archive/ 2009 November
In short – Missed Opportunities
This quote from Martin Luther King Jr. came up in reading for one of my Education courses today:
we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism [...]
Up to Nothing
A similar thing happens when you have clearly defined tasks that lack purpose.
Go back to work and think about your average day. How often are you not clear what you’re doing? How often is the goal of the next 30 minutes completely undefined? Yes, you’ve suffered through meetings where there was no clear agenda and [...]
The Season of Stuff
Words of wisdom:
Just try to remember that there are plenty of ways to deal with this stuff. You can pledge to get rid of an amount of stuff equal to the amount you receive. You can let those who love you know that you do not want more stuff but want something less tangible instead [...]
My case for moving beyond a printed senior thesis
Traditionally, and to my knowledge exclusively, Politics majors at Whitman College writing their senior thesis have been required to present the finished product as a nicely printed, double spaced, hard copy. This copy is turned in to your thesis readers but most likely never moves beyond those readers and the student’s close family and friends. If [...]
Are Too Many Students Going to College?
There’s an interesting discussion in an article at the Chronicle of Higher Education addressing the question of whether too many students are going to college. Bryan Caplan responds to one of the questions with:
College attendance, in my view, is usually a drain on our economy and society. Encouraging talented people to spend many years in [...]