How to interest students in learning

How to engage and motivate students in the learning process is always an item of discussion in higher education.  One Northwestern University professor figured out how to fill a lecture hall with students for an after-class activity even though he offered no extra credit.  Read about it here.

Geologists don't have nearly as much fun.

What's that smell?

We went for a drive today because we had to get out of the house (not the smartest activity given the high cost of gas these days) and were surprised to see over a half dozen dead skunks on various back roads

Did a little research (I Goggled "skunk"), and saw that the Eastern striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis) mates in late February/early March.  So, the poor skunk guys and gals are out looking for love and getting run over in large numbers on our area rural roads.  Sad.

Not surprising, however, given how many people drive (too fast and too distracted).  Perhaps because I grew up in the country, I always keep an eye out for eye-shine of animals (especially deer) on the sides of roads and drive a little slower at night.  Hit a skunk and you'll be reminded of it every time you drive your car for some time!

Fucked over by our public school system

Read this article in the New York Post:

New York's School Testing Con

Did you realize that NYS high school students pass the math regents with a 65 by correctly answering 34.5% of the questions?  And that the questions have gotten easier over the past few years?

http://www.nypost.com/rw/nypost/2011/02/20/news/photos_stories/test_scores091703.jpg

Hey, guess what?  As chair of a community college math/science department this is not surprising in the least.  We have increasing numbers of recently-graduated high school students entering college and placing directly into remedial classes.  Little Johnny has a NYS diploma and can't calculate a 15% tip, can't properly use a ruler to measure distances on a map (seriously, I have students every semester who can't comprehend that inches on a ruler are divided into 16ths), are unable to multiply a number by 10 without use of a calculator, and are placed into the equivalent of a middle-school-level math course.  They also can't write a coherent paragraph (hence the many sections of remedial English classes chock full of high school graduates completely unprepared to take a Freshman English course).

You, as a taxpayer, pay twice.  Outrageously high school taxes (most school districts around here spend over $20K/year/student to educate your little darlings) AND tax dollars going toward State and Federal financial aid for them to take remedial courses in college (requiring 3 years or more to get a 2 year degree).

What puzzles me is why people stand for this.  Personally, I homeschool my kids so it's hard for me to care too much about our public schools.  Also, community colleges benefit from poorly-educated high school students.

Problem is, however, I really do care and despair for the future of our country.

Those damn public employees!

While I have no solution for states like Wisconsin (or New York, for that matter) that have spent themselves into a deep budget hole by years of irresponsible financial management, I do have an issue with some of the populist claims that public employees, like faculty members at State colleges and universites, are a privileged, greedy class living high on the hog with their extravagant pay and benefits.

These claims are ignorant bullshit.

The Economic Policy Institute recently released a study where they compared public and private sector employees in Wisconsin and came to the following conclusion: 

"Controlling for a larger range of earnings predictors—including not just education but also age, experience, gender, race, etc., Wisconsin public-sector workers face an annual compensation penalty of 11%. Adjusting for the slightly fewer hours worked per week on average, these public workers still face a compensation penalty of 5% for choosing to work in the public sector."

Looking at the above graph, I know for a fact that very few faculty members at the community college where I teach make $74K and NONE make over $90K despite the fact that many have PhDs and years of experience.  We're below average for even public employees.

While this might sound like a lot of money to some people earning less, one has to account for the years of lost wages and retirement contributions when we were in graduate school earning virtually nothing and the tens of thousands of dollars in student loans some people leave college owing the government (I came from a poor family, I'm still paying off my student loans in my late 40s).  Quite honestly, it's not worth it unless you really feel called into teaching as a career.