ACTA's Must-Reads
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Students for Education
The Washington Post's Daniel De Vise has two good pieces in the last two days about education. First, he profiles University of Virginia student Laura Nelson. Frustrated by the lack of intellectual rigor and liberal arts education on campus, she built her own curriculum, in the form of regular seminars with top professors and a 1500-person e-mail list of educational events on campus. (Sound familiar?) Imagine that: professors teaching undergraduates. Unfortunately, it's a novelty and many of our nation's "top" schools, including, apparently, Virginia. Kudos to Ms. Nelson. This should wake up the Virginia trustees to the depth of the academic problem: who is looking out for student learning? We should point out that Nelson is an Echols scholar, which scholarship exempts her from the already weak core.
Which brings us to DeVise's second piece: eight ideas for "fixing" American higher ed. Many gems are here: Measure how much students learn, bring back homework, and so on. But we like this the very best: revive the core curriculum! Read the whole piece.
Posted by Michael Pomeranz on February 21, 2011 at February 21, 2011 10:47 AM
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