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

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Articles

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

School Lit: Should Students Pick Their Own?
August 31, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
What do you think?
2 comments - Last on 09/03/2009

Ideology and Disparity in College
August 28, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
Comments on politics in the classroom.
2 comments - Last on 09/17/2009

Interim Report on Our Search for Political Books and Authors
August 27, 2009 By Peter Wood and Ashley Thorne
The results so far and a SURVEY you can take to help us narrow them down and straighten them out.
1 comment - Last on 08/28/2009

Stanford Teacher Education Program Replies
August 26, 2009 By Deborah Stipek
A statement by Stanford School of Education Dean Deborah Stipek responding to an article by Michele Kerr, a graduate of the education program.
4 comments - Last on 09/01/2009

An Opinionated Pragmatist Survives Stanford
August 25, 2009 By Michele Kerr
An education student's firsthand account of her time in a graduate program where she was expected to walk in lockSTEP.

The Great Liberal Narrative...No Comment
August 25, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
Video: How political correctness began in the Franfurt School and how the media nurtures it today.

Welcome Freshmen!
August 24, 2009 By Peter Wood, Glenn Ricketts, and Ashley Thorne
What you won't learn in freshmen orientation.
1 comment - Last on 08/28/2009

Epic Fail, Yale
August 21, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
A comment on Yale University Press's refusal to print controversial cartoons.

How Charter Colleges Can Rekindle Innovation
August 21, 2009 By Steve Balch and Michael Block - The Chronicle of Higher Education
Recalling a vision for freedom in higher education.
1 comment - Last on 08/22/2009

We Need Your Help!
August 20, 2009 By Peter Wood
Who are the key authors and what are the key books in the liberal, conservative, libertarian and radical traditions? Post your answer here or send an email to nasonweb@nas.org.
23 comments - Last on 08/22/2009

Sustaina-Summits
August 20, 2009 By Peter Wood
Inside: NAS's contributions to the decade for ESD; why no one criticizes sustainability; and international visions of sustainatopia.

ACTA Launches Guide on College Curricula
August 19, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
Congratulations to our sister organization on creating a new online guide to rank colleges based on the core subjects they require.

Feminist Legal Scholar Cites Historical Origins of the “Rule of Thumb”
August 19, 2009 By Glenn Ricketts
Wherefore art thou Romulus?
1 comment - Last on 08/21/2009

Ask a Scholar: Tess of the d’Urbervilles—Rape or Seduction? Part 2
August 19, 2009 By Carol Iannone
Why did Hardy leave his readers in the dark?

Spilling the Beans
August 14, 2009 By Peter Wood
A radical prof celebrates the “democratic space” of the contemporary university.
1 comment - Last on 08/19/2009

Thursday Theatrics
August 13, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
Inside: Fighting feminist falsehoods, Merit-al bliss, UT Austin quashes Western civ curriculum, Clinton and the climate, AP exam-graders and 'Kool-Aid," and a new AQ issue.

Open-Ended
August 12, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
Should education be free?
4 comments - Last on 08/13/2009

Taking Clout Out: Lessons from the Shadow Admissions Office
August 10, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
What can we learn from the Illinois admissions scandal?
1 comment - Last on 08/22/2009

The Highest Form of Flattery...and Learning
August 06, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
New scientific findings show that children learn faster when they imitate adults; this contrasts with "child-centered" progressive ed school philosophy.
1 comment - Last on 08/10/2009

Sunbeams for Indigenes: The New Discipline of Cultural Sustainability
August 05, 2009 By Peter Wood, Glenn Ricketts, and Ashley Thorne
Goucher College trains students to help marginalized communities realize their dreams.
1 comment - Last on 08/10/2009

A First Look at Second Nature
August 03, 2009 By Ashley Thorne
Will education for sustainabiity become Second Nature?

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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