Educators Succeed Despite Adversity

education is supposed to be about nurturing thoughtful creativity, yet we are often forced to “stay on script.”

Overcoming the “College Students As Children” Mindset

In 2007 I began working for a nearby community college, my third such institution in Kentucky. In Kentucky, the community college system operates by a set of guiding principles and policies yet each institution also operates as a sort of franchise. The best way I can describe this is the application process. A person must…

Small Schools Can Make A Big Difference

You probably have never heard of Julius Rosenwald. Even if you grew up in Chicago the name, “Julius Rosenwald,” may not mean a thing, may ring no memory bells. However, if you have ever visited the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago you have him to thank. He was one of the important benefactors…

The Case for Homework

Kevin Gannon (Grand View University; Twitter:@TheTattoedProf) wrote an excellent rebuttal to an essay published in the New York Time recently. Mark Bauerlein, himself also a professor (Emory University), penned some thoughts about teaching in “What’s the Point of a Professor?” Dr. Gannon took exception to many of the notions expressed by Dr. Bauerlein, and rightly…

Another Day, Another Collection of Student Evaluations to Consider

Yesterday was like new comics release day except instead of being on the receiving end of one of the cooler parts of popular culture I was the recipient of documents which bear only the merest of traces of what students may be getting out of any of my courses. There is also a remarkable paucity…

Email Etiquette and Higher Education

I’ve examined a number of faculty posts over the last few years, tweets and Facebook updates, blogs and essays, relating how poorly students communicate with faculty. I’ve had conversation with faculty, my peers, who have various policies for handling questionable emails. I’ve tried to examine my own email styles along the way. As our global…

Higher Education is Ripe for Deconstruction

Higher education has some problems, the cost of college being only one concern. Our global model of higher education has served us well for a century or so but the time is upon us for those in higher education leadership to step back and deconstruct education. I walk around my campus and talk to people.…

Here’s Your Box: The Dismal Nature of Higher Education

How often have we begged, pleaded, or cajoled our students, “You have to think OUTSIDE the BOX!” I know I have. But, a couple of years ago, I got tired of using this aphorism (link: “Destroy the Box”). More contemplation led me to believe this is really a weak proposition. Last week, I came to…

Don’t Email Me About Your Grades!

I have a student appealing a grade in my Fall 2013 geography course. The course is 100% online. All homework is submitted via the university learning management system (LMS). The LMS reports no grades for the student for any assigned work, though time-date stamps exist to indicate the assignments were at least accessed. The student…

Education Is Like A Dysfunctional Family

I’m probably wrong, but bear with me as out outline all of my errors for you. Over the last two decades I’ve seen student performance noticeably decline. Students fear math. Not calculus, but merely simple multiplication and division. Ask any student to calculate a percentage, i.e. “The population of the United States is 310,000,000 people.…