Thanks to some computer issues on Friday night and Saturday, I’ll just offer a shortened, belated set of links from a busy, sad last seven days. Here… • I’ve been describing Bethel at War, the digital history project that debuted this week, as “sneaky big” — Fletcher Warren and I started off with the idea that we’d write an … More That Was The Week That Was
Cross-posted from AC 2nd At last night’s GOP presidential debate several candidates used our friends in the discipline of philosophy as a punch line. Most memorably, Sen. Marco Rubio (FL) claimed that “Welders make more than philosophers. We need more welders and less philosophers.” Or as he put it today at an event in Iowa: “You deserve … More How about Historians and Welders?
In recognition of Veterans/Remembrance Day, Fletcher Warren and I are proud today to unveil the final version of Bethel at War, 1914-2014: A Digital History of a Christian College in a Century of Warfare. Whether you’re a Bethel alumnus, student, or employee, a member of its denomination, someone who’s interested in the histories of higher education, Christianity (especially … More At Long Last, the Official Debut of Bethel at War, 1914-2014!
This blog was quiet much of last week because I was busy attending the 2015 Symposium on Faith and Culture at Baylor University, on the theme of The Spirit of Sports. I won’t try to review every session that I attended — and I wasn’t there for the third and final day — but I thought I’d share a … More The Spirit of Sports
I don’t think I have any wisdom to offer on the controversy brewing at Yale University, where some students are outraged at what they perceive to be the lack of institutional response to racism on campus. But I think it raises some important questions about the nature of college education, particularly at schools that advertise themselves … More Is College a “Home”?
Troubling news from Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, where twelve faculty spots are at risk of disappearing, including tenure-track positions in art, English, and ethics and open positions in French, philosophy, and theater. While a college spokesman pointed to a $3.7 million budget deficit and persistent decline in enrollment (down from over 1800 four years … More When Does a Liberal Arts College Cease to Be a Liberal Arts College?
Here… • I turned forty. • A leading Holocaust historian rebutted the abuse of that history by two politicians. • What are the best Cold War movies? (Follow up: I saw and enjoyed Bridge of Spies yesterday. More later perhaps…) • Molly Worthen provided our annual reminder that the lecture is not actually a terrible way to teach. • … More That Was The Week That Was
Having already written a defense of the lecture this week, I’m going to take the risk of seeming like a complete curmudgeon and share these findings about online education, from a new study coming out of Stanford University’s Center for Education Policy Analysis (CEPA): (H/T L.D. Burnett) …online courses do less to promote student learning and … More New Research Finds That Online Courses Significantly Reduce Student Achievement
You know you inhabit an odd corner of the social media world when it goes viral over a New York Times column entitled “Lecture Me. Really.” And yet, I think it says something that a significant number of the academics I know on Facebook and follow on Twitter resonated so strongly with this argument from historian Molly Worthen: … More This Year’s Reminder That the Lecture is Not Dead
Sharp-eyed readers might have noticed a new name popping up in the right-hand column of this blog, on my rotating list of “A Few of the Blogs, Publications, and Writers I Follow.” Adam Laats is historian of education at SUNY-Binghamton, currently writing a book tentatively titled Fundamentalist U: Keeping the Faith in American Higher Education. (John Fea got … More I Love You, But…
The Pietist Schoolman 