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• I Will Gladly Pay You Someday For A College Education Today

  As the cost of attending college continues to increase, and as the credit crunch kicks traditional lenders out of the student loan market, some necessary (if imperfect) innovations are sprouting up. BusinessWeek profiles some new peer-to-peer student loan lending organizations. Whether they'll be strong to the finish remains to be seen.
  
  UPDATE: The above text now links correctly. However, the previous (incorrect) link is actually quite amusing. We blogged about ages ago here.
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  • Date: May 13 2008
  • Posted by Patrick James

• Crazy English

  "Crazy English" is a popular method of English-language instruction in which Chinese students declaim random-sounding sentences in unison, in public places at the top of their lungs. Its originator, Li Yang, who has become a very rich man, seems to some more like a demagogue or cult leader than a true educator. You can see students practicing his method here; you can read about the unsettling aspects of Crazy English zealotry here. Photo credit UPDATE: The New Yorker just covered Crazy English here.
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  • Date: Apr 21 2008
  • Posted by Jaime Wolf

• All Species Of Darwin's Private Papers Online

  A huge new collection of Darwin's private papers, photographs, notebooks and sketches is now online. We browsed through the archive quickly looking for some highlights; this set of private photos and press clippings was a natural selection.
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  • Date: Apr 17 2008
  • Posted by andrewprice

• Rank And File

  The extraordinarily popular, but often criticized, U.S. News and World Report college rankings may be on the verge of a makeover. The higher-ed pecking order—under fire in the last year from a slew of less-than-conventional colleges who elected to remove themselves from the evaluation process—is most controversial for its methodology. Considerations of acceptance rate, financial resources, and alumni giving are, say some, not indicative of school quality. In an effort to test out new evaluation criteria, the magazine is asking college presidents to identify "up and coming" schools, and is inviting them to recommend new and re-weighted categories. In addition, U.S. News has sent out surveys to 1,600 high school counseling offices—the results of which the magazine may or may not use. Via Inside Higher Ed
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  • Date: Apr 09 2008
  • Posted by danielriley

• Just Kant Get Enough

  Philosophy departments around the country are getting a lot more popular these days according to the New York Times. The number of philosophy majors at Rutgers has exploded from 50 to 100 since 2002. "Frances Egan, a Rutgers philosophy professor,...said that as it has become harder for students to predict what specialties might be in demand in an uncertain economy, some may be more apt to choose their major based simply on what they find interesting." That's a novel idea. We're also living in uncertain times, and what better way to get comfortable with confusion and ambiguity than spending four years reading Wittgenstein? Illustration of Nietzsche, with unironic mustache, from Wikimedia.
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  • Date: Apr 05 2008
  • Posted by andrewprice

• Objectivist Charity

  Banking CEO John Allison has, since 1999, shelled out $28 million to 27 colleges to support the study of capitalism from a moral perspective—often stipulating that Ayn Rand's colossal novel Atlas Shrugged be required reading. Owing his rise in finance to the Randian philosophy of self-interest and limited business regulation, the philanthropic arm of Allison's BB&T bank most recently celebrated the opening of the "Ayn Rand Reading Room" on UNC Charlotte's campus. But the strings attached to Allison's donations—which are rare in their influence on academic content—have several higher educators up in arms. Via Charlotte Observer
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  • Date: Mar 25 2008
  • Posted by danielriley

• Saccharine Punishment

  An eighth-grade honors student in New Haven, Conn. had his reputation restored and his record cleared after suffering drastic discipline for involvement in an underground candy cartel. After the student was caught in the act of purchasing a bag of skittles from a peddling classmate (the New Haven school system banned candy sales in 2003 in an effort to boost campus "wellness"), both students were suspended and the honors student was stripped of his post as class vice president. This reminds us of that other public official who was caught in that other illegal money-for-service ring. Funny how the media latches on to coverage trends.
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  • Date: Mar 14 2008
  • Posted by danielriley

• Slidescale Schooling

  Stanford gets it. Like those great hardcore shows where the opening band would set person-by-person merch prices based on whatever you could afford, Standford will no longer charge tuition for students whose parents make less than $100,000 a year. If a student's parents make less than $60,000, room and board is also free. Well played, Cardinal, well played.
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  • Date: Feb 21 2008
  • Posted by Patrick James

• South Africa, The Iraq And The Asian Countries

  Play this challenging geography game and you won't have to worry about becoming the object of YouTube ridicule next time you compete for Miss Teen USA. We just want you to be prepared. Via VSL.
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  • Date: Dec 11 2007
  • Posted by andrewprice

• Intermission

  Here's to Sesame Street keeping expectations high. When your kindergarten teacher thought Row, Row, Row Your Boat was just your speed the Children's Television Workshop was throwing you Philip Glass. From the comments at YouTube: "This was the music I heard in my head every time I failed a high school math exam." "Isn't this the same guy from Koyaanisqutsi? It's great to watch when your stoned or on acid. Helps you appreciate the complexity in life."
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  • Date: Dec 06 2007
  • Posted by andrewprice