In their 2010 book, “Academically Adrift”[1], Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa used the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) to measure students understanding of critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing. They found that after the first two years of college many students demonstrated only limited learning and 45% showed no improvement at all. In a 2014 follow-up … More The cocoon of delusion – are we praising away our children’s future?

Sometimes it seems that what the world really needs is more apathy, at least about some things. Apathy is sometimes viewed as being universally negative, but I’d suggest that in some cases it’s the ideal emotion. One obvious example that comes to mind is homosexuality. This is the part that may sound offensive to some, … More The virtues of apathy

The fact checking website, PolitiFact, has a section dedicated to checking the veracity of statements made by pundits and other media types – PunditFact. Of the dozens of personalities evaluated on the site, several have earned their own summary page including Rachel Maddow, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck. Impartiality isn’t a characteristic typically associated with this group so it shouldn’t be surprising all three have … More Ranking the Veracity of Media Personality Statements

Dear Bro, Try to visualize a collage of world strife. Think of specific scenes that appear in the news – aggression, fighting, terrorism, IEDs, rock-throwing, kidnapping school children or field executions. Now, imaging that ALL the faces in your visualization were women. For most, that would paint a surreal picture. I know it does for … More For men only – an exercise in visualization.