Web Browsing- Professors' Liberalism Contagious? Maybe Not - NYTimes.com 3 November 2008Do liberal faculty affect the political leanings of students? These people say no. But let's look a little deeper. One author says "it is really hard to change the mind of anyone over 15." Does this mean that the average American thinks about politics now the same way he did when he was 15? Yikes. It appears to imply that political opinions are not firmly rooted in ideas, but in feelings and prejudices. The article also suggests that the real problem is that students aren't actually being educated. They aren't getting the "good stuff." In fact, this may be the root of the problem. Even if students don't buy the liberalism of their teachers, they don't get much else either. Notable deficiencies appear in political and military history, especially of the West, but also include traditional literary criticism (and probably content), civics, and economics.
- Obama, Shaman by Michael Knox Beran, City Journal Summer 2008 3 November 2008Beran brilliant combines culture, religion, and literature into a powerful commentary on the religious aspects of Barack Obama's candidacy. The article is rich (and lengthy), but certainly worth digesting.
- Obama and the Politics of Crowds - WSJ.com 30 October 2008Fouad Ajami offers a rich and culturally insightful glimpse into Senator Obama's magic. He draws upon broad themes and key historical features of American cultural history to make his case for caution. Perhaps most telling is his observation about an American distinctive. Whereas the rest of the world champions equality, American has championed liberty. Obama offers the former, and the current financial panic has suspended Americans' faith in the latter. Consequently, we are on the verge of electing someone who inspires in the way a relgious leader, a messiah, does. But the religious hype quickly fades and people realize too late that they have been fleeced.
- America's Most Overrated Product: the Bachelor's Degree - Chronicle.com 24 October 2008Chronicle of Higher Ed points out the pointlessness of most bachelor's degrees.
- Professors' Liberalism Contagious? Maybe Not - NYTimes.com 3 November 2008
May
30
Technical difficulties
Filed Under Travel | 2 Comments
Well, we might be silent for a little while. Last night, Mel’s computer developed a hard drive problem and won’t boot up.
Pray we get it fixed somehow, because otherwise we’re going to have a rough summer. A lot of stuff we need to be able to use is on that computer — basically we were planning to use it to keep our life back East still running while we’re in the West.
Also, the hard drive has our pictures — several hundred of them — on it. For some of the files, we have no other copy.
If there are any computer gurus out there with suggestions, the error message appears before Windows finishes booting up, even in Safe Mode. Error Code 0F00:0244 Msg: Block 656414: Uncorrectable data error or media is write protected. I’m reading that it’s a bad hard drive sector, but if someone has another idea or a suggestion about how to get our data off the drive, I would be very interested.
May
27
May 25
We left Greenville around noon. Our hotel reservations were in Clarksville, TN which is on the north side of Nashville. There was lots of traffic on the roads. In fact, several times the traffic would stop for several minutes for no apparent reason. We stayed in an Econo Lodge that had a bed as soft as a hardwood floor. No one slept very well, and we woke up with aching backs and necks.
May 26
We drove 4 ½ hours to St. Louis. We stopped first at the zoo. Andrew was able to use his new camera to take lots of pictures (see the gallery for pictures). The zoo is free, but you have to pay for parking. Fortunately (unfortunately?), the zoo parking lots were full, so we parked for free and walked about a mile to the zoo. Time was short, but we enjoyed most of the animals. It’s a lot better than the Greenville Zoo.
We stopped at the Days Inn to put our belongings away before going to the Arch. At the Arch, we watched a film (on an old filmstrip — which took me back to Elementary school days with the picture quality) about the construction of the Arch. Our tickets to the top were for 7:10. Now, you don’t get to go up the arch at the listed time, but you get to start the process. At 7:10 we were admitted onto a ramp. We stopped there for about 10 minutes and were assigned a tram car. Then we went a little further where we waited another 10 minutes. Again we went a little further to wait another 10 minutes. And finally we went to the tram platform where we waited another 10 minutes. The tram is so tiny you touch the knees of the other 4 people stuffed inside. The top of the arch was very crowded as well. It was cloudy out, but we could still see pretty well. We enjoyed looking out both sides. (See photos.)
We left the arch around 9pm and went to get dinner. We stopped at Denny’s where the service was very slow. Exhausted, but full, we went back to the hotel where we tried to get three more sets of towels. They had only one set left. The beds were more comfortable, so we all slept much better, in spite of all the potential distractions. Maybe we were just beat.
May 27
The continental breakfast (pastries and cereal) was basically non-existent by the time we went at 9:30, so we had orange juice for breakfast. We went to Open Door Bible Church down the road. The pastor was a BJ grad and the people in the church were very friendly.
After church we got lunch at Jack In the Box, and then hit the road on the way to St. Joseph, MO. About halfway across Missouri, we hit a thunderstorm. It rained really hard for a couple of minutes (we slowed to 35 mph), and rained some more over the next 50 miles or so. It wasn’t bad driving, but it was slower than usual.
In St. Joseph, we went to a couple of parks after checking into the hotel (much nicer than the St. Louis hotel). The Riverfront Park was closed and kind of dumpy. We went to Krug Park, which was much nicer.
At the moment, we are sitting back in the hotel using the wireless Internet to post pictures and stories. Tomorrow is the long day of driving – some 650 miles to Rapid City, SD.
May
25
Plagiarism
Filed Under Education | Leave a Comment
It’s been a week since I finished up my subbing job, and I’m finally writing a post about it. It was a long eight weeks, and I’m so glad it’s over. It was a blessing to have a steady job and actually know the names of the students in the classroom, but it was a job I was quite ready to finish with.
My last week of school was busy with grading tests and projects. I had three CP (college prep) classes whose project was to create a booklet on the Renaissance. They had 5 various topics and each topic needed to have 75 written words and 2 pictures. We spent 3 days in the computer lab so they could work on their project. Of course when the projects were due on Wednesday only about 1/3 of the students turned them in. As I began grading I began to suspect plagiarism. I would put a sentence or two into Google, and sure enough every word in their project would be found on the internet.
Thursday, I gave the students the chance to rewrite their project. The penalty? They would only lose 10 points (otherwise the highest grade possible was a 50%). Several students asked to redo their project.
The best situation was a student who kept looking at his project wanting to know if I had graded it. I wouldn’t tell him, but asked if he needed to take it back. He didn’t. When I went to grade his project I knew he didn’t write it, but I couldn’t find it on the internet. So I went to the school library and enlisted the help of the librarians. They pulled out 3 books some of the students had used. Looking in the books I found 3 of the 5 topics. I figured that was enough evidence for me, especially since one of the other topics started with the phrase “Plato said…†I knew a 9th grader wouldn’t have written that!
May
22
Gas prices
Filed Under Random Thoughts | 2 Comments
There is a lot of news lately about the skyrocketing gas prices. I have nearly reached the point where I doubt everything I hear in the media about the cause of this phenomenon. The issue seems far more complex than a 30-second news clip can explain.
I’d like to blame it all on the environmentalists, but they haven’t really been successful in changing people’s minds about consumption. The government taxes gas heavily, but they’ve always done that. The oil companies are making less money now, even with the increased consumption, than they did when gas was cheap. Some have suggested that the limited refinery capacity has hindered the flow of gas. This seems like a more plausible scenario. Yet refinery capacity has increased, even though new refineries haven’t been built for a long time. Technology has improved, and not just in refineries. Cars ought to be getting better gas mileage now than they were in the 80s. Perhaps there are more cars, etc. now, and that’s driving up costs.
Ultimately, there seems to be no easy solution. I’m all in favor of decreasing consumption. But I’m not willing to forswear the automobile and the freedom it offers. I think most of America agrees with me. Alas, as long as we think that way, prices may remain higher than we want.
Case in point: We are traveling to Wyoming at the end of the week. I just had the AAA website calculate how much we can expect to spend on gas. $227 for the trip out. But we’re still going.
May
21
New gallery
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I’ve updated the gallery to the newest version of Gallery2. It’s much nicer and easier to use. You’ll note a new theme as well. I might change the colors, etc. on the theme, but the features of the theme are what I like. I hope you like it and find it as friendly as I do.
We are getting ready to depart on Friday. We plan to move out of our apartment on Tuesday. We’ll spend the intervening days with Mel’s parents.
May
12
Well, lots of things have happened recently. A wedding and an engagement are merely today’s events.
Mel and I are starting to pack things up in our apartment. It’s a royal mess at the moment. I don’t know what we’re going to do with a lot of our stuff. I already have three boxes of books filled and it seems to have barely made a dent on the bookshelf.
This afternoon we attended Duncan and Meg Johnson’s wedding. It was quite nice. Their fathers (who both pastor churches) did the wedding, and my dad and another pastor prayed from the congregation. At times, it was a little bit weepy, but overall it was a very nice and meaningful wedding.
I have added pictures from the wedding to the gallery. Early this week I bought a graduation gift for myself, using money from graduation presents and some of my own (which Melanie graciously permitted me to spend). The new toy is a Nikon D70s, complete with a nice 18-70 AF-S DX lens. Unfortunately, I have discovered that my external flash unit doesn’t work on the hotshoe. Argh. It does take nice photos, as I think you can see in the gallery.
Also, as I was sitting here writing, my sister and Lincoln came in and announced their engagement. We weren’t really surprised. In fact, we knew it was supposed to happen today. For now, I’ll have to hold off on details, though I’m sure Lincoln will post extensively on it — or Abby will make him do it. I’ll try to include more info and pictures as I can get them.
May
8
Protected: for Red Cliff SALT counselors only
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