Psychologically speaking thanksgiving is the process of acknowledging the greatness of present/ now/ the moment in hand. Metaphysically it is the easiest, the shortest and the surest way of making a person conscious of his existence. Religiously it is the belief of a person accepting life as the greatest gift of god.Politically it is the master foundation for building a nation of equal emotional bandwidth.Economically it is the best strategy to build a capitalist economic system with equal opportunity for all.

From a scientific perspective the present is the effect of past.Emotionally the past is nothing but memories at human level.For a nation they are cherishing historic events. Memories never fade away rather it carries everything associated with it like waves in the sea.Fishermen everywhere have unwavering faith & hope in “Kadalamma” (Mother sea), that she is & will be their savior, in spite of occasional Sunamis.

In normal situations thanksgiving is a greater celebration than birthday. For birthday is the celebration of biological origin.On the other hand thanksgiving is the celebration of gratitude, the origin of spiritual existence. It is higher pedestal of human existence. Former is more of an ego boosting exercise like parents celebrate the birthday of their children.While the latter is like a grown up daughter celebrate 25th wedding anniversary of her parents.

Amidst a crisis situation, birthday celebration may be postponed, but the celebration of thanksgiving is more befitting in such situation as the present economic crisis, as it brings forth an emotional catherisis of rare human existence & experience.I think every nation should have a similar thanksgiving day. As it rejuvenates and unites the minds of citizens of a nation.

Happy Thanksgiving Day to all the Americans

Recently I was chatting to a group of intelligent, well-educated and well-meaning people, all of whom have one or more children in secondary schools in Dublin. What, I asked them, are you hoping that these schools will deliver for your children. The optimist in me was hoping for answers around pedagogy, civilised values, knowledge development, life skills, the thrill of science and the arts, that kind of thing. I didn’t get any of it. What did I get? They were hoping for the highest possible CAO points*. That was it.

We really have come to treat education as a board game, where you have to make the right moves and gather points. It is entirely tactical, with almost no intellectual angle. You doubt that? Well, I asked my companions what specific expectations they had of the syllabus in English literature – how much Shakespeare should Leaving Certificate students be doing, for example? And exactly what level of scientific knowledge should their children have acquired by the time they take their exams? Oh yes, they wanted Shakespeare. Was it because he crafted some of what we now know as the English language, and because he disseminated intellectual ideas from the classics to his own day? Not at all – it was because this was an expected part of the syllabus and students know how to prepare for it to get high points.

As I have mentioned before, I have grave reservations about the CAO points system, and its influence on the way in which students work for the Leaving Certificate. This conversation strongly reinforced those reservations. The social and material ambitions of parents for their children are pushing those children into working methods and career choices which are of very doubtful value for the wider society. The points system is turning the final stages of secondary school into a transaction in which student acquire what they are led to believe is the currency that will resource their later lives. And it would have to be said that the universities, as the owners of the CAO project, are allowing this to happen.

I think it is high time we had another look at the whole CAO framework.

* For non-Irish readers, the CAO is the Central Applications Office (which administers university and college entry), and the ‘points system’ is the mechanism by which Leaving Certificate examination results are converted into a points score which determines eligibility for specific university courses.

Well! It’s all over!

The collective sigh of the 5th Years was audible last Tuesday as posters went up and hair was let down. As part of the thesis project, each 5th Year had to produce an iconic image that best represented their thesis. These images were then blown up and presented next to each thesis abstract, over which the students, their parents and the academic staff pored and pondered. Although we had grumbled about preparing the iconic images during the intense study environment that was the thesis project, the fruits of our labours were realised in the exhibits and the associated end-of-year booklet. If you haven’t yet grabbed a copy of the ‘Urban Futures’ booklet (how aptly titled), make sure you get your hands on one. It certainly inspired some envious comments at work.

Of course, it wasn’t all about the 5th years. The exhibit included  amazing work from the students in the Urban and Regional Design, Images of Sydney and History, Heritage and the Built Environment electives. Urban Futures was thus a showcase of the talent within the Planning branch of the Built Environment, and I know that all of the students that I spoke were impressed with what they saw. My parents also enjoyed it (and how rare is it to find something that parents and students enjoy?).

Many thanks to the academic staff and administrative support staff for organising and encouraging this event and others like it at UNSW – it feels nice to know we leave with more than just a degree. To all planning students, best of luck in the future! And to the 5th years – we made it!

Alec Tzannes (Dean of Built Environment) and Peter Williams (Head of Planning program)

Dave Cormier has posted on OER and educational development. Cormier questions the usefulness of OER repositories. From the article:

Being open need not be complicated, it doesn’t need to be organized, nor does it even need to be funded. It has to respond to a need that exists. Simple solutions may require a 10% concession from the educator, but a small concession to sustainability can be important.

Enjoying the unseasonably warm weather, De Anza College students Michelle Gagliardi, 24, and Robert Martinez, 33, catch some rays before heading to their next class.  Gagliardi and Martinez have both returned to De Anza College to complete the courses they need to transfer to one of the California state universities and earn a four-year degree in business administration.

Both students are anxious about the job market but not pessimistic – unlike the 92 percent of Americans, aged 18 and older, whose optimism about finding a quality job is at an all time low, according to a November 2009 Gallup survey.

Nearly one in six Americans are either unemployed or underemployed, according to both government reports and Gallup’s estimates, so it shouldn’t be surprising that most Americans are less than confident about finding a quality job.

Yet, De Anza students who were interviewed about their outlook on the current job market have taken a more hopeful and pragmatic view compared to job hunters in the Gallup survey.

Gagliardi, who is seeking a marketing position in the high tech or government sectors, believes she has youth and vitality behind her.  “I have an enormous amount of energy and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get the job I want.  I’m Tigger with brains!”

Martinez, who already has an associate degree from two different California junior colleges, plans to transfer to San Jose State University next year and believes that once he has his business degree “things will start to open up more.”

“I’ll be able to get an internship.  From there, the sky’s the limit.”

Although Martinez does admit that his job search has been going on for some time and he has become “comfortably numb,” he also recognizes the importance of being productive while finding a suitable job.

“If you’re into learning you’ll find ways to keep yourself entertained.  Why not make yourself better rather than grow stagnant?  We have to take a step back to take a step forward and spring out of our funk.”

Keri Kopriva, 24, is taking classes at De Anza for enrichment, holding down several part time jobs and trying to stay active while striving to reach her goal of working in the communications field.

Kopriva says she faced “the five stages of grief” (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance) after graduating from the University of California, Irvine last year.

“After looking for jobs for a while without any luck, I got depressed and ended up watching a lot of TV.  There just weren’t many job opportunities out there.”

But like her fellow students Gagliardi and Martinez, Kopriva’s optimism has prevailed.  “Finally I got out of my funk.  I started getting busy since I couldn’t stand not being productive.”

Kopriva is resolute.  “I’ve learned that we have to work a lot harder to get what we want, which I’m not afraid to do.”

Moises Espinoza, 20, wants to be a fitness trainer and is taking nutrition and health courses at De Anza to increase his knowledge.  Although he agrees that it is not easy to get a job these days, Espinoza is unequivocal about his career choice and echoes his De Anza peers about the future.

“I’ve been interested in coaching since I was in the eighth grade.  I think I will do a great job as a fitness coach.  I’ve already had some clients and continue to get educated about my field.”

The De Anza students all agree that education and persistence are the key ingredients for a great job.  And Sharon Su, 20, is no exception. “I’m looking forward to my career,” says Su, who hopes to work with international nonprofits.  But without education I won’t get the job I want.”

picture from newsweek.com

Being that I am a frequent reader of Bill Maxwell’s column in the St. Petersburg Times, I have stumbled upon this recent column that debates the worth of a college education..

Maxwell brings up some important questions in this column.

Do we have a moral obligation as a society to send as many young adults to college as possible?

The column states that many educators and parents feel differently about the issue.

Hard-line conservatives, such as Charles Murray, political scientist and scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, do not believe everyone should go to college who wants to go. Best known for his positions on race and intelligence, Murray argues that we should listen to the research.

“It has been empirically demonstrated,” he writes, “that doing well (B average or better) in a traditional college major in the arts and sciences requires levels of linguistic and logical/mathematical ability that only 10 to 15 percent of the nation’s youth possess. That doesn’t mean that only 10 to 15 percent should get more than a high school education. It does mean that the four-year residential program leading to a B.A. is the wrong model for a large majority of young people.”

Though this opinion, like any thoughtful opinion should, is based upon fact, I’m not sure that students should give up a college opportunity because their linguistic and mathematical skills aren’t up to par. I think that students, no matter their intelligence or skill level, should strive to learn as much about the world as they can. College isn’t solely about academic learning, it is also about social growth. It is often the coupling of a new social experience and academic rigor that can incite new potential for learning.

The two camps sharply disagree on whether we have a moral obligation as a society to send as many students as we can to college.

“We do have a moral obligation, emerging from several centuries of concern with equity in a highly inequitable country, to make access to and completion of college more equitable,” he writes. “But rather than proclaiming College for All, we should be stressing High School Graduation for All, emphasizing that such completion requires either college readiness or readiness for sustained employment — or for the combination of the two that has become so common.”

As a society we have a moral obligation to encourage the pursuit of a college education. We should never undervalue the importance of higher knowledge and new experiences. The human mind is a vast landscape left mostly untapped. If we encourage all students to pursue a higher level of education, we are encouraging them to expand their minds, which will ultimately alter the way they view the world. College is a great vehicle for the expansion of consciousness, as I said before, because it is a social experience as well as an academic one. It should not be looked at solely as a degree-providing institution that will land you a job that pays well. Money, though important, is not essential in the construction of character.

What do you think readers, do we have a moral obligation to send as many students to college as possible? What is a college education worth?

(Guest post by Greg Forster)

Good gravy! Never mind the debate on using test scores to evaluate teachers. Florida is actually using test scores to evaluate teacher colleges:

It determined what percentage of graduates from each program had 50 percent or more of their students make a year’s worth of progress [on the FCAT]. USF’s College of Education — a huge pipeline for teachers in the Tampa Bay area — had 76 percent of its graduates reach that bar, putting it ninth among the 10 state university programs. Florida International University in Miami topped the field at 85 percent. The University of West Florida in Pensacola was last at 70 percent.

The only problem I can see here is that this just compares education schools to one another. All education schools are part of the problem. Still, I can see a lot of value in knowing which ones are more a part of the problem or less – not least because if they start competing with one another on the basis of results, maybe someday one of them will actually produce a radical transformative revolutionary breakthrough and actually become a value-adding rather than value-subtracting part of the education system.

62% of a hat tip goes to Flypaper’s Andy Smarick. I’m penalizing Andy by withholding 38% of the hat tip because he claims, with no justification, that Arne Duncan must somehow deserve some credit for this move. First of all, as Andy sort of sheepishly admits, a move like this must have been in the works for a while before reaching fruition.

But more important is that Florida has been the nation’s leader in this field for a long time now. Florida doesn’t follow the USDOE on this issue, the USDOE follows Florida. The only effect the USDOE has ever had on Florida’s interest in using test scores for evaluation purposes is to prevent it from going further faster.

150 years ago today Charles Darwin’s “big book,” On the Origin of Species, was first published.  The entire publication run of more than a thousand copies sold out within a few days, making it a certified best-seller of its day.

A rare copy of the first edition, found in the loo of an old house, sold at auction at Christie’s for US$172,000.

Olivia Judson’s already got her day-after blog post up at the New York Times site, talking about a key issue in evolution:  Extinction.  She already blogged on the importance of the Big Book.

And the “Origin” changed everything. Before the “Origin,” the diversity of life could only be catalogued and described; afterwards, it could be explained and understood. Before the “Origin,” species were generally seen as fixed entities, the special creations of a deity; afterwards, they became connected together on a great family tree that stretches back, across billions of years, to the dawn of life. Perhaps most importantly, the “Origin” changed our view of ourselves. It made us as much a part of nature as hummingbirds and bumblebees (or humble-bees, as Darwin called them); we, too, acquired a family tree with a host of remarkable and distinguished ancestors.

The reason the “Origin” was so powerful, compelling and persuasive, the reason Darwin succeeded while his predecessors failed, is that in it he does not just describe how evolution by natural selection works. He presents an enormous body of evidence culled from every field of biology then known. He discusses subjects as diverse as pigeon breeding in Ancient Egypt, the rudimentary eyes of cave fish, the nest-building instincts of honeybees, the evolving size of gooseberries (they’ve been getting bigger), wingless beetles on the island of Madeira and algae in New Zealand. One moment, he’s considering fossil animals like brachiopods (which had hinged shells like clams, but with a different axis of symmetry); the next, he’s discussing the accessibility of nectar in clover flowers to different species of bee.

At the same time, he uses every form of evidence at his disposal: he observes, argues, compares, infers and describes the results of experiments he has read about, or in many cases, personally conducted. For example, one of Darwin’s observations is that the inhabitants of islands resemble — but differ subtly from — those of the nearest continents. So: birds and bushes on islands off the coast of South America resemble South American birds and bushes; islands near Africa are populated by recognizably African forms.

Of course you –you cognescenti, you — know Judson is the wit behind Dr. Tatiana’s Sex Advice to All Creation, a thoroughly delightful, funny and scientifically accurate book.  Which brings to my mind this question:  Why are scientists, and especially evolutionary scientists, so funny and charming, in stark contrast to the dull proles of creationism?

And, were he not ill at the time, can you imagine what a fantastic dinner guest Charles Darwin himself would be?

Darwin's hand-drawn "tree of life"

Meanwhile, at PBS, NOVA already featured “Darwin’s Darkest Hour” earlier this year.  NOVA research Gaia Remerowski alerts us to a coming production, “What Darwin Never Knew,” featuring progress made in evolutionary development, “evo-devo.”   Science marches on.

Remerowski illustrated her post with Darwin’s quick, hand drawing of a “tree of life,” a drawing that has become iconic in biology circles — like the one to your right.  This one comes from the website of “Speaking of Faith,” another PBS production that featured Darwin earlier this year.  SOF offered an online tour of some of the work of Darwin, too — other drawings from Darwin’s own hand.  Nice exhibit.

Our country’s advocates for good science education, the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) carried Origin Day greetings and a rundown of a dozen projects commemorating the 150th year of the book, and the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth.

Happy Origin Day, indeed.

Nike Pro Combat Uniforms

If you haven’t been following the latest in college football fashion wear…

Here are the Nike Pro Combat Uniforms — ten college teams selected to receive special uniforms and helmets from Nike. Of the ten teams, three are from Florida, with the University of Florida in the center in blue.

Florida will be wearing the special uniforms in their game Saturday against FSU. FSU (in the garnet) wore their special uniforms last weekend against Maryland. No doubt, Nike wants to maximize the coverage of the uniforms by not having two teams wear their Nike special unforms in the same game.

Nike truck

Today the Nike truck was on campus, right behind the College of Journalism and Communications, as I walked to lunch. The truck is like a rolling store, complete with displays, clothing racks and cash register.

Nike had wanted a gathering of UF students wearing Gator colors to be there for the truck’s arrival at 11 a.m. With about 12 hours warning, one of our enterprising journalism students (Steve Johnson) rallied the troops with some late night phone calls and Facebook. At 11 a.m., 60 students were there in orange and blue to greet the truck.

Game day T-shirt and special jersey

When I arrived at the truck, students and reporters (from The Alligator and The Gainesville Sun) were talking to the Nike sales staff — getting a story or getting a shirt.

The gal I talked with explained that the “Finish the Mission” logo was in reference to Tim Tebow leading the Gators to their third National Championship with a Roman numeral III on the sleeve. The jersey is loaded with all kinds of special stitching and fabric to enhance performance, wick moisture, resist tearing, etc.

So I took the photos with my iPhone, e-mailed them to myself, downloaded the photos onto my computer desktop and imported them into my PowerPoint so I could use the photos today in our discussion of how advertising, public relations and marketing are merging. A very timely example and one that really had the students’ interest. We did end the second lecture five minutes early so that all the students who had picked up promotion cards could dash back to the truck to see if they’d won a free T-shirt.

David Wiley has a new post announcing that BYU’s Instructional Psychology and Technology department and library have adopted open access policies. From the post:

I am giddy with excitement to see some of my own published articles beginning to appear in BYU’s institutional repository – they now have an open, permanent, curated home and I can link to them with confidence.

“Put a unique spin on this, throw it out there so it can grow legs, get some traction and go viral.  I want a footprint!”

I woke in a cold sweat.

Words and phrases that should be killed are sprouting faster than zombies in a George A.Romero film.   They’re more persistent than sallow vampires in the twilight.  I can’t stop thinking about them though some say I’m anal (props to Freud for that evergreen).  Others have likened our kind to being word police, but I consider us mavericks.  No, wait.  The paunchy maverick slid back to the Senate  and unleashed The Rogue.

Yikes!  I step back from that since the first definition of “rogue” in dictionary.com is “a dishonest, knavish person; a scoundrel.”  Hmm.  Well, I guess it’s safe to call yourself a rogue if you know your audience never uses a dictionary.

Actually, I’m just a guy who loves the language, respects the creative use of it and dislikes lazy use of language, especially among “educated” professionals.  I’m just giving you a heads-up that.

Really, I’m being totally transparent.

The phrase making the sales rep rounds is “reaching out.”  Several, from different parts of the country have used that on me, always beginning, “Dennis, I’d like to reach out and see how our company can help you.”

Well, friend, it’s like this:  if I’m drowning, I really want you to reach out and help me.  However, if your goal is to fill inventory, get the manager off your back and boost your commission, a simple media kit will do.  If it looks like your station is a good fit, I’ll reach out to you.

And then you know what we’ll do?  We’ll have a conversation!

Actually I’ve heard this in higher ed more than in the media.  It usually begins with a problem (masked as “a challenge”) between two people or parties who disagree (have “different goals”) and the path to a solution is to have one of these conversations.  Conversation implies civility which means you can’t raise your voice or even let your face get red from rising blood pressure.

“Conversations” are bland, mishmashes of buzzwords that suffocate our ancient instincts to reach out and kill the opponent.

Hey,  I’m just sayin’. . . .

****

( I’ve had a lot of feedback from readers.  I’m thinking of setting up a separate page with all three posts and everyone’s contributions.  So please send me the words and phrases that drive you nuts.)

Note:  Thanks to the guys over at Target x  who picked up on our shared love of language and continued the, umm, conversation.

Some time ago I came across a website (I no longer recall the details) which was running what I thought was a particularly silly survey: it was asking its readers to ‘vote’ in an online poll whether universities should be more like corporations. It was silly in the sense that at that level of generality the question was completely meaningless: more like corporations in what sense? Some modern companies have adopted what we might call traditional academic values and methodologies; and I guess that understanding the ability of well-run companies to manage and maximise resources is something that wouldn’t necessarily harm us.

However, the relationship between universities and business organisations is an important issue and deserves both analysis and comment. It is important in two different ways: (i) is there anything we can learn from the corporate world? – and (ii) what kind of relationship should we have, or allow ourselves to have, with corporate partners?

For this post I shall focus on the second of these questions. I may come back to the first on another occasion, and I might just point out in passing that modern organisation theory applies an analysis to companies that could be helpful to academic institutions, whether they might want to adopt business insights or indeed avoid them. But that’s for another time.

But what about relationships with industry? Just over ten years ago the University of California at Berkeley caused some academic observers to raise their eyebrows when it announced a special relationship with the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis. The agreement was confined to agricultural biotechnology, and under its terms the company provided the university with $25 million of research funding, and in return it acquired rights in a share of the resulting discoveries. A number of concerns were expressed at the time, with some arguing that the deal created conflicts of interest and the possibility that academic integrity might be compromised by the industrial partner’s commercial interests. The arrangement came to an end in 2003, and was subsequently assessed by a team of outside experts. The resulting report was fairly critical. It found no ethical misconduct, but it questioned whether the arrangement had had any real impact on research output, and wondered whether the intellectual property aspects had been efficiently and fairly handled.

Whether the Berkeley/Novartis agreement was good or not so good, it is now a matter of general consensus at least amongst state agencies and government departments across the industrialised world that academic-industry links are to be welcomed. The major funding programmes of Science Foundation Ireland, for example, are based on the requirement to assemble university-industry collaborations, and in this country most of the high value research centres across more or less all of the universities have such collaborations in place. The major motivation for such relationships is that they may accelerate the commercialisation of discovery, as industry partners apply their skills in financing, developing and marketing products that are derived from the research. The risk, as some might see it, could be that the commercial imperatives applied by the industry partners may skew the research, or that the prominence given to these projects might crowd out the also necessary basic or blue skies research that should have a home in the universities.

There is little evidence to date that industry links have undermined university research, though the risks are always likely to be there to some extent and this requires strong ethics monitoring and a clear university research strategy (that goes beyond industry partnerships) to be in place. An external analysis of SFI and its funded programmes published in 2008 suggested that the industry dimension was positive and should be developed further.

It is probably also arguable that industry links should be developed, where appropriate, on the teaching side. DCU has from its establishment operated a work placement programme as part of all the university’s programmes of study that has had the effect of creating close links with the employers that take on our students, without giving our industry partners any direct influence over programme content or assessment.

Academic and intellectual integrity must always be at the heart of everything a university does; but being ‘networked’ has many benefits, not least that it allows a university to understand better what society’s needs are and how we can contribute to their resolution. Industry links are an important part of that mission.

Here’s some original footage mashed up with some videos I’ve downloaded you YouTube. It’s my first go at a mash up, so bear with me.

Post your thoughts in the comment section.

Thanks.

Post Script: I think it needs more explosions.

The treatment of adjunct professors has been a topic of discussion for years and recently has come up by way of campus sit-ins and attempts for unionization.  Yesterday, a group of educators from Massachusetts community colleges filed a lawsuit against the state, saying that adjunct faculty members are unfairly denied health care coverage.  As you’ve read in this blog, demand for higher education has been increasing the past decade, with particular growth seen within community colleges, who in turn must meet this demand by relying on adjunct faculty.  Is this the catalyst for which advocates for adjunct faculty members have been waiting?  Will supply/demand and this new economy for education finally help this type of educator?

For full article, click here

Caroline Hoxby finds, in a recent study, that the 10% most selective colleges and universities have become more selective since 1962 while the majority of colleges have become less selective. This seems to be related to an increasing willingness of students to attend more distant colleges and universities (possibly due to decreasing transportation and communication costs).  Since the most selective institutions receive a larger and more geographically diverse applicant pool, they have been able to become increasingly selective.  Increases in financial aid awards at select colleges have further raised the quality of the applicant pool by lowering the relative cost of attendance.

As the most selective colleges and universities have become more selective, the majority of colleges and universities have become less selective. This leads to a growing gap in the average measured quality of students in elite institutions and those in other institutions.  On the one hand, this may mean that students end up selected into institutions in which there is more homogenous levels of human capital among entering freshman. This may be desirable for society t0 the extent to which it makes it possible to tailor instruction to students with relatively similar prior academic backgrounds and preparation. To the extent that students learn from their peers, though, the growing homogeneity of student ability within institutions could lead to a growing gap in the amount of human capital accumulation in college. While interactions among the best and the brightest students help to enhance their learning, students in most institutions will have a smaller proportion of peers in the upper tail of the measured ability/performance distributions.  The relative rate of return to “select” institutions may continue to rise relative to that of attending  more typical colleges and universities if this student quality differential continues to expand.

Indiana University decided to make BIM a requirement on all of their projects.  Follow the link below for an article by James Van, Digital Design Manager for SOM, New York. The article has all the links to the documents.  My take?  IU is requiring Revit & Navisworks to better achieve their goals of sustainability and efficiency.  There is also some indication that this may create a domino effect with other universities.  So, could this be another reason push our BIM capabilities?

http://allthingsbim.blogspot.com/2009/11/indiana-university-requires-bim.html

Both fiscal conservatives and social conservatives agree: government spending on higher education should be cut.

Fiscal conservatives oppose government spending on higher education

Consider this podcast from the libertarian Cato Institute.

Here is the MP3 file. (7 minutes)

It’s an interview with Dr. Neal MCluskey.

Topics:

• does higher education necessarily deliver skills that employers want?
• do most degrees really benefit employers?
• should government subsidize higher education?

About the guest:

Neal McCluskey is the associate director of Cato’s Center for Educational Freedom. Prior to arriving at Cato, McCluskey served in the U.S. Army, taught high school English, and was a freelance reporter covering municipal government and education in suburban New Jersey. More recently, he was a policy analyst at the Center for Education Reform. McCluskey is the author of the book Feds in the Classroom: How Big Government Corrupts, Cripples, and Compromises American Education, and his writings have appeared in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, Baltimore Sun, and Forbes. In addition to his written work, McCluskey has appeared on C-SPAN, CNN, the Fox News Channel, and numerous radio programs. McCluskey holds a master’s degree in political science from Rutgers University.

I think people should face the costs of the university education themselves. Then they would choose areas where they could make enough money to live and pay back their loans.

Social conservatives oppose government spending on higher education

My wonderful friend Andrew sent me this notice about an upcoming Family Research Council lecture.

Allan Carlson to Speak on Student Loans at Family Research Council

World Congress of Families founder and International Secretary Allan C. Carlson will deliver a Witherspoon Lecture at the Family Research Council on December 4 at 11:00 am, on “The Crushing Burden of Student Loans on Family Formation For Generation X.”

Studies have shown that significant numbers of graduates who are burdened with college loans are less likely to marry and have children – with negative consequences for society. Thus, there is a need to re-think the entire program.

[...]Allan Carlson has a Ph.D. in Modern European History. He is the author of many books, including “Conjugal America: On the Public Purposes of Marriage” and “The Natural Family: A Manifesto,” with Paul Mero. Click here to order his books.

Click here to download the flier.

Isn’t it amazing that fiscal conservatives agree with social conservatives? Actually, they should agree on many more things, in my opinion. It’s a bad idea for government to redistribute taxpayer money to schools, because the teacher unions just turn around and use it to influence politics, which cannot be good for giving children a quality education. Teacher unions are bad for fiscal and social conservatives – we really need to unite and make sure that they are de-funded, and de-fanged.

A funny story about libertarians

And I have to tell you a funny story. One of the quirky things about me that everyone knows is that I am able to get into the most deep and controversial conversations within a few seconds of meeting someone. For example, in the time it takes to get a blood test, I was talking to the nurse about lethal injections, capital punishment and different goals of the criminal justice system. Well, I managed to beat my score on Monday.

I was passing by a security guard to show him my badge and I noticed a book on his desk. As soon as he turned his back I leaned over the desk and read the back cover. It was a book by Lew Rockwell. So I asked him about it, and then we started talking about how libertarians ought to support social conservatism in order to keep government from having to deal with the fallout from broken homes and crime. I was just about to start talking about John Lott’s study on the link between abortion and increased crime, but there was a line-up by then, so I moved along.

So that’s what my life is like – the joy of a comprehensive Christian worldview means that you are never at a loss for something interesting to talk about. And there is a lot of reading people – knowing who you can talk to and when you’ve gone too far. Practice, practice, practice.

Today we celebrate Chrissi Antonopoulos, a Business & Leadership major who just completed a 45-credit Prior Learning Assessment portfolio. 45 credits is the maximum number of PLA credits students can earn, and Chrissi achieved it! Here are the topics she wrote for:

• BIO 164: Introduction to Human Anatomy
• BIO 165: Alternatives to Health and Healing
• CCM 322: Interpersonal Communication
• CCM 323: Effective Listening
• CCM 333: Intercultural Communication
• CCM 346: Conflict Management
• SP 111: Public Speaking
• SP 130: Business and Professional Speech Communication
• CTD 440: Principles of Instructional Design
• CTD 446: Helping Adults Learn
• CTD 450: Instructional Presentation & Interaction Techniques
• BA 206: Management Fundamentals
• MSD 117 / 161: Customer Relations
• BUS 400: Personal Ethics in Organizations

Here’s part of what Chrissi wrote in her Final Reflection Essay:

As a student, my PLA experience has also helped me in my other courses; I am a better writer, I can convey my thoughts more precisely and I have learned to be more efficient and organized when it comes to course work. I have also used some of the reading materials I discovered in other classes or papers as references. . . I value my experience highly and can see how it fits in with my overal educational experience at Marylhurst.

In the following video, Chrissi talks about her experiences with the PLA program, highlighting how writing PLA essays helped her develop her academic writing skills, which have served her in all of her other coursework. Enjoy her tips for writing PLA essays and organizing her time.

CONGRATULATIONS CHRISSI!