The root cause of the financial crisis was purely human factor. This human factor is the completely false sense of omnipotence, self-importance and entitlement among the country’s elite, as well as the nurturing of these beliefs at Ivy League colleges and other elite universities the US will be doomed to suffer other calamities every bit…
Tag: Alfie Kohn
The Downside of the Academic Meritocracy
The sentiments of a current second-year college student attending a public flagship university in California when reflecting on the perils of the academic meritocracy: Rewarding/punishing requires less effort [by faculty and students] though, making it the easier default [system for measuring academic performance]. Assigning expectations, whether positive or negative, is a low-effort path that leads…
An Inconvenient Truth
Since 1635, the three-dimensional American classroom, now replicated amongst thousands of school districts comprising millions of school children and teachers, is relatively unchanged. Yet, starting in mid-March 2020, a single RNA sequence causing COVID-19 and the subsequent social response to the health risks, has holistically breeched the brick and mortar walls of the modern American…
Learning to be self-directed
With school closures and the substitution of distance learning, every student is learning to be self-directed, rather than teacher-guided or parent-approved. Although parents worry their children are falling behind, maybe they’re actually catching up, trying to reconnect with their authentic selves, discover more about their interests and aptitudes, which unfortunately, students can lose, in the…
Grade Inflation Exposed
I often listen to students’ and parents’ worries about high school grades that are any other letter but an A. The A grade has become synonymous with “smart”, “the key to college acceptances” and “bragging rights”. But, in the quest to “achieve”, often the confidence in knowing oneself and one’s strengths, so as to boldly…