Category: Education

Athenae, Economy, Education, Kids Today, Urban Hellhole

Kids Today Just Don’t Want to Save Money!

Allison Hantschel

Buy a house, young’uns!  “A lot of folks said that millennials would go off and just rent,” said Jonathan Corr, chief executive of Ellie Mae in Pleasanton, Calif. “But as they hit those life-event years in terms of getting married, having children, they’re starting to make that transition.” That doesn’t mean they’re ready to sign a check. Millennials in about half of large metropolitan areas are underestimating how much they’ll need for a down payment on their first home and are not saving at a fast enough pace. I see “incredibly screwed by the service/gig/contract economy and paying too much … Continue reading Kids Today Just Don’t Want to Save Money!

Bigotry, Current Affairs, Do Something, Doc, Education2 Comments

“Fuck You” Nation: Campus Edition

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A number of months ago, I coined the term “Fuck You” Nation in dealing with the idea that we seem to have a constant sense that anyone who isn’t immediately for us in the way we want them to be should be told to fuck off. Truth be told, I should have figured this term out decades ago, given the cultural climate of my alma mater. The arrest of a 21-year-old UW-Madison student has sparked protests on campus, due in part to the circumstances of his arrest and the anti-racism message he was attempting to spread. Denzel McDonald is accused … Continue reading “Fuck You” Nation: Campus Edition

Current Affairs, Doc, Education, Uncategorized1 Comment

Follow the Bouncing Logic: UW System Edition

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Today, I found myself going back to the famous joke about chutzpah: A lawyer is defending a kid accused of killing both of his parents. The lawyer begs the court for mercy because his client is an orphan. The UW System Board of Regents made a similar move today, passing a new set of tenure provisions that will allow cost to help dictate if faculty can be cut. Regents President Regina Millner was adamant that the new tenure policies would preserve academic freedom and free speech, and be comparable to policies at peer institutions. She said the policies “strike the … Continue reading Follow the Bouncing Logic: UW System Edition

Current Affairs, Doc, Education, Immoral Values, Law/Justice, Uncategorized2 Comments

In other news, rape victim blamed for not having vagina guarded by Pinkertons…

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Teacher Leigh Anne Arthur was essentially given a “quit or we will fire you” order from her bosses in the Union County School District this week after a student found a nude photo of Arthur on her cell phone and passed it around the school. The student stole the phone off of Arthur’s desk while Arthur was out of the room for five minutes to monitor the “passing period” at the school. Arthur has been put into the unenviable position of having to explain that, yes, there was a nude photo of her on the phone and that, yes, she … Continue reading In other news, rape victim blamed for not having vagina guarded by Pinkertons…

Current Affairs, Doc, Education, Law/Justice, Uncategorized

Clicked Off: No jail time for Mizzou “Muscle” Prof

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In some cases, we tend to look at the outcome to determine the intensity of a crime. For example, I remember talking with a cop at one point about an alcohol-fueled mob fight outside of a Madison dance club/bar. The whole fight, which involved a Springer-like melee among drunks ended up with a ton of blood, bruises and broken bones. The culprit turned out to be one asshole who called another asshole a “freshman.” When the accused “freshman” took a swing at the guy and missed, he nailed some other guy’s girlfriend and basically everything unraveled from there. The “freshman” … Continue reading Clicked Off: No jail time for Mizzou “Muscle” Prof

Doc, Economy, Education, Kids Today, On Wisconsin, Uncategorized1 Comment

Let Them Eat Cake: Student-Loan Edition

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Yeah, this is totally what students need to save them from debt: Gov. Scott Walker announced a legislative package on college affordability Monday that would eliminate the cap on student loan interest that borrowers can deduct from their state income tax, putting an average $165 extra in taxpayers’ pockets. The package of bills drawn up by Republican lawmakers also provides students with additional information about their student loans so they can make smart financial decisions, emergency assistance so they can stay in school and internship opportunities to connect students with Wisconsin employers.   First, this is pretty much like trying … Continue reading Let Them Eat Cake: Student-Loan Edition

Current Affairs, Doc, Education, Film, Fog Of History, Law/Justice, On Wisconsin, Uncategorized2 Comments

The More We See, The Less We Know

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Digital technology was supposed to make life easier for us and in many ways it has. Letters used to take days to arrive. Now, emails and texts bounce back and forth in seconds. Phones used to be anchored to walls. Now, we carry them everywhere. Typing used to require multiple carefully reworked drafts, as white-out and typos looked ugly. I rewrote that sentence three times in the time it would have taken for me to reinsert a piece of paper into my old IBM Selectric. And yet, when it comes to video, it’s almost made our lives worse, especially when … Continue reading The More We See, The Less We Know

Athenae, Economy, Education, Kids Today4 Comments

Kids Today Just Don’t Get It

Allison Hantschel

“It” being enough to eat, but you’d never know that from all the trend stories about how today’s college students are being ruined by trigger warnings and safe spaces and helicopter parents:  There’s a campaign here to start a food bank for students who can’t afford food, even though many work full time. Many also are raising families. It’s a stark view of the reality of American higher education, in which rich kids go to elite private and flagship public campuses while poor kids — including those who score higher on standardized tests than their wealthier counterparts — end up at … Continue reading Kids Today Just Don’t Get It

Athenae, Books, Economy, Education, Kids Today5 Comments

Books are Home #SaveOurLibrary

Allison Hantschel

MT @JBowlingJ: #SaveOurLibrary Students at DuSable HS stage a read-in to protest their #SchoolLibrary closing! pic.twitter.com/Gw0gK794Ix — YALSA (@yalsa) December 12, 2015 //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js Chicago students fight for their last librarian:  At the DuSable Campus, Ms. Sayigh is a calm but buoyant presence who loves and respects her students. She tells me it’s a myth that teenagers don’t read. Hers do, all the time. The first thing you see when you go into her space is a shelf full of student recommendations. She runs a weekly book club. She has a cabinet of books so popular that it’s kept behind the … Continue reading Books are Home #SaveOurLibrary

Diary, Doc, Education, Fog Of History, Immoral Values, Kids Today, Uncategorized5 Comments

Heroes often fail

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A young woman from my feature writing class sat in my office and stared at me long and hard. She halted for a moment before saying something I knew to be true: “I’ve never seen you like this before.” We were sitting in my office during perhaps the worst stretch of my professional life, discussing how the concept of feature writing relies on both factual reporting and observation. She was probably one of the best kids I’ve had in a long time and she wasn’t off by much in what she was observing. I looked back at her with a … Continue reading Heroes often fail

Athenae, Economy, Education, Fuck The Mommy Wars, Immoral Values, Kids Today1 Comment

A Tale of Two Stories: Helicopter Parenting and Poverty

Allison Hantschel

The Washington Post:  And how can parents help their children become self-sufficient? Teach them the skills they’ll need in real life, and give them enough leash to practice those skills on their own, Lythcott-Haims said. And have them do chores. “Chores build a sense of accountability. They build life skills and a work ethic.” Lythcott-Haims said many parents ask how they can unilaterally deescalate in what feels like a college-admissions arms race. How can they relax about getting their child into Harvard if every other parent is going full speed ahead? The Washington Post:  The 86 members of Ruleville Central’s senior … Continue reading A Tale of Two Stories: Helicopter Parenting and Poverty

Athenae, Education1 Comment

Degrees as Pre-Reqs

Allison Hantschel

Welcome back to school, kids!  The problem seems to be rooted in two main factors: More federal money appears to have just resulted in schools scrambling to find ways to take and spend it, but not in ways that make the education more affordable. We’ve also made having a degree a prerequisite for any kind of decent-paying job. Don’t get me wrong, there are highly specialized positions that should absolutely require certain standards of education — but we as a society place far too much stock in whether someone simply has a piece of paper as opposed to whether that … Continue reading Degrees as Pre-Reqs

Current Affairs, Doc, Education

Internet to Alpha Phi: It’s horrible when you portray yourselves the way you want

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Nothing seems to draw more outrage these days than people being whoever they are and showing others their least-positive side. Donald Trump’s “blood feud” with Megyn Kelly, Jared Fogle’s proclivity for children and Josh Duggar’s general hypocrisy when it comes to “family values.” All of these guys are scummy assholes who deserve whatever is coming to them. For Duggar and Fogle, it’s likely going to be an unpleasant prison experience. For Trump, it’s probably going to be a runaway sprint to the Republican nomination for president. Trump has always been a sexist blowhard. He’s the physical embodiment of the sexist … Continue reading Internet to Alpha Phi: It’s horrible when you portray yourselves the way you want

Athenae, Education

Our Original Sin is Exposure

Allison Hantschel

I don’t know how you get people to love each other if they can’t learn things beside one another:  Housing discrimination continues to keep black families out of communities with quality schools, according to a 2013 St. Louis housing study. The most affluent black families in Normandy, then, often opted out of the local school system, paying to send their children to private school. As a result, Normandy’s schools ended up considerably poorer and more racially segregated than the communities they serve. For years, the Normandy school system walked an academic tightrope. Then, in 2009, the state made matters worse. New Education … Continue reading Our Original Sin is Exposure

Athenae, Education1 Comment

School funding in Illinois is fucked and we should fix it

Allison Hantschel

Credit where it’s due, Tribune:  While money isn’t the most important factor toward improving educational outcomes, it’s a big factor. You can be an engaged parent devoted to your kids’ schooling and still get undercut by the system. Why? Because basing education funding on property wealth means the wealthier districts get the best teachers, more teacher aides, more speech pathologists, more special education experts, more counselors, more social workers, wider curriculum choices, deeper athletic programs and on and on. The schools with lower property wealth and more challenges get fewer resources. Less help. Less opportunity — even with involved, loving … Continue reading School funding in Illinois is fucked and we should fix it

Athenae, Economy, Education

Higher Education as a Favor from the Landed Gentry

Allison Hantschel

From The Nation:  Now that the rich have all the cash, and raising taxes is considered unthinkable, we have no choice but to rely increasingly on the rich—whether individuals, institutions, or corporations—to do the things that governments should do, including funding higher education. (And we’re supposed to be grateful, to boot.) Never mind the fact that private giving is usually self-interested to some degree, which means that it depends upon the whims and calculations of the giver. Stanford’s announcement is best understood not as a form of altruism, but as a way of keeping pace with its competitors. Princeton offers … Continue reading Higher Education as a Favor from the Landed Gentry

Doc, Education, On Wisconsin, Political Crack, Scott Walker's Horcruxes, Stupid Republican Tricks6 Comments

Understanding Tenure

docphd

This might be the last post I’m able to accomplish for quite some time. I’m not sure what the future holds, now that the UW Regents brought to you by Carl’s Jr…. er… Scott Walker have failed to fight back against the plan to eliminate the state statute that protects professorial tenure. Those who have supported this move in the statehouse, especially Alberta Darling, whose name is an anagram for “Blaring Alert Ad,” have said this isn’t the elimination of tenure. Instead, it’s simply moving it from the state law to the regents’ control, so it’s the same basic thing. … Continue reading Understanding Tenure

Do Something, Doc, Education, On Wisconsin, Stupid Republican Tricks2 Comments

An educational “outing” for the Republicans in the State of Wisconsin

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It’s tough living with a secret that could force people to look at you in a different way. Friends and colleagues give you that “I thought I KNEW YOU!” look as they ponder their new reality. Some will denounce you for being that which you vehemently opposed. Others will quickly scramble to defend you with false-front excuses or seek to help you find a way to “repent for your sin.” Knowing all of this, many people with these deep secrets do their best to keep them quiet or disclose them only in passing to a few trusted members of an … Continue reading An educational “outing” for the Republicans in the State of Wisconsin

Athenae, Economy, Education, Race4 Comments

We Deplore the Violence

Allison Hantschel

On the reflexive need to lament violence, to condemn, to use the word peace as a passive one:  Non-violent resistance requires a kind of implicit reason on both sides. It requires that both sides see an end to matters, that they acknowledge, even tacitly, that there is a level of violent repression that is unsupportable in a civil society. But how does one reason in the face of brutalized futility? How does one reason in the face of repeated injustices, of unacknowledged crimes, and of injuries blamed not on the perpetrators, but on the victims? The logic of non-violent resistance … Continue reading We Deplore the Violence

Bigotry, Current Affairs, Doc, Education1 Comment

In response to anti-gay bullying awareness, teens enact anti-gay bullying

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Bill Maher once noted of young conservatives that it’s totally understandable that they’re assholes at the age of 14: They’re too young for sex and too old to carry a blankie around everywhere, so it’s a very stressful time. If that’s the case, I’m calling for the school administrators at McGuffey High School in Claysville, Pennsylvania to start giving out Woobies or hookers in the next two days. News reports have more than 100 students at the school taking part in a protest against the Gay-Straight Alliance club’s Day of Silence by hosting an “Anti-Gay Day.” The anti-gay crew drew … Continue reading In response to anti-gay bullying awareness, teens enact anti-gay bullying

Athenae, Education, Immoral Values, Law/Justice

Notre Dame to Cops: You Can Interview Rape Suspects. Just Don’t Tell the Athletic Department

Allison Hantschel

We don’t want to know who on our roster is accused of raping people:  Cottrell said during his early years on the Notre Dame force, officers were able to contact coaches or other athletic department employees in order to talk to student athletes who were the subjects of police reports on any type of case. In one case involving a fight between two football players, Cottrell called head football coach Tyrone Willingham to ask for help getting in touch with one of the students. “Willingham called the football player into his office and told me: ‘You can interview him right … Continue reading Notre Dame to Cops: You Can Interview Rape Suspects. Just Don’t Tell the Athletic Department

Athenae, Economy, Education1 Comment

The Consequences of Cuts

Allison Hantschel

Students will take longer to finish their degrees:  Will some class sizes get larger when eligible faculty leave if no one is hired to replace them, UW-Milwaukee psychology professor John “Jay” Moore asked Monday during a monthly budget forum at the campus, the latest in the system to announce buyouts. “That’s a fair implication,” UWM Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administrative Affairs Robin Van Harpen responded. “Planning to cover vacancies would have to be part of the consideration process.” Moore said he doubted UWM would turn away students just because there were fewer faculty to teach them. Larger class sizes … Continue reading The Consequences of Cuts

Current Affairs, Doc, Education, On Wisconsin1 Comment

The Golden Handshake

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My father often spoke in somewhat wistful tones about the concept of The Golden Handshake. It was offered on rare occasion to the men and women of his factory, an opportunity of a lifetime in many cases. The Golden Handshake was a buyout plan, but it was never pitched that way back at the factory. It was a “thank you” to a lot of the old guys and gals (usually guys, given the era) who had given a lot of their lives to the factory. It was a chance to retire with a bonus and a chance to leave on … Continue reading The Golden Handshake

Congress, Doc, Education, Stupid Republican Tricks2 Comments

Freedom? That’s just some people talking

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When dealing with the level of stupid happening at the Statehouse, never assume it can’t get dumber. Case in point, Robin Vos, everyone!   Madison — The head of the Assembly said Thursday that he was backing off support for giving the University of Wisconsin System more autonomy because university leaders don’t appear willing to make dramatic changes in areas such as tenure and shared governance. “Giving autonomy to folks who want to use it to change the institution, I think that makes sense — if they want to use it,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said on the WisconsinEye … Continue reading Freedom? That’s just some people talking

Doc, Economy, Education, On Wisconsin, Scott Walker's Horcruxes, Stupid Republican Tricks3 Comments

Sweeping up after Governor Deadeyes

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I wonder what it’s like working on Gov. Scott Walker’s staff these days. It has to be a heady time to be with a man who suddenly rocketed to the front of the Republican party’s conga line for the presidential nomination. The guy survived three elections in four years, a series of protests comparable to the Vietnam War outrage and is now looked upon as a conservative media darling. He essentially controls the whole state, as the Republicans dominate the State Legislature and every Democratic gambit since his election in 2010 has failed to slow his roll. He’s the son … Continue reading Sweeping up after Governor Deadeyes

Current Affairs, Doc, Economy, Education, Scott Walker's Horcruxes, Stupid Republican Tricks6 Comments

Shorter Scott Walker to the UW System: Let them eat cake

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The University of Wisconsin System is now facing a 13 percent budget cut over the next two years, thanks to Scott Walker’s desire to balance the budget. The budget was put in crisis for some utterly known reason:   March 24, 2014– Lowering taxes for the third time in less than a year, Gov. Scott Walker signed his $541 million tax cut bill in a ceremony Monday at a farm in Cecil as he travels through central and northern Wisconsin touting it. Speaking at Horsens Homestead Farms, about 35 miles northwest of Green Bay, Walker called it a great day … Continue reading Shorter Scott Walker to the UW System: Let them eat cake

Current Affairs, Doc, Education, Immoral Values1 Comment

“It’s all designed to blow our minds, but our mind’s won’t really be blown…”

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I poured through the 9,000-word opus Rolling Stone put out on the University of Virginia the instant it hit my Facebook feed. I went back and read it again today, after allegations of “misplaced trust” in the victim became public and other media outlets took to sharpening their claws on the backs of their fellow scribe. The feeling was the same both times. I was repulsed by the song these students Cavalierly sung about the way they drink and fuck. I was disturbed by the way in which the school’s processes seemed more helpful in red-taping victims to death than … Continue reading “It’s all designed to blow our minds, but our mind’s won’t really be blown…”