Author: southwerk

I am a 53 year old teacher. I have double major in Speech and Criminal Justice resulting in a Bachelor's degree from Northeastern State University in Oklahoma and a law degree.

The True Grit Era

On By southwerkIn business ethics

This is from a Frank Rich column analyzing America in the light of the two True Grit films –

That kind of legal and moral cost-accounting seems as distant as a tintype now. The new “True Grit” lands in an America that’s still not recovered from a crash where many of the reckless perpetrators of economic mayhem deflected any accountability and merely moved on to the next bubble, gamble or ethically dubious backroom deal. When Americans think of the law these days, they often think of a system that can easily be gamed by the rich and the powerful, starting with those who pillaged Lehman Brothers, A.I.G. and Citigroup and left taxpayers, shareholders and pensioners in the dust. A virtuous soul like Mattie would be crushed in a contemporary gold rush even if (or especially if) she fought back with the kind of civil action so prized by the 19th-century Mattie.

Frontier justice. That would send the Wall Street gamblers packing, wouldn’t it? Of course, right now, I’d take just about any kind of justice. The current situation in the finance world if analogous to a movie would be Heaven’s Gate. In that film the villains after a murderous spree are tracked down by a posse from the local people and rescued by the cavalry on direct orders of the governor. That’s about the situations we have here.

James Pilant

One-Third of Students Don’t Learn Much in College!! (Part 3-Our Society, Business and the Liberal Arts)

On By southwerkIn Teaching4 Comments

Part 3 of my series on American Higher Education. (Part 1 is here.) (Part 2 is here.)

For those of you who are new to these postings, I include the brief recap below.

From CBS Money Watch –

A new study suggests more than one third of parents aren’t necessarily getting a great return on their investment in their kids’ college education. Two college professors tracked more than 2,300 college students at 24 colleges and universities from their freshman year in 2005 through senior year, testing them along the way to gauge their critical and analytical thinking. According to the authors of a new book based on the study, Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, 36 percent of college students did not learn much in the way of those cognitive skills.

But at least that was an improvement over the learning curve through sophomore year: In the first two years of school, 45 percent of college students had no significant improvement in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing.

Part 3 –

We live in a time where thinking “from the gut” is popular. Where the President of the United States (President Bush) can brag about his low grades and get laughs rather than looks of disapproval. This is a country where a likely presidential candidate’s favored means of communicating with her followers are twitter postings seldom more than one sentence long. Does this encourage students to believe that there success is based on the skills acquired in college? Or does it clearly indicate to them that success is based on personality and a fast quip?

There is no more obvious place to find the American contempt for education than the field of science. We live in an era where the government has been censoring scientific data and findings from public web sites and official documents. What’s the message here? If you are learned and you say the wrong things, your writings disappear. What message does that sent to young people entering college? Don’t disagree. Don’t think.

If you want to be on the front lines of the culture wars, indicate a belief in global warming or evolution.  One of the most disgusting public spectacles I have to endure is some person telling another “Look at all the global warming.” whenever it gets cold. If there is anything more indicative of sloppy mindless thinking, there it is. By the time, you can feel global warming in the temperate zones, most of human life has perished. If the most plebian mundane mindless joke preempts years of careful research, does that inspire students to rigorous study?

But the business world wants critical thinkers, don’t they?

Don’t be silly. They want people with a “practical” education. That means business school. Business schools have several functions as far as the business world is concerned. The first is an education in the philosophical doctrines friendly to business operations and profit. The second is what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior in the world of financial endeavor. The third is critical thinking into carefully designated zones: markets, government regulations, banking practices etc.

And we’re not talking about a lot of critical thinking. This is critical thinking in specified areas. Businesses do not encourage thinking outside these areas. It is troublesome to them.

Let me give you an example. I teach business ethics. I was given a variety of business ethics text books to examine for possible use in my class. I went through them, tossed them and wrote my own class. Why? The books offered a pathway to ethical thinking carefully designed to limit choices. There was only a very limited discussion of ethical systems. By avoiding this, the textbooks avoided giving the students ethical choices outside of a few limited ones acceptable to the business world. My introduction of Christian and other moral systems as subjects of discussion in the realm of business ethics was almost revolutionary but long needed.

How do you get critical thinking?

We know how. It’s been embedded in Western culture for six hundred years. It is the kind of education that the founding fathers had. It is the kind of education that has inspired and ennobled human development. It is the kind of education that is the basis of the idea that humans are not limited in station to that of their fathers and that kings do not rule based on authority given by God.

That type of education is called the liberal arts.

There are seven liberal arts, the quadrivium: arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy and the trivium: grammar, logic and rhetoric.

Over time, these have evolved into the study of a separate subjects, philosophy, literature, art, music, English, etc.

These “impractical” subjects are the basis of learning critical thinking skills and living life as a whole human being capable of fulfilling the duties of citizen.

My son’s school gives students money awards for success in early college classes just as long as the classes are in practical subjects not the liberal arts.

I think that illustration sums up business thinking about education in the United States.

So there you have it. Critical thinking. Society despises it. Businesses don’t want it save in small inoffensive pieces and we are no longer interested in teaching the subjects that develop it.

This society wants uneducated, highly emotional bloviators to dominate television commentary. This society wants science as long as it is producing an amusing new game. Once science says something about the beginnings of humanity or the dangers of our country’s addiction to fossil fuels, the Attorney General of Virginia is talking law suit. Business want smooth operations unhindered by dissent and are willing to finance college success only in areas not inclined toward critical thinking.

And what are many of those commenting on these findings saying, “These students are lazy.”

We live in a time and place of such blatant hypocrisy the we can blame the students for the failures of No Child Left Behind, the way undergraduates are taught in universities and colleges, the business community’s preference for vocational teaching and our society’s disdain for learning.

James Pilant

In the shadows of greatness (via There & [Hopefully] Back Again)

On By southwerkIn ethics4 Comments

Fritz Haber is one of the real scientists whose life inspired the “mad scientist” of movies and books. He single mindly aided in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. His response was disappointment and a renewed vigor to create new and better methods of killing. Haber had been a curiosity to me for some years. This article discusses him more in depth.

If you want to talk ethics violations and ethically tone deaf, this scientist should be near the top of your list. If you are a student contemplating writing a paper on ethics, you would have trouble finding a better topic. This is a good article.

James Pilant

In the shadows of greatness How do we define greatness in science? I started pondering this question after responses started coming in to Nature Chemistry’s “unscientific & arbitrary Twitter poll”, asking “Who is the greatest chemist of all time?” The results are now posted on The Skeptical Chymist, the Nature Chemistry blog. My opening question was sparked by a particular name on the list: Fritz Haber.

Read More.

Integrity (via Precocious Lotus)

On By southwerkIn ethics2 Comments

Posts on single word topics like integrity are common and usually terrible reading. This one is good reading. Integrity is little discussed. I tend to write more about hypocrisy and honor, the same kind of turf. But this author chooses integrity and does well with it.

Good read.

James Pilant

Integrity Integrity: “Integrity as a concept has to do with perceived consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations and outcome. People use integrity as a holistic concept, judging the integrity of systems in terms of those systems’ ability to achieve their own goals” ~ Dictionary.com This is a concept that I value highly. Without realising it and naming it I use the worth and personal reflection of this as a measure of a pers … Read More

via Precocious Lotus

Ethics Dunce: Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gesslar (via Ethics Alarms)

On By southwerkIn ethics

I didn’t believe that this could even happen. Ethics Alarms has the story.

Is “I need the money.” an excuse for these kind of actions?

James Pilant

Please go to Ethics Alarms and read the whole post.

Less than a week after taking office, attorney Scott Gessler, Colorado’s newly elected  Secretary of State, announced that he plans to keep working part-time as an attorney for his law firm, the Hackstaff Law Group. In an interview with the Denver Business Journal, Gessler acknowledged that his plan to moonlight as a contract attorney raised ethical issues, but he needed the money. Well that’s certainly an encouraging ethics orientation! “Yes, I … Read More

via Ethics Alarms

Casino Banking

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

For most of American history, banking was a vital part of economic growth. Bank loans provided the capital for small businesses and government to build factories, stores, highways and other public works. This is no longer the bank’s major function. While bank lending is still a critical part of the function of banks as far as the welfare of the nation is concerned, the profits are elsewhere.

It is hardcore speculation, casino capitalism, where the real money is made. This is not wealth creation, it is more similar to the board game, monopoly, you try to make money speculating on property although in the modern sense this is more likely stocks, mutual funds, derivatives, etc. This is not a benefit to the economy. It is a drag and a danger to the larger economy. When the financial sector loses, the taxpayer picks up the losses, while taxpayers share nothing in the winnings. This is because the nation insures deposits and because changes in the law in 1999 allows banks to speculate with these federally insured funds – Corporate welfare on a scale of trillions of dollars.

This gambling has far reaching societal effects. Those who benefit from this no way to lose game make more and more money while those who insure them against loss make less and less.

From the New York Times Article – Scrutinizing the Elite, Whether They Like It or Not –

Olivier Godechot, a French academic on the sociology panel, presented research that quantified just how skewed the increase in wealth at the very top has become. Mr. Godechot, a researcher at the National Center for Scientific Research in France, said that two professions — finance and business services — accounted for almost all of the increase in income inequality.

Professor Godechot has put his finger on it. Our society has focused, fixated on finance as the only mode of economic growth. Everything else from services to manufacturing are poor relations whose share in the wealth and even the concern of the government continues to dwindle.

Because of these changes we have an enormous inequality of income in the United States. From wikipedia –

Americans have the highest income inequality in the rich world and over the past 20–30 years Americans have also experienced the greatest increase in income inequality among rich nations. The more detailed the data we can use to observe this change, the more skewed the change appears to be… the majority of large gains are indeed at the top of the distribution.

The big incomes in America are strongly aligned with the world of finance. So, many of the great incomes in the United States are associated with a socially negative activity that not only produces no value to the large economy but actively endangers the economy through its taxpayer guaranteed bets.

It this wasn’t bad enough, hundreds of thousands of graduates from the most expensive and prestigious universities in the United States pursue careers in this field often starting at a quarter of a million dollars in annual salary, a massive diversion of talent from every other field of endeavor. So, our focus on finance weakens the nation and diverts its future leadership into the same unproductive path resulting in further devastating losses to society as a whole.

What can be done? Well, we could consider making things. We could make actual products in this country, televisions, stereos, building materials, etc. We could base our economy on things of value. We could rise in morality and ethics to a point where the idea of making money by financial speculation becomes an abomination to any upright citizen with even a smattering of civic conscience.

We will do it. Either by choice or by necessity.

You see, the financial way of making money, this casino capitalism, when applied to a society like ours is a disaster that unfolds over the years. It hollows out our country diverting the money that would have built manufacturing and countless other useful investment, diverting the young from useful and productive enterprise and diverting the attention of society away from the important endeavors of life and nation building and into a life of profit based on speculation. Why work, when you can gamble with other people’s money?

When this cardboard edifice falls, once again we will find virtue in the making of value.

James Pilant

(This is a revised version of an earlier post.)

Broadband as a public right of way (via Virtual Democracy)

On By southwerkIn Privatization

I have often discussed net neutrality in my blogging sometimes at considerable length and sometimes with considerable passion. I have not discussed the broad band implications. I am not really familiar with broad band. This gentleman is.

He discusses this part of the issue with obvious knowledge. If you are interested in this aspect of the net neutrality issue, this is a good read.

James Pilant

Broadband as a public right of way This essay was written in support of the Super Santa Barbara 2011 art exhibit on net neutrality In the forty-one years since UC Santa Barbara became the third node on ARPANET (the government funded precursor to the Internet), generations of Santa Barbarans have been born into lifescapes increasingly dominated by “online time.” The growth of the Int … Read More

via Virtual Democracy

One-Third of Students Don’t Learn Much in College!! (Part 2-The Colleges and Universities)

On By southwerkIn Teaching6 Comments

Part 2 of my series on American Higher Education. (Part 1 is here.)

For those of you who are new to these postings, I include the brief recap below.

From CBS Money Watch –

A new study suggests more than one third of parents aren’t necessarily getting a great return on their investment in their kids’ college education. Two college professors tracked more than 2,300 college students at 24 colleges and universities from their freshman year in 2005 through senior year, testing them along the way to gauge their critical and analytical thinking. According to the authors of a new book based on the study, Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, 36 percent of college students did not learn much in the way of those cognitive skills.

But at least that was an improvement over the learning curve through sophomore year: In the first two years of school, 45 percent of college students had no significant improvement in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing.

Let us continue our search for answers. In part one we discussed why students have little experience in critical thinking. Now we take up the question of the colleges and universities.

A simple questions – How can we expect students to learn critical thinking skills in an environment where teaching undergraduates is often little more than an annoyance?

The contempt that universities have for undergraduates is legendary.

For universities, undergraduate students are unimportant. They are cash cows to be milked until due to lack of advisement or any other concern they flunk out or just get bored with being treated like a semi-useful farm animal. The comedic touch of repeatedly telling these students that they pay only a proportion of their college cost is one I particularly enjoy, that university administrators can say it with a straight face suggests thespian training.

To have a brilliant career in a university setting, a professor must evade teaching if at all possible. The university expects research, publications and grants. The professor gives the students who fall into his area of concern to his grad students, masters degree students who in almost all cases have no training in teaching whatever. There are many fine grad student teachers. I have done it myself. But some grad students are not that good.

I have sat with other professors while we exchanged our stories of worst grad student teachers. The stories usually revolved around those grad students inability to speak English, understand their subject or to act normally. The stories always ended the same way. We discuss what they said, how bad the grades were and how many complaints were made. Then the straight man of the group says, “What happened to the grad student after that teaching fiasco?” The story teller pauses for effect and then says, “He was back teaching the next semester.”

But if a professor should teach, industrial techniques are applied. If you can watch the spectacle of one professor teaching an auditorium of 600 to 1,000 students and then believe for one moment that the university has any concern for the teaching of undergraduates, you have a faith that I do not.  Do I have to bring up the cattle analogy?

Then we have the colleges. Intent on maximizing profit, colleges have embarked on out sourcing teaching away from full time instructors to part timers. This is very similar to the use of grad students and once again there are many, many fine adjunct instructors but the statistics are clear, full time professors do a better job of teaching.  (Confession – I am an adjunct instructor.)  This is another piece of evidence that teaching is not considered to be important.

And then there is online teaching. This kind of teaching is a blessing for those who cannot attend regular classes but there is a powerful temptation to use it instead of regular teaching. Why? No classroom, no facilities use, etc., it saves bundles of money. You almost don’t have to have a college.

What are the standards by which a class is determined to be necessary to be taught online? Obviously if you advertise that as many distance learning colleges do, you should expect online teaching. But where is the line when a class is being taught out of a facility with classrooms and facilities? When does online teaching move from necessity to cash cow? Once again, you have to wonder where the importance of teaching is in the calculations.

Universities insist on removing the best of their faculty from teaching. Colleges substitute part time instructors instead of full time. Online teaching is used not out of necessity but to save money. Everyone of these phenomenon makes student learning more problematic. It makes learning the skills of critical thinking and writing more difficult.

If teaching is not important in universities and is done only as much as necessary in colleges, it is inevitable that our students will not do as well as they might.

Next in Part 3: I will explain why our society is uninterested in critical thinking.

James Pilant

TRUTH: TOUGH TO SPEAK : MORE THAN ANY THING ELSE (via Administration & Management)

On By southwerkIn ethics2 Comments

This is a thoughtful post about telling the truth. The truth is a strange creature but our writer in this blog is well aware of that and many other things. I like what he has to say. I will let him tell you his story.

James Pilant

TRUTH: TOUGH TO SPEAK : MORE THAN ANY THING ELSE Telling truth somehow has been found to be a real taxing job. This has been one of the strategic battle fields in my efforts to remain human, that I am attempting for last four years. Well ! nearly all who made me learn and also those around me who still preach other to practice truth by quoting “Truth Shall Triumph”, have been found lacking by miles when its their turn to practice what they preach … Read More

via Administration & Management

One-Third of Students Don’t Learn Much in College!! Brand New National Crisis!! (Part 1-The Students)

On By southwerkIn Teaching7 Comments

It’s time for another shocking report on higher education.

Students are lazy.

Colleges and universities are failing in their jobs.

That nation is in a serious crisis which we mush absolutely, positively do something about right now.

Tell me, did I hit all the high spots?

Let’s have a look at our newest national educational crisis.

From CBS Money Watch –

A new study suggests more than one third of parents aren’t necessarily getting a great return on their investment in their kids’ college education. Two college professors tracked more than 2,300 college students at 24 colleges and universities from their freshman year in 2005 through senior year, testing them along the way to gauge their critical and analytical thinking. According to the authors of a new book based on the study, Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, 36 percent of college students did not learn much in the way of those cognitive skills.

But at least that was an improvement over the learning curve through sophomore year: In the first two years of school, 45 percent of college students had no significant improvement in critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing.

Now, let me rattle you.

There isn’t any crisis. Are the results discouraging? Yes, absolutely. But as a college teacher, there is nothing there that is even remotely surprising.

This is how it is supposed to be. There is no accident that these scores are the way they are. This is the results that were intended.

Let me explain.

Let’s begin with the students. They have been trained now for about one decade under an interesting program called No Child Left Behind. This took a complex multifaceted  phenomenon  namely our first twelve years of education and decided we could measure its success or failure based entirely on testing.

These students now entering our colleges and universities are superbly trained beyond any possible expectations … in testing. These guys are test takers par excellence. It’s incredible, amazing. When I am teaching, I can at any point say the word, test and every head in the room comes up. In some students you can see an adrenaline rush as the fight or flight reaction kicks in.

As a nation we can be proud of our test takers but there are a few hiccups here and there.  For one thing, anytime I ask a student their opinion, they become confused. No one has ever asked them that before. Why would I want to know their opinion? It’s not a test question.

Sometimes, I ask them to write five sentences giving me their opinion on a single subject during class. I have had students come to my desk and tell they were unable to think of more than three. These were not dumb students. They could write a hundred sentences if I asked them to recite facts. They could write thousands of sentences, if I sent them to the library to accumulate some facts and on a good day, somebody else’s opinion.

But by God, they can take tests. We made them that way. They have no opinions of their own but they can remember mine just in case it’s on the test. They can’t write or think with understanding but they know when confronted with three multiple choice questions to mark off the obviously wrong one and guess between the other two.

Why should they do well on measures of critical thinking? We never asked about that.

Their school system does not get one thin dime from whether or not they can appreciate a symphony, avoid a business scam, live like patriots or obey the law. They get money for high test scores. So, that’s what we get, students highly skilled at taking tests.

Why should you expect American college students to do well in critical thinking when it has been of little or no importance during all the years of their previous education?

James Pilant

(For Part 2, go here.)