National Association of Scholars, a non-profit organization of higher education faculty, administrators, and graduate students

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Most recent posting below. See other articles in the column to the right.

Irresolute
December 31, 2008 By Peter Wood and Ashley Thorne
Peter Wood and Ashley Thorne ponder how NAS should ring in the new year.
2 comments - Last on 01/05/2009

A Prodigal Field
December 30, 2008 By Peter Wood
NAS visits UMass Amherst one last time for 2008.
1 comment - Last on 01/05/2009

Rescue: The New Captivity of Hans Staden
December 24, 2008 By Peter Wood
A centuries-old tale of life among native cannibals can't be allowed to stand as a captivating narrative. It must be sanitized in one way or another by PC revisionists.
1 comment - Last on 12/30/2008

The Battle of Bunker Hill, Round II: Why Doubling the Size of American Higher Education is a Bad Idea
December 23, 2008 By Peter Wood
There is a move afoot to use economic bailout money to enroll ill-prepared students in numbers that would overwhelm our system. It rightly deserves the criticism we give it.

Asking a Lot
December 22, 2008 By Peter Wood
A broadly advertised appeal for higher education's share of the bailout falls apart upon close examination.
1 comment - Last on 12/26/2008

Letter from Jakarta
December 22, 2008 By Saera Fernandez
The observations of a young anthropology student in Indonesia are relevent for several reasons to the contemporary American experience.
1 comment - Last on 12/23/2008

Is the B.A. degree meaningless?
December 19, 2008 By Tom Wood
There's new evidence that B.A. degrees have economic, non-economic, and even educational value.

Social Changelings
December 18, 2008 By Ashley Thorne
Little PC men are coming after the hard sciences.
1 comment - Last on 12/19/2008

Send Me In, COACHE!
December 17, 2008 By Peter Wood
Dreary and discontented faculty members won't keep us away from playing in the snow.
1 comment - Last on 12/19/2008

Strange New Respect for Abe’s VP
December 16, 2008 By Peter Wood
Was the seventeenth U.S. president one of the worst?
1 comment - Last on 12/16/2008

Cold Brine: The College Board Loses Its Senses
December 15, 2008 By Peter Wood and Ashley Thorne
The College Board recently unveiled a new goal for America - that by the year 2025, 55% of Americans should have a college degree. But is that achievement the right solution to save America's place in international competition?
7 comments - Last on 12/16/2008

Reality Checks
December 10, 2008 By Peter Wood
Make 'em payable to NAS.

Happy Birthday John Milton!
December 09, 2008 By Ashley Thorne
The poet who brought us Paradise Lost turns 400 today.

Sailing Past Byzantium
December 09, 2008 By Peter Wood
Peter Wood channels his inner William Butler Yeats
1 comment - Last on 12/09/2008

Critical Thoughtlessness
December 08, 2008 By Peter Wood
Stephen Zelnick refutes the cult of "critical thinking" now used as a substitute for a real curriculum.

Voluntyranny
December 05, 2008 By Ashley Thorne
Forced community service kind of defeats the purpose.
3 comments - Last on 12/08/2008

NAS Confers, Hell Stirs
December 04, 2008 By Peter Wood
As the time for our conference approaches(Washington, DC, Jan. 9-11), some may hear of it and tremble...

Peer at the Rear
December 04, 2008 By Ashley Thorne
Satire on the professor-student relationship
1 comment - Last on 12/08/2008

Rocket Science
December 03, 2008 By Peter Wood
NAS pays homage to an inventor
1 comment - Last on 12/04/2008

Holiday Conquest
December 02, 2008 By Ashley Thorne
Lessons from the "educational" board game
3 comments - Last on 12/03/2008

The College Backgrounds of America’s Leading Syndicated Columnists
December 01, 2008 By Tom Wood
Journalism's roots in higher education remind us of the university's role in public society.

Extra-Curricular Updike
December 01, 2008 By Peter Wood
Should college students read novels by contemporary author John Updike?
1 comment - Last on 12/02/2008

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Is ‘Good President’ Redundant?
November 20, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
Time magazine recently published a list of the 10 best college presidents. But what makes a president "good"? Are there good college presidents, or are they all just silly people in silly jobs?

NAS President’s Report
November 18, 2009 By Peter Wood
President Peter Wood tells what's next for the National Association of Scholars and gives five ways new members can help our work.

What Makes College Worth the Cost?
November 17, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
Expected future earnings? A rigorous and complete education?

SustainaReligion
November 16, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
Climate change faith has been ruled a protected “philosophical belief” in the UK.

My Degree in Diversity
November 13, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
After completing an online course on how to lead diversity education workshops, guess what I learned?
2 comments - Last on 11/16/2009

Election 2008: The University's Long Shadow
November 12, 2009 By Peter Wood
How the 2008 election illustrates the reigning narratives that guide higher education.

Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones (1922-2009)
November 12, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
The National Association of Scholars mourns the passing of Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones (1922-2009), who served as a member of our Board of Advisors along with his wife Mary Lefkowitz.

Blue Blastoff
November 10, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
A school in lower Manhattan created by the Blue Man Group believes we can't teach kids facts anymore...but we can teach them to "build a harmonious and sustainable world."
1 comment - Last on 11/12/2009

Should Everyone Go?
November 09, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
President Obama's goal - that by 2020 America would have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world - will require a huge expansion of higher education. But is that wise?

The Chico Romance
November 06, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
A sustainability conference at CSU-Chico prompts a concerned letter. NAS spots some good reasons for concern.
1 comment - Last on 11/16/2009

Response to Mitchell
November 06, 2009 By Jonathan Smith
After NAS posted Academic Questions article "Remapping Geography," Don Mitchell offered a response to the authors, Jonathan M. Smith and Jim Norwine. Here Professor Smith responds to Mitchell.
1 comment - Last on 11/09/2009

Message to Ed Schools: Practice What You Teach
November 06, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
Teachers-in-training should learn something before they begin teaching. But they should not learn just anything.

Response to Smith and Norwine on Remapping Geography
November 05, 2009 By Don Mitchell
Dr. Don Mitchell, author of Cultural Geography: A Critical Introduction who was mentioned in Professors Smith and Norwine's Academic Questions article "Remapping Geography," offers a response to their article.
1 comment - Last on 11/09/2009

Academic Freedom Forum
November 05, 2009 By Peter Wood - Minding the Campus
This article, originally posted at MindingtheCampus.com, is a response, added to those of others, to University of Chicago president Robert Zimmer's recent speech on academic freedom.

George Lakoff’s New Happiness: Politics after Rationality
November 04, 2009 By John B. Parrott
This article by John B. Parrott on the ideas and contemporary influence of Berkeley professor George Lakoff will appear in a forthcoming issue of Academic Questions (vol. 22, no. 4).
1 comment - Last on 11/05/2009

LEAPs and Bounds
November 03, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
An initiative spawned of the outcomes assessment movement, Liberal Education & America's Promise (LEAP), sounds boring enough. But what is really going on when the lords of of education go a-LEAP-ing? NAS investigates.
1 comment - Last on 11/09/2009

Remapping Geography
November 02, 2009 By Jonathan M. Smith and Jim Norwine
This article by Jonathan M. Smith and Jim Norwine on the state of academic geography will appear in a forthcoming issue of Academic Questions (vol. 22, no. 4).

"An Unsuccessful Education Can Ruin You"
October 30, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
A CUNY graduate professor teaches education ethics; his students discuss the meaning of academic freedom and the question of university neutrality. Now if only all faculty members and administrators took this course...
2 comments - Last on 11/04/2009

Responding to Weissberg
October 29, 2009 By Peter Wood
NAS president Peter Wood has published a response to Robert Weissberg's "Rescuing the University." His response may be found at Minding the Campus.

Intellectual Diversity or Nonsense?
October 28, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
"Our classroom has become an arena for the free exchange of ideas in which everyone's opinion is welcomed and respected." But should everyone's opinion be welcomed and respected? Is that what intellectual diversity means?
2 comments - Last on 11/04/2009