"Back when I taught at UCLA,
I was constantly amazed at how little so many students knew. Finally, I could
no longer restrain myself from asking a student the question that had long
puzzled me: "What were you doing for the last 12 years before you got here?" - Thomas Sowell
1. Mr. Sowell recently
retired and this quote was taken from his last column. I'm only vaguely
familiar with Mr. Sowell's works, but since I started teaching at the college
I've wondered the same thing. How did you guys get into college with your
skills? Going along with this, I started a Facebook page a couple of months
back - now that's one big sinkhole of a time waster - and it didn't take me
long to discover that many of the people posting should have paid closer
attention in English class over the years. Granted, some of the cell phone
shorthand is to be expected, and people probably don't put a lot of thought
into posts of cat videos or their grandchildren, but still, if you're going to
send it out into the world don't make yourself look totally illiterate. The stuff
I write here is not always grammatically correct. I write in
"conversational" sentences, if there is such a thing and I think much
faster than I can type which can lead to some interesting sentence structure.
Normally, however, I try to write a post then come back later and proof read
it. The cooling off period allows me to catch most of my mistakes.
2. I checked the National
Endowment for the Humanities site to see what they were offering for summer
workshops and seminars. Nothing much that an adjunct welding instructor would
qualify for but they are offering the program at the Henry Ford again for K-12
teachers. I've attended three of these summer workshops on the subject of the
Industrial Revolution including the one at the Henry Ford. Besides learning
quite a bit of history, at the Henry Ford we rode the steamboat, the steam
locomotive, toured a Ford assembly plant, did an after hours tour of the
grounds of the Greenfield Village, and had access to areas of the Henry Ford
normally off limits to visitors. Shop Teacher Bob highly recommends the NEH
summer workshops. You can find the info here.
3. The most recent Imprimis from
Hillsdale College delved into education issues. Hillsdale has successfully
started sixteen charter schools with more in the works. These offer an
education based on the classical model with Latin, history, literature,
philosophy, etc. being taught. The chairman of Hillsdale's education program
has written a series of standards for K-12. The standard for each grade takes
up only about a half sheet of paper but according to the author, if the child
can do the things on that half page, he/she has learned a lot. Mostly it seems
to be common sense vs Common Core. You can read the whole article online here.
4. I just finished reading
Generation Debt by Anya Kamenetz. Interesting look at how young people are
struggling to get a decent start in life - college loan debt, credit card debt,
lack of jobs (especially those with benefits), and other factors that play into
keeping them from having their slice of the pie. The book was written in 2006.
After the meltdown of '08 and the following years, I'm sure things haven't
improved much for those who fall into the 18 - 30 year old category. Looking at
it from my perspective, I see things differently than the author but that's to
be expected. However, when things are tough, that might be the time to look to
your elders for some advice. As the book mentions, though, many of the older
people they look to for help are people with problems of their own. The book
does a really good job of explaining the problems and the issues facing young
people trying to make their way in the world but I wasn't real impressed with
the solutions offered at the end of the book. Here's a couple of things I would
offer: Understand fully the economic concepts of compounding interest and
opportunity cost. Have marketable skills. Get a job and do not quit
that job until you have a better one.
