A focus on equity is laudable, but this is riddled with jargon and lacking in specificity. Given this muddled, vague language, my money is on the K-12 status quo continuing unabated.
Olympia School District’s Learning Plan
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Category Archives: Education
A Wholly Different PLU
PLU is recruiting much more locally; as a result, our student body looks like Pierce County for the first time ever. The Admission Office is also zeroing in on Hawaii and Eastern Washington, specifically Yakima and Toppenish. Consequently, we have a lot more low and middle income students than in the past. I dig the economic and cultural diversity.
This paragraph from a quiet, bookish, first year writer of mine provides a little flavor flav of the changes:
“Growing up, my dad was on the road a lot. He tends to jump around to different jobs. When my sister was born, he was a volunteer firefighter. I think he was driving for “S” when I was born. A few years later he transferred to “H”. Then worked as a paraeducator for X School District. He has been a funeral director, then went back to working as a paraeducator, and now works for X School District as a janitor. As the years went by, he began to feel stable enough financially to be able to stop driving. Which means he got to be home a lot more. This is probably why I feel I could talk to him. When he was home from being on the road he made sure to create a bond. Now that he hasn’t been gone days at a time for a few years, our bond has gotten stronger. My dad has taught me how to put up and fix a fence, and how to care for the goats, cows, and pigs. My favorite things to do with him are going to the livestock auction on Saturday mornings, and when we go to run errands just us two.”
Claremont McKenna Rakes It In
The private liberal arts college in Los Angeles wanted to raise $800 million over their recently completed eight year fundraising campaign, but overshot their target and raised $1 billion. The Los Angeles Times story goes on to say “nearly 1.1 billion”. What’s an extra $80-$90 million when you’re talking billions. Just round down to lessen the chances of Congressional oversight.
How did they do it?
“More than 12,000 donors contributed to the campaign, representing about two-thirds of the college alumni. The median gift was $220, with 90% of all donations less than $5,000. But 89 supporters contributed more than $1 million. . . .”
There does not appear to be any plan to increase enrollment. So the haul equates to approximately $770,000 for every one of their 1,300 students.
There are two certain ripple effects. . . pun intended. Michelle Chamberlain, Claremont McKenna’s Vice President of Advancement and Student Opportunities, will receive several job offers and will see significant salary increases if she opts to stay. And the new aquatic center is going to be lit.
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Sentences to Ponder
“In Canada and Japan, public-university tuition is now about $5,000 a year. In Italy, Spain and Israel, it’s about $2,000. In France, Denmark and Germany, it’s essentially zero.”
From “Americans Are Losing Faith in the Value of College. Whose Fault is That?”
Back At It
Ah, September. The blackberries are dying on the vine, the mornings are darker and cooler, and faculty meetings fill the calendar.
At one of those back-to-school confabs, like always, we were prepped on our newest students, most of whom were born in 2005. Here is the “Generation Z” snapshot for your viewing pleasure.
In my “Multicultural Education” course, I plan to use this graphic on day one to illustrate what may be the most important concept of the entire course.
In small groups, I’m going to ask my students to assess what the PLU faculty and staff that crafted this slide got right and what they got wrong. When they report out, we’ll try to synthesize for the class overall. My assumption is that they got about half right and half wrong and that the overall list doesn’t apply to any particular student or small group.
Which is the point I want the students to remember.
More specifically, I want them to remember that whenever we find ourselves in diverse settings our challenge is to understand patterns and themes within groups while simultaneously acknowledging vast individual differences. The closely related point is that no one wants to be reduced to their group identities, everyone wants others to honor their individuality. Therefore, since we want that, we should do that for others.
Class dismissed. Don’t forget the homework.
Pull the Plug
The College That Refused to Die. I challenge you to find a more depressing case study of a liberal arts college on life support. I felt like I needed to take a shower after reading the story of its downward spiral.
Some situations are not salvageable. This is Exhibit A.
The Small-Town Library That Became a Culture-War Battleground
I’m going to begin my Multicultural Education class with this Washington State case study.
Book battles are raging nationwide. A WA library could be nation’s first to close.
The Small-Town Library That Became a Culture-War Battleground.
Podcast version. . . first 19 minutes.
Can someone make me a “Mom’s For Liberty?” t-shirt? Medium. Please and thank-you.
Wrong Place, Wrong Time
Texas woman injured after hawk drops snake on her. Reads like a horror film.
Theo Baker’s First “F”?
From SanJoseInside.
“Reporting by student journalist Theo Baker, a Stanford University freshman, in the Stanford Daily student newspaper led to the stunning resignation last week by Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne.”
Tessier-Lavigne is slinking back to the Biology Department.
Imagine a scenario where Tessier-Lavigne is scrolling through his Bio 101 class roster and right there near the top is the name of sophomore Theo Baker.
Pressing Pause 