Several months back, Catholic University President John Garvey announced in this WSJ opinion piece that the school was eliminating coed housing for incoming freshman this term.
Why? Garvey believes the move will help reduce binge drinking and casual hook-ups at the school.
In June, John Banzhaf, a professor at George Washington University Law School, told the Law Blog that he intended to sue Catholic University, contending that the same-sex plan violates D.C.’s Human Rights Act.
AFTER GOD HAD carried us safe to New England, and we had built our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places for God’s worship, and led the civil government, one of the next things we longed for and looked after was to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust. And as we were thinking and consulting how to effect this great work, it pleased God to stir up the heart of one Mr. Harvard (a godly gentleman and a lover of learning, there living among us) to give the one-half of his estate (it being in all about £700) toward the ing of a college, and all his library. After him, another gave £300; others after them cast in more; and the public hand of the state added the rest. The college was, by common consent, appointed to be at Cambridge (a place very pleasant and accommodate) and is called (according to the name of the first founder) Harvard College.
The edifice is very fair and comely within and without, having in it a spacious hall where they daily meet at commons, lectures, and exercises; and a large library with some books to it, the gifts of diverse of our friends, their chambers and studies also fitted for and possessed by the students, and all other rooms of office necessary and convenient with all needful offices thereto belonging. And by the side of the college, a fair grammar school, for the training up of young scholars and fitting of them for academical learning, that still as they are judged ripe they may be received into the college of this school. Master Corlet is the master who has very well approved himself for his abilities, dexterity, and painfulness in teaching and education of the youths under him. Over the college is Master Dunster placed as president, a learned, a conscionable, and industrious man, who has so trained up his pupils in the tongues and arts, and so seasoned them with the principles of divinity and Christianity, that we have to our great comfort (and in truth) beyond our hopes, beheld their progress in learning and godliness also. The former of these has appeared in their public declamations in Latin and Greek, and disputations logic and philosophy which they have been wonted (besides their ordinary exercises in the college hall) in the audience of the magistrates, ministers, and other scholars for the probation of their growth in learning, upon set days, constantly once every month to make and uphold. The latter has been manifested in sundry of them by the savory things of their spirits in their godly versation; insomuch that we are confident, if these early blossoms may be cherished and warmed with the influence of the friends of learning and lovers of this pious work, they will, by the help of God, come to happy maturity in a short time.Over the college are twelve overseers chosen by the General Court, six of them are of the magistrates, the other six of the ministers, who are to promote the best good of it and (having a power of influence into all persons in it) are to see that everyone be diligent and proficient in his proper place.
Without reading, there can be no learning. The humanities are essentially a reading practice. It is no accident that we say we “read” music, or that we “read” visual import. The arts (music, art, literature, theater), because they offer themselves to be “read,” generate many of the humanities””musicology, art history, literary commentary, dramatic interpretation. Through language, spoken or written, we investigate, describe, and interpret the world. The arts are, in their own realm, silent with respect to language; amply showing forth their being, they are nonetheless not self-descriptive or self-interpreting. There can be no future for the humanities””and I include philosophy and history””if there are no human beings acquainted with reading in its emotionally deepest and intellectually most extensive forms. And learning depends on reading as a practice of immersion in thought and feeling. We know that our elementary-school students cannot read with ease and enjoyment, and the same defect unsurprisingly manifests itself at every level, even in college. Without a base in alert, intense, pleasurable reading, intellectual yearning flags.
In a utopian world, I would propose, for the ultimate maintenance of the humanities and all other higher learning, an elementary-school curriculum that would make every ordinary child a proficient reader by the end of the fourth grade””not to pass a test, but rather to ensure progressive expansion of awareness. Other than mathematics, the curriculum of my ideal elementary school would be wholly occupied, all day, every day, with “reading” in its very fullest sense.
On Friday, about 2,000 students, school staff members and dignitaries assembled on the football field of Todd Beamer’s namesake school.
“They’re never going to forget all the people who died,” said senior Nathan Ceney, who attended Lakeland Elementary School on Sept. 11, 2001. “I thought it was a movie or something on TV. Who in their right minds would crash into two magnificent towers?”
Federal Way Mayor Skip Priest encouraged the students to not live their lives in fear. He quoted President Franklin D. Roosevelt: “”˜The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.’ The power to resist fear, however, is in each one of you.”
The place of Christianity in school assemblies was questioned this week after a survey for BBC Local Radio faith programmes suggested that the law requiring schools to provide “broadly Christian” collective worÂship was being widely ignored. The survey also suggested that 60 per cent of the general public was not in favour of enforcing the law, the BBC says.
The suggestions were based on teleÂphone interviews in July with 1743 adults, 500 of whom were parents of school-age children, by ComRes, a polling organisation. The interviews showed that more than half of those over 65, but only three in ten of the 18-24 age group, favoured enforceÂment.
The chairman of ComRes, Andrew Hawkins, said that the poll told a story of declining support for Christian worship in schools, with only lukewarm support for the law. “The key question for the future is whether younger people will become more supportive of collective worÂship as they age, or whether this marks a generational change, and therefore further decline in support over the coming years.”
Let greasy spikes be caught in halos
thrown from chapel windows
and the lazy shuffle of saints
trace the body of Christ down the chapel alley.
Let this one,
paper late,
eyes avoiding mine
like two blackbirds in sudden flight,
receive.
And let this one,
absent a week
only to resurface
as the sinking vessel rises
one last time from ocean’s deep midnight,
also receive.
Let greasy spikes be caught in halos
thrown from chapel windows
and the lazy shuffle of saints
trace the body of Christ down the chapel alley.
Let this one,
paper late,
eyes avoiding mine
like two blackbirds in sudden flight,
receive.
And let this one,
absent a week
only to resurface
as the sinking vessel rises
one last time from ocean’s deep midnight,
also receive.
–Benjamin Myers, Elegy for Trains (Bellingham: Village Books Press, 2010) [You may find further information about the book here if you are interested–KSH]
Microsites are not new to higher ed Web strategy. But as the creeping aesthetics of the app world make traditional college websites appear tedious, some institutions have begun experimenting with more offbeat microsites to collect information from prospective students and alumni.
“While these have always been around, one of the big differences now is that these sites often have a more cutting-edge, radical design,” says Mark Greenfield, director of Web services in enrollment and planning at the State University of New York at Buffalo and a consultant at the higher ed consulting firm Noel-Levitz.
“It’s as if the creative folk living in a straitjacket of the ‘official’ design format suddenly find themselves with no constraints at all,” says Bob Johnson, president of the higher ed marketing firm Bob Johnson Consulting.
“There is so much inbredness in this profession….They all read the same sources. They all use the same data sets. They all talk to the same people. There is endless extrapolation on extrapolation on extrapolation, and for years that is what has been rewarded.”
Why did I leave the Islamic Society while others stayed””and even, in some cases, wound up in Pakistan networking with fellow Islamists? What was the difference between us? The answer may be found somewhere in our earlier lives.
Those men who were the most opposed to the perverted messages being peddled by the Islamic Society were those who had been brought up by religious parents. One friend, who had been steeped in mainstream Islam as a child, used to tell me that the doctrine being preached at the Islamic Society was, in his view, so aberrant that it risked becoming toxic. He firmly believed that MI5 (British domestic intelligence) ought to be keeping an eye on these guys, and that was 10 years before 9/11. Those who had no exposure to Islam prior to the encounter with extremist recruiters seemed more likely to follow them.
Now there is a growing body of research explaining why that was….
The Vatican took a swipe at new sex education classes in New York City schools on Wednesday (Aug. 31), saying teaching middle school students how to use a condom is “useless, and even harmful.”
The front-page editorial of the Vatican’s official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, criticized all mandatory sex ed classes in public schools but was aimed particularly at New York’s new program, which has been opposed heavily by Archbishop Timothy Dolan.
I will tell you something you may not hear elsewhere. You live at a wonderful time in a wonderful country. I feel as strongly as anyone that everything could be much better, and ought to be better. But one of the pleasures of my self-defining life, my life as writer and teacher, is that I have read history, and I have traveled to and talked with people in those regions of America considered by many in this country to be alien territory. I have taken from history an awareness of the human tendency toward destructiveness and bitter violence. We share this tendency, certainly. But, in terms of our national life, we have cultivated an ethic of civil peace which has allowed for the flourishing of a great many wonderful communities and institutions. At the moment this ethic is under great stress, a fact that makes it all the more important to acknowledge it and recognize its value….
It is easy to be disappointed, exasperated, with our religious culture, with blandness here and intemperance there, with fads and hypocrisies and a general failure to inculcate tradition. So it can come as a surprise to learn that on balance America gives religion a good name, that religion is associated through us with ethical seriousness among other things, and that its importance among us is considered by many to be enviable.
For those of us who are religious in any way or degree, the fact that much of the world, and certainly the secularized Western world, looks to us to see how religion is lived out, implies responsibility of a very high order….
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, Dr Rowan Williams and Dr John Sentamu, both expressed their concern about the current changes in education and RE during the House of Lords debate on the riots earlier this month. Dr Williams said that the current system had less room for the building of character and virtue. Dr Sentamu said that religious knowledge formed and created a culture and asked the Government how they planned to now fill the void.
Commenting on this year’s A-level/GCSE RE results, the Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Revd John Pritchard, who chairs the Church of England’s Education Division and National Society said: “Education is about the whole person, not just results and targets. RE is an academic subject that not only teaches pupils about different faiths and cultures but gives room for discussion that develops values, understanding and responsibility. We only have to look at the events of recent weeks to see how important this is. This is not about the church guarding its territory but about safeguarding a subject that has value to all. We shall continue our conversation with the Government on this.”
Google chairman Eric Schmidt has said education in Britain is holding back the country’s chances of success in the digital media economy.
He made his comments at the MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival.
Dr Schmidt said the UK needed to reignite children’s passion for science, engineering and maths.
Annual allegations of test-tampering and grade-changing by educators have more than tripled since Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg took control of New York City’s school system, outpacing a broader increase in complaints of adult misconduct in schools during the same period, according to the special commissioner of investigation.
The commissioner, Richard J. Condon, attributed the rise both to the expansion of the school system ”” its budget has more than doubled, to $24 billion from $11.5 billion when he took office in 2002, and the number of schools has grown to 1,700 from 1,200 ”” and to the higher stakes attached to standardized tests and classroom grades. The city’s performance bonuses, teacher evaluations, school progress reports and decisions on closings are all increasingly tied to student performance.
“When you start giving money to the schools to do well, that’s another incentive to appear to do well if you are not doing well,” said Mr. Condon, a plain-spoken former New York police commissioner. “If a lot of the evaluation is based on how the students do, that’s an incentive for the teachers to try to help the students do well, even in ways that are unacceptable.”
In high school, he didn’t do his class assignments or study for tests. Instead, he was focused on making money in the streets and hanging out with friends….
[As a result of some dramatic events] Irvin has… [been [en]during an improbable, nomadic journey that’s transformed him from a troubled teen into an undersized star defensive end for West Virginia and major college football’s top returning pass rusher entering the season
Last season, he finished second in the Football Bowl Subdivision with 14 sacks, despite not starting and primarily playing on third downs ”” about eight to 10 snaps per game.
The least that can be said is that there are Islamic values which are recognisable by Christians and compatible with those of a Christian culture. This poses an interesting question, directly relevant to the lessons we need to learn from all this. Is Tariq Jahan’s noble behaviour a victory for multiculturalism? Or is it the direct opposite, a refutation of it, a demonstration that it is only by appealing to common values that we can forge a decent society? Melanie Phillips yesterday argued strongly and to me persuasively that multiculturalism has driven us all apart….
A college degree once looked to be the path to prosperity. In an article for TechCrunch, Sarah Lacy writes, “Like the housing bubble, the education bubble is about security and insurance against the future. Both whisper a seductive promise into the ears of worried Americans: Do this and you will be safe.”
But the jobs that made higher education pay off during the inflationary boom, kicked into high gear by Nixon waving goodbye to the last shreds of a gold standard, came primarily from government and finance.
In 1990, 6.4 million people worked for federal, state, and local governments. By 2010, that number had grown almost 6 times ”” to 38.3 million ”” with many of these jobs being white-collar….
My twenties, in particular, were all about achievement: I clerked at the High Court of Australia, received scholarships to study at two Ivy League schools, completed four degrees, cofounded a think tank and, by the age of 26, had secured a tenure-track position at a law school in my country….
The year I married, I started my doctorate at Oxford University….[then] earlier this year, I gave [it] up…to be a stay-at-home mom to our adopted newborn daughter.
It’s the best decision I’ve ever made….
Each year of education ups the odds by 15% that people will say there’s “truth in more than one religion,” says University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor Philip Schwadel in an article for the Review of Religious Research. Schwadel, an associate professor of sociology, looked at 1,800 U.S. adults’ reported religious beliefs and practices and their education.
People change their perspective because, as people move through high school and college, they acquire an ever-wider range of friendships, including people with different beliefs than their own, Schwadel says. “People don’t want to say their friends are going to hell,” he says.
O Lord and Master, who thyself didst come into the world to bear witness to the truth, and didst say that the good and faithful teacher should be greatly accounted of in thy kingdom: Send, we beseech thee, thy blessing upon all who are engaged in the work of education. Give them clearness of vision and freshness of thought, and enable them so to train the hearts and minds of the children that they may take their appointed places in the work of this life, and may be ready for the service of the life to come. We ask it for thy honour and glory, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.
–Arthur W. Robinson
Test results released in June showed that fewer than _____ of all students are “proficient” in American history.
Many of the fourth grade students asked about Lincoln on the tests could identify him, but few could say why he was an important president.
You need to guess the percentage to be placed in the blank first; then read it all.[/i]
Study after study shows that children suffer from the summer slide when school is not in session. But the answer doesn’t have to be – and shouldn’t be – contained only within the walls of a school. And, given the severe budget cuts that Bay Area schools are facing, it can’t be.
The onus is on parents to keep kids’ minds actively engaged – and it doesn’t just mean another summer reading program. Children spend five times as much time outside school as they do in the classroom, most heavily concentrated in the summer, so parents are the best ones to prevent summer learning loss.
A study just released by the Rand Corp. found that students experience the most benefits when summer programs include individualized instruction, parental involvement and small class sizes.
It’s on for just 30 minutes a week and it’s taught in fewer than half of all public primary schools in Victoria, but religious education has the power to stir mighty emotions.
Steve Bracks and his education minister Lynne Kosky tasted its power in 2005 and 2006 as they overhauled education laws, and considered changing the rules governing ”special religious instruction” – religion taught by church volunteers and decried by opponents as indoctrination.
This unleashed a relentless campaign by the religious lobby to defend their patch.
After philosophy students and faculty members rallied to denounce heavy-handed efforts to separate male and female students, Islamists on campus struck back: In the dead of night, witnesses say, the radicals showed up at a men’s dormitory armed with wooden sticks and bicycle chains.
They burst into dorm rooms, attacking philosophy students. One was pistol-whipped and hit on the head with a brick. Gunfire rang out, although no one was injured. Police were called, but nearly a month after the attack, no arrests have been made.
Few on Punjab University’s leafy campus, including top administrators, dare to challenge the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba, or the IJT, the student wing of one of Pakistan’s most powerful hard-line Islamist parties.
The C of E’s head of schools strategy, Dr Rob Gwynne, has warned of new attempts to undermine church schools. “There is no doubt that there is a calculated attack by secularists on the traditions and practices of Church of England schools currently supported by legislation,” he said this week.
Dr Gwynne was commenting after secularist peers tabled amendments to the Education Bill, at the committee stage in the House of Lords, which sought to end the statutory status of collective worship and religious education in schools without a religious designation.
The amendments were debated on Monday, before being withdrawn by their sponsors, Lady Massey, patron of the National Secular Society (NSS). Lord Avebury, an honorary associate of the NSS, moved an amendment that sought to ban the inclusion of a religious element from assemblies unless governors requested it after consultation with parents.
The leading opponent to the introduction of ethics classes in NSW schools, the Anglican Church, has reversed its position and says they should be retained, while the Catholic Church now argues they should not be removed as they have ”little impact” on the teaching of scripture.
The reversals come amid a stand-off over the classes between the O’Farrell government and the Christian Democratic Party MP, Fred Nile, who has threatened to block key legislation in the upper house if it does not consider removing them from schools.
The comments will be welcomed by the government, which yesterday rejected Mr Nile’s proposal that the classes be moved from being in competition with special religious education (SRE), or scripture, lessons.
When students and professors return to budget-slashing colleges this fall, they might notice things missing, such as limitless piles of food on their plates, land-line phones and trash pickup.
At Penn State University, “all you can eat” meals have been slimmed down to “all you care to eat,” and two fewer dining halls offer them, spokeswoman Annemarie Mountz says. The marketing change is to encourage gastronomic restraint.
It may be hard to swallow, but budget-cutting is the new normal at the nation’s 6,700-plus post-secondary schools.
The study linked these disciplinary actions to lower rates of graduation and higher rates of later criminal activity and found that minority students were more likely than whites to face the more severe punishments.
“In the last 20 to 25 years, there have been dramatic increases in the number of suspensions and expulsions,” said Michael Thompson, who headed the study as director of the Justice Center at the Council of State Governments, a nonpartisan group. “This quantifies how you’re in the minority if you have not been removed from the classroom at least once. This is not just being sent to the principal’s office, and it’s not after-school detention or weekend detention or extra homework. This is in the student’s record.”
There’s no tally of how many churches, synagogues and mosques convert public school spaces into prayer places for the nominal cost of permits and promises to make no permanent changes in the school setting. What’s clear is that there has been a steady rise in numbers as congregations find schools are available, affordable and accessible to families they want to reach.
Critics, including some courts, are concerned that these arrangements are an unconstitutional entanglement of church and state. They say these bargain permits effectively subsidize religious congregations who would have to pay steeply higher prices on the open market. They also note that the practice appears to favor Christian groups, which worship on Sundays ”” when school spaces are most often available.
Caught in the middle: churches such as Forest Hills, which spent $3,000 for a permit to use P.S. 144 from February through June and just renewed for July and August. For September and beyond, however, nothing is certain.