philosophy on the theory of evolution to the exclusion of all other divergent considerations rather than teaching a scientific concept.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE 1ST SESSION OF THE 52ND OKLAHOMA LEGISLATURE:
THAT the Oklahoma House of Representative strongly opposes the invitation to speak on the campus of the University of Oklahoma to Richard Dawkins of Oxford University, whose published statements on the theory of evolution and opinion about those who do not believe in the theory are contrary and offensive to the views and opinions of most citizens of Oklahoma.
THAT the Oklahoma House of Representatives encourages the University of Oklahoma to engage in an open, dignified, and fair discussion of the Darwinian theory of evolution and all other scientific theories which is the approach that a public institution should be engaged in and which represents the desire and interest of the citizens of Oklahoma.
THAT a copy of this resolution be transmitted to the President of the University of Oklahoma, the Dean of the College of Arts and Science at the University of Oklahoma, and the Chair of the Department of Zoology at the University of Oklahoma.
I’ve blogged before about my mixed feelings about Dawkins and P.Z. Myers, specifically about how — given current religious attitudes among the general population — their promotion of atheism comes at the expense of better science education. At his best, Dawkins is a brilliant provacatuer; at his worst, a total jerk. Regardless, he’s one of the most effective and engaging public scientists, an authority on Darwin, and a best-selling author. He’s the perfect guest for such an event.
Unfortunately, petty wimps like Rep. Thomsen are just as eager to censor debate as the authoritarian leftists at Pomona College. Shame on them all.
It seems as though Pomona College has seen fit to ban from its campus two Claremont McKenna College students who recorded a public event featuring a Planned Parenthood PR representative. Charles Johnson is, obviously, the go to man on this, and I look forward to watching the video he says is forthcoming.
He has some other posts worth reading on the subject: here, discussing the history of campus leftists seriously disrupting events or committing crimes and not getting punished or getting the slightest of taps on the wrist; here, discussing the “Dean of Women” and her past thuggish behavior.
Honestly, I’ve hated that college for years. It revels in ignorance and consistently punishes, in one way or another, those who disagree with its majority. But to see its punishments become so open, so thuggish, and with complete disregard for the punished party’s side of the story manages to surprise even me.
I have a lengthy article about home schooling in California — and the legal battles surrounding it last year — on C11.
Update: Good Lord, it appears that my article may well be the last regular article on C11. Best wishes and luck to the crew and kudos for their fine work over the last six months.
Tom posted this at 9:37 AM EST on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 as Edjamacation, Journalism
Harvard University’s endowment suffered investment losses of at least 22% in the first four months of the school’s fiscal year, the latest evidence of the financial woes facing higher education.
The Harvard endowment, the biggest of any university, stood at $36.9 billion as of June 30, meaning the loss amounts to about $8 billion.
Oh woe are they! Only left with $29 billion to run a university, excluding, of course, the tens of thousands they charge per student. I can’t imagine how you can possibly run a university on such thin shoelaces! It’ll no doubt be thin gruel in the dining hall this spring.
Apollo posted this at 10:24 PM EST on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 as Edjamacation
I have, by way of informing one friend or acquaintance about another, said, “He went to Princeton and then to the Harvard Law School, but, really, he is much better than that.”
Though this story should blow the mind, I confess the only part that surprises me is that only one Pitzer professor is involved. Who’d have thought that when an oversensitive, preachy professor stole some Claremont kids’ Thanksgiving, it would be a University of Redlands professor? Pitzer must be slipping.
The end quote is precious. Anyone who is called “an assistant professor of race and ethnic studies” should be drug out into the street and forced to get a socially useful job.
Priya Venkatesan taught English at Dartmouth College. She maintains that some of her students were so unreceptive of “French narrative theory” that it amounted to a hostile working environment. She is also readying lawsuits against her superiors, who she says papered over the harassment, as well as a confessional exposé, which she promises will “name names.”
The trauma was so intense that in March Ms. Venkatesan quit Dartmouth and decamped for Northwestern. She declined to comment for this piece, pointing instead to the multiple interviews she conducted with the campus press.
Maybe if you had been a decent teacher they would have been more receptive.
Jamie posted this at 12:07 PM EDT on Monday, May 5th, 2008 as Edjamacation
P.J. O’Rourke, a hero of ours, gives advice. My favorite bit:
3. Get politically uninvolved!
All politics stink. Even democracy stinks. Imagine if our clothes were selected by the majority of shoppers, which would be teenage girls. I’d be standing here with my bellybutton exposed. Imagine deciding the dinner menu by family secret ballot. I’ve got three kids and three dogs in my family. We’d be eating Froot Loops and rotten meat.
But let me make a distinction between politics and politicians. Some people are under the misapprehension that all politicians stink. Impeach George W. Bush, and everything will be fine. Nab Ted Kennedy on a DUI, and the nation’s problems will be solved.
But the problem isn’t politicians — it’s politics. Politics won’t allow for the truth. And we can’t blame the politicians for that. Imagine what even a little truth would sound like on today’s campaign trail:
“No, I can’t fix public education. The problem isn’t the teachers unions or a lack of funding for salaries, vouchers or more computer equipment The problem is your kids!”
I’m going to avoid saying anything witty because these just aren’t funny.
From the NYT, via Megan McArdle, we learn that the number of parents — generally, well-educated yuppie types — are choosing to not vaccinate their kids:
SAN DIEGO — In a highly unusual outbreak of measles here last month, 12 children fell ill; nine of them had not been inoculated against the virus because their parents objected, The parents who objected to their children being inoculated are among a small but growing number of vaccine skeptics in California and other states who take advantage of exemptions to laws requiring vaccinations for school-age children.
The exemptions have been growing since the early 1990s at a rate that many epidemiologists, public health officials and physicians find disturbing.
Children who are not vaccinated are unnecessarily susceptible to serious illnesses, they say, but also present a danger to children who have had their shots — the measles vaccine, for instance, is only 95 percent effective — and to those children too young to receive certain vaccines.
Measles, almost wholly eradicated in the United States through vaccines, can cause pneumonia and brain swelling, which in rare cases can lead to death. The measles outbreak here alarmed public health officials, sickened babies and sent one child to the hospital.
…
In 1991, less than 1 percent of children in the states with personal-belief exemptions went without vaccines based on the exemption; by 2004, the most recent year for which data are available, the percentage had increased to 2.54 percent, said Saad B. Omer, an assistant scientist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
And from ABC, via PZ Myers, we can watch Creationists seriously mess with the mids of their kids: