The rules for higher education are changing. Expectations are higher. Resources are scarcer. Higher education has never been more important to individual financial success; education has never been more roundly and consistently criticized. In this environment, it is hard to figure out what, exactly is going on and where things are headed. Working within higher…
Month: August 2017
Profiting From Inequality: Lower Ed
Tressie McMillan Cottom’s book, Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy is a powerful contribution to the scholarship of higher education. A sociology professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, Cottom explains why for-profit higher education is growing, why it is fundamentally flawed, and yet, in today’s economy, why for so many…
Haunting Composition
I love the idea of Stephen King teaching high school English. The very image makes me smile. Before King became a successful author, he taught at Hampden Academy in Hampden, Maine. King was there for two years, finishing up Carrie and writing to support his young family. Web accounts describe King as a good teacher. I…
Reading, Racism and the L
I wrote the following piece in late July. The violence and hatred from white supremacists over the past weekend at the University of Virginia makes it clear that the battle against racism has to be fought 24/7. We cannot avoid it if we want to live in a just society. Higher education has a great responsibility…