Free tuition in Tennessee, that’s genuinely wonderful. And we don’t mean to be ungrateful or greedy, but is it enough? How do the bills get paid in the meantime? And what about academic preparation? Alana Semuels, staff writer for the Atlantic, explores these questions in her October 2015 report on the Tennessee Promise. Read it …
Continue reading A Big Promise: Alana Semuels on Tennessee’s ambitious tuition program
If you were to write “you have one messages” in an essay, you would probably lose points for your error. But the machines we deal with every day use such phrases, and we pay no attention. Not all of us, however, let these statements go unnoticed. Linguist Geoffrey Pullum criticizes what he calls “artificial stupidity” …
Continue reading “Artificial stupidity”: Geoffrey Pullum on user-interface software
They tell her Tinder sucks, all the while with eyes that never leave the screen, thumbs that never stop swiping. Vanity Fair writer and editor Nancy Jo Sales interviewed dozens of twentysomethings in several states as well as assorted academics and experts for this in-depth September 2015 report on dating apps and hookup culture. Read …
Continue reading “So easy”: Nancy Jo Sales on dating apps and hookup culture
Student loan debt in the U.S. is at a record high. What’s more, the levels of civic engagement and civic literacy are shockingly low. In this September 2015 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Purdue University law and public policy professor Sheila Suess Kennedy proposes a new federal program that would solve both problems …
Continue reading ‘Tour of duty’: Sheila Suess Kennedy on a bold plan
Essays about the value (or lack thereof) of a college education in today’s world are easy to find. Most of them, however, are written by people whose college years are long behind them. Regardless of their opinions or approaches, these writers often miss the juicy details of day-to-day lived experience. This essay, published on Medium …
Continue reading Don’t drop out: Alex Kern on the value of college life
Think fast: what does an engineer look like? Did you conjure up an image of a nerdy white guy with glasses and messy hair? Well, that is the stereotype, isn’t it? But software engineer Isis Anchalee reminds us that the real world is bigger than stereotypes in this August 2015 post on Medium. Read it …
Continue reading #ILookLikeAnEngineer: Isis Anchalee on women in tech
What should we eat tonight? If you live in an urban area, your immediate response to that question might be to propose an ethnic cuisine. Careful, though. In this July 2015 article, Washington Post features writer Lavanya Ramanathan distinguishes between our innate desire to explore the world with our taste buds and the attitude of …
Continue reading “Discount tourism”: Lavanya Ramanathan on the term “ethnic food”
Some call it soda, others call it pop. Some say coke generically, even if it’s Pepsi that they drink. Whatever you call it, even McDonald’s concedes that we drink too much of it, and they are working to reduce soda consumption with their Happy Meals. Candice Choi, an Associated Press reporter who covers the food …
Continue reading Less pop: Candace Choi on drink consumption with Happy Meals
We’ve all heard the laments—the United States is falling behind, our children aren’t learning enough science and math, we’re failing at STEM education, we can no longer afford the luxury of the liberal arts. Fareed Zakaria, foreign affairs journalist for CNN and the Washington Post and author of In Defense of a Liberal Education, speaks …
Continue reading STEM isn’t everything: Fareed Zakaria on a “broad, general education”
The first full-time woman referee in the NFL—what a huge story! Writer and photographer Anne Born is delighted at the news but highly critical of the way referee Sarah Thomas’ new job is being reported. This April 2015 essay was published on the blog The Broad Side. Read it here: Born, "’Mother of Three’ to Ref …
Continue reading Mother of three: Anne Born wonders why we always need to know
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