I tend to think of this – perhaps grandiosely, perhaps unnecessarily – as a kind of libidinal architecture: creating a structure that encourages those moving through it to move towards a certain set of goals and away from a general set of lose conditions.
Read MoreAt the very least, since we’ve perceived literacy to be in crisis since the inception of higher education as a more open project, roughly a century ago, it behooves us to be skeptical of the idea that literacy is in decline.
Read MoreI think that there’s a very interesting and dangerous game being played with student loans. No, not the fancily-worded indenture agreements that some schools are talking about. This is a game of brinkmanship being played at the highest level.
Read MoreThis is the point of failure for American writing education: it simply produced bad writers. The reason it does this is because it treats writing as something where requirements are meant to be filled, as if lining up all of the ingredients of a cake on the counter were the same thing as baking. Which, I would like to emphasize, is not the fault of the teachers, but the fault of the administrators and bureaucrats who decided that writing education needed to be standardized.
Read MoreDespite being an educator, you might notice that I don’t discuss education much on this site. Part of this is simply my attempt to put up a wall between my professional life and my public speech – I intend to drill a hole in this wall today, though I’m going to maintain a bit of privacy. I won’t be publicly naming the school(s) I teach at, for example. The reason I decided to write on this subject is quite simple: I’m pretty sure that the American College system is in a state of collapse
Read More
