According the Wall Street Journal, “Senate leaders said Tuesday they had reached a tentative deal to keep most student-loan interest rates at 3.4% for another year, preventing the rates from doubling on Sunday and potentially resolving a contentious election-year issue.” Presidential politics again rules the day, but of course anything can happen, and sooner or later the…
Author: Art Baird, Founding Partner of Creative Marbles Consultancy
Art melds his passion for acquiring and disseminating knowledge with his decades of experience teaching into straightforward, collaborative advising. His pointed questioning facilitates debate, empowering clients to achieve their vision in education and in life.
Seeking to understand your purpose
Reading about the death of Ray Bradbury a few weeks ago led me again to wonder about the purpose of life. Having been alive for 47 years, one thinks this question would have been answered by now, but here I am still wondering. Maybe it is this wondering that keeps me searching for something innovative,…
Student Loan Costs Set to Rise
Note of importance regarding new student loans: According to Bloomberg news, if Congress does not act by July 1st, all new student loans will carry an interest rate of 6.8 percent versus the existing rate of 3.4 percent. For all those entering the student loan market this fall plan accordingly, for what looks like an average…
Guest Post: Advice for Dads from their Daughters this Father’s Day
Reflecting upon my last seven years being a father, as this Father’s Day fast approaches, led me back to a conversation I had a year or so ago with a friend about the time of her own father’s passing. Her father, having played a important role in my own development at a complicated time in…
Prudent Fiscal Planning (Part 3):You can’t always get what you want
In the third part of my ongoing series on Prudent Fiscal Planning, let’s discuss the often bugaboo topic of expenses. After following the suggestions from the last article in the series, you should now have drafted at least your income scenarios for the short, immediate, and long term. Now, you are ready to look at the other…
Prudent Fiscal Planning (Part 2): Income’s importance in Fiscal Planning and its Effect on Our Standard of Living
In the first post of the series, I discussed the need for prudent fiscal planning in these difficult economic times. Although it may seem that the economy has turned the corner from the most recent, yet severe economic downturn (recession), there are many storm clouds looming on the global economic horizon that could have a…
Prudent fiscal planning is essential in today’s economically turbulent world (Part 1)
As you sit down to contemplate your budget, and wonder how you will afford to pay for on-going, future educational related expenses, it might be worth your while to take a wider view of your situation from say 30,000 feet. If you where to get airborne and climb to this elevation, this is what you…
Motivating others by helping others see the importance of their actions
We spend a lot of time trying to get others to do what we want, and generally our efforts end in failure. According to Dale Carnegie-the brilliant thinker on all things related to working with others-in his seminal work, “How To Win Friends & Influence People: Of course, you can make someone want to give…
Student Loan Debate in Congress Continues
It’s partisan politics as usual in this election year, as Congress continues its debate on student loan legislation. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Republicans on Tuesday blocked the Senate from considering a measure to keep the rate on subsidized federal student loans from doubling amid suspicion of Democrats’ motives as they seek to court…
The Neverending Reform in Education Coming to a College Near You
In a recent article by Richard Pérez-Peña of the New York Times, “Trying to Find a Measure for How Well Colleges Do,” we are beginning to see what might be the next chapter in the near obsessive effort to measure the performance of education: this time with colleges being in the cross hairs.
Quality in Education isn’t an Entitlement
I recently read an archived article written by John Fischer in February 1965 for Harper’s Magazine titled, “Is there a teacher on the faculty?” Being a former classroom teacher, I am still fascinated by this idea of quality teaching. What is a quality teacher? Are the skills that make for a quality teacher inherent, or…
Grade Inflation is present and its effects may be more damaging then you think
The Economist this past week spoke of the notion of panflation, or better said the inflation of everything. “This ‘panflation’ needs to be recognized for the plague it has become.” I couldn’t agree more. What caught my eye in the article was the authors discussion of grade inflation. Grades have always been a tricky topic…