You and your parents sit down at a restaurant, and the server turns out to be your professor. It could be awkward. It could be embarrassing. And it could also lead to some serious thinking and questioning about our attitudes toward different kinds of jobs. Brittany Bronson is a college instructor, waitress, and contributor to …
Continue reading Blue collar, white collar: Brittany Bronson on teaching and waitressing
While most states continue to suffer deep cuts to funding for public higher education, North Dakota and Alaska are increasing their education budgets substantially. Journalist Dan Marcus, who specializes in issues of higher education, examines the reasons for the difference in this article published by the Hechinger Report, an education-related news organization, in November 2014. …
Continue reading Investing in people: Jon Marcus on public higher education funding
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer has stood unbroken for more than 25 years. He has been an actor, an author of young adult books, and a U.S. cultural ambassador. Despite his long and distinguished career, he hasn’t forgotten his experiences as a UCLA basketball player. In this November 2014 article published …
Continue reading Athletes, unite: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on NCAA rules
The 1% have the best of everything that money can buy, but they’re still missing something really important. Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz lays it all out in this May 2011 article in Vanity Fair. Read it here: Stiglitz, "Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%” Stiglitz asserts that the U.S. economy will …
Continue reading “Self-interest properly understood”: Joseph Stiglitz on economic inequality
Recently, many writers and social critics have declared the American Dream dead, but journalist Keli Goff goes a step further and says “good riddance.” She explains her position in a July 2014 article in political journal The Daily Beast. Read it here: Goff, "The American Dream is dead, and good riddance” The assertion in Goff’s …
Continue reading Dead and good riddance: Keli Goff on the American Dream
No one would dispute that the automobile has been a world-changing invention. Economist, lawyer, actor, and writer Ben Stein argues that the car “transforms you from a mortal to a god” in this October 2014 article in American Spectator. Read it here: Stein, “I love cars—the greatest invention of mankind” It is hard to doubt that …
Continue reading Cars: Ben Stein on the “greatest invention of mankind”
Despite the recent media attention given to Little League pitcher Mo’ne Davis, women athletes and women’s sports are usually receive second class treatment. Sports journalist Sally Jenkins explores the phenomenon in this August 2014 article in the Washington Post. Read it here: Jenkins, “Mo’ne Davis is out of Little League World Series and women’s sports are shoved …
Continue reading Falling into the muscle gap: Sally Jenkins on women’s sports
College is the time for new experiences; no one would suggest otherwise. But how much importance should colleges place on providing new experiences for incoming freshmen? How valuable is it to room with a stranger? New York Times opinion writer Anna Altman explores these questions and comes to a definitive conclusion in this article from …
Continue reading Rooming with a stranger: Anna Altman on roommate matching
“There’s no better place to buy fruits and vegetables than at a farmers’ market. Period.” That confident claim was made by New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman. Still, he sees some improvements to be made, and he argues for them in this August 2014 op-ed article in that newspaper. Read it here: Bittman, "Farmers’ Market …
Continue reading Juicy, ripe tomatoes: Mark Bittman on farmers’ markets
As busy adults, we all have long lists of responsibilities that leave little time for idle dreaming. Yet dreaming is exactly what public policy expert Cameron Smith is suggesting in this July 2014 column from Alabama.com. He isn’t talking about just any dream though; it’s the American Dream. Read it here: Smith, "Keeping the American Dream …
Continue reading The responsibility of dreaming: Cameron Smith on the American Dream
They Say I Blog 