Terry Eagleton on Private Universities in London

This is an interesting essay by literary critic, Terry Eagleton:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/06/ac-graylings-new-private-univerity-is-odious

England's tuition costs are rising and making university education harder for the average Joe or Jane to achieve. As Mr. Eagleton indicates adding a private university to the mess in no way solves the problem; if anything, it probably makes matters worse. One wonders the best way to solve the problem...tuition increases, decreases, free education...but there is a tension between what is needed and what is recognized as valuable. How does society best recognize what is valuable and is the market the only way? As a stay-at-home mother, who gets no money, does work only my husband and children value, I cannot help but think society has to re-evaluate a lot of what is considered unimportant work.

A post-script: Stanley Fish on Governance of University in Idaho--is corporate management necessarily a bad thing for a very large institution?

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/06/faculty-governance-in-idaho/

And, another post-script: A view from Russia on American student debt

http://rt.com/news/us-student-education-unemployment/

What does anything mean, really, if education means debt and unemployment? How does education work in a poor society--you're talking about smart, hopeless people...maybe priorities have to change?

Funny--in an Ironic sort of Way

Read what Professors from OISE are telling student teachers in an Irish Education program:

http://www.independent.ie/education/features/in-my-opinion-its-time-to-reimagine-the-ways-we-teach-our-children-2656478.html

So much for practise what you preach...

Poetry and Harold Bloom

My children have to read and memorize poetry; Susan Wise Bauer and her mother, Jessie Wise strongly recommend the activity in their book, "The Well Trained Mind." But, Harold Bloom and his "The Anxiety of Influence" strongly influenced me when I was going through school; in a way, I have always wanted to study like him--the work rather than the biography and I have always encouraged my children to read poetry, to try to understand it and to always appreciate it. Here is a link to video distributed by the New York Times; it is an interview between Mr. Bloom and Mr. Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of their weekly edition of their "Book Reviews" section.

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2011/05/20/review/100000000828027/harold-blooms-influence.html?nl=books&emc=booksupdateemb4

To support their work, I would suggest purchasing an edition of The New York Times or, in Canada, buying the Sunday edition of The Toronto Star.

Noam Chomsky on the Corporatization of the University

Something to think about...it's an hour and a half long but really interesting, I think

http://www.youtube.com/user/uoftscarborough#p/c/0/Q97tFyqHVLs

The link isn't working but try U. of T. at Scraborough on youtube. It's worth it.

Quality does not mean Quantity

An article from the Washington Post my friend posted on a home school site:

www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/wrong-question-wrong-answer/2011/05/22/AFZ5hS9G_blog.html#pagebreak

It is very important to encourage children's curiousity but how is it best encouraged? If a school is mired down with testing results, constant exams and academic requirements, it is producing students who know how to answer questions but not necessarily ones who know how to think. An elastic mind is moulded and affected by the world in which it lives; a child who lives with standards and requirements is going to know how live by them but not necessarily whether they are legitimate or realistic. In way, a child is being taught to think inside the box; unfortunately for them, we live in a world that admires people who think outside the box. They are being strangled by convention in way....

Why Teachers get such a bad rap

An article from today's Irish Independent:

http://www.independent.ie/education/features/diary-of-a-schoolteacher-why-risk-burnout-when-the-brats-wont-remember-you-2617715.html

If nothing else, it shows an amazing amount of disrespect of a teacher for his students.

Nick Mount, Teacher

Perhaps,the highest accolade I can give to someone...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYVTPzgFcuc