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Visualizing the Daily Routines of Famous Creative People

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The eclectic daily routines that inspired the world’s most famous creative people to produce their best and most original work.

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Naomi S. Baron, Professor of Linguistics Emerita, American University

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Why do we remember more by reading in print vs. on a screen?

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The author of ‘How We Read’ Now explains.

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2.9M views · 115K reactions | Be gentle with yourself. There’s no deadline for finding your “why.” Life is about trying on different hats and figuring out what fits—and it’s okay to change your mind as many times as you need to. Victoria Monét is a wonderful example of a young woman who loves what she does and seeks out ways to grow along the way. This episode of IMO Podcast is available on YouTube or listen now on your favorite podcast platform. | Michelle Obama

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Be gentle with yourself. There’s no deadline for finding your “why.” Life is about trying on different hats and figuring out what fits—and it’s okay to change your mind as many times as you need to.…

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How important is studying languages for undergraduate students and why (not) study languages?

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How important is studying languages for undergraduate students and why (not) study languages?

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Dr. Anthony Fauci has been getting a lot of attention lately for his tireless work promoting public safety measures in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Polls consistently find that Dr. Fauci is by far the most trusted person in the United States on matters pertaining to COVID-19. An article published in The New Yorker on 20 April 2020 hails him as "America's doctor." On 10 December 2020, Time magazine named him a "Guardian of the Year," along with "front-line health care workers."

An interesting thing that many people don't know about Dr. Anthony Fauci, though, is that he graduated in 1962 from the College of the Holy Cross not with a standard pre-med degree, but with Bachelor of Arts (BA) in classics with a pre-med track. In other words, Dr. Fauci has a degree in classical studies.
Dr. Fauci on his background in the classics
Dr. Fauci has spoken publicly many times about how his early education in the classics played an important role in shaping him as a person and his humanistic approach towards medicine. He believes that practicing medicine requires knowing about science, but also knowing about human nature, and he thinks it is important for people who are going into medicine to be familiar with the humanities. In a 2015 interview with the American Association of Immunologists Oral History Project, Dr. Fauci said this:

"I was born and raised in Brooklyn, went to elementary school in Brooklyn, Catholic elementary school, and then from there went to a Jesuit High School in Manhattan which was an all-scholarship high school run by the Jesuits, called Regis High School, very much steeped in the classics, Greek, Latin, Romance language, ancient history, with some science."

"So, although I was interested in medicine while I was in high school, it was in the backdrop of a humanities background, and I actually extended that in college and went to another Jesuit college, Holy Cross, College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, which was a very interesting hybrid of doing classics again, with Greek, Latin, French, philosophy, together with just enough science courses to get into medical school, and from there I went into medical school."

An extended segment about Dr. Fauci aired by NPR on 16 April 2020, based on extensive interviews with Dr. Fauci himself, talks about why Dr. Fauci believes it is important for physicians to be familiar with the humanities and to have a humanistic perspective:

"Fauci spent a lot of his life studying Latin and Greek and Romance languages and philosophy. He was very deeply concerned with the humanities. He wasn't a guy just saying, 'What are the English courses I need to take to graduate so I can go to medical school?' It was pretty much the inverse. He was saying, 'What are the science courses I need to take to go? Because these other things are also very important.'"

"Infectious diseases are diseases that spread among people, and that is a discipline that requires a sort of social interaction. There are some medical disciplines where you can go in and do your job. If you're a surgeon, you'll take things out and maybe you have good bedside manner and maybe you don't, but what we really care about is are you good with your hands?"

"That's not as true with the type of doctor that Fauci is. ... He certainly has said - and said to me - that the combination of the humanities and science seemed to push him towards being a certain type of physician. Because physicians are people who interpret science and deliver it to people - but they need to do it in a human way. They need to do it in a way that people understand, and I think we all know that is sometimes in short supply."

In an interview with National Geographic in May 2020, Fauci himself talked about how his entire approach to medicine is deeply rooted in his formative humanities training, saying:

"I almost never had any other inkling of doing anything except something that would have a public service component to it. I'm very much of a people person, but I'm also scientifically inclined. My entire training is steeped in the humanities, and when you combine that with an aptitude for science, you wind up being a physician."

In a recorded conversation with a group of students at the College of the Holy Cross on 6 October 2020, Dr. Fauci talked about how his study of Greek philosophy in particular led him to pursue a career in public service. He said this:

"You know, as I've often described many, many times, I found myself more interested because of the classics. You know, I took that unusual pre-med course at Holy Cross, which was labelled at the time 'AB Greek comma pre-med,' in which I took more philosophy courses than I took science courses. So I always felt that I was more interested in human nature than I was in human physiology."

This list could go on. In practically every interview he's given about his life, Fauci has talked about the importance the humanities had in shaping him.

ABOVE: Photograph of Dr. Fauci in 1990 talking about the AIDS pandemic Contemporary undervaluation of the humanities
Unfortunately, right now, as I have written about several times before (most recently in this article from November 2020), the humanities in general are being severely undervalued, both at the societal level and at the institutional level. Fewer students are applying for majors in the humanities because they incorrectly perceive humanities degrees as "useless" in the job market.

As universities become increasingly corporatized, they care more about which departments are attracting the most majors than about which departments are important for society. When corporatized university administrations see that humanities departments are attracting fewer majors than other departments, they often use this as an excuse to downsize them. Many universities are getting rid of their classics departments altogether, along with many of their other humanities departments.

For instance, just recently, on 3 December 2020, the University of Vermont announced a plan to completely eliminate twelve majors and eleven minors from their College of Arts and Sciences. This plan will involve eliminating all classical studies majors and minors, disbanding their college classics department, and firing most of their classics faculty-including potentially tenured faculty.

The University of Vermont has been facing budget shortfalls for several years now. Their goal is to save money by getting rid of as many humanities departments as they think they can afford to lose so that they won't have to cut any funds from their STEM departments or business departments, since more students are currently majoring in those departments and the university wants to protect them from any kind of cuts at all costs.

The university, of course, had plenty of other options they could have picked. It's well known that university administrators make ungodly sums of money-far more money than any professor-and the university could have chosen to cut money out at the administrative level rather than at the faculty level, but they could never bring themselves to do that. They could have also chosen to make smaller cuts across the board rather than slashing the College of Arts and Humanities, but they apparently couldn't bear to do that either.

Many universities across the United States are playing exactly this same sort of administrative calculus. Whenever there's any kind of budgetary problem, the arts and humanities always seem to get cut.

ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of Williams Hall at the University of Vermont Conclusion
Dr. Fauci understands the importance of science and medicine far better than most people. He has emphasized time and time again the importance of ordinary people listening to scientific experts for information about COVID-19 and about what actions they should take to prevent the disease from spreading. Nevertheless, he recognizes that the humanities are extremely important too and, unlike some scientists, he even seems to recognize that people in the humanities actually know what we're doing.

We need more people like Dr. Fauci who recognize that there is value and importance in both STEM and the humanities.

Be like Dr. Fauci; support the humanities.

Categories Tags Posted on ancient philosophy, Classics, ancient philosophy, classics, Current events, Dr. Anthony Fauci, humanities, STEM Current events, humanities

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Dr. Fauci Has a Classics Degree! - Tales of Times Forgotten

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Dr. Anthony Fauci has been getting a lot of attention lately for his tireless work promoting public safety measures in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Polls consistently find that Dr. Fauci is by far the most trusted person in the United States on matters pertaining to COVID-19.

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Dear College Student,

If your professor has sent you a link to this page, two things are likely true. First, you probably sent an email that does not represent you in a way you would like to be represented. Second, while others might have scolded you, mocked you or despaired over the future of the planet because of your email, you sent it to someone who wants to help you represent yourself better.

In part, because only a click or swipe or two separate emails from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and texting, the lines between professional emails and more informal modes of writing have become blurred, and many students find the conventions of professional emails murky. We think we can help sort things out.

In the age of social media, many students approach emailing similar to texting and other forms of digital communication, where the crucial conventions are brevity and informality. But most college teachers consider emails closer to letters than to text messages. This style of writing calls for more formality, more thoroughness and more faithful adherence (sometimes bordering on religious adherence) to the conventions of Edited Standard Written English -- that is, spelling, punctuation, capitalization and syntax.

These different ways of writing are just that -- different ways of writing. The letter approach to emails is not always and forever better (or worse) than the texting approach. Knowing how and when to use one or the other -- based on why you are writing and whom you are writing to -- makes all the difference. So, if you use emojis, acronyms, abbreviations, etc., when texting your friends, you are actually demonstrating legitimate, useful writing skills. But you aren't if you do the same thing when emailing professors who view emails as letters.

Effective writing requires shaping your words according to your audience, purpose and genre (or type of writing, e.g., an academic email). Together these are sometimes called the rhetorical situation. Some of the key conventions for the rhetorical situation of emailing a professor are as follows:

1. Use a clear subject line. The subject "Rhetorical Analysis Essay" would work a bit better than "heeeeelp!" (and much better than the unforgivable blank subject line).

2. Use a salutation and signature. Instead of jumping right into your message or saying "hey," begin with a greeting like "Hello" or "Good afternoon," and then address your professor by appropriate title and last name, such as "Prof. Xavier" or "Dr. Octavius." (Though this can be tricky, depending on your teacher's gender, rank and level of education, "Professor" is usually a safe bet for addressing a college teacher.) Similarly, instead of concluding with "Sent from my iPhone" or nothing at all, include a signature, such as "Best" or "Sincerely," followed by your name.

3. Use standard punctuation, capitalization, spelling and grammar. Instead of writing "idk what 2 rite about in my paper can you help??" try something more like, "I am writing to ask about the topics you suggested in class yesterday."

4. Do your part in solving what you need to solve. If you email to ask something you could look up yourself, you risk presenting yourself as less resourceful than you ought to be. But if you mention that you've already checked the syllabus, asked classmates and looked through old emails from the professor, then you present yourself as responsible and taking initiative. So, instead of asking, "What's our homework for tonight?" you might write, "I looked through the syllabus and course website for this weekend's assigned homework, but unfortunately I am unable to locate it."

5. Be aware of concerns about entitlement. Rightly or wrongly, many professors feel that students "these days" have too strong a sense of entitlement. If you appear to demand help, shrug off absences or assume late work will be accepted without penalty because you have a good reason, your professors may see you as irresponsible or presumptuous. Even if it is true that "the printer wasn't printing" and you "really need an A in this class," your email will be more effective if you to take responsibility: "I didn't plan ahead well enough, and I accept whatever policies you have for late work."

6. Add a touch of humanity. Some of the most effective emails are not strictly business -- not strictly about the syllabus, the grade, the absence or the assignment. While avoiding obvious flattery, you might comment on something said in class, share information regarding an event the professor might want to know about or pass on an article from your news feed that is relevant to the course. These sorts of flourishes, woven in gracefully, put a relational touch to the email, recognizing that professors are not just point keepers but people.

We hope that these rules (or these and these) help you understand what most professors want or expect from academic emails. Which brings us back to the larger point: writing effectively does not simply mean following all the rules. Writing effectively means writing as an act of human communication -- shaping your words in light of whom you are writing to and why.

Of course, you won't actually secure the future of the planet by writing emails with a subject line and some punctuation. But you will help your professors worry about it just a little less.

With wishes for all the best emails in the future,

PTC and CHM

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Advice for students so they don't sound silly in emails (essay)

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Dear College Student, If your professor has sent you a link to this page, two things are likely true. First, you probably sent an email that does not represent you in a way you would like to be represented.

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Nothing. When we realized you weren't here
we sat with our hands folded on our desks
in silence, for the full two hours

     Everything. I gave an exam worth
     40 percent of the grade for this term
     and assigned some reading due today
     on which I'm about to hand out a quiz
     worth 50 percent

Nothing. None of the content of this course
has value or meaning
Take as many days off as you like:
any activities we undertake as a class
I assure you will not matter either to you or me
and are without purpose

     Everything. A few minutes after we began last time
     a shaft of light suddenly descended and an angel
     or other heavenly being appeared
     and revealed to us what each woman or man must do
     to attain divine wisdom in this life and
     the hereafter
     This is the last time the class will meet
     before we disperse to bring the good news to all people  on earth.

Nothing. When you are not present
how could something significant occur?

     Everything. Contained in this classroom
     is a microcosm of human experience
     assembled for you to query and examine and ponder
     This is not the only place such an opportunity has been gathered

     but it was one place

     And you weren't here

-Tom Wayman

From Did I Miss Anything? Selected Poems 1973-1993, 1993
Harbour Publishing

Copyright 1993 Tom Wayman.
All rights reserved.

Reprinted by permission of Harbour Publishing. Copyright 1993 by Tom Wayman. For further permissions information, contact Harbour Publishing, P.O. Box 219, Madeira Park, BC V0N 2H0 (Canada), www.harbourpublishing.com.

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Did I Miss Anything?, by Tom Wayman - Poem 013 | Poetry 180: A Poem a Day for American High Schools, Hosted by Billy Collins, U.S. Poet Laureate, 2001-2003 (Poetry and Literature, Library of Congress)

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Nothing. When we realized you weren't here we sat with our hands folded on our desks in silence, for the full two hours Everything. I gave an exam worth 40 percent of the grade for this term and assigned some reading due today on which I'm about to hand out a quiz worth 50 percent Nothing.

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© Kawin Harasai

The United States is one of the rare countries to include the right to happiness in its national constitution. But what happens when the machine breaks down and the dream dissipates, fractured by racial discrimination?
The United States is founded on a widely shared myth drawn from the Declaration of Independence: the right to the "pursuit of happiness," an expression we owe to Thomas Jefferson and that was taken up in France by Saint-Just in 1793 ("Happiness is a new idea in Europe"). All American citizens therefore believe or are supposed to believe that, by their individual effort alone, they can improve their condition, whatever their cultural or social origins. This American dream has from the beginning attracted the immigrants who have made up the nation. It also makes it possible, in theory, for men and women of infinitely diverse backgrounds, cultures, and beliefs, to live together. The Constitution is their social contract, the market economy is their Jacob's Ladder, and little is expected of the federal government in Washington D.C. This is quite contrary to what we find in France. This mythology (every nation is founded on a myth) works well, as long as economic growth supports its legitimacy; a degree of prosperity, even if unequally shared, makes it possible to believe that the promised happiness is within reach for oneself and one's children. But when the machine breaks down, the dream dissipates and social fractures emerge with extreme violence. The most flagrant of these fractures today is racial discrimination, which is largely coextensive with inequalities in income, health, and education.

African-Americans and immigrant communities such as Latinos have borne the main brunt of the Covid-19 pandemic, and proportionally are affected twice as much as whites. This is not an unfortunate anomaly, but something that reveals their social situation. They are the poorest Americans, and the most vulnerable to untreated chronic illnesses such as diabetes because, apart from emergency room care, they have limited access to quality healthcare. In addition to this, when unemployment strikes more than 20% of the active population, these ethnic "minorities" are the first to be let go, often without unemployment insurance. As a result, they rely on the charity of churches and philanthropic foundations and, depending on the state, some local aid. Of course, there is no more slavery, discrimination is illegal, and a third of African-Americans and many Latinos have become middle class or better; but the majority remain part of a sub-proletariat despised by many whites.

At the beginning of summer, two tragic and symbolic incidents shook the country and sparked urban revolts. The first seemed insignificant, but it is revelatory. A white woman walking her dog in Manhattan's Central Park found herself being criticized by an African-American man for not keeping her dog on a leash, which is mandatory. She called the police to report an "African-American" who "came out of the bush" and threatened her. The Black male as eternal threat to white women is a deep-seated fantasy. The same week, a white policeman in Minneapolis killed a Black man, George Floyd, who was not even resisting arrest, and did it without showing any emotion. The indignation that followed enflamed all of America, with echoes in France, under the banner of Black Lives Matter. This crystallization, in the same moment, of illness, unemployment, and police violence set off riots that are reminiscent of those in the 1960s and 1970s: riots of despair, which of course attract hoodlums and anarchist groupuscules. But in this case the riots also included white liberal sympathizers. Hoodlums, anarchists, and antifas, despite their intentions, play into the hands of white supremacists, as denouncing the violence of rioters makes it possible to avoid the question of the deep causes of despair.

Calling for a return to order, Donald Trump is now trying, despite the reality of the context, to dissimulate the existence of racism, inequality, and police violence, as well as his own inability to manage the pandemic. Remember that he first denied it, and then tried to foist it upon local authorities, declaring that it was not his problem. Rather than preaching reconciliation and national unity, as did Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s and Barack Obama after the economic collapse of 2008, Trump is fanning the flames of discord, stirring up his white male supporters, and threatening to send the army into cities. When the symbolic total of 100,000 deaths from Covid-19 was reached, he went off to play golf without a word of compassion.

In the future, whether this strange president is re-elected or ousted, it is clear that, to save themselves and restore the right to the pursuit of happiness, Americans and those who lead them will have to revise the social contract that unites them with the state. Without copying French-style social democracy, Americans will have to come a little closer to it. The absence of the federal government when society is threatened by crisis, in health policy, economics, and race relations - as well as by the challenge of China - fundamentally threatens the American dream. No one will believe in it anymore, whether within America or on the world stage, where the United States has now lost its leadership role. Barack Obama understood this when he extended healthcare to all and showed respect for foreign cultures. His record was mixed; the crisis of 2008 was probably not serious enough for most Americans to become aware that their country was on the verge of decline. Now it is on the verge of implosion, of self-destruction. There is still time to save the American dream, but who will tell voters the whole truth next November? For Trump, everything is about Trump. Will Biden be able to galvanize the people? No election will have been as decisive for the American people and for the rest of us since Abraham Lincoln was elected in a stand against the slave-owning South. Europe is on the sidelines, but the United States worries us.

Op-ed published in the August 2020 issue of France-Amérique.Subscribe to the magazine .

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The United States is one of the rare countries to include the right to happiness in its national constitution. But what happens when the machine breaks down and the dream dissipates, fractured by racial discrimination? The United States is founded on a widely shared myth drawn from the Declaration of Independence: the right to the [...]

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CHICAGO (WLS) -- The transition from classroom to in-home learning was abrupt for many parents and students.

If students don't have the proper workspace, they may be hunched over a kitchen table or on a couch with no back support and that can affect not just their school work but their bodies as well.

Dr. Nikki Weiner, an Ergonomics Specialist and founder of The Rising Workplace said parents should make sure their kids have a proper e-learning workspace to prevent discomfort and other long-term physical challenges.

"The situation was totally unpredictable and we didn't know at the time how long it would last," Dr. Weiner said. "Now looking forward into the fall, I feel like we can take a more measured approach as we kind of know what to expect a little bit more."

Dr. Weiner offers 10 simple tips for parents that can drastically change your child's home learning experience:
1. Size your kid to table and chair
When possible, work at a table and chair that fits the child. Early childhood tables and chairs are often found at thrift stores and yard sales. Teens/older children-might be comfortable sitting in a height adjustable chair with a foot stool. A smaller child's setup might look similar to an adult office setup.

Remember, if you're investing in a sit-stand desk, look at the height range. Most models do not lower lower than standard desk height, which is not helpful for children.
2. Sit with support
Use pillows or cushions for extra support when needed. Having your child sit with their backs supported keeps them from fatiguing, which causes slumping forward posture.
Also, have your kid sit with their feet supported. You can use a foot stool or foot rest.

3. Use an external mouse and keyboard 4. Raise the screen
These products allow you to raise your child's screen while keeping a comfortable arm position. A compact keyboard is ideal for kids and a smaller mouse, sized to their hands Is another good option.
5. Limit couch working to short intervals (please, no bed working)!
Especially for bigger kids, use a riser, stand or stack of books to bring the top of the screen to eye level. For handheld devices, encourage your child to hold them at heart level.

If your child is working on a couch, try a lap desk. It improves the set up by allowing for external mouse use and slightly raises the screen Again, sit with back supported to encourage a more neutral posture.
6. Remember Movement, big and small
Working from the bed poses ergonomic challenges and blurs the boundary between school and personal life.

7. Take screen breaks every 20 minutes 8. Think about lighting
Kids need to move in regular intervals in order to focus. Build movement breaks into your routine and allow small movements while at the desk, like a fidget or a move-n-sit cushion.

9. Think about noise
Screen breaks are very important to combat eye strain and screen fatigue Also, adjust the screen brightness and turn on blue light filters, especially during non-daylight hours

Exposure to natural light helps with mood, attention, and sleep; that cannot be overstated.
10. Establish a routine that works for the whole family
Choose a space that minimizes distraction from noise. Use a fan or low-volume white noise to mitigate unpredictable noise.

Try noise cancelling headphones, but be cautious of earbuds and headphones-- they can cause hearing loss in children when listening at high volume for extended periods. If you can hear it from a few feet away, it's probably too loud.

It's important for parents to remember consistency is key.

After putting these measures in place and sticking to the plan, you and your children will likely have a more harmonious work-from-home experience.

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10 ways to improve your child's e-learning workspace

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CHICAGO (WLS) -- The transition from classroom to in-home learning was abrupt for many parents and students. If students don't have the proper workspace, they may be hunched over a kitchen table or on a couch with no back support and that can affect not just their school work but their bodies as well.

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It's time to dust off that old Spanish-language dictionary.

You won't make an ass of yourself when that tapas place finally reopens ... and it might change your outlook.

Research shows that speaking a 2nd language can open your mind to different perspectives, give you new ways to solve problems, and make you a more rational thinker.

This is your brain on languages

Polina Marinova, Trends contributor and founder of The Profile newsletter, described how her thoughts change depending on which language she uses.

In her native Bulgarian, she said she's "straightforward, logical and thoughtful when selecting my words." In English, she's "extroverted, friendlier and more emotional in my decision-making."

She asked: "Can speaking a different language change our thought patterns, and in turn, our perceptions of who we are?"

Science says this is a real thing

These mindset changes are well-documented: In one study, bilingual Mexican Americans were given a personality test in both English and Spanish. Participants scored higher in extroversion after taking the test in English.

This could be because American culture emphasizes assertiveness.

Speaking a foreign language can also sharpen your decision-making. It requires logic to choose the right words and put them in order. You're more likely to make rational - as opposed to emotional - choices.

And you thought talk was cheap

A 2nd language can give you a different brainstorming strategy. Stuck on a concept? Try thinking about it in French.

As Marinova put it: Speaking multiple languages can help in "connecting disparate ideas while understanding there's always more than one way to think."

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How speaking a 2nd language can change your mindset -- and help your career

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It's time to dust off that old Spanish-language dictionary. You won't make an ass of yourself when that tapas place finally reopens ... and it might change your outlook. Research shows that speaking a 2nd language can open your mind to different perspectives, give you new ways to solve problems, and make you a more rational thinker.

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Find a good translation for this quote and speculate on  what it means. Do you agree or disagree? How does it fit in the context of this course?

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Why would she teach preschool when she could make a heck of a lot more money teaching kindergarten? It's a question I've heard over and over again reporting on education. In some places, we pay early childhood teachers less than fast-food workers, less than tree trimmers. As a country, we've acknowledged the importance of early learning and yet, when you look at what we pay those educators, it doesn't add up.

On average, preschool teachers were making $28,570 in 2015, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's a little more than half of what kindergarten teachers were making: $51,640.

We get a fresh look at these numbers in a report Tuesday from the Obama administration about the gap in pay for early-education teachers, part of the White House's United State of Women Summit.

Qualifications to be a preschool teacher are often different from those to be a kindergarten or first-grade teacher, depending on the state and the type of preschool program. But even in states that require a bachelor's degree for preschool teachers at state-funded programs, a pay gap exists.

Preschool teachers tend to make more money when they work for a public school system, and in places where the state funds prekindergarten. In fact, the report points out, if an individual with a bachelor's degree works in a public-school-sponsored program, on average he or she would make $6.70 more per hour than in a community-based program. That's about a $13,000 difference per year.

Still, in all 50 states, preschool teachers earned significantly lower salaries than kindergarten teachers and other elementary school teachers.

And that's not all:

If preschool teachers in 13 states were instead teaching kindergarten, their annual wages would double.

Louisiana and Oklahoma teachers have the smallest gap in wages between preschool and kindergarten, with a difference of about $7,000 in each state.

Washington, D.C., and Louisiana preschool teachers have the highest median salaries: $39,940 and $39,970, respectively.

In six states (Arizona, Idaho, Ohio, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin), preschool teachers earned less than $24,000 - a salary below the 2015 poverty threshold for a family of four.

That's also true for Head Start teachers in nine states: Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Utah.

As of 2015, 73 percent of Head Start teachers have a bachelor's or higher.

24 state preschool programs require a bachelor's degree for the main teacher in the classroom.

45 percent of preschool teachers working with children ages 3-5 have a bachelor's degree.

We've made progress with preschool in this country, says Steven Barnett, director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University. Early-learning standards have risen in nearly every state, and more students are enrolled in preschool than ever before.

But if the goal of early-childhood education is to close the readiness gap - especially among low-income, often nonwhite students - Barnett points out, then the group of people we're relying on to do that isn't adequately prepared.

"If we're just hiring the lady next door, they're not going to have those capabilities," he says.

A 2015 report from the Institute of Medicine came to the same conclusion: If we want preschool to be high-quality, we need preschool teachers to have four-year degrees and specialized training.

When Marcy Whitebook started as an early-childhood teacher in the '70s, she was astounded at her salary. "I thought, 'Are you kidding, this is all they're going to pay me?' " She's now the director of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of California, Berkeley, where she's been studying the low wages of early-childhood workers for 25 years.

"We have 20th century earnings for our 21st century hopes," she explains. "Right now if you graduate from college with a degree in early-childhood education, you have the lowest projected earnings of all college graduates. This is not a recruitment strategy."

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It Doesn't Pay To Be An Early-Childhood Teacher

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Why would she teach preschool when she could make a heck of a lot more money teaching kindergarten? It's a question I've heard over and over again reporting on education. In some places, we pay early childhood teachers less than fast-food workers, less than tree trimmers.

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Can Educating Women in the Liberal Arts Lift Asia's Communities Out of Poverty?

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The American model of education abroad has mostly been an elite enterprise. The Asian University for Women is different - and it’s driven by an ambitious idea.

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Vivalanga - Language Exchange Community shared a post.

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Here's Smarty-Pants, Home for the Holidays

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When Melissa Boone visits her family for the holidays, she is enveloped by the clatter of pots and pans and the smell of collard greens, ham drizzled with maple syrup, and pumpkin cheesecake. For the first few hours, she revels in what she describes as the "comfortable chaos" of her relatives' townhouse, in Sewell, N.J.

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Dear College Student,

If your professor has sent you a link to this page, two things are likely true. First, you probably sent an email that does not represent you in a way you would like to be represented. Second, while others might have scolded you, mocked you or despaired over the future of the planet because of your email, you sent it to someone who wants to help you represent yourself better.

In part, because only a click or swipe or two separate emails from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and texting, the lines between professional emails and more informal modes of writing have become blurred, and many students find the conventions of professional emails murky. We think we can help sort things out.

In the age of social media, many students approach emailing similar to texting and other forms of digital communication, where the crucial conventions are brevity and informality. But most college teachers consider emails closer to letters than to text messages. This style of writing calls for more formality, more thoroughness and more faithful adherence (sometimes bordering on religious adherence) to the conventions of Edited Standard Written English -- that is, spelling, punctuation, capitalization and syntax.

These different ways of writing are just that -- different ways of writing. The letter approach to emails is not always and forever better (or worse) than the texting approach. Knowing how and when to use one or the other -- based on why you are writing and whom you are writing to -- makes all the difference. So, if you use emojis, acronyms, abbreviations, etc., when texting your friends, you are actually demonstrating legitimate, useful writing skills. But you aren't if you do the same thing when emailing professors who view emails as letters.

Effective writing requires shaping your words according to your audience, purpose and genre (or type of writing, e.g., an academic email). Together these are sometimes called the rhetorical situation. Some of the key conventions for the rhetorical situation of emailing a professor are as follows:

1. Use a clear subject line. The subject "Rhetorical Analysis Essay" would work a bit better than "heeeeelp!" (and much better than the unforgivable blank subject line).

2. Use a salutation and signature. Instead of jumping right into your message or saying "hey," begin with a greeting like "Hello" or "Good afternoon," and then address your professor by appropriate title and last name, such as "Prof. Xavier" or "Dr. Octavius." (Though this can be tricky, depending on your teacher's gender, rank and level of education, "Professor" is usually a safe bet for addressing a college teacher.) Similarly, instead of concluding with "Sent from my iPhone" or nothing at all, include a signature, such as "Best" or "Sincerely," followed by your name.

3. Use standard punctuation, capitalization, spelling and grammar. Instead of writing "idk what 2 rite about in my paper can you help??" try something more like, "I am writing to ask about the topics you suggested in class yesterday."

4. Do your part in solving what you need to solve. If you email to ask something you could look up yourself, you risk presenting yourself as less resourceful than you ought to be. But if you mention that you've already checked the syllabus, asked classmates and looked through old emails from the professor, then you present yourself as responsible and taking initiative. So, instead of asking, "What's our homework for tonight?" you might write, "I looked through the syllabus and course website for this weekend's assigned homework, but unfortunately I am unable to locate it."

5. Be aware of concerns about entitlement. Rightly or wrongly, many professors feel that students "these days" have too strong a sense of entitlement. If you appear to demand help, shrug off absences or assume late work will be accepted without penalty because you have a good reason, your professors may see you as irresponsible or presumptuous. Even if it is true that "the printer wasn't printing" and you "really need an A in this class," your email will be more effective if you to take responsibility: "I didn't plan ahead well enough, and I accept whatever policies you have for late work."

6. Add a touch of humanity. Some of the most effective emails are not strictly business -- not strictly about the syllabus, the grade, the absence or the assignment. While avoiding obvious flattery, you might comment on something said in class, share information regarding an event the professor might want to know about or pass on an article from your news feed that is relevant to the course. These sorts of flourishes, woven in gracefully, put a relational touch to the email, recognizing that professors are not just point keepers but people.

We hope that these rules (or these and these) help you understand what most professors want or expect from academic emails. Which brings us back to the larger point: writing effectively does not simply mean following all the rules. Writing effectively means writing as an act of human communication -- shaping your words in light of whom you are writing to and why.

Of course, you won't actually secure the future of the planet by writing emails with a subject line and some punctuation. But you will help your professors worry about it just a little less.

With wishes for all the best emails in the future,

PTC and CHM

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Advice for students so they don't sound silly in emails (essay)

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Dear College Student, If your professor has sent you a link to this page, two things are likely true. First, you probably sent an email that does not represent you in a way you would like to be represented.

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Whether you're destined to be a world-renowned scientist, write the next Broadway hit, or even become vice president of the United States, at the University of Delaware, your ideas become giant!

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This College "Would You Rather" Quiz Will Determine Your Major And Minor

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Whether you're destined to be a world-renowned scientist, write the next Broadway hit, or even become vice president of the United States, at the University of Delaware, your ideas become giant!

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How Learning Communities Can Keep Higher Ed's Most At-Risk Students on Track

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Close-knit academic networks form strong bonds among students. A mix of intensive advising and mentoring helps them stay focused, too.

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M. Scott Brauer for The Chronicle

Some days, it still doesn't feel real. Last week, Anthony Abraham Jack was at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to celebrate the release of a new book - his own, published by Harvard University Press. It's a case study of how elite institutions like the one where he teaches, Harvard, fail low-income students. The subject matter is intimately familiar to him.

Jack is an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Education and at 6-foot-5 is unmistakable in its narrow hallways. He knits as he talks in his office in Cambridge, the place he has called home now for the past decade. The biting cold, the historic buildings, and the old money are almost a perfect foil to Jack's upbringing in the sweltering heat of Miami. At Harvard, he's surrounded by people whose family backgrounds, attendance at elite prep schools, college tutors, and social networks led them to this paragon of American higher education. Many of their parents passed through a similar set of doors. Jack was a first-generation college student. His mother is a security guard. His brother works as a janitor at a Miami elementary school. Jack attended underresourced public schools for most of his primary education.

He played high-school football for one of those schools, but a blown shoulder benched him. That led to an argument with his coach, so Jack sought out something better, and wound up with a full scholarship at a Florida private school called Gulliver. It was only a year, but Jack says it was enough to acquaint him with the ways of the wealthy, their $1,000 coats, their vacations that cost more than his family made in a year. More importantly, he says, it taught him how to seize the academic advantages offered to those students.

Elite colleges not only fail to admit enough low-income students; they also fail to care for the ones they let in.

That led him to Amherst College, which led to graduate school at Harvard, which led to the deal for his book, The Privileged Poor. On the wall behind him hang his framed graduate degrees and an op-ed, also framed, that he wrote for The New York Times about poor students at elite colleges.

It's easy to focus solely on where Jack started and how high he has ascended. It's an inspiring story that gives him an almost unassailable authority to write and do research about the experiences of poor students. But his narrative also presents a challenge to his work, by suggesting that all low-income students who make it to elite colleges thrive. Many do not. Jack wants people to see beyond his personal success to his research findings: Elite colleges not only fail to admit enough low-income students; they also fail to care for the ones they let in.

"It's one thing to graduate with a degree from an elite institution and another thing to graduate with the social capital to activate that degree," Jack says. In fact, in many cases, elite colleges widen rather than narrow the gulf between the wealthy and the poor, he argues, by making low-income students feel like outsiders who don't actually belong on campus.

His research comes at a time when these institutions are trying to increase the percentage of students from impoverished backgrounds, through need-blind applications, greater outreach, and scholarship programs. As Jack notes in his book, "Changes in financial aid have ushered in significant demographic shifts, bringing the rich and the poor together in ways that are happening nowhere else in this country." His findings suggest entrenched class distinctions that manifest themselves not just in the clothes students wear and the vacations they take, but in what they understand about college, expect of their professors, and imagine for themselves.

In Cambridge, it feels like everyone is wearing one of those Canada Goose jackets. It's cold in New England - some Arctic researchers turn to this type of coat to handle subzero temperatures - and the logo, a red circle with an outline of Antarctica, is instantly recognizable. Where some people see a coat that's a little bit of overkill, Jack sees inequality.

At a shop in Cambridge that sells the jackets, Jack finds none below $650. When people tell Jack his coat looks like Canada Goose, he has to laugh. They're not in his price range, and besides, they don't come in his size.

Many of the low-income students Jack interviewed for his research questioned the sanity of anyone spending so much on a coat. (All the students quoted in the book go by pseudonyms. Jack calls their institution Renowned University, "an elite college in the northeast United States with a long history of educating academically gifted youth.")

Other distinctions between wealthy and poor students are less visible. Closing the dining hall during academic breaks might make sense if the assumption is that all students travel on holiday. But students who can't afford to travel find their main source of food suddenly unavailable. Some told Jack that spring break is like a literal version of The Hunger Games. One told him she fainted because she didn't have enough food. Among institutions that promised financial-aid packages that wouldn't burden disadvantaged students with loans, Jack found only one in four kept their dining halls open during spring break.

Research into the struggles of poor students on campuses has surged in recent years, much of it focused on the role their family backgrounds play in their success. Jack's work is distinctive in examining the differences between poor students who graduated from distressed public high schools and those who attended resource-rich private schools.

Enter the "privileged poor" - students who, like Jack, through grit and luck managed to attend private schools despite their family's low income. They had the benefit of being steeped in the world of the rich early. That helped prevent culture shock and gave them tools to navigate college. The "doubly disadvantaged," in contrast, had gone to high schools that weren't able to prepare them for the exclusive world of elite institutions.

The privileged poor whom Jack interviewed were better equipped to take advantage of all the resources the university had to offer. They sought out their professors to help them when they were struggling in class. Their counterparts often failed to do so. An administrator at another college told Jack she realized that some of her low-income students thought "office hours" meant hours that belonged to her, during which she shouldn't be disturbed. That reveals more than a mere miscommunication, Jack argues; it represents the "gaps in expectations between faculty and students about what is required to succeed in college."

The privileged poor also knew it was important to join clubs and network with people who could be vital connections in the future. The doubly disadvantaged not only didn't share that attitude, but actually considered it "sucking up." One student who worked hard to get good grades in high school described learning quickly that it wouldn't be enough just to study hard in college. But he couldn't bring himself to change.

"These kids who go to professors after class and just talk to them," the student told Jack. "I have no idea what they're talking about. I don't have any questions beyond what they're teaching. They're kiss-asses! These people want recommendations, a spot in this guy's research team. I never wanted to grovel."

Jack understands that hesitation. His mother "couldn't have told me that navigating college requires a huge amount of self-promotion," he says. "She always wants the best for me, but she wasn't equipped to navigate these mainstream institutions."

The vast majority of college students don't get the chance to go to places like Harvard. A disproportionate number of first-generation and minority students go to colleges with far fewer resources and, accordingly, lower graduation rates. Why should we be concerned about low-income students who have landed through grit and good fortune at an elite college?

People who knew Jack at Amherst say his personal story, even as it seems to show that the system worked, is exceptional. Kristin Bumiller, a political-science professor at Amherst, recalls Jack holding down multiple jobs while working diligently at his studies. (Jack says he would frequently send money home to his family.) "In many ways, he is not the full embodiment of his work," Bumiller says. "He is someone who has used hard work and perseverance to succeed no matter the conditions of his academic environment."

Like the privileged poor in his research, Jack learned how to seek out help when he needed it. He says he is not much of a networker, but he knows how to build a network. That includes Shamus Khan, a professor of sociology at Columbia University, whom Jack asked for advice on his research. (Jack calls him his "toughest critic and biggest supporter.") Khan says it's obvious that Jack's work and personal life were affected by the disparities he experienced on campus. And at the beginning, Khan said, it seemed as though Jack believed telling the stories alone would be enough. "The most brutal kind of review that I would give Tony and that I pushed him on was, 'Who cares?'" Khan says. "So a bunch of kids are having a tough time at Harvard?"

"Funneling poor youth into private schools is not social policy. It's an abdication of responsibility."

He pushed Jack to be more theoretical. Much of the recent work on social mobility has focused on who gets in the door, and what it takes to get admitted. Plenty has also been written about the experiences of poor students once they arrive on campus. Paying for the Party: How College Maintains Inequality (Harvard University Press, 2013), by Elizabeth A. Armstrong and Laura T. Hamilton, examined how wealthy students fared better than their lower-income classmates at a large public university. And scholars have begun writing about students who suffer from hunger or homelessness. Jack's emphasis on highly selective institutions reveals that students lacking the social capital gained at private high schools are made to remember it over and over. "Elite universities are now a bundle of confusing contradictions," Jack writes. "They bend over backward to admit disadvantaged students into their hallowed halls, but then, once the students are there, they maintain policies that not only remind those students of their disadvantage, but even serve to highlight it."

Jack has struggled to find a balance between calling out what he sees as brutally unfair treatment and maintaining a scholarly distance. It can be hard to remain composed when students are literally starving during spring break. And it can be heartbreaking to see colleges' efforts to help backfire. That was the case when Renowned University decided to offer free vouchers for cultural events that poor students wouldn't be able to attend otherwise. The problem? They made the students line up at a separate door, effectively broadcasting to their well-off peers that they were the poor bunch.

Nowhere is the struggle clearer in The Privileged Poor than when Jack writes about a work-study program called "Community Detail," a master class in good intentions gone awry. One of several voluntary summer programs Renowned University offered incoming freshmen, Community Detail gave students a decently paid job with flexible hours cleaning dorm rooms. The other summer programs, focused on hiking or art appreciation, cost a fee. So Community Detail, Jack argues, was really the only choice for poor students, and it meant they ended up cleaning filthy bathrooms, mopping up bodily fluids, and doing other menial work for their better-off peers.

"I'm going to clean the toilet that you just threw up on this past weekend when you're partying like crazy," as one student described it to Jack. "Let me just clean that for you. And then just add the fact that I'm a minority reinforces that stereotype that all Spanish people do is clean and mow lawns. That's what they're good for."

M. Scott Brauer for The Chronicle

It's not just that the work was degrading or disgusting, Jack writes; the problem was it eroded the basis for an academic identity before the students had even really started their journey.

To Jack, what Renowned was doing to its students was appalling, and he struggled to convey his outrage in sober terms. "You have to detach yourself in a way that's hard for me as a first-gen, lower-income student who has been in these students' shoes," he says. "To be completely divorced and write it up like, 'I am an unbiased researcher.'"

A lack of bias, though, can be useful when Jack offers up solutions. Would it help if more students from poor backgrounds were recruited into well-off private schools, perhaps with federal funds? Jack says that would be unfair to the kids inevitably left behind. It could also mean siphoning money out of already bereft public schools.

"Funneling poor youth into private schools is not social policy," he writes. "It's an abdication of responsibility."

His proposed solution? Governments should invest more in poor communities. High schools should make students familiar with college culture earlier - some, for example, have started calling conferences "office hours." And colleges? Well, for one thing, they should keep the dining halls open during breaks.

Jack says he considers himself not a public intellectual, but an intellectual who engages with the public: He's not interested in academic celebrity, but in earning tenure at Harvard, maybe someday owning a house, and continuing to do work he finds useful.

The office, the book, the whirlwind of public speaking - all of this success still seems unreal to Jack, and he has a sentimental streak. When he went to see his book being printed, the years of work finally metamorphosed into a physical form, he cried.

Chris Quintana is a staff reporter at The Chronicle.

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Can This Man Change How Elite Colleges Treat Low-Income Students?

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Some days, it still doesn't feel real. Last week, Anthony Abraham Jack was at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to celebrate the release of a new book - his own, published by Harvard University Press. It's a case study of how elite institutions like the one where he teaches, Harvard, fail low-income students.

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The Chronicle Interview

Michael Zajakowski for The Chronicle

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"When it comes to the big questions in life, how do you decide what to believe? And how do your beliefs guide you in what you should do?"

That's the opening of an unusual video pitch for an introductory philosophy class. In under three minutes...

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The Chronicle Interview Premium content for subscribers. Subscribe Today "When it comes to the big questions in life, how do you decide what to believe? And how do your beliefs guide you in what you should do?" That's the opening of an unusual video pitch for an introductory philosophy class.

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English as the world's lingua franca isn't going anywhere. Why, then, should we Anglophones bother to learn another language? What's in it for us? And what, more seriously, are the implications if we decide not to bother?

Digging deeply into these questions, Marek Kohn's book asks what it actually means to have some mastery of another language (is that the same as being 'fluent', or being able to 'speak' another language?), and looks at language acquisition, at how the language we happen to speak can alter perception, whether there are cognitive benefits to multiple language use, and what roles the state can play in determining how languages are valued or stigmatised.

The answer, in each case, is - unsurprisingly - 'it's actually quite complicated'. But Kohn expresses the complexities with great lucidity, making them precisely the reason the subject is interesting at all. Kohn is a science writer, and while he uses dizzying numbers of scientific studies to further his arguments, he's especially engaging on their failings: why are some of these studies contradictory or unreliable or misleading? We don't get any easy answers. What we get instead is something more frustratingly inconclusive, but richer too.

The reception of even robust scientific results is, naturally, distorted by culture and ideology. Kohn touches upon some of the circumstances that have led to people in the UK being harassed for the audacity of not speaking English in a public place (we've all seen footage). He is cautious about judgment, though, preferring to consider generally the ways in which a language might be used to define the boundaries of a group: to define who are the 'insiders', and therefore also, by exclusion, who are the outsiders. (I'd argue the nativist implications of this, illogical and hypocritical though they are, are even darker than he acknowledges.)

Most people with a habit of using more than one language (including heritage speakers like Kohn and me) comfortably understand languages as complementing one another, rather than competing for exclusive territorial rights. At a literary event some years ago, a novelist was asked if she was most comfortable expressing herself in language A (in which she wrote her novels) or language B (in which she lived and spoke to her family). She answered that she was most comfortable in an environment in which she could use both. Of course: the expressive possibilities expanded when she could use all the extensive linguistic resources at her disposal.

Cognitive advantages among the bilingual are many and convincing - more flexible, less essentialist thinking, more insight into different ways of communicating, and so on. (The question of whether bilingualism can slow the symptoms of dementia is more complicated.) Meanwhile those occasional arguments against bilingual child-rearing are usually couched in terms not of 'total' language acquisition but acquisition of the dominant language - not how much will a child learn altogether but how will their English be with or without a second language added. Evidence suggests the effect on the latter is only a matter of speed - that dominant language will reach full strength in time.

Kohn also braves the much contested question of the relationship between language and thought, and in his small-scale examples, his evidence is particularly fascinating. (Why are speakers of some languages better at remembering details of accidents?) It's obvious that different languages enable you to do different things; but they also compel you to do different things. If Russian has four words for friend, not only can you choose between four ways of describing somebody; you must. You have no choice but to testify to where on the friendship scale this person belongs.

And while monolinguals might be less likely to notice this, our languages have emotional freight for all of us, not always positive. Examining a group of people who move country as children, one might expect their original language to be most well-embedded and resistant the older the child at the time of the move. Yet the opposite was the case with a group of Jews who left Dusseldörf from the late 1930s; the later they held out before leaving - and the more distress they experienced as a result - the less German they'd retain.

The emotional can inhibit the rational too. Did you know you're more likely to make rational decisions if you gamble in a foreign language, or when faced with the 'trolley problem' depending on which of your languages it's presented in? What are the implications, then, for a negotiation being carried out between two parties in a language that is native (and more emotionally loaded) to one, and foreign (and more rationally activated) to the other? It's not hard to think of examples.

Kohn ends his book with a prediction -not a bold one, but a convincing one nonetheless. Among other things, he doesn't hold out much hope of the Anglosphere learning to value other languages. Readers of this book will have no doubt how badly we will lose out as a result.

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Making the case for multilingualism - a timely reminder | The Spectator

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English as the world's lingua franca isn't going anywhere. Why, then, should we Anglophones bother to learn another language? What's in it for us? And what, more seriously, are the implications if we decide not to bother?

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The transition from high school to college can be difficult for many students, some of whom feel such an overwhelming sense of social isolation that they drop out of college. The University of New Hampshire (UNH) Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics, however, has found that a game can help students build social networks and become engaged outside the classroom - and it's a game-changer for student success.

Four years ago, UNH's Paul College launched an innovative program called the First-year Innovation and Research Experience, widely known as FIRE. A transition course, it's a unique first-year academic experience that's exceeding expectations.

All first-year Paul College students participate in FIRE, which uses a game-like approach to bridge the divide between high school and college while helping students develop a range of skills needed for academic, professional and personal success during their college years and beyond. It was developed by Neil Niman, associate dean of academic programs of Paul College, who is an expert in game design and learning and author of the book The Gamification of Higher Education: Using Game Design to Avert the Growing Crisis Facing Universities Today.

The goal of FIRE is to create communities of engaged students who are driven to marry academic excellence with intellectual, personal and professional development, as well as inclusion and ethical conduct. And it's working: 90 percent of student participants surveyed in 2018 said the program helped them become more successful professionally, and 87 percent reported that it helped them academically. Paul College has also seen an increase in the number of first-year students with GPAs above a 3.0, up 8 percent between 2014 - the last class to enter prior to the creation of the FIRE program - and spring 2018. FIRE also has increased the first-to-second-year retention rates within the college by 2 percent.

"Coming to college is a huge transition, and the FIRE program made it a lot easier to come into the school, find a place where I belong, and get to know friends and different faculty members who've been able to help me out along the way," says UNH student Devin McMahon.

As part of the team-based experience, FIRE participants are divided into about 30 groups of 20 students each to work with alumni and peer mentors as their guides. The program encourages socialization by awarding points to teams when members take part in campus activities such as sports, lectures or cultural events or any of UNH's hundreds of student groups. At year's end, members of the winning team receive an academic achievement prize.

Participating students take part in a year-long course. The fall semester spotlights the academic transition to college, with a focus on building writing, research and presentation skills - key drivers of academic and professional success - while the spring semester keys in on the students' academic and professional careers. They learn about major and minor options in the college and at the university and are introduced to experiences such as study abroad, research opportunities, and internship programs. Alumni mentors actively engage to help students with resume writing, networking and developing their skill sets. Popular activities include a networking reception and career boot camp.

The centerpiece of FIRE is a series of academic grand challenges. Each team creates a business plan aimed at solving a complex problem, which have ranged from colonizing Mars to powering the Northeast, from prolonging life to surviving extreme weather.

"We chose big ideas that lend themselves to multiple approaches with foundations in science and technology, broad implications for society, political consequences and economic factors," says Niman.

"Students gain additional inspiration through the program by working with mentors to develop multidisciplinary solutions to those real-world problems."

To achieve victory within FIRE's game-like structure, team members must develop skills that promote academic and professional success. Accomplishments serve not only as a means for measuring how well they are doing relative to others, but also provide students a way to identify sources of strength and areas of weakness. The program is designed to celebrate achievement in order to build self-esteem, and it culminates with student presentations at UNH's acclaimed Undergraduate Research Conference.

"It helps students get involved right from the start," says Sean Stewart, FIRE's program coordinator. FIRE has an interdisciplinary component, Stewart adds, because "Paul College graduates need to be well-rounded, with a broader perspective, looking beyond their courses in business and economics to understand problems and positively affect change."

Students gain additional inspiration through the program by working with mentors to develop multidisciplinary solutions to those real-world problems, becoming more engaged members of the broader university community in the process. More than 50 alumni were actively committed to the program as mentors, competition judges and event participants in the program's most recent year, including Paul College alumni volunteers from the classes of 1971 through 2017, from such varied corporations and organizations as GE, Salesforce, Liberty Mutual, Direct Capital and Fidelity.

Rob Drouin, a UNH alumnus and information technology professional, describes the reasons he chose to be a FIRE mentor.

"Motivating students to see that what their professors and career professionals are telling them is very real and applicable is a worthwhile venture for both parties," he says. Drouin became an adviser for FIRE in part because UNH "was the springboard for me and my career, and I feel a sense of pride and accountability for the future of students that come from the university. Alumni who enjoyed their time at UNH are eager to give back."

UNH senior Ryan Anastasi, part of the first class of FIRE students, came away from his experience with very positive reflections. "FIRE rewards us for attending new events and joining student organizations, and that is a major benefit for us," Anastasi says, adding he also learned practical skills, such as creating a LinkedIn profile, "to build those connections that are vital in the professional world."

As a mentor, Drouin observed how FIRE meets needs a classroom setting alone often can not. "Academics is one piece of what makes a student successful," he says, while noting that FIRE's "programs are necessary to complement the academic aspect of a student's growth with a lesson in professionalism and career-oriented teachings."

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Catching FIRE: UNH Program Is a Game-Changer for Student Success (Paid Content by University of New Hampshire from The Chronicle of Higher Education)

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The transition from high school to college can be difficult for many students, some of whom feel such an overwhelming sense of social isolation that they drop out of college. The University of New Hampshire (UNH) Peter T.

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بتاع تنمية بشرية

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Écrans omniprésents, règne de la malbouffe, dictature de l'enfant-roi... Et s'il y avait tout de même du bon à prendre dans l'éducation à l'américaine ? Loin des clichés, la journaliste de l' AFP Véronique Dupont, qui a vécu quinze ans à New York et à Los Angeles, et y a élevé ses deux filles, répond par l'affirmative dans Super Kids !*. Valorisation de l'enfant, prise en compte de son cerveau encore " immature ", patience et bienveillance des parents, facilité à demander pardon, développement de la confiance en soi, rapport plus égalitaire entre prof et élève... C'est ce que cette mère de famille active a trouvé outre-Atlantique et qu'elle veut faire partager aujourd'hui, de retour en France, le pays du " Tiens-toi bien ! " et du " Silence dans les rangs ! ". Véronique Dupont s'étonne du ton employé par certains enseignants français qui n'ont pas peur d'élever la voix, elle déplore des pédagogies peu ludiques et pas encore assez participatives. " Les profs s'impliquent, reconnaît-elle, ils font ce qu'ils peuvent, mais ils ne peuvent pas faire autrement. On dirait qu'il y a un manque de formations pédagogiques, alors qu'elles existent. "
Le Point : Quelle est la différence la plus importante entre la France et les États-Unis en matière d'éducation ?
Véronique Dupont : De loin, c'est la patience et la bienveillance des Américains ! Il y a une certaine façon de fêter l'enfance là-bas, plus que chez nous : les gens vous parlent dans la rue quand vous avez une poussette, certains jouent même avec vos enfants (dans l'avion, par exemple), on dirait qu'ils sont contents de voir des bébés... En France, on a plutôt tendance à appréhender l'enfant comme une source de nuisances : dans la rue, les poussettes, ça prend de la place, dans un restaurant, ça fait du bruit... C'est une attitude différente, plus accueillante. Les Américains ont plus de patience pour tous les désagréments qu'un enfant crée dans la vie des adultes : ils sont plus tolérants au bruit, aux cris, même aux colères. L'enfance est sacralisée aux États-Unis, ils gardent eux-mêmes une part d'enfance, peut-être plus que nous.
Qu'est-ce qui vous a le plus surprise dans l'attitude des autres mères ou pères de famille ?
Les mamans américaines ne s'énervent jamais sur leurs enfants, c'est assez stupéfiant ! Ça ne se fait pas là-bas, en tout cas pas en public. Un pédiatre américain qui travaille à l'hôpital américain me l'a confirmé, les parents français peuvent être plus impatients, ils n'hésitent pas à dire : " Je suis fatigué, tu m'énerves. " Alors que les parents américains vont rester zen même face à la colère de leur petit amour. Toute crise de larmes n'est pas automatiquement cataloguée comme un caprice. On considère, à la lumière des neurosciences, que le cerveau de l'enfant est encore immature. Ils ont une attitude éducative moins punitive : ils expliquent, ils disputent moins.
À l'école, l'enfant n'est pas tout de suite considéré comme un élève qui doit obéir.
Oui, c'est différent, on tient beaucoup plus compte de l'affect de l'enfant. Pour leur donner confiance tout petit, on fait tout pour que les maternelles ressemblent à des maisons de substitution. Celles où étaient mes filles, à New York, avaient l'allure d'un loft douillet avec mini-canapés et tapis moelleux. Ça m'a frappée, au début, les maîtresses n'avaient pas des attitudes de maîtresses ; elles étaient très maternantes, elles avaient toujours un enfant dans les bras ou sur les genoux.

Elles se comportaient plutôt comme des amies ou de grandes sœurs. Elles étaient très douces, jamais elles n'élevaient la voix, mais, en même temps, leurs classes étaient calmes.
Lire aussi Les pleurs des bébés bientôt décodés grâce à un algorithme Quelles bonnes idées ou astuces peut-on piquer aux Américains ?
Les encouragements : les parents tout comme les profs encouragent énormément. Plutôt que de dire ce qui ne va pas, ils vont dire ce qui est bien, ils vont toujours trouver des choses positives, même pour un élève moyen. Alors que les Français sont souvent dans la critique et vont montrer d'abord ce qui ne va pas, eux vont valoriser la bonne attitude.

Ils vont aussi encourager l'expression à l'école et à la maison. Ils sont assez en avance sur la science des émotions : quand il y a une colère ou une tristesse, au lieu de dire que c'est un caprice, ils vont faire réfléchir l'enfant, ils vont l'aider à exprimer son état. Exemple : " Alors, là, tu es colère parce que ceci... " Et après, seulement, ils lui disent : " Je comprends que tu sois très en colère, mais il ne faut pas frapper, jeter par terre, etc. " Ils prennent toujours le temps de faire d'abord le point avec l'enfant sur ses émotions. À l'école, également, il y a une prise en compte des émotions : on voit des pancartes dans la classe expliquant ce qu'est la " voix rouge " (agressive), la " voix bleue " (calme)... afin d'apprendre à maîtriser son émotion et son expression. Il y a aussi des posters rappelant les " cool tools " (des outils pour apprendre à résoudre les conflits et à retrouver son calme) avec de petits logos ou des dessins : respirer, aller faire un tour, respecter sa " bulle " - son espace et celui de l'autre -, ne pas dire de " put-downs " (des mots méchants comme des insultes, rumeurs, menaces)...
Est-ce l'apanage des écoles privées ?
Non, c'est partout ! Les " cool tools " ont été établis il y a plusieurs dizaines d'années par une " lab-school " (l'Ucla, à Los Angeles), mais j'en ai vu aussi dans une école publique au fin fond de l'Arizona, près d'une réserve Navajo.
Lire aussi Aurélie Jean - Vous voulez changer le monde ? Allez donc à l'école ! L'école française pourrait-elle s'inspirer de certaines méthodes d'enseignement américaines ?
Ce qui me frappe au retour, c'est la pédagogie ; c'est tellement plus ludique aux États-Unis ! Et dans tous les domaines : en sciences, en littérature, en arts... Ils vont toujours vouloir intéresser l'enfant, le faire participer. Les cours sont beaucoup moins statiques, le prof n'est pas dans une position dominante de distributeur de savoirs. Beaucoup d'écoles appellent les profs des " guides cognitifs ", ils animent beaucoup et les savoirs viennent naturellement. Ils leur apprennent les concepts en les faisant réfléchir (parfois en groupes) et participer. En musique, il y a toujours des petits concerts, des petits concours, des prix symboliques (ex. : une gommette ou bien le prof leur donne la permission d'envoyer une boulette de papier dans sa poubelle). En anglais, les enfants consignent leur lecture dans un carnet et cela motive certains qui lisent juste pour le plaisir d'avoir une nouvelle entrée dans leur petit carnet. Dans un cours sur l'esclavage, par exemple, on leur parle de ce qui existe aujourd'hui et qui peut les concerner (ex. : l'esclavage moderne), avant d'entrer dans l'apprentissage historique.

L'interdisciplinarité est également omniprésente dans les écoles : on étudie un thème qu'on va retrouver dans toutes les matières durant l'année. Certaines écoles utilisent aussi l'art dans toutes les matières, même en maths (comme à Los Feliz Charter School for the Arts, à Los Angeles).
On a encore du mal en France avec le droit à l'erreur, l'échec est forcément stigmatisant, rarement valorisé. C'est différent aux États-Unis ?
Oui, l'erreur fait partie du processus d'apprentissage. Les profs ne vont pas dire " Ah non, c'est faux ! " Souvent, ils vont vouloir confronter les opinions des élèves. Dans une classe de CP-CE1, où je suis allée, le prof avait dessiné un triangle équilatéral. Il demande à ses élèves : " Est-ce que les trois côtés du triangle sont égaux ? Qui est d'accord, qui n'est pas d'accord ? " La moitié de la classe répond différemment. " Ah, je vois que nous ne sommes pas d'accord, super ! Expliquez-nous votre avis. " Le prof les fait s'expliquer, et petit à petit, ils apprennent à raisonner.
Quel est le revers de cette éducation ? Ne risque-t-on pas de créer des générations d'enfants-rois ?
C'est vraiment la terreur des parents français (rires) ! Aux États-Unis, ce n'est pas un problème, d'ailleurs, le terme n'existe pas. Je dirais qu'il n'y a pas plus d'enfants-rois là-bas que chez nous. Il peut y avoir des dérives : le fait de tout planifier ne laisse pas beaucoup de place à l'imprévu et à l'ennui, qui est presque un crime de lèse-majesté là-bas. Si on flatte trop les enfants dans le sens du poil, cela peut éventuellement donner de jeunes adultes qui n'en font qu'à leur tête. Et, il est vrai que laisser toujours la priorité au goût de l'enfant - une facilité pour les parents - peut donner des enfants qui mangent très mal (par exemple : ils ne mangent que de la pizza parce qu'on ne veut pas les forcer à manger des épinards). Quand en France, on aura tendance à leur dire de goûter à tout ou on les " forcera " à aller au musée... Mais, dans l'ensemble, le fait de leur donner confiance, de leur apprendre à s'exprimer, d'user d'une discipline douce, cela ne peut avoir que des bénéfices, et je le constate avec mes filles. Les encourager ne veut pas dire ne pas leur donner de limites, on peut le faire d'une façon non humiliante, constructive.
" Dis bonjour à la dame ! ", " Dis merci ! "... Les parents français ont du mal à céder sur certains principes qui paraissent secondaires pour les Américains.
Au final, quand ils sont adultes, les Américains le disent et ils ne sont pas plus mal polis que les autres. Ce qui me frappe maintenant, ici, à l'école, c'est de voir comment on force les enfants à garder le silence quand ils se mettent en rang ou montent l'escalier, alors que, naturellement, ils vont vouloir s'exprimer. C'est comme si l'on disait à des adultes en entreprise : " Ne faites pas de bruit dans les couloirs et ne parlez pas à vos collègues ! " On leur impose des choses qu'on n'imposerait pas à des adultes.

*" Super Kids ! ", de Véronique Dupont (Les Arènes). 19, 90 euros, 232 pages.

Trois trucs " à piquer " aux Américains :

-Le " mood board " : De plus en plus utilisé dans les écoles pour aider les enfants à prendre conscience de leurs émotions et à engager le dialogue avec les enseignants, le mood board est un tableau où l'enfant colle un post-it le représentant fatigué, triste, content, en colère... Cela donne une information à ses camarades et à son prof qui peut mieux comprendre son attitude et lui demander ce qui ne va pas.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/61783826116003017/

Il peut aussi être utilisé à la maison. Le mood board peut trouver sa place à côté d'un " tableau des tâches " ou d'une " charte des valeurs familiales ".

- " Plan B " : utilisé en " justice restaurative " pour éviter que les enfants ayant des problèmes de comportement soient stigmatisés et se retrouvent dans des cycles d'échec scolaire.

Il s'agit d'identifier avec l'enfant, les profs et les parents un " plan B ". Exemple : si un enfant n'arrive pas à rester assis plus de 5 minutes, on l'autorise à se lever s'il ne fait pas de bruit, à condition qu'il soit au dernier rang pour ne pas distraire les autres. Il s'agit de trouver une parade plutôt que de punir et d'exclure.

- Jeux de rôles :

Lors de petits conflits entre camarades, les profs - mais les parents peuvent faire de même - utilisent des jeux de rôle pour développer l'empathie. Chacun à son tour doit jouer le rôle de l'autre : la " victime ", " l'agresseur ", " le témoin "...

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Ce que les Américains peuvent nous apprendre en matière d'éducation

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Écrans omniprésents, règne de la malbouffe, dictature de l'enfant-roi... Et s'il y avait tout de même du bon à prendre dans l'éducation à l'américaine ? Loin des clichés, la journaliste de l' AFP Véronique Dupont, qui a vécu quinze ans à New York et à Los Angeles, et y a élevé ses deux filles, répond par l'affirmative dans Super Kids !*.

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Joseph A. Howley knew getting students to read his syllabus, even in a class that emphasized close reading, would be a struggle.

So in 2015, Mr. Howley, an assistant professor of classics at Columbia University, snuck in a line in the middle of the document asking students to email him a picture of the character Alf from the popular ′80s sitcom ALF - with the subject line, "It's Alf!"

And when he tweeted about the experiment, it went viral:

My "are they reading the syllabus?" easter egg has yielded quantitatively dismal results but is still paying off. pic.twitter.com/OCTyV2Rtct
- Joseph A. Howley (@hashtagoras) September 11, 2015

The trick was charming, Mr. Howley said, but it had a limited shelf life. If he did the same today, some students would be expecting it and it wouldn't be as effective. Still, Mr. Howley said, the gag did succeed in waking students in his freshman seminar to the idea of reading closely.

Other professors, eager to know how attentive their students are, have added similar hidden gems to their syllabi. And Easter eggs aside, some professors are taking the new academic year as an opportunity to rethink the syllabus - even doing away with syllabi altogether.

Alf may not return to Mr. Howley's class this year, but he said one of the most important lessons he's learned from syllabus development is perspective. When devising the syllabus, he writes with his expectations of who he wants his students to be.

"On the first day of school, for the most part, they are basically still high-school students," Mr. Howley said. "I would rather write a syllabus speaking to the college students I want them to be than the high-school students they are."

For Mr. Howley, the syllabus is not just the road map for the course, but the first point of contact between students and instructors.

He said he wants to better relate to his students, and the syllabus helps him do that. The freshmen who are still contemplating majors may find the diverse types of reading in the course will help them, while others may see the syllabus and realize the class is too much work for them, he said.

Last spring Adrienne Evans Fernandez, an adjunct professor of biology at Ivy Tech Community College, in Bloomington, Ind., started hiding a similar nugget in her syllabus. She asked students to send her an image of a dinosaur. Last week about 25 percent of students successfully responded to the request.

"I'll know if you've read your syllabus carefully."
"How will you know?"
"I'll know."
121: 0/12 dinos so far. pic.twitter.com/15BDxnvPcD
- #unlikeable (@AngerMonkey) August 24, 2016

The gambit has an inherent lightheartedness, but underlying it is a serious concern. Because many community-college students are nontraditional, Ms. Fernandez said, it's even more imperative for her students to understand what the course will entail and details on class policy.

"I want to make sure that from the first day they know what I'm going to be doing, what they are going to be doing," she said. "Most students get a really good idea pretty fast as to whether or not the level of work is going to be doable for them."

Ms. Fernandez said she wanted a way to know if students had read the syllabus early on without being too invasive or punitive, like giving a syllabus quiz. Having students send pictures of a dinosaur, she said, was the best way to strike a balance.

High Expectations

This year Damian Fleming, an associate professor of English and linguistics at Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne, asked his students in two different courses to send him a picture of a "cool medieval tattoo." Again, the request was buried in the syllabus.

In his lower-level general-education class, the response rate was a little less than half, he said, and in an upper-level Chaucer class a little over half of students responded.

"The syllabus is like the bad guy, and it has all these mean policies and it's really, really severe."

The response rates weren't ideal, but he said the classes have been engaged so far, and most students completed their first homework assignment this fall.

The tactic has actually been more useful elsewhere, he said. Students in his class complete a writing checklist for every paper, and wedged in that checklist is a request that students write "brown M&M" at the end of the papers - to ensure they had read the rubric thoroughly.

The response rate for that assignment was much higher, Mr. Fleming said, attributing the bump in participation to the nature of the graded writing assignment, and the fact that students had already gained a footing in the class.

Mr. Fleming isn't sold on the value of hidden messages in syllabi. To get more out of his syllabus, he's relied on something more traditional to academe: high expectations, including factors that may cause students to fail - like being on their phones during class, not handing in assignments, or excessive absence.

"The syllabus is like the bad guy, and it has all these mean policies, and it's really, really severe," Mr. Fleming said. "The syllabus is only really written for students who don't want to take my class, who don't want to do the work."

Keeping It 'Consent-Based'

For Lisl Walsh, an assistant professor of classics at Beloit College, hours spent laboring over her syllabi before she meets her students are a thing of the past. Now she has the class discuss and come up with what type of assessments they want in the course.

The idea was born out of frustrating teaching evaluations, and it's stuck, Ms. Walsh said. She's even presented the concept at a conference.

Ms. Walsh said she doesn't like to give students the answer when discussing literature, and when students struggled with a text, their evaluations said she didn't understand the text well enough to teach them.

Now she has students set up the syllabus for their class, and compromise with one another and with her about the types of assessments - test, quizzes, or presentations - they want in the course, she said.

Starting with the syllabus, Ms. Walsh is sending a clear message that her class is about student participation, and she's not giving answers. She is there to facilitate.

"I try to keep it consent-based," Ms. Walsh said. "So if I'm going to make a rule or have a deadline or something like that, I want everybody to be at a point to where people feel happy to say yes to a change that I'm going to make or something that is set up as part of the class."

Her class-generated syllabi also help her identify what students want the course's learning goals to be, Ms. Walsh said. Though she sets her own learning goals, the syllabi tell her what chapters students want to read or which subjects they want to study.

In practice, Ms. Walsh said, the student-crafted syllabus has worked, and she finds students are much more enthusiastic about completing coursework because they know they voted to have the assignment.

"The students are more willing to do the hard learning in order to make those arguments about contemporary issues or in order to make those types of arguments about ancient texts because they feel like they are signing onto this project consensually," she said.

Long after her students have voted on what types of learning assessments they want in the course, Ms. Walsh said the student-created syllabus helps fulfill her learning goals for the class. It pulls something more out of the students than just dates and names in Roman civilization by forcing students to think contextually.
Fernanda Zamudio-Suaréz is a web writer. Follow her on Twitter @FernandaZamudio, or email her at fzamudiosuarez@chronicle.com.

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Is Anybody Reading the Syllabus? To Find Out, Some Professors Bury Hidden Gems

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Joseph A. Howley knew getting students to read his syllabus, even in a class that emphasized close reading, would be a struggle. So in 2015, Mr. Howley, an assistant professor of classics at Columbia University, snuck in a line in the middle of the document asking students to email him a picture of the character Alf from the popular ′80s sitcom ALF - with the subject line, "It's Alf!"

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An Iowa man offers a life-changing gift--not one, but 33 times.

The generosity of a single carpenter who lived in Ames has altered the future for people he has never met.

Four years ago, Kira Conrad was stuck.

"I grew up in a single-parent household and I had three older sisters so paying for all four of us was never an option," she said.

So at her high school graduation party, she was preparing to break the news that college wasn't possible.

"Almost made me feel powerless, like, I want to do this, I have this goal but I can't get there just because of the financial part," she said.

But that's when her phone rang.

"I broke down into tears immediately."

The man on the other end dropped the name, Dale Schroeder.

"He was very quiet. Dale was shy," said Dale's friend Steve Nielsen.

This man Kira had never met grew up poor, never married and worked as a carpenter for 67 years at the same Des Moines business.

"He was that kind of a blue-collar, lunch pale kind of a guy. Went to work every day, worked really hard, was frugal like a lot of Iowans," Nielsen said.

And 10 years before Kira's dilemma, had walked into his lawyers office.

"He said I never got the opportunity to go to college and so I'd like to help kids go to college," Nielsen said.

Then came the jaw-dropper.

"Finally, I kinda was curious, I said how much are we talking about Dale? And he said, oh just shy of $3 million and I nearly fell out of my chair," Nielsen said.

When Dale died in 2005, the guy who owned two pair of jeans left behind a rusty chevy truck and instructions to send small-town Iowa kids to college.

"He wanted to help kids that were like him that probably wouldn't have an opportunity to go to college but for his gift," Nielsen said.

"For a man that would never meet me, to give me basically a full ride to College, that's incredible. That doesn't happen.," Kira said.

Dale Schroeder's obituary said he died having no descendants.

On Saturday, the 33 Iowans he put through college gathered around his old lunch box and dubbed themselves Dale's kids.

The man they never met changed the course of every life in the room.

These doctors, teachers and therapists started their careers with no college debt, but they found out there was a string attached.

"All we ask is that you pay it forward. You can't pay it back, because Dale's gone. But you can remember him and you can emulate him," Nielsen said.

Making sure the generosity of an Iowa carpenter reaches patients, students and strangers all over.

After paying the full, $80,000 college tab for Kira and 32 other Iowans, Dale's account finally just ran out of money.

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iowa man pays for 33 people to attend college

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Iowa man pays for 33 people to attend college

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An Iowa man offers a life-changing gift--not one, but 33 times. The generosity of a single carpenter who lived in Ames has altered the future for people he has never met. Four years ago, Kira Conrad was stuck.

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LES BLOGS

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Stanislas a participé à l'âge de 20 ans à une mission humanitaire d'un mois au Cambodge. Il suscite l'admiration de ses amis qui "regrettent d'être partis se dorer la pilule à Bali"...

Une jeune Parisienne construisant un dispensaire dans une région désertique de l'Inde, un Danois à peine sorti du lycée forant un puits au fin fond du Ghana, un groupe d'Italiens tout sourires, posant pour l'objectif dans une rizière du Mékong... qui n'a pas été un jour confronté à l'idée de voyager en offrant ses services et son aide à l'autre bout du monde?

Des agences font exactement cela. Soucieuses d'offrir une alternative au tourisme de masse, auquel elles reprochent d'importants dégâts éthiques et écologiques, elles développent et promeuvent une conception plus symétrique du voyage, fondée sur la rencontre et l'entraide entre touristes et indigènes, la découverte et la compréhension d'autrui, de façon à ce que ce voyage profite autant aux premiers qu'aux seconds, avec l'idée de "voyager autrement".

Ce tourisme dit "solidaire", "durable" ou "responsable", est parfois décliné en tourisme dit "humanitaire". Une "tendance" qui attire de nombreuses critiques.

Impulsé, dans les années 1990, par des agences britanniques et états-uniennes spécialisées, ce dernier a un succès grandissant auprès des jeunes Européens, et notamment des Français depuis plus d'une dizaine d'années, qui partent en "missions" pendant leurs vacances scolaires et universitaires, ou lors d'une année de césure.

10.000 volontaires par an

L'une des principales agences internationales de tourisme humanitaire implantées en France fait partir près de 10.000 volontaires par an, majoritairement anglais·e·s, états-unien-ne-s, et français·e·s.

Malgré le coût très onéreux des séjours (au moins 2000 € pour deux ou trois semaines hors billets d'avion), les déceptions qu'il engendre souvent chez les participant·e·s, et le rapprochement que font les ONG et les médias de leur fonctionnement avec le "charity business", ni le succès, ni l'activité de ces entreprises à but lucratif ne tarissent.

Les enquêtes ethnographiques insistent sur le désenchantement et les désillusions présents sur les terrains des tourismes solidaire et humanitaire.

Dans le cas du tourisme humanitaire, il est d'ailleurs rare que les participant·e·s repartent en mission, ayant mesuré toutes les limites de leur action sur place, et ayant souvent éprouvé du malaise face aux populations locales qu'ils n'estiment pas avoir aidées, ou dont les besoins n'ont pour eux pas été ciblés par les agences.

Pourtant, les participant·e·s sont très peu à faire remonter leurs critiques au retour des missions, que ce soit au sein de leurs entourages proches, à destination des agences de voyages, ou des médias sociaux.

Si le faible taux de renouvellement de l'expérience peut être en partie interprété comme une critique "silencieuse" de ces dispositifs, l'absence de contestation publique se comprend aussi et surtout à l'aune des rétributions, matérielles, sociales et symboliques, qu'ont malgré leur déception les participant·e·s au tourisme humanitaire.

Ainsi, Julie, 18 ans lors de son séjour humanitaire de deux mois au Ghana, dresse un bilan mitigé de son expérience de "volontariat" lors d'un entretien en octobre 2013. Elle regrette de ne pas avoir été plus "utile" dans un orphelinat "surpeuplé de volontaires du monde entier sans grand-chose à faire".

Une compétence mobilisable sur le marché éducatif et professionnel

Julie dit toutefois être "contente de l'avoir fait", car "ça a pesé sur [sa] candidature à l'université":

On a fait un entretien par Skype avec la directrice du département de la business school, et ça l'a beaucoup intéressée. C'est clair qu'aux States, ça compte, d'avoir fait de l'humanitaire, faut pas juste avoir un bon dossier, tu vois. Ça montre que... t'es ouvert d'esprit, t'as voyagé, ça apporte un plus que les autres n'ont pas toujours, ça montre que tu n'es pas que scolaire, que tu ne fais pas qu'étudier dans les bouquins mais que tu agis, que tu veux agir dans le monde.

Julie est issue d'une famille cosmopolite des classes supérieures françaises, soucieuses de développer les compétences internationales de leurs enfants dans l'espoir qu'ils se placent sur un marché éducatif et professionnel de plus en plus mondialisé.

Candidate à des études de commerce dans une prestigieuse université américaine, la mission humanitaire qu'elle a effectuée objective l'acquisition de compétences extra-scolaires particulièrement recherchées par l'établissement. Comme beaucoup d'autres jeunes participant·e·s aux séjours humanitaires dont les profils socio-économiques sont proches du sien, Julie a privilégié la mission humanitaire pour développer et montrer ses aptitudes à travailler en groupe, à se confronter à une culture différente de la sienne, ainsi que son intérêt pour les problèmes internationaux et son empathie envers les plus démunis.

Le choix d'un pays africain anglophone garantit en outre ses compétences linguistiques, essentielles à la poursuite des études qu'elle vise. Cette ligne humanitaire sur son CV s'inscrit donc dans la conquête plus large des preuves de ses qualités et de ses "valeurs", venant s'ajouter aux acquis strictement scolaires qui ne suffisent pas à la distinguer au sein de la voie compétitive dans laquelle elle s'engage.

Devenir "quelqu'un de bien"

Pour les participant·e·s aux missions humanitaires, l'humanitaire confère de façon plus symbolique un ensemble de "valeurs" qui s'inscrivent elles-mêmes parfois dans la continuité des pratiques philanthropiques et caritatives de leurs familles.

Il contribue à la construction identitaire d'une jeunesse favorisée consciente de ses privilèges, mais soucieuse d'en faire bénéficier ceux qui en ont moins. En cela, le séjour humanitaire peut être analysé à l'aune du "nouvel esprit du capitalisme".

Dans et en-dehors de leur entre-soi, par les récits héroïques et enthousiastes de leurs missions, et par la diffusion de photographies les mettant en scène "au milieu des pauvres", les participant·e·s se présentent comme des jeunes adultes généreux et responsables, mus par des valeurs humanistes qui les prémunissent des potentielles critiques sur leurs pratiques et leurs modes de vie bourgeois.

Je suis un petit bourge, c'est vrai, je vis qu'avec des bourges, dans un quartier parisien de bourge. Alors j'assume, c'est vrai, et en même temps quand je vais à des soirées et qu'y a des gens un peu différents... et que j'entends, ici, et là, les critiques qu'on fait, du genre... ouais, les riches, les gosses de riches, tout ça, les sales gosses de riches... bon bah forcément ça me fait pas plaisir car moi, je suis différent. J'ai pas été en mission humanitaire pour rien. Alors c'est sûr, c'était pas du vrai humanitaire, mais ça m'a apporté plein de choses. Je suis ouvert. Je sais ce que c'est d'être pauvre, je pense, un peu plus que certains. Au moins, mon fric, bah je le claque pas... je sais pas, dans les costumes de rallye, dans... les montres, enfin, pas pour moi, j'en fais profiter les autres. Faire de l'humanitaire, ça a du sens pour moi, j'ai une morale tu vois, j'ai pas été éduqué comme certains petits cons.

Stanislas, rencontré à Paris en 2013, a participé à l'âge de 20 ans à une mission humanitaire d'un mois au Cambodge. Il suscite l'admiration de ses amis qui, selon lui, "regrettent d'être partis à Bali se dorer la pilule".

Souvent critiqué par son entourage pour son arrogance, il affirme que la mission humanitaire lui a "ouvert les yeux", et lui permet désormais de se présenter aux autres sous un autre jour.

Le choix de partir en séjour humanitaire a d'ailleurs été impulsé par sa mère, qui y voyait pour son fils un moyen de le "recadrer autour des valeurs de solidarité et d'entraide" qu'elle lui a toujours inculquées. Ce fut également selon elle l'occasion pour son fils d'être plus autonome et de se rendre compte "qu'il n'y a pas que l'argent dans la vie". Stanislas voyage depuis son plus jeune âge partout dans le monde avec ses parents dans des hôtels relativement luxueux, et il s'agissait de son premier séjour seul. Pour sa mère, ce séjour l'a aidé "à grandir dans la bonne voie" à laquelle ouvre pour elle l'humanitaire.

La rencontre avec autrui à plusieurs milliers d'euros

L'autonomisation et la rencontre avec autrui, la prise de conscience et le partage de ses privilèges, ainsi que la mobilisation dans le champ éducatif et professionnel des compétences et des qualités associées à la mission humanitaire, sont proprement liés au caractère humanitaire du séjour, plus qu'au dispositif via lequel il s'effectue.

Pourquoi donc partir sur le terrain via des agences de voyage à but lucratif, relativement chères, lorsqu'il est possible, pour les jeunes Français, de faire un chantier humanitaire dans le cadre d' un service civique ou via d'autres réseaux associatifs liés aux structures locales?

Plusieurs éléments de réponse émanent de l'enquête auprès des jeunes, et surtout, de leurs parents. Les entreprises de séjours humanitaires proposent d'une part un cadre rassurant et structurant pour des parents qui n'hésitent pas à y envoyer leurs enfants de plus en plus jeunes.

Certaines ont en effet créé des programmes réservés aux 16-19 ans, fonctionnant sur le modèle des colonies de vacances où les participant·e·s sont encadré·e·s par une équipe sur place et passent leur séjour en groupe. Il est ainsi possible, en étant mineur-e et non qualifié-e, de "faire de l'humanitaire", quand les grandes ONG françaises et internationales recrutent essentiellement des adultes aux compétences ciblées.

Séjour bouleversant... mais sécurisé

La mission humanitaire que propose les agences est d'autre part à la carte: les participant·e·s peuvent choisir la durée de leur mission, souvent courte (en moyenne deux semaines), afin qu'elle puisse s'accommoder avec le calendrier scolaire ou universitaire; les choix de la destination et du type de projet sont très larges, puisque la mission humanitaire peut s'effectuer dans un hôpital, un orphelinat, une école, un cabinet de vétérinaire, un centre de réhabilitation des personnes handicapées, ou encore une agence de presse, une association de nettoyage des plages ou de lutte pour les droits des femmes, sur tous les continents, avec la possibilité de combiner plusieurs destinations et projets.

De surcroît, les participant·e·s majeur·e·s bénéficient aussi d'équipes d'encadrement sur place, qui les prennent en charge dès leur arrivée, et sont disponibles à tout moment en cas de problème. Pour les parents les plus réticents à envoyer leurs enfants, il s'agit d'un argument de poids utilisé par les agences qui leur garantissent un séjour humanitaire certes dépaysant et potentiellement bouleversant, mais sans risques. Le risque est d'ailleurs limité par l'éventail des destinations relativement "sûres" proposées, c'est-à-dire stables politiquement au moment du séjour, qui ne sont pas les lieux des interventions d'urgence des ONG.

Enfin, consciente de l'usage scolaire et professionnel que font les participant·e·s aux séjours humanitaires, les entreprises proposent de délivrer dans le cadre de leurs formules des diplômes maisons ou des certificats de compétences, permettant ainsi d'objectiver ce qui a été fait et appris.

Le séjour apporte "plein de choses"

Pour des familles majoritairement aisées, pour lesquelles l'investissement dans une mission humanitaire payante ne constitue pas un effort financier, le coût des séjours est ainsi un investissement rentable. Le séjour apporte "plein de choses" sur le plan humain, social, culturel, symbolique, éducatif, professionnel et identitaire, qui compensent largement les déceptions face aux répercussions locales espérées de l'action.

Ce constat ne doit pas pour autant conduire à juger les participant·e·s aux missions humanitaires payantes sur une pratique qui peut trop vite apparaître cynique. Il faut en effet prendre au sérieux la première motivation de ces jeunes et de leurs familles qui affirment vouloir, en amont du séjour, "(faire) partir pour être utiles" aux populations locales. Au retour de missions, les désillusions éprouvées et les critiques formulées sur le terrain sont aussi moins vives car l'expérience donne lieu aux doutes.

Les participant·e·s expriment leurs difficultés à se positionner quant aux bien-fondés des missions humanitaires, qu'elles soient impulsées par des agences de voyages, des projets gouvernementaux, ou des structures associatives type ONG.

Nombreux sont ces jeunes à être traversé·e·s par la double culpabilité du mal agir et de l'inaction. On comprend alors mieux que le cumul des rétributions personnelles du séjour humanitaire et du doute atténue la critique pourtant vive et négative qui accompagne les déceptions face au sentiment d'arnaque et d'inutilité sur le terrain. "Est-ce que finalement, le vrai humanitaire, celui des pros, a priori sans business, est vraiment différent, et vraiment mieux fait?" se demande Pierre, 22 ans, deux mois après être revenu du Ghana. Son interrogation est légitime face aux difficultés qui traversent plus largement l'action humanitaire et aux litiges qui y ont souvent cours.
Les prénoms des personnes rencontrées ont été modifiés. Cette tribune a été initialement publiée sur le site The Conversation.

A voir également sur Le HuffPost:

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BLOG - Pourquoi le tourisme humanitaire profite plus aux riches qu'aux pauvres

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LES BLOGS | Stanislas a participé à l'âge de 20 ans à une mission humanitaire d'un mois au Cambodge. Il suscite l'admiration de ses amis qui "regrettent d'être partis se dorer la pilule à Bali"...

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Back to the Future II: Prioritizing “Becoming” Over “Being” | vocation matters

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A number of years ago, I attended an advising presentation aimed at a group of students undecided with regard to their major. The presenter told the students a version of the following: You cannot change who you are because you are wired in certain ways, and discovering the ways you're wired can help you choose the right major and set you on a successful career path. From there, the presenter made the students aware of the resources available to them at the institution, including career counselors and various personality and skill surveys. The presentation was well-intentioned, and some parts were even inspiring. Students who felt confused and anxious about their academic choices were encouraged by being told they had distinct skills and gifts that could provide direction, and that trained professionals were ready to help them in the discovery and planning processes.

Of course, we all want to encourage and guide students as they navigate vocational choices and opportunities. That is, after all, why NetVUE exists. But NetVUE challenges formulaic approaches and offers nuanced imagination for vocation as a journey more than a destination, as something formed rather than found, developed rather than discovered, discerned with mentors more than detected with surveys. These are important challenges and correctives.

Nevertheless, even in more nuanced presentations, there are times when one can detect some residual assumptions of the formulaic/discovery approaches. In other words, some of the language we use to describe and promote the organic processes of vocational discernment still draws on philosophical assumptions that inform and enframe formulaic approaches. That is not necessarily bad since assumptions and language can be employed in different ways. But I find it helpful to bring the issues to the surface and engage them directly. This post is my attempt to do that by briefly contrasting the philosophical outlooks of Plato and Aristotle and their implications for vocational discourse.

Caricatures are inevitable in a short exercise like this. Nevertheless, one can compare the diverse thought of these two monumental philosophers by considering Plato's essentialist tendencies and Aristotle's teleological framework. Specifically, Plato imagined the good life as participation in the world of forms in which one seeks the perfect, atemporal essence of Being, while Aristotle imagined it more in terms of being drawn toward a final telos or end through a process of Becoming. Stated more simply (and in modern parlance), Plato invites people to discover their true selves, their unchangeable essence, while Aristotle encourages the development of their potential through character formation.

I believe that Plato's Being and Aristotle's Becoming can, in fact, be held in complementary tension with one another as representing different aspects of the human and cosmic experience. Nevertheless, at the time, Aristotle's teleological orientation represented a corrective challenge to what he saw as the static and deterministic essentialism of his teacher's philosophy.

How does this relate to our current vocational discussion? I don't think it is too much of a leap to draw an analogy between Aristotle's corrective to Plato's essentialism and the way NetVUE's organic, formational understandings of vocation offers corrective to essentialist notions presented in static and formulaic terms.

One way to explore this is through the related themes of "being" and "doing." In vocational discourse, it is sometimes stated that people should be understood as Human Beings rather than Human Doings. The point here seems to be that all persons are inherently and objectively valuable. This is an important point especially in our consumerist age in which value is often measured by subjective assessments or what is produced on the treadmill of action. The Being/Doing contrast challenges this and allows people to approach the topic of vocation from a place of inherent, apriori value and giftedness. A Platonic orientation is an ally to these dimensions of vocational discernment.

The Being/Doing contrast, however, is also challenged by the broader Being/Becoming contrast. After all, the notion of vocation as something formed rather than found involves an assertive movement toward something not yet attained, complete, or even existent. The vocational journey is open, fluid, and guided by choices and specific habits that direct one toward specific goals and virtuous character-potentials. Here an Aristotelian orientation is helpful. Aristotle's notion of virtue prioritizes who you are becoming over who you currently are. This also invites a re-evaluation of "doing" at least in the sense that habits, practices, interactions, risks, and changes guide and affect future outcomes. As I explored in part one of this post, this reflects the prolepsis of vocational discernment: It is a way of living in the present that is shaped by and oriented toward a potential future, a goal, a telos.

In short, I think that Platonic and Aristotelian paradigms can both find a home in the language of vocational discernment. There is a sense in which Plato calls us to embrace and rest in our Being, to receive it as gift, as something given and valuable without any "doing" requirements. There is also a sense in which Aristotle calls us to embrace our Becoming, that we are always potentially more than we currently are, and that present "doings" of habit and practice can guide us toward teleological potential.

Of the two, however, it is Aristotle's teleological orientation that is most immediately compatible with current vocational discourse. Put in metaphorical terms, if we can imagine Plato and Aristotle as dance partners, the dance of vocational discernment flows better when Aristotle is the lead partner, when one's Being is framed more by teleological movement than by static essentialism. Put differently, and equally imaginative, if they had been given the opportunity, I think Aristotle's Lyceum would quickly become a NetVUE institutional member, while the faculty at Plato's Academy might need a bit more convincing!

The moral of the story: Vocational discourse is better served when notions of Becoming guide and frame notions of Being.
John D. Barton is Director of the Center for Faith and Learning at Pepperdine University where he also serves on the faculties of Seaver College's Religion and Philosophy Division and the GSEP's graduate program in Social Entrepreneurship and Change. His areas of interest and research include African philosophy, ethics and philanthropy, and inter-religious dialogue.

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Back to the Future II: Prioritizing "Becoming" Over "Being"

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A number of years ago, I attended an advising presentation aimed at a group of students undecided with regard to their major. The presenter told the students a version of the following: You cannot change who you are because you are wired in certain ways, and discovering the ways you're wired can help you choose the...

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Stories for the Undecided | vocation matters

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Some lucky students enter college knowing exactly what they want to do and go on to pursue a career that feels like a calling. But many enter with several possibilities or only vague notions. To encourage students to examine their choices, my college lists all entering students as "Undecided." However, for understandable reasons, being undecided is profoundly stressful for many students, especially if their initial choices have led to failure and they are still trying to decide on a major late in their sophomore year and even more so, if they are approaching graduation with no clear career direction. Higher education is expensive and to many Americans occupation "counts" so students want to make the right choice.

Ironically, the focus on vocation at some colleges can contribute to this anxiety. Frederick Buechner's oft quoted definition of calling as "the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet," and tag lines like my own college's "Make your life count" have often led students to feel they should become activists, particularly because of our college's social justice emphasis. As advisors and mentors, what can we do?

Of course, we need to help students identify their gifts and I think it is important to give students a place where they can voice their anxieties. But advisors can also provide reassurance born of their experiences and wider perspectives. Studies have documented that over their lifetimes, people change jobs and even careers many times. In today's ever evolving employment landscape, developing transferable skills like communication skills, strategic thinking, and the ability to both take initiative and work as part of a team are more important than one's major. For some students, such facts may be enough, but being an English professor, not surprisingly, I like stories. Stories can reassure students that plenty of now successful people have stood in their shoes. But stories can also inspire them and help them see vocation as a journey and creation rather than a single choice or discovery.

As our Career Centers remind us, most people fall into their careers and I would add vocations. A recipient of our Decade award several years ago was a Communications Studies major who was living at home after her first job out of college-teaching at a charter school-disappeared. Captivated by a concert given by young South African musicians at her church, she eventually traveled to Cape Town and was asked to start an after-school program for the public schools to help with student retention. The program was tremendously successful and she eventually founded Africa Jam, a nonprofit dedicated to youth and community empowerment in Cape Town. A political science major tried Teach for America and discovered a passion for teaching and helping the underprivileged. Tapped to start a Teaching for America program in Minneapolis, he eventually became the Executive Director for a non-profit that focuses on educational policy and advocacy.

But what if you don't find a calling like those? This is why I like telling my sister's story. My sister graduated with a psychology degree but no idea of what she wanted to do with her life. Looking for secretarial jobs that would allow her to stay in the San Francisco Bay Area, she got a call from Clorox asking her if she would be interested in becoming a buyer trainee. She left Clorox after a few years realizing she would be happier working for a smaller company. She tried out working for a real estate agent, but eventually found a job as a secretary for the Marketing Department for the small business arm of the largest emergency physician partnership in California. Noticing they had no internal newsletter, she volunteered to produce one; then she proposed running a spouses' program at their annual meeting; then she proposed giving a workshop to improve the doctors' patient relating skills. When the quality control position came open, the doctors campaigned for her although that position had up to that point always gone to a nurse. My sister continued to be tapped for new positions as the partnership expanded. Eventually, she was lured away to be the COO of a small partnership of emergency room physicians in Hawaii by a doctor she met on a cruise. My sister's story underlines that one's career is an evolving journey. She succeeded because she was a strategic and critical thinker and good communicator, hardworking, responsible, and easy to work with. Her career shows the importance of taking the initiative but also shows how doors open unexpectedly. She liked working in the health provider sector, and in her last job, she was especially proud of safeguarding the jobs and work conditions of the office staff and making sure their value was recognized by the physicians who ran the partnership. One does not need to start a non-profit or be an activist to make the world a better place.

But living a calling may be less a matter of what you do than how you do it. One of my favorite vocational stories told by a friend was of a man who worked for a moving company who saw his job not as moving possessions, but as helping people through what he knew was often a difficult, sometimes even traumatic, event. He paid attention to their emotional needs by being thoughtful and kind, a calming and reassuring presence as well as a careful worker. As Erin Van Laningham reminded us in her wonderful post, George Eliot ended her great novel Middlemarch by reminding us how much better life is because of such "hidden" lives.

In fact, I like reminding our students that there are many ways of living a life of service. One of the advantages of teaching at a Lutheran college is I can point to Luther's assertion that vocation is not limited to our job. At a time when people generally followed their parents' career path and vocation was more narrowly applied to religious callings, Luther argued that people have multiple callings as worker, child, spouse, parent, neighbor, citizen. So I'd like to end by returning to Middlemarch. In the Preface we see Dorothea fired by a child's idealism aspiring to be a Teresa of Avila, but that idealism leads her into a disastrous first marriage, which she is saved from only by her husband's fortuitous death. The novel ends with her remarriage, settling into a quiet domestic life, and with that wonderful final line about how much we owe to such hidden lives. Indeed, Dorothea's generous spirit has already changed several lives, including that of the man she marries. It is Will Ladislaw's love for Dorothea and the example of her care for her neighbors that have transformed him from an artistic dilettante with no real purpose in life into a man who now wants to help improve the lives of his community as a local politician.

This is not to say that we shouldn't try to inspire our students to tackle the world's pressing problems. We should-the world needs them. But I think it is also important to support our students' exploration of who they are and how they can best develop their gifts. We all are not cut out to be direct activists, but we all can find ways to make the world a better place. I know my stories have comforted my Undecideds, but I hope they have also inspired them to explore the many possibilities to serve others wherever they go in the world.

Florence Amamoto retired last spring from Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota where she was an Associate Professor in English and held the Sponberg Chair in Ethics. She was also affiliated with the Japanese Studies, the Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies, and the Three Crowns programs, with a long-time involvement with diversity, church-related higher education, and vocation initiatives. Her essay, "Response-ability in Practice: Discerning Vocation through Campus Relationships," is included in the latest collection of essays published by David Cunningham, Hearing Vocation Differently: Meaning, Purpose, and Identity in the Multi-Faith Academy (Oxford, 2019).

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Some lucky students enter college knowing exactly what they want to do and go on to pursue a career that feels like a calling. But many enter with several possibilities or only vague notions. To encourage students to examine their choices, my college lists all entering students as "Undecided."

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We Must Help First-Generation Students Master Academe's 'Hidden Curriculum'

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When the word "innovation" gets used on my campus, I often notice panic spreading across my colleagues' faces. The thought of chalkboards being dismantled and replaced with complicated, high-tech smartboards and screens can terrify some of them. I admit that the thought of a flipped classroom turns me a bit upside down.

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Adam Niklewicz for The Chronicle Review

Dear Students,

In this college course, you were assigned to write an essay explaining which is better, cats or dogs. And what every one of you submitted turned out to be a basic five-paragraph essay, the kind your high-school teachers told you to write for college-entrance exams.

Your essays seemed written for schoolteachers whose daily lives are filled with managing 150 postpubescent adolescents - amid the ever-present necessity of avoiding any kind of off-the-beaten-path instruction that might give a high-school administrator or a fearful parent a reason to invade their classroom. Those teachers were often bravely doing what they could to prepare you for college-level writing. But the fact is: They have neither First Amendment rights while on the job nor the rights of academic freedom that liberate college teachers from administrative and legislative domination.

As I've mentioned in class, I do have those liberties (for now, anyway), which means I can let you write about any topic you want, in any way that you want to write about it. Yet even knowing that, you chose to write an essay that you could crank out, clean up, submit for a grade, and then forget.

Your essays weren't "bad." Your writing, as a group, tends to be fairly clear and the paragraphs mostly focused. But it's not the kind of essay writing that honors the legacy of Michel de Montaigne (the Frenchman who invented the concept of essays) nor the kind of essay writing that would capture and hold the attention of college-literate readers.

Rather, the style you chose would get you through the socially constructed coronary blockage of an overcrowded high-school classroom. Or, it would get you past the requirements of a high-stakes barrier examination read by folks enchanted into believing that a concoction brewed of Alexander Bain's 1860s paragraph prescription, Victor Pudlowski's 1950s five-paragraph form, and Barrett Wendell's 1880s-era daily writing theme is the love potion to produce Jerome Bruner's pedagogical scaffolding.

So, yes, you wrote a fairly clean five-paragraph essay. Well done.

But this is a college-level writing course. Your college-level readers are looking for you, dear students, to engage thoughtfully with ideas and to produce insightfully delightful essays. As composition instructors, we value publication as a kind of ideal of accomplishment and would love to see our students' writing published in local newspapers or on websites. But that would involve more than writing five clean paragraphs.

In an article well-known in composition circles - "The Novice as Expert: Writing the Freshman Year" - Nancy Sommers and Laura Saltz argue that "students who see writing as something more than an assignment, who write about something that matters to them, are best able to sustain an interest in academic writing throughout their undergraduate careers."

Your college-level readers are looking for you, dear students, to engage thoughtfully with ideas and to produce insightfully delightful essays.

Sommers and Saltz argue that if you are going to learn how to do the kinds of rhetorical backflips necessary for college-level writing, you first need to see yourself as a neophyte writer and then come to understand writing as a tool for locating yourself within academe: "When faculty construct writing assignments that allow students to bring their interests into a course, they say to their students, 'This is the disciplinary field, and you are part of it. What does it look like from your point on the map?' And freshmen respond by writing their way into a small corner of academia, gradually learning to see themselves not as the one mistake of the admissions committee but as legitimate members of a college community."

All of which is why, in my classroom, I make clear that my writing prompts are just suggestions: You may use the prompt I assign, or you can create your own (though I have to approve it through negotiation). I believe you should write all about whatever interests you if you are to learn to write and learn how you fit in higher education.

Accordingly, dear students, rather than writing about which is better, cats or dogs, you might have written about your mom and dad, yourself and your sister, your first friends as they were when you met and as they are now, the devil and God, Christ and the Buddha, cats as representative of Confucius and dogs as representative of Krishna, fascism and democracy, or the character of the Old Testament God walking alone in the desert and the villain within each of us as presented in the Mahabharata - among countless other topics.

In short, you could have picked an idea and aimed for insight. But you didn't. Perhaps at this point, those overworked and under-protected teachers whose prescriptions you mastered in high school would tell you something like, "The introduction of your essay is different in voice than the rest of the essay and lacks a catchy or believable snag upon which you might hang your readers' attention." Those teachers might tell you to fix that problem and then clean up some of the comma errors. And you would be done with it. And there would be some learning in all of that.

As a college-level reader, I noticed that one of you used this word: "exaggeratedly." I enjoyed that word. You could learn to play with words like that, to play with language. And you could learn to incorporate such words into your daily language.

Learn also for the sake of ethnolinguistic inclusion. You know you have a right to your own language, yes? You could expand on your language (or languages) exaggeratedly and come to see litotes in the universe and hyperbole in a grain of sand. You could play with simple linguistic ideas, extending them, even shaping them whimsically from time to time, making a music of your sentence patterns. Fragments, too, like Langston Hughes.

You could try building an idea too challenging for words and impossible to explain. You could break away from elementary- and secondary-school language patterns and attempt to embed essays within essays and ideas within ideas and words within words.

You see, I will not force you to follow prescriptive guidelines. I'm your college teacher, not your boss or parent. I will not force you to be creative. If you write, revise, and complete your assignments, you will not be harmed in terms of grades because nobody can force me to place you in a hierarchy of accomplishment. You will get the A for completing the process of drafting and revising.

But your growth as a writer is not a grade. I would rather have you write exaggeratedly than stay safely confined in a box of false rules.

Because you submitted what you did, it's safe to say you've obviously mastered the stuff people forced you to learn in high school, like not starting a sentence with "because." Sure, some of those rules will come in handy for certain college assignments, such as the ubiquitous "objective summary" assignment that requires writers to paint with dry tones.

There the value ends because, after objective summaries, you get to craft things like narrative-descriptive-argumentative research-based assignments that might invite your readers to see ideas in kaleidoscopic patterns. You get to unleash all that untapped creative energy (that's apparently had the dickens scared out of it) through the craft of writing, and that is, at its best, a wonderfully witching thing to do.

If you so choose, the assignments in my composition course will allow you to explore the wealth of wonders floating in your head. You might answer essay questions like: What's a good teacher? What is the role of feminism in a society based on inequality? What is fascism? Is American authoritarianism fascist? Do equality and democracy include killing people? How would Odysseus treat refugees? Why is it that race does not exist, but racism does?

I believe you should write all about whatever interests you if you are to learn to write and learn how you fit in higher education.

There is nothing easy about answering such questions, and, eventually, you will indeed also use the dry language of summary writing in order to enhance the content of your persuasive writing. So not all you learned in that wasteland of testing was a handful of dust. But in the end, the simple fact is that your choice to engage in the process of persuasive crafting will require you to escape the enchantment (and safety) of that rigid five-paragraph essay. Your choice to do so is where college-level writing starts.

Of course you will find some rule barons in college classrooms, too. Unfortunately, there are those who never escaped the myths or the need for power that prescriptive teaching and evaluative testing facilitate. But you can learn to spot (and avoid) those who would restrict you.

I asked you to tell me which is better, cats or dogs, and the point I am making here is that there is nothing easy about creating an essay on the topic of cats and dogs, though it sounds simple enough. In fact, the process can take 10 or 15 hours just to get a draft. But you can choose to make that draft your draft. It's on you to figure out how to shape any topic into a meaningful discussion.

Maybe you didn't know that before. But now you do.
Galen Leonhardy teaches English and humanities at Black Hawk College in Illinois.

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On the Differences Between Cats and Dogs

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Dear Students, In this college course, you were assigned to write an essay explaining which is better, cats or dogs.

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By now, you probably know that I detest travel snobbery with every fibre of my being. However, I wanted to discuss something else that raises my ire: the persistent belief in the travel community that absolutely EVERYONE can travel-- and if they can't, it's because they're not trying hard enough or don't want it badly enough. Blech.

Now, I know what you're thinking: "what the heck is she going on about? Doesn't she run a travel blog?" And 'tis true: as a travel writer and junkie, I am a huge advocate for exploring this big, beautiful earth, and sell the whole "living the travel dream" thing both on my blog and social media channels. I mean, I WANT and ENCOURAGE everyone to travel, but realize that there are many situations that preclude people from doing so. This is why the pervasive attitude in some circles that we're all on equal playing fields in terms of travel access and opportunities annoys me greatly.

Let's keep it all the way real: there are circumstances, many of a systemic socio-economic or political nature, that keep some people at home while others hopscotch the globe. Travel is not cheap or easy for everyone, though a lot of mainstream travel media, particularly travel blogs, will tell you that all you need to do to be able to travel is change your "mindset".

However, I find these sorts of posts ridiculously obtuse, off-base, and dripping with privilege. The truth is, those of us who travel extensively are blessed by life circumstances, not just a can-do attitude or "positive mindset". So when some of us proclaim how easy it is to traverse the world (and then go on to admonish those who don't do the same because they "aren't trying hard enough"), we neglect to realize that our wandering is more due to luck than hard work and desire.

For even if you weren't born in the proverbial spoon in your mouth, you might be lucky enough to hold a passport from a powerful "first-world" country that allows you to travel foot loose and visa free to the vast majority of the world's treasures (my Canadian passport gives me visa free entry into 174 countries; were I to get my Jamaican one that number would decrease to 77). Or you might be lucky enough to be living in a country whose stable economy and lofty currency allows you the external purchasing power necessary to globetrot without making a huge dent in your savings.

Travel privilege might also come in the form of the two parent, double-income household that helped you to get through university (heck, going to uni is a privilege in and of itself!) without taking on a hefty student loan. I mean, how easy is it to quit your job to travel the world when the Bank of Mom and Dad foot the lion's share of your tuition bill years prior? And even if you got through school without the assistance of your parents, think of how lucky you are to not have had to assist them (or your siblings) financially-- this is a sad reality for many. The savings from your part-time campus job would have dwindled pretty quickly had you had to help them make their rent or pay for repairs on their car, dont you think?

While we're on the topic, let's talk about the ability to save money in the first place. Even with a decently paying gig, an increase in one's cost of living may make snapping up that $400 USD glitch fare to Milan on a whim wholly impossible.

Health is another aspect of the equation that is often ignored. It goes without saying that able-bodied people who are free of illness have the world at their feet. But what if you have reduced mobility or are afflicted by disease? Hopping on a plane to visit parts unknown is no longer so easy, is it?

Basta. I don't want to belabour the point too excessively, but I do want to illustrate a few of the many factors that keep people from seeing the world. After all, it's not as easy as foregoing your favourite cuppa at Starbucks or clamping your eyes shut as you repeat the mantra "Yes, I can travel too". This "common sense" advice simply does not work when you don't have the money or physical mobility to get the heck out of dodge; it's even more useless when you can't get the time off work or are unable to find a sitter for your children.

So I repeat: not everyone can travel. Despite assertions to the contrary, it's not something everybody can achieve, even if they work really hard to make it happen; even with a will the size of Russia, there is no way. Let's stop pretending it's so easy and instead acknowledge how lucky some of us are to fill our passports with stamps, relatively unencumbered by the burdens of life and circumstance.

Follow Oneika's international adventures on her blog Oneika the Traveller or on Instagram at @oneikatraveller.

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By now, you probably know that I detest travel snobbery with every fibre of my being. However, I wanted to discuss something else that raises my ire: the persistent belief in the travel community that absolutely EVERYONE can travel-- and if they can't, it's because they're not trying hard enough or don't want it badly enough.

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Every semester, I see the tweets and Facebook posts. My professor friends, they are annoyed. Their students do not know how to write emails, they say. What they really mean is that their students don't know how to follow the conventions of email etiquette in the academy. I used to be exasperated by student emails too. Until I realized that there was a simple explanation for why they didn't know how to write them - they've never actually been taught how.*

But now, clueless students have no excuse, because they can read this post. Profs, share it with your students. Students, share it with your friends. Or don't, and be the one person in the class your prof enjoys receiving email from.

Here's a template you can follow in constructing your email to a professor. Each element is explained further below.
Dear [1] Professor [2] Last-Name [3], This is a line that recognizes our common humanity [4]. I'm in your Class Name, Section Number that meets on This Day [5]. This is the question I have or the help I need [6]. I've looked in the syllabus and at my notes from class and online and I asked someone else from the class [7], and I think This Is The Answer [8], but I'm still not sure. This is the action I would like you to take [9]. Signing off with a Thank You is always a good idea [10],
Favorite Student
Element #1: Salutation

Right off the bat, here's where you can establish that you view your relationship with your professor as a professional one. Use "Dear," or if that feels horrifically formal to you, you can use "Hello" or "Hi." ("Hi" is pushing it. See note about exceptions below.)

Element #2: Honorific

This is where a lot of students unwittingly poke right at their professor's sensitive ego and sense of justice in the world. You didn't think this little word was a super big deal, but it actually is to them. An honorific is a title used to communicate respect for a person's position. Whether or not you, as a student, actually respect your professor's authority or position, it's a good idea to act like you do. The simplest way to do this is to address them as "Professor." If they have a PhD, you can technically call them "Dr." but you're safer with "Professor." Not all instructors have PhDs (and many won't even have the word professor in their official job title), but if they are teaching a college class they are inhabiting the role of Professor and can be addressed as such. The bonus of "Professor" and "Dr." is that they don't require you to know anything about your professor's gender identity or marital status. If you call your prof "Mrs." or "Miss," lord help you.

Element #3: Name

You might be surprised at how frequently students get their professor's name wrong. This is not difficult information to look up, people. It's on your syllabus, it's on the department website, it's probably Google-able too. Use their last name. Spell out the whole thing. Spell it correctly. If there's a hyphen in it, use both names and the hyphen (this really falls under spelling out the whole thing and spelling it correctly, but I get it, it's a special case and it causes a lot of confusion for some reason even though it is 2016).

Exceptions to #1-3 (do not attempt until you have leveled up to pro emailer status)

You may use a less formal salutation, and address your professor by something other than Professor Last-Name in your email, if, and only if, you have received an email from them where they use an informal salutation and sign it with something other than Professor Last-Name. For example, when I was a college professor, I would often sign off on my emails "Prof. P-S" because I knew my last name was long and confusing for people. I then rather liked it when people sent me emails addressed to "Prof. P-S." But don't deviate from what they call themselves. NEVER try to use a first name unless you have been given explicit permission to do so. If the prof cryptically signs their emails with only initials, best to stick to Professor Last-Name. Do not under any circumstances begin an email with "Hey" because some people get real huffy about that.

Element #4: Meaningless Nicety

It never hurts to say something like "I hope you're enjoying the beautiful weather today," or "I hope you had a relaxing weekend," to start off. It shows that you see your professor as a person who has some kind of life. Professors like it when you see them as people who have lives outside of their classroom (however remotely this may resemble the truth). It doesn't really matter what you say here, it's more the ritual of polite interest that counts. If you can make it come off like you genuinely mean it, bonus points for you.

Element #5: Reminder of how they know you

This one is key, especially if it's the first time you are contacting your professor. You can't count on them to remember your name from their rosters or to be able to put your face with your name. If there's something distinctive about you that would jog their memory and make them look upon you fondly, include that. For instance, "I stayed after class to ask you about the reading that one time," or "I sit in the front row and have blue hair," whatever. If you haven't met them yet, explain your desired relationship to them, such as "I am interested in enrolling in your class next semester." If you're fairly certain they will know you by name, you can leave this out. But some profs are very bad at remembering names, so you might as well throw them a bone here. (If you are lucky, those profs will be self-aware and empathetic enough not to make you memorize any names for exams in their classes.)

Element #6: The real reason for your email

This is the whole reason you're sending the email, so make it good. The important thing here is to get in and get out, while remaining courteous. Concisely state what it is you need from the professor without offering a bunch of excuses or going into excessive detail or sounding like you are making demands. If you can't explain why you're emailing in a sentence or two, consider making an appointment to meet with the professor in person, in which case your line here will be "I was hoping we could meet to talk about X. What would be a good time for that?" If they can't meet and just want to discuss it over email, they'll let you know.

Elements #7 and 8: This is where you prove you're a wonderful person

There is a t-shirt for sale on the internet that says, "It's in the syllabus." Think for a second about why there is a market for this product. A vast number of emails sent to professors by students are seeking information that has already been communicated by the professor. Before even sending the email, you should actually check the syllabus and your notes (and the class website if there is one) to see if your question has indeed been answered there. It doesn't hurt to ask someone else from the class too - this is why you should try to get a least one classmate's phone number or email address during the first week. If you've actually done all these things and you still have a question, then your contacting the professor will actually provide helpful information to them that they might not have been clear about something.

If you can try to answer your own question, and you turn out to be right, that saves them a little bit of time in their response. For instance, if you are writing to set up a meeting, you could say, "It says on the syllabus that your office hours are Tuesdays at 3pm. Could I come this Tuesday at 3:15?" This also shows that you thought about the whole thing for more than two seconds before deciding to take up their email-reading time.

Element #9: Super polite restatement of your request

If you're asking a question you need an answer to, you can say something like "If you could let me know at your earliest convenience, I'd really appreciate it." If you need them to fill out a form, or contact someone on your behalf, or do something that requires more action than just answering your email, state that very clearly here. This helps them put it on their to-do list and get it done.

Element #10: Sign-off

If you're not sure how to sign off an email, "Thank you" is nearly always appropriate. You can do "Best," or "All the best," or "Sincerely," or whatever, but some form of thanks here does double duty as both sign-off and expression of gratitude.

The hidden Element #11: The follow-up

If your professor hasn't responded to your email, and social cues tell you they probably meant to by now, you can send a gentle follow-up. You can format the follow-up using all the elements here, but you can add in "Just following up on my previous email," right before you get to Element #6. You don't have to rub it in that they forgot to email you back, they will get the point (and if they genuinely forgot, they might feel bad). If they were not emailing you back on purpose, you probably already annoyed them the first time around, and you might as well be as polite as possible with the follow-up. When is it safe to send a follow-up reminder? You have to gauge this based on how quickly they usually respond to things and how dire your need for a response truly is. If it can wait a week, let it wait a week (or until you see them in person).

Learning how to craft professional emails is a skill you can take with you into the so-called real world. A courteous and thoughtfully constructed request is much more likely to receive the kind of response you want. And, let's face it, professors are humans with feelings who just want to be treated as such.

You might think professors who are annoyed by student emails are over-sensitive and lazy (it's their job to handle this shit, right?). And you might be right. But consider that while you only have a few professors at any one time, they might have hundreds of students. They are possibly getting the same question from ten different people. They might be an adjunct professor who is actually only paid for the hours they spend in the classroom (and they're not paid very much for that even). They might have experienced a pattern of receiving less respect from people based on their gender or race. Make your email the one they don't gripe to their friends about. Now you know how.
*This was corroborated for me when I interviewed a bunch of my former students about how they figured out how to navigate electronic communication in their college careers. The ones who felt confident and effective were ones who'd had a lot of experience interacting electronically with adults outside their family before they ever got to college. We don't have to go into the sociological dimensions of who's most likely to have had such opportunities, but you can probably fill in the blanks.

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How to Email Your Professor (without being annoying AF)

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Every semester, I see the tweets and Facebook posts. My professor friends, they are annoyed. Their students do not know how to write emails, they say. What they really mean is that their students...

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People size you up in seconds, but what exactly are they evaluating?

Harvard Business School professor Amy Cuddy has been studying first impressions alongside fellow psychologists Susan Fiske and Peter Glick for more than 15 years, and has discovered patterns in these interactions.

In her new book, " Presence," Cuddy says that people quickly answer two questions when they first meet you:

Can I trust this person?

Can I respect this person?

Psychologists refer to these dimensions as warmth and competence, respectively, and ideally you want to be perceived as having both.

Interestingly, Cuddy says that most people, especially in a professional context, believe that competence is the more important factor. After all, they want to prove that they are smart and talented enough to handle your business.

But in fact, warmth, or trustworthiness, is the most important factor in how people evaluate you.

"From an evolutionary perspective," Cuddy says, "it is more crucial to our survival to know whether a person deserves our trust."

It makes sense when you consider that in cavemen days it was more important to figure out if your fellow man was going to kill you and steal all your possessions than if he was competent enough to build a good fire.

But while competence is highly valued, Cuddy says that it is evaluated only after trust is established. And focusing too much on displaying your strength can backfire.

She says that MBA interns are often so concerned about coming across as smart and competent that it can lead them to skip social events, not ask for help, and generally come off as unapproachable.

These overachievers are in for a rude awakening when they don't get a job offer because nobody got to know and trust them as people.

Cuddy says:

If someone you're trying to influence doesn't trust you, you're not going to get very far; in fact, you might even elicit suspicion because you come across as manipulative. A warm, trustworthy person who is also strong elicits admiration, but only after you've established trust does your strength become a gift rather than a threat.

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A Harvard psychologist says people judge you based on 2 criteria when they first meet you

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People size you up in seconds, but what exactly are they evaluating? Harvard Business School professor Amy Cuddy has been studying first impressions alongside fellow psychologists Susan Fiske and Peter Glick for more than 15 years, and has discovered patterns in these interactions.

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For the first time in many years I am teaching a freshman course, Introduction to Philosophy. The experience has been mostly good. I had been told that my freshman students would be apathetic, incurious, inattentive, unresponsive and frequently absent, and that they would exude an insufferable sense of entitlement. I am happy to say that this characterization was not true of most students. Still, some students are often absent, and others, even when present, are distracted or disengaged. Some have had to be cautioned that class is not their social hour and others reminded not to send text messages in class. I have had to tell these students that, unlike high school, they will not be sent to detention if they are found in the hall without a pass, and that they are free to leave if they are not interested. Actually, I doubt that the differences between high school and university have ever been adequately explained to them, so, on the first class day of next term, I will address my new freshmen as follows:

Welcome to higher education! If you want to be successful here you need to know a few things about how this place works. One of the main things you need to know is the difference between the instructors you will have here and those you had before. Let me take a few minutes to explain this to you.

First, I am your professor, not your teacher. There is a difference. Up to now your instruction has been in the hands of teachers, and a teacher's job is to make sure that you learn. Teachers are evaluated on the basis of learning outcomes, generally as measured by standardized tests. If you don't learn, then your teacher is blamed. However, things are very different for a university professor. It is no part of my job to make you learn. At university, learning is your job -- and yours alone. My job is to lead you to the fountain of knowledge. Whether you drink deeply or only gargle is entirely up to you.

Your teachers were held responsible if you failed, and expected to show that they had tried hard to avoid that dreaded result. I am not held responsible for your failures. On the contrary, I get paid the same whether you get an "F" or an "A." My dean will not call me in and ask how many conferences I had with your parents about your progress. Indeed, since you are now an adult, providing such information to your parents would be an illegal breach of privacy. Neither will I have to document how often I offered you tutoring or extra credit assignments. I have no obligation whatsoever to make sure that you pass or make any particular grade at all.

Secondly, universities are ancient and tend to do things the old-fashioned way. In high school your education was basically a test-preparation service. Your teachers were not allowed to teach, but were required to focus on preparing you for those all-important standardized tests. Though it galls ideologues, we university professors still enjoy a large degree of academic freedom. That means that the content and format of your courses is still mostly under your professor's control, and the format will probably include a good bit of lecture, some discussion and little or no test preparation.

Lecture has come under attack recently. "Flipped learning" is the current buzz term among higher-education reformers. We old-fashioned chalk-and-talk professors are told that we need to stop being the "sage on the stage," but should become the "guide on the side," helping students develop their problem-solving skills. Lecture, we are told, is an ineffective strategy for reaching today's young people, whose attention span is measured in nanoseconds. We should not foolishly expect them to listen to us, but instead cater to their conditioned craving for constant stimulation.

Hogwash. You need to learn to listen. The kind of listening you need to learn is not passive absorption, like watching TV; it is critical listening. Critical listening means that you are not just hearing but thinking about what you are hearing. Critical listening questions and evaluates what is being said and seeks key concepts and unifying themes. Your high school curriculum would have served you better had it focused more on developing your listening skills rather than drilling you on test-taking.

Finally, when you go to a university, you are in a sense going to another country, one with a different culture and different values. I have come to realize that the biggest gap between you and me is a cultural difference. I have absorbed deeply the norms and values of an ancient academic culture and they are now a part of me. You, on the other hand, come to my classes fresh from a culture with different values, one that finds academic ways strange and hard to understand.

Take the issue of documentation. For an academic, there is something sacred about a citation. The proper citation of a source is a small tribute to the hard work, diligence, intelligence and integrity of someone dedicated enough to make a contribution to knowledge. For you, citations and bibliographies are pointless hoops to jump through and you often treat these requirements carelessly. Further, our differences on the issue of giving or taking proper credit accounts for the fact that you so seldom take plagiarism as seriously as I do.

If you want to know the biggest difference between you and your professor, it is probably this: You see university as a place where you get a credential. For your professor, a university is not primarily about credentialing. Your professor still harbors the traditional view that universities are about education. If your aim is to get a credential, then for you courses will be obstacles in your path. For your professor, a course is an opportunity for you to make your world richer and yourself stronger.

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For the first time in many years I am teaching a freshman course, Introduction to Philosophy. The experience has been mostly good. I had been told that my freshman students would be apathetic, incurious, inattentive, unresponsive and frequently absent, and that they would exude an insufferable sense of entitlement.

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A year ago, when my nephew was beginning his first year of college, I put together a top-ten list of advice for college freshmen based on my years as a professor and the advice of colleagues and former students. Last week I checked in to see if my advice had been of any help. The original column appears below, with comments from Elias, now a rising sophomore.

10 Pieces of Advice for College Freshmen

1. SHOW UP.

Attend every class session unless you have a contagious illness. (Woody Allen was right: 80% of success is just showing up.) And don't sit in the back; I can practically predict a student's grade based on where he or she sits. Slacking in the back row = bad grades with very few exceptions.
Elias says, "I can't say enough about how important this is. Two-thirds of the students in my 9:30 class, where lectures were posted online, never showed up for class. I went to everything, and as a result I developed terrific relationships with most of my professors."
2. INTRODUCE YOURSELF.

Find an excuse to go to office hours, not just once but two or three times a term. Take a draft of your essay to a TA or professor for review; once graded work has been handed back, go back and ask for advice on how to improve it. These people will be your references, advocates, and possibly even friends later in life; you want them to remember your name when the semester is over. And don't be afraid to kiss a little ass. If your professor is giving a talk or performance, show up - and make sure he or she knows you did.

Helpful hint: always remind said professor, adviser, or TA of your name when you encounter them; they will be eternally grateful.

3. ENGAGE.

Come to class prepared enough to ask a perceptive question or make a useful comment. Don't be a wallflower, but don't dominate either - your fellow students will not love you if your hand is always the first one up. When you e-mail a professor, do it for a good reason and be respectful (don't address us as "dude" or by our first names unless we've asked you to). Turn off your cell phone and do not text during class. We can tell.

4. AFFILIATE.

Take advantage of what campus life has to offer - clubs, events, service trips, religious groups. Join something the first week; student activities start-up right away and there is no better way to meet non-freshmen. Try out any and all groups that seem interesting until you find your niche.

Research shows that students who are affiliated with a campus group or who have a part-time job are less likely to drop out and more likely to progress through college on time. More important, it enriches the experience.

5. LEARN A LANGUAGE AND/OR LIVE ABROAD.

Once you leave college, language classes are expensive and hard to schedule. Take advantage of the daily classes and language labs that are included in the price of tuition. Try to study abroad. Even if you can't get away for a whole semester, find a short-term spring or summer program and, when it comes to choosing where, the more foreign the better.
Elias says, "This is one of the best things you can get out of college. I am sad I didn't get to start taking language," Next year, Elias plans to start Chinese language study, and he recommends going above and beyond the school's language requirement.
6. STAY HEALTHY.

Don't neglect your health. Eat well and be sure to get enough sleep. Getting sick means lots of missed classes and lots of missed fun. The recreation center, gym, or intramural sports are great ways to meet people and will help keep your mind clear. Do not abuse any substances, and do not kiss anyone who is sick.
Elias says, "I had a lot of colds, although they weren't debilitating and I could still get to class. Maybe it was being around sick people, maybe too much alcohol." Whatever the case, he did not stay healthy and, sadly, "I did not go to the gym a single time."
7. TAP INTO RESOURCES.

Career and professional advice; funding for internships, study abroad or travel; opportunities to work with professors on research; mental health counseling and disability support services - these are all offered by most schools, but it is up to you to recognize your needs and make use of such resources.

8. BE SOCIAL.

Leave the door of your dorm room open much of the day and cultivate a broad group of friends. Don't walk around campus texting. Make eye contact. Chat with kids in class. Set up a study group of three or four people to share ideas, questions, and notes if you have to miss a class (see #1). Michelle adds: I neglected an important piece of social advice - practice safe sex! Nothing can put a damper in your college experience, and that of your partner, like an unplanned pregnancy.
Elias says, "There was a lot of risky behavior going on - alcohol abuse, selling of prescription meds, people who wound up in the hospital because of drinking too much, girls who needed to take Plan B pills for unprotected sex." Elias's worst experience of the year was two car accidents less than a month apart. In both cases, the person at fault (not Elias, thankfully) was texting while driving. "I just don't put up with that anymore. I would never drive with someone I thought would drive while texting."
9. SAVOR YOUR INDEPENDENCE.

College is a time to grow up. Make the place where you live a home away from home so you have a measure of personal comfort. Create a positive atmosphere that will nurture you. Keep your support system - friends, family - in place, and call them when you need them, but don't be afraid of loosening the ties.
Elias says, "If anything, going to college has strengthened my ties with my family. It made me much more appreciative of having a stellar home life. I met people who were so happy to be away from home that they never wanted to go back. It made me really value my family."
10. MAKE THE MOST OF EACH DAY. THE YEARS WILL FLY BY.

Related:
Visiting Your Kid in College: Do's and Don'ts College Care Packages From Home: 50 Great Ideas
Michelle Miller-Adams is an associate professor of political science at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan.

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Professor Offers Best Advice for College Freshmen

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A year ago, when my nephew was beginning his first year of college, I put together a top-ten list of advice for college freshmen based on my years as a professor and the advice of colleagues and former students. Last week I checked in to see if my advice had been of any help.

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Allowing students to use computers and the internet in classrooms substantially harms their results, a study has found.

The paper published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that students barred from using laptops or digital devices in lectures and seminars did better in their exams than those allowed to use computers and access the internet.

The researchers suggested that removing laptops and iPads from classes was the equivalent of improving the quality of teaching.

The study divided 726 undergraduates randomly into three groups in the 2014-15 and 2015-16 academic years. The control group's classrooms were "technology-free," meaning students were not allowed to use laptops or tablets at their desk. Another group was allowed to use computers and other devices, and the third group had restricted access to tablets.

"The results from our randomised experiment suggest that computer devices have a substantial negative effect on academic performance," the researchers concluded, suggesting that the distraction of an electronic device complete with internet access outweighed their use for note-taking or research during lessons.

The research had an unusual twist: the students involved were studying at the West Point academy in the US, where cadets are ruthlessly ranked by exam results, meaning they were motivated to perform well and may have been more disciplined than typical undergraduates.

But even for the cream of the US army's future crop, the lure of the digital world appears to have been too much, and exam performance after a full course of studying economics was lower among those in classes allowed to use devices.
Mobile phone bans improve school exam results, research shows
"Our results indicate that students perform worse when personal computing technology is available. It is quite possible that these harmful effects could be magnified in settings outside of West Point," the researchers concluded.

"In a learning environment with lower incentives for performance, fewer disciplinary restrictions on distracting behaviour, and larger class sizes, the effects of internet-enabled technology on achievement may be larger due to professors' decreased ability to monitor and correct irrelevant usage."

Tom Bennett, founder of the ResearchED education group, who is leading a UK government-commissioned review of smartphone use in classrooms, noted the research found that even the brightest students appeared to be distracted by the presence of digital devices, in contrast to previous studies.

"Of course, nothing about this is conclusive and it needs to be read in the context of the undergraduate experience, but there are some interesting reflective points for all educators. Do you need to use tablets? How do you compensate for the possibility of distraction?" Bennett said.

Research published last year by the London School of Economics found that banning mobile phones affected school pupils according to their ability. "Banning mobile phones improves outcomes for the low-achieving students ... and has no significant impact on high-achievers," it concluded.

The new research is distinctive because it analysed the results of students in classroom conditions rather than as part of an artificial experiment.

"In contrast to the laboratory-style research, our study measures the cumulative effects of internet-enabled classroom technology over the course of a semester, as opposed to its impact on immediate or short-term recall of knowledge," the researchers said.

"We want to be clear that we cannot relate our results to a class where the laptop or tablet is used deliberately in classroom instruction, as these exercises may boost a student's ability to retain the material," they added.
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Students who use digital devices in class 'perform worse in exams'

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Allowing students to use computers and the internet in classrooms substantially harms their results, a study has found. The paper published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that students barred from using laptops or digital devices in lectures and seminars did better in their exams than those allowed to use computers and access the internet.

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Every morning, as Christine Janumala prepares for her classes at Columbia University, she makes sure her bag is packed with all the essentials. Textbooks. Note pads. Pens. And at least one empty tub of Tupperware.

While the school supplies will help her get through her coursework, it's the Tupperware that will get her through her day. After paying for tuition and other living expenses, Janumala often has no money left for food. She darts to club meetings between lectures to scoop up uneaten pizza or sandwiches. If she gets there early, she can grab enough to stow away for later.

"Being food insecure is so alienating to begin with, but there's an extra layer of 'I don't belong' when you go to such a prestigious university, where food is usually an afterthought for most people," said Janumala, a 21-year-old junior from Santa Ana, California majoring in creative writing and the daughter of immigrants from India who is the first in her family to go to college in the United States. "Making sure I get three square meals a day requires a lot of planning."

It may come as a surprise that an affluent school like Columbia, which has a $9.2 billion endowment and just raised another $1 billion for financial aid, has students who can't afford to eat. But as more low-income students seek a higher education even as the cost of tuition soars, hunger is a problem that is seeping onto even the wealthiest and most elite campuses.
Related: Nonprofits step in to help students that colleges allow to 'slip through the cracks'
A few community colleges have tackled the issue of hunger head on, but other higher-education institutions have left it up to student groups to take the lead in creating meal-share programs or food banks, or even shine a light on the problem. One exception is the University of California system, which allocated $750,000 earlier this year to answer the surreal question of how many of its students didn't have enough food, and recommend what to do about it.

More than 200 food pantries have popped up on college campuses-50 of them this year alone.

At Columbia, for example, students who don't use up all the weekly credit from their dining hall accounts can give some of it to classmates who don't have enough to eat; some undergraduates have created an app that also pinpoints where on campus there is free food. A student at Otterbein University in Ohio started a program to send food home on the weekends with financially struggling students who have children; it serves 85 families a week.

Advocates say these remedies, however well-intentioned, don't get at the root of the issue.
Related: States moving college scholarship money away from the poor, to the wealthy and middle class
Over the last decade, the number of students receiving federal Pell grants, which are given to the neediest of undergraduates, has grown from 5.3 million to 8.2 million. But the increase in the cost of attendance has eclipsed what these grants cover, including for such necessities as food. Meanwhile, median family income has flattened out or fallen not just for the poor, but for all but the wealthiest Americans.

This has left the lowest-income students, in particular, with crushing loans and tough choices.

"Historically, colleges and universities were for the middle and upper classes, and financial aid was developed to help those families go to college," said Clare Cady, co-founder and co-director of the two-year-old College and University Food Bank Alliance. More poor people may be going to college now, she said, "but the college system in this country hasn't caught up. Colleges and universities are systemically out of step with the needs of a large and growing segment of the students on their campuses."
Related: The financial aid policy that shuts out millions of students
A little less than half of Janumala's tuition is paid for by a Pell grant and other financial aid, which means she's covering the rest plus all of her living expenses in New York City. As a student in the School of General Studies - a Columbia program that caters to nontraditional undergraduates who often don't live in the dorms - she said she has many classmates who, like her, are struggling to get by. To make ends meet, they Dumpster-dive and beg the local supermarkets for day-old food that would otherwise be thrown out.

One in three college freshmen has only inconsistent access to adequate food, according to a study by researchers at Arizona State University and the University of Minnesota released last month at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association.

There has also been other research about this at individual institutions. One out of five students at the University of Hawaii at Manoa struggled with hunger, a 2009 study found. A survey by the City University of New York in 2011 said that roughly two in five undergraduates, or 100,000 students there, had trouble getting enough food.

And "we suspect that these are undercounts," said Sara Goldrick-Rab, professor of educational policy studies and sociology at the University of Wisconsin. "College is making students poor. They are trading off food to cover their tuition."
Related: Catholic colleges tell poor students: Go somewhere else
A new report produced by Goldrick-Rab at the Wisconsin HOPE Lab, which works to lower barriers to graduation, found that more than one in five students at 10 community colleges studied have trouble getting enough to eat. About a quarter frequently skip meals because they can't afford food.

Yet as policymakers and the broader education community look for ways to help first-generation, low-income students get into and through college, little if any of that discussion has been focused on hunger.

"It's beyond dispute that in preschool and through high school, nutrition is important for learning," said Wick Sloane, a professor of writing at Bunker Hill Community College, who said some of the advising he does with students is about how they can register for food stamps, and who wants other community colleges to do more for their students who are going hungry. "So we give those students free and reduced-priced meals. Then, after 12th grade, the whole thing falls off a cliff."

Fourteen percent of households nationwide are grappling with a lack of nutritious food, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates. The Wisconsin report suggests that hunger may contribute to the fact that only a little more than half of students graduate with degrees in even six years-a rate that is actually falling.

It's not just being hungry that's a problem; students who have to work to make ends meet, or worry constantly about where their next meals may be coming from, have more pressing needs than making sure they get to class or finish their assignments on time.

"The idea that meal shares or individual food banks are going to solve this is embarrassing," Sloane said.

"I applaud the food banks because they're not sitting around wringing their hands and doing nothing," he said. "But a monthly delivery of food is not going to help millions of hungry students."
This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Read more about higher education.

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Laura M. Colarusso, The Hechinger Report

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Think finals are tough? Real challenge for growing number of college students is getting enough to eat

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Every morning, as Christine Janumala prepares for her classes at Columbia University, she makes sure her bag is packed with all the essentials. Textbooks. Note pads. Pens. And at least one empty tub of Tupperware. While the school supplies will help her get through her coursework, it's the Tupperware that will get her through her day.

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Nearly one in four female undergraduates responding to a survey conducted by the Association of American Universities reported that she had been the victim of sexual assault or misconduct, according to eagerly anticipated findings released on Monday.

At the same time, fewer than a third of the respondents reported the incidents, even the most violent, to campus or local authorities. The most common reason? They didn't feel the incidents were serious enough.

AAU officials cautioned against overgeneralizing about responses that varied widely among participating universities. Fewer than half of the association's members participated, with many opting out because they planned their own studies. The response rate was 19 percent.

Still, the researchers said that, with input from more than 150,000 students at 27 universities - 26 AAU members and one nonmember, Dartmouth College - the effort represents one of the largest surveys to gauge the attitudes and experiences of college students with respect to sexual assault and misconduct. It also lends credence to previous studies that have found that one in five undergraduate women say they have experienced unwanted sexual contact with a rate, at 23 percent, that's slightly higher than that.

The survey provides a more-nuanced look at one of the most vexing problems campuses face today at a time when their responses are being sharply scrutinized by the federal government and criticized by both accusers and accused.

It does so, in part, by providing separate estimates for two types of sexual contact: penetration and sexual touching. It also looks at four tactics: physical force, drugs and alcohol, coercion, and absence of affirmative consent. In addition, it examines incidents of sexual harassment, stalking, and intimate partner violence.

Breaking behaviors down in that way will allow campuses to tailor their responses more appropriately, the researchers said, and to avoid lumping together all sex-related offenses, from unwanted kissing to rape.

Among the specific findings:

Over all, 11.7 percent of student respondents reported experiencing "nonconsensual sexual contact by physical force, threats of physical force, or incapacitation" since they enrolled at the university. For females, the rate was 23.1 percent, including 10.8 percent who experienced penetration.

Only 5 percent to 28 percent reported the incident to law enforcement or other authorities.

Still, more than six in 10 believed campus officials would take their complaints seriously and 56 percent felt confident those officials would take steps to keep them safe.

The rates of sexual assault and misconduct are highest among undergraduate females and those identifying as "transgender, genderqueer or non-conforming, or questioning."

The association's survey was conducted by Westat, a social-science research group, in April and May at 10 private and 16 public universities. It went out to undergraduate, graduate, and professional students.

For more, see this Chronicle article.

Return to Top

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Survey: 1 in 4 Undergraduate Women Experienced Sexual Assault or Misconduct

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Nearly one in four female undergraduates responding to a survey conducted by the Association of American Universities reported that she had been the victim of sexual assault or misconduct, according to eagerly anticipated findings released on Monday. At the same time, fewer than a third of the respondents reported the incidents, even the most violent, to campus or local authorities.

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"Students who took notes on laptops tended to transcribe the content verbatim," Mueller said. Those students took many more notes, but seemed to process what they heard much less. In a test taken a few minutes after completing the lecture, students who had taken notes using longhand performed much better. The difference was particularly striking on conceptual questions, where students had to take two pieces of information they'd heard in the lecture and synthesize them into a conclusion.

The researchers then tested another intervention, telling a third group of students taking notes on a computer that verbatim notes aren't a good way to remember and that they should slow down. The other two groups remained the same as in the first study. The intervention group performed almost exactly the same as the computer note-takers who hadn't received the intervention, leading Mueller and Oppenheimer to believe that simply telling students not to take notes verbatim doesn't work.

Since the verbatim note-takers were recording more information than those taking longhand notes, Mueller reasoned that maybe that group would do better if given a chance to study their notes. So in a third study, the researchers asked both groups of note-takers to come back a week later, review their notes for 15 minutes and then take the test.

To Mueller's surprise, the longhand note-takers still performed better. She also hypothesizes that since longhand note takers had to be more selective about what they wrote, they had processed the information better as it came in, making the recall easier.

These findings align with neuroscience research on memory reconsolidation. When information is called up into the short term memory after having been hardwired into the long term memory, it sticks better the second time.

"If you processed [the information] as it was coming in, then there's more in your brain for the refresher to hang on to," Mueller said.
Making it Stick in the Classroom
The typing versus handwriting debate recalls a related, heated discussion over whether students should continue to learn handwriting. While the research is not conclusive, several researchers contend that writing by hand stimulates special neural circuits, leading to stronger reading ability, new idea generation and retention of information.

Mueller thinks there's still hope for digital note-taking, but says students must be taught how to slow down and process information as they take it in. She thinks there could be promise in stylus technology, which would slow the pace at which a person can take notes, but would still allow for digital storage.

Some educators are taking long form notes to new levels, embracing the idea of sketchnotes, in which the ideas presented in a lecture are captured as a combination of words and images.

"I sat through two 45-minute lectures in high school social studies and not only was I super focused because I was doodling, I could also basically give the lecture afterwards," said Shelley Paul, who at the time was director of learning design at Woodward Academy. "And if I look at the doodle again today for three to four minutes, I can basically remember it all again."

Paul admits it can be hard to keep up with a fast paced lecture, but even the things she decides not to depict end up getting connected to the images she does draw. She's been implementing the practice with students who love the freedom to doodle in class and who are making great connections between information in the process.

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Taking Notes: Is The Pen Still Mightier Than the Keyboard?

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"Students who took notes on laptops tended to transcribe the content verbatim," Mueller said. Those students took many more notes, but seemed to process what they heard much less. In a test taken a few minutes after completing the lecture, students who had taken notes using longhand performed much better.

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When you hear about college, you may think of the movie "Animal House" and frat bros doing keg stands in the front lawn. But what should you actually expect? Sure, you may receive a campus map and list of clubs at your orientation, but no one really gives you the inside scoop. Here are 11 things I wish I knew before going to college.

1. Everyone is in the same position as you.
"It's easy to forget that everyone there is the same as you: nervous, out of their comfort zone and eager to make new friends," says Austin Manapsal, 23, a graduate from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.

Starting college is the time to be friendly, confident and open to meeting new people. And you can feel less intimidated by remembering that they are in the same situation as you and will likely be grateful you reached out to them.
2. Learn how to deal with roommates.
It's not easy living in the same room as someone, no matter how well you get along. From coordinating sleep schedules to when you can have guests over, having a roommate requires constant communication and compromising.

Whether you choose to live with someone who you already know or with someone new, being direct, open and considerate can help build a successful relationship with your roommate.

However, if you do end up in a difficult roommate situation, talk to your resident adviser. He or she will be able to help you resolve the situation, whether it's talking through your disagreements or switching roommates.
3. Beer and liquor have more calories than you think.
When you hear of the freshman 15 and weight gain in college, you probably think of the all-you-can-eat dining hall food and late-night pizza orders.

But don't forget those sneaky calories packed in beer and liquor. (For those 21 and over, of course.) Beer has about 153 calories (consuming four beers would be about equivalent to a Big Mac), while hard alcohol has 97 (not to mention the calories in the sugary mixers like juice and soda).

While it's easy to get caught up in your busy schedule, tough classes, new social circles and partying, it's important to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Eat a balanced diet, stay hydrated, get enough sleep and exercise regularly. You will feel better physically and mentally.
4. Stay one step ahead.
"Being 18 and free to do whatever you please is a bad combination, especially when it comes to balancing college life with classwork," Manapsal says.

Procrastinating on completing your schoolwork until the night before can lead to pulling all-nighters, high stress and low grades.

"College has the ability to put a lot on your plate at one time, so stay organized and one step ahead of your work," says Billy Hartman, 22, a graduate from Temple University.

Dr. Larry Marks, a licensed psychologist at Counseling & Psychological Services at the University of Central Florida, suggests making a schedule, keeping a to-do list and setting goals for the semester that reflect your priorities. And make big projects more manageable by breaking them into small steps to complete over time.
5. Get to know your professors.
You may feel you get lost in the crowd, especially in your larger classes. Evan Mistur, 23, a graduate from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, suggests cultivating strong relationships with your professors.

"These people are your lifeline to recommendations ... it's important for them to get to know you," he says.

Introduce yourself, visit them during office hours and ask questions about your courses and interests. Who knows, they may be able to connect you to others in your field or help you get your first job out of college.
6. Manage your finances.
"It is very important to start managing your finances early, and college is a great place to start," says Hartman.

There are many ways you can cut back on costs while in school if you think strategically. Search for the cheapest place to buy textbooks, such as renting them for the semester through Amazon.

Look into scholarships through your school or outside organizations. Sites like Scholarships.com or Fastweb can help you find scholarships that are specific to your needs.

And if your schedule allows, get a part-time job so you can help pay for food and housing.
7. It takes time to find who your true friends are.
"Say goodbye to your high school group," says Kevin Mark, 22, a graduate from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.

Once you leave for college, you'll constantly be meeting new people on campus and will quickly find out which of your high school friends you'll stay in touch with.

However, this doesn't mean you will have a new group of close friends instantly.

"... College isn't actually a love-fest in which everybody is included in everything," Julie Zeilinger writes in her book "College 101: A Girl's Guide to Freshman Year."

It's up to you to make an effort to meet people and build these relationships. Manapsal recommends meeting as many people as you can. Even though you will not become friends with all of them, the more people you talk to the more of a chance you will have to find people you click with.

"The friends you make at college are friends you'll have for life," he says.
8. Find your interests and follow those.
You're investing a lot of time and money into your education, so choose a degree that you will be happy with in the long run.

"Don't feel as though you are required to study a field you do not enjoy just because it might yield a good job afterwards. If you don't enjoy it now, you never will," says Mistur.

Though it can be hard to know what you want to do at 18, think about what your strengths are, what you are passionate about and what job you can see yourself doing down the road. You can also visit your university's career center, take career interest surveys and talk to an adviser.
9. Take the initiative.
Your orientation will likely cover all the programs, activities and clubs you can join. But with so much information thrown at you, it's easy to forget about them and not take advantage of what your school has to offer.

"There is so much opportunity to get involved and succeed at school, you just have to take the initiative," Hartman says.

If you hear about something that interests you, find out how you can join and what the deadlines are so it doesn't fall off your radar. Not only will it be rewarding to get involved in what you're passionate about, but you will meet new people who share your interests.

"Research has demonstrated that the more students engage with their academics and campus life, the more successful they will be," says Dr. Marks.

10. Be prepared for a roller coaster ride.

Some say that college is the best four years of your life. While it's likely you will never have another experience like it, it will be filled with ups and downs. "There will be times throughout your college experience that will test your will power, and it is so crucial to stay strong and fight through it," Hartman says.

Finding your way to adapt to college is a normal challenge, and it will get easier over time, Dr. Marks said. He recommends using your support network of family and friends to help you cope with adjustments or reaching out to a school counselor.
11. College will fly by.
These four years go by incredibly fast, so make the most of them. After all, when else will you be able to wear sweatpants every day, attend epic theme parties, have access to an unlimited buffet and sleep until noon?

"It's the only time in life when you'll be surrounded with thousands of people your own age, and the last step before you begin the rest of your life, so enjoy it while you can," Manapsal says.

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11 things I wish I knew before going to college

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When you hear about college, you may think of the movie "Animal House" and frat bros doing keg stands in the front lawn. But what should you actually expect? Sure, you may receive a campus map and list of clubs at your orientation, but no one really gives you the inside scoop.

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For the first time in many years I am teaching a freshman course, Introduction to Philosophy. The experience has been mostly good. I had been told that my freshman students would be apathetic, incurious, inattentive, unresponsive and frequently absent, and that they would exude an insufferable sense of entitlement. I am happy to say that this characterization was not true of most students. Still, some students are often absent, and others, even when present, are distracted or disengaged. Some have had to be cautioned that class is not their social hour and others reminded not to send text messages in class. I have had to tell these students that, unlike high school, they will not be sent to detention if they are found in the hall without a pass, and that they are free to leave if they are not interested. Actually, I doubt that the differences between high school and university have ever been adequately explained to them, so, on the first class day of next term, I will address my new freshmen as follows:

Welcome to higher education! If you want to be successful here you need to know a few things about how this place works. One of the main things you need to know is the difference between the instructors you will have here and those you had before. Let me take a few minutes to explain this to you.

First, I am your professor, not your teacher. There is a difference. Up to now your instruction has been in the hands of teachers, and a teacher's job is to make sure that you learn. Teachers are evaluated on the basis of learning outcomes, generally as measured by standardized tests. If you don't learn, then your teacher is blamed. However, things are very different for a university professor. It is no part of my job to make you learn. At university, learning is your job -- and yours alone. My job is to lead you to the fountain of knowledge. Whether you drink deeply or only gargle is entirely up to you.

Your teachers were held responsible if you failed, and expected to show that they had tried hard to avoid that dreaded result. I am not held responsible for your failures. On the contrary, I get paid the same whether you get an "F" or an "A." My dean will not call me in and ask how many conferences I had with your parents about your progress. Indeed, since you are now an adult, providing such information to your parents would be an illegal breach of privacy. Neither will I have to document how often I offered you tutoring or extra credit assignments. I have no obligation whatsoever to make sure that you pass or make any particular grade at all.

Secondly, universities are ancient and tend to do things the old-fashioned way. In high school your education was basically a test-preparation service. Your teachers were not allowed to teach, but were required to focus on preparing you for those all-important standardized tests. Though it galls ideologues, we university professors still enjoy a large degree of academic freedom. That means that the content and format of your courses is still mostly under your professor's control, and the format will probably include a good bit of lecture, some discussion and little or no test preparation.

Lecture has come under attack recently. "Flipped learning" is the current buzz term among higher-education reformers. We old-fashioned chalk-and-talk professors are told that we need to stop being the "sage on the stage," but should become the "guide on the side," helping students develop their problem-solving skills. Lecture, we are told, is an ineffective strategy for reaching today's young people, whose attention span is measured in nanoseconds. We should not foolishly expect them to listen to us, but instead cater to their conditioned craving for constant stimulation.

Hogwash. You need to learn to listen. The kind of listening you need to learn is not passive absorption, like watching TV; it is critical listening. Critical listening means that you are not just hearing but thinking about what you are hearing. Critical listening questions and evaluates what is being said and seeks key concepts and unifying themes. Your high school curriculum would have served you better had it focused more on developing your listening skills rather than drilling you on test-taking.

Finally, when you go to a university, you are in a sense going to another country, one with a different culture and different values. I have come to realize that the biggest gap between you and me is a cultural difference. I have absorbed deeply the norms and values of an ancient academic culture and they are now a part of me. You, on the other hand, come to my classes fresh from a culture with different values, one that finds academic ways strange and hard to understand.

Take the issue of documentation. For an academic, there is something sacred about a citation. The proper citation of a source is a small tribute to the hard work, diligence, intelligence and integrity of someone dedicated enough to make a contribution to knowledge. For you, citations and bibliographies are pointless hoops to jump through and you often treat these requirements carelessly. Further, our differences on the issue of giving or taking proper credit accounts for the fact that you so seldom take plagiarism as seriously as I do.

If you want to know the biggest difference between you and your professor, it is probably this: You see university as a place where you get a credential. For your professor, a university is not primarily about credentialing. Your professor still harbors the traditional view that universities are about education. If your aim is to get a credential, then for you courses will be obstacles in your path. For your professor, a course is an opportunity for you to make your world richer and yourself stronger.

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For the first time in many years I am teaching a freshman course, Introduction to Philosophy. The experience has been mostly good. I had been told that my freshman students would be apathetic, incurious, inattentive, unresponsive and frequently absent, and that they would exude an insufferable sense of entitlement.

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WHAT'S NEW

20 YEARS! - PHD Comics turns 20! We are celebrating by Kickstarting a new book, having a huge sale and offering custom comics and cartoons! Join the fun by clicking here!

The PHD Store - is back online! Need a gift for the holidays? Why not a book, mug or shirt that matches their level of procrastination sophistication?

A Message from Jorge -
hi!

You may have noticed the huge banner below each comic. I apologize if it's too big, but I'm very excited to announce that my new book is on sale! We Have No Idea is a fun and accessible book about the Universe and how little we know of it. It's full of clear and fun explanations and cartoons. I spent a whole year working with physicist Daniel Whiteson to create the book, so it would be awesome if you took a moment to check it out and consider buying it!

When we wrote it, we were inspired to make a book that doesn't just talk about what we know, but also what we don't know about the Universe. How else will the next generation of scientists and explorers be inspired to go out there and expand our horizons?

So take a look, and consider buying it for yourself or gifting it to a friend or family member who is graduating! What better present than a book about everything we don't know?

Thank you all for supporting all my crazy efforts (movies, videos, books) over the years! I hope you enjoy the book!

-Jorge

WE HAVE NO IDEA Release! - My new book is now on sale! Order it now!

And check out the book tour map and come see us at one of many fun events!

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Filming is done! - Take a sneak peek behind the scenes of the new PHD Movie 2:

Coming to Campuses this Fall! Stay tuned for updates on how to organize a screening at your University.

The Science Gap - Watch Jorge's TEDx Talk:

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PHD Comic: How To Write An E-mail To Your Instructor Or Teaching Assistant

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WHAT'S NEW 20 YEARS! - PHD Comics turns 20! We are celebrating by Kickstarting a new book, having a huge sale and offering custom comics and cartoons! Join the fun by clicking here! The PHD Store - is back online! Need a gift for the holidays?

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When elementary and secondary schools and colleges around the country open for the fall semester, millions of students will not be studying a foreign language. Not necessarily for lack of interest. They won't be able to.

In a shrinking world this reality constitutes a threat to our national security. "To prosper economically and to improve relations with other countries," U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan declared in 2010, "Americans need to read, speak and understand other languages." Unfortunately, Duncan pointed out, only 18% of Americans report speaking a language other than English, while 53% of Europeans (and increasing numbers in other parts of the world) can converse in a second language.

More and more students and their parents understand the need to communicate with friends and foes in other countries, and not just on our terms. Demand for and enrollment in foreign language courses is at its highest level since 1968. At public K-12 schools, course enrollment in 2007-2008 reached 8.9 million individuals, about 18.5 percent of all students; between 1995 and 2009, it increased 47.8 percent at colleges and universities.

At the same time, however, schools at every level are balancing their budgets and offsetting reductions in government allocations by cutting their offerings and/or eliminating foreign language requirements.

Consider this:

- The percentage of public and private elementary schools offering foreign language instruction decreased from 31 to 25 percent from 1997 to 2008. Instruction in public elementary schools dropped from 24 percent to 15 percent, with rural districts hit the hardest.

- The percentage of all middle schools offering foreign language instruction decreased from 75 to 58 percent.

- The percentage of high schools offering some foreign language courses remained about the same, at 91 percent.

- About 25 percent of elementary schools and 30 percent of middle schools report a shortage of qualified foreign language teachers.

- In 2009-2010, only 50.7 percent of higher education institutions required foreign language study for a baccalaureate, down from 67.5 percent in 1994-1995. And many colleges and universities, including Cornell, have reduced or eliminated instructional offerings in "less popular" languages.

We should care - a lot - about our foreign language deficit. We need diplomats, intelligence and foreign policy experts, politicians, military leaders, business leaders, scientists, physicians, entrepreneurs, managers, technicians, historians, artists, and writers who are proficient in languages other than English. And we need them to read and speak less commonly taught languages (for which funding has recently been cut by the federal government) that are essential to our strategic and economic interests, such as Farsi, Bengali, Vietnamese, Burmese and Indonesian.

There have been some positive recent developments:

- Over the past decade, the Chicago Public Schools have expanded instruction in Chinese to include 43 schools and serve 12,000 students. Many of these students are Hispanic and will be trilingual.

- The Arlington, Virginia, public schools offer after-school instruction in Chinese and Arabic to middle and high school students.

- Columbia, Yale and Cornell are developing video-conferencing courses to share - and spread - instruction in less-taught languages.

But we need to do more. Much more. We ask parents to urge their children to attain proficiency in a foreign language, whether or not schools require them to do so; PTAs to lobby school boards; faculty members and deans in colleges and universities to re-visit foreign language requirements; readers of Forbes to write to their elected representatives.

The message is simple: in 1957, after the Russians launched Sputnik, Congress passed and President Eisenhower signed the National Defense Education Act, which provided federal support for foreign language instruction as well as science education. We may not be quite as frightened as we were during the height of the Cold War, but we must be just as resolute in designing a comprehensive approach to foreign language acquisition that will prepare the next generation of Americans for success in a highly competitive, tightly interconnected world.

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When elementary and secondary schools and colleges around the country open for the fall semester, millions of students will not be studying a foreign language. Not necessarily for lack of interest. They won't be able to. In a shrinking world this reality constitutes a threat to our national security.

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by Terry Heick

The world is swirling in winds of digital code.

The humanities provide a kind of embedded moral code that force us to confront our own habits, trends, and notions of recreation. In an age of shifts and fluidity, this is definitely a "thing." Within the immense gravity of Google, Apple, and data mobility, the shift away from the humanities is accelerating. According to the New York Times, Stanford University has 45% of its staff in its Humanities department, but only 15% of its students. At Harvard, there has been a 20% decline in humanities majors in the last ten years.

That's a lot. Who cares?

If literature provides a kind of shared framework for what people are "for" and how we might act and what we should tend towards or resist, it is not a huge leap to believe that without humanities, we are then redefining what it means to be human in the absence of the kind of sustained, millenia-long reflection the humanities represent.

This should make us at the very least uncomfortable.
The Stories That Linger
Let's define the humanities as "the study of ourselves through our collective human expression." In education, these expressions-what makes each one of us unique, expressive, and capable of giving and receiving love are curiously gathered under a single content area or, at best, department-Humanities. Practices here include literature, art, design, music, and philosophy-activities that elevate our lives beyond mere survival.

It's easy to spot right away, however, that the "non-humanities"-science, technology, engineering, and math-also have roles to play in the humanities. We don't stop being human because we test theories or require data or perform calculations, nor are these "industries" any less human than writing poetry or composing music.

The humanities then, provide extraordinarily diverse modeling of human trials, failures, humility, and triumph. Ezra Pound's "Literature is news that stays news" is a useful line. Out of the billions of episodes of published media, the things that linger-for whatever reason-tend to be useful, like a trail of bread crumbs back to ourselves.

Humanities as a term has become opaque and abstract, which can be seen in how casually we treat it in education (see the Common Core Standards). The artificial categorizing of the universe into narrow sects of knowledge (narrowed further by standards) is partly to blame here, which is another article altogether. For now, let's define the role of the humanities.

What should they "do"?
What Should The Humanities Do?
In a digital age of connectivity, data, and access, at first glance the purpose is not much different than it has ever been.More than anything else, the humanities provide for us with a shared moral and cultural memory.

Mark Twain provides an archetype for the wildness of childhood, while leaving a picture of slavery and the moral impossibilities it brought with it.

Flannery O'Connor's work to make sense of Southern American "traditions," or Shakespeare's struggle with the overlapping consequences of action and inaction act as a kind of echo, or endlessly looping gif animation that acts as a cautionary tale. Closely studied, these "memories" can lead to self-knowledge and inform morality and ethics while promoting affection, faith in one another, and compassion.

What is worth understanding?

What should I accept, what should I question, and what should I resist?

What system of ethics do I use, where does it come from, and how does it change?

What are "people for"?
Mitigating The Thoughtless Ambition Of Technology
In short, we learn what it means to be human. Is this not even more immediate and useful in an era where every digital discovery is an "opportunity" for substance or distraction? When students are too quick to Google without fully understanding what exactly they're looking for and why?

As a system preoccupied with endless assessment, data, utility, research, and "career readiness," Education has become incapable of using abstraction to understand. Death of a Salesman, The Scream, Oedipus, King Lear, Chopin, et. al, all provide models of morality, rebellion, self-criticism, and propriety, but these ideas are all package in forms and structures alien to many modern readers.

Students accustomed to actuating learning through YouTube channels and learning simulations and mobile apps may naturally resist the "dwell-time" necessary to distill the patterns embedded in the humanities. And even those students naturally interested or disciplined enough to try will often hear these pursuits discredited by those asking if such knowledge will lead to "a job," missing the fact that it should illuminate the kind of work and jobs worth having.

In modern education systems, we are more interested in helping students process endless streams of often useless data-which seems practical until we measure that practicality by what it fails to do-i.e., help a student understand their own citizenships, legacies, gifts, and opportunities for meaningful actions and relationships in their own community. Education trains students to be better at education.

The humanities are interested in what is uniquely possible in each one of us, suggesting the work we might do, and the place we might do it in. How one can be ready for a career without being able to answer these kinds of questions isn't clear.
Humanities Not As Content, But A Sequence
The ultimate distinction here then is one of affection and needs. Technology needs the humanities more than the reverse is true. By bridling technology's thoughtless ambition, the humanities can let us prove-to ourselves-that we are not confused about what we are slowly becoming.

Another way to contextualize this age of information is as an age preceding one of wisdom or true community. Information has always existed. It now comes oddly packaged and fragmented-briefly in tweets or tags, or search results 46 pages long. This means it's always out of context. Properly applied humanities, then, provides that context. They can make information whole again, causing impatient would-be Googler's to extend their thinking just a bit more.

To refine their questions.

To search for people and communities and primary source documents rather than the misleading and superficial distillations that Google all too often retrieves because it's just a search algorithm and it doesn't "know" anything.

Mastering technology requires us to know what we need, the kinds of questions we should ask, the kind of work we are called to do, and the demands placed on our own humanity by those around us. This is why we need to teach the humanities. The humanities are not simply colors and sounds and stories and dances and ethical frameworks, nor are they self-indulgent reflection; rather, they represent our documented collective expression over thousands of years! Here is who we are and what we've done and the mistakes that we've made and what we value in a hundred different forms and languages and patterns! What a miracle!

In an increasingly urgent and immediate and even illusory digital world, the humanities will show us where we're going if we're willing to read them as something other than "stories," and teach them as something other than "classes" and "content areas." These "stories" are artful and often troubling demonstrations of who we are by framing where we've been, every single time paralleling the trouble we've already seen and pain we've already felt. Nothing new ever happens. You want to see the future? Let's trace our collective arc.

How might wearable technology might impact our identity and affections? What could mobile devices do to our physical interdependence? What does it mean to know or understand something? Want to see the thin, blurry line between modern medicine and bio-engineering? Wonder what a culture seized by apathy or fear looks like? This what literature, music, art, and other forms of human expression can help us understand.
Adapted image attribution flickr user nickamostcato and brioso; Redefining What It Means To Be Human In The Absence Of The Humanities
The humanities precede technology just as you and I must always precede the tools we create.

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by Terry Heick The world is swirling in winds of digital code. The humanities provide a kind of embedded moral code that force us to confront our own habits, trends, and notions of recreation. In an age of shifts and fluidity, this is definitely a "thing."

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Humans need food, sleep, safety, love, purpose. Psychologist Abraham Maslow ordered our needs into a hierarchy. This week, TED speakers explore that spectrum of need, from primal to profound.

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ChronicleVitae for higher ed jobs, career tools and advice

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A recent email to me from a student:

"Hey!

I wont be in class today, I feel very sick and need to sleep all day. I know we are watching the movie today so il watch that before class on Tuesday. let me know if there's anything else I miss! I have a friend in the class who should bring u my paper but I have attached it here as well just in case.

Again I apologize for my absence but I wouldn't be able to stay awake and let alone focus on the material in class and would just like to sleep out this cold/flu hybrid. Thanks a lot and have a great weekend! Also let me know if I need a Doctor's note, the health center is just backed up on appointments and wouldn't be able to take me till at least Monday."

Unsigned.

The student who sent me this email is not a childhood friend, my next-door neighbor, a sibling, or someone I play basketball with. I am their professor. I have a name by which I ought to be addressed. And it is not "Hey!" The student might as well have said, "Hey boo, how you doin'?"

This may seem like a simple gripe about etiquette. But for many women and professors of color who teach in predominantly-white classrooms, it's more than that. The assumed familiarity in a message like this implies that instructors like us are more laid-back or "down," that we don't have to be shown the same respect as our white male colleagues, and that our classrooms are perceived as one giant bro-fest.

"Any professor who doesn't think this is a major issue probably isn't a person of color or a woman - or at least a woman from a working-class background," says Lisa Guerrero, an associate professor of critical culture, gender, and race studies at Washington State University. "White male professors demand respect and it's expected. When women and professors of color demand respect we're being unreasonable."

"Truth be told, I don't like being called 'Doctor,'" she says. "But a student damn well better call me 'Professor.' Not because I said so, but because I deserve it, and all those like me who didn't have a chance to make it here deserve it."

Different professors have different takes on this, of course. Some say they prefer that students keep correspondences casual: They'd rather be addressed by their first names. Others include guidelines in their syllabi that detail the appropriate way to communicate via email. For those professors, writing a proper salutation, spelling out words (like "you" instead of "u"), and including a signature are all things that matter.

I retracted my student's name from the email and shared it with a few professors and asked how they could transform it into a teachable moment for students. How should faculty members respond to these types of encounters? Here are some ideas - some colorful, some a little more by-the-books.

Here's what we'd like to say:

Tracey M. Lewis-Giggetts
adjunct professor of English and writing

What up, Doe!

Yoooo, thanks for the message! I feel you on that sleep thing. Sometimes when I'm just sick to my stomach over too-familiar students who think they can talk to me any ol' kind of way, as if I didn't earn the right be called 'Professor' or, heck, 'Ms.', I just want to go to the crib, slide up in the sack, and sleep the foolishness away. It feels like some crazy entitled/disrespectful hybrid is going around nowadays and it would really help to be able to sleep it out. I'm just saying.

But check it: You got that syllabus, right? You know, that large document I gave you at the start of the semester that runs down everything you need to know about class policy? Yeah, that. Pretty clearly states you need a doctor's note/documentation for the day you missed.

Sleep tight,
ZZZZZZZZ

Dear Student,

Thank you for the note. I am sorry you could not be with us last Thursday, and I appreciate your efforts to catch up on what you missed. I always recommend that when a student misses a class, they meet with a student who was present to meet with them for 20 minutes or so to explain what was covered in class. This gives both the student who missed class and the student who was present a chance to engage with the material and to gain greater understanding of the ideas we explore throughout the semester.

That said, your word choice baffles me. Contrary to what we heard in the schoolyard, "Hey" is not "for horses," because it isn't even spelled the same. In fact, it gained currency around the year 1200 as a verbal expression of "challenge, rebuttal, anger, or derision." And those just aren't the kind of groovy feelings I try to foster with the beanbag chairs in my office. [Note: I actually have two kissing-lips-shaped beanbag chairs in my office.] And by "man," I certainly hope you were not abbreviating "The Man," because I assure you that I am an ally in the struggle and seek to level all social distinctions and hierarchies as you were trying to do in the informal wording of your communiqué.

But as Saul Alinsky reminds us in Rules for Radicals, we must subvert by stealth, so future letters to teachers, administrators, prospective employers, and tax assessors should maintain the highest levels of professional courtesy. This will enable you to gain their trust and eventually subvert the system from within.

In solidarity,
Professor

Good afternoon:

I hope all is well with you. Please note that all the questions you ask in your email are addressed in the syllabus. The syllabus delineates clearly what we will be doing in class each day and states that if a student misses a class meeting, it is their responsibility to get notes and information from a fellow student.

In the future, please observe the "netiquette" guidelines listed on Page 3. Beginning your email with an appropriate greeting is expressly noted there. "Hey" is shonuff not an appropriate greeting for an email between you and your professor: We ain't homies. We ain't friends. And while I genuinely feel warmly toward my students, the assumption of peership in your email is not cool.

I need you to consider why you thought it was alright to address me so informally. Is this how you communicate with all of your professors or just the ones that are young black women?

Look, man. This level of fooleywang has got to stop. Get it together.

Dr. Amin
Here's what we'd really say:
Dear Student,

Because you are sick, I will make a one-time exception and respond to your email. But please note that in the future any emails you send to me that begin with "Hey" will not receive a response, a practice that is made clear in the course's "netiquette" policy. While fever or dehydration may have caused you to forget, here are a few things you will want to re-familiarize yourself with when you are well again:

1. As it states in the "netiquette" policy, you should consider communications with me, your professor, as professional communications. I'm not your friend, your roommate, your parent, the Twittersphere, or your journal. In other words, don't address me with "Hey," "Hi there," "Lisa," or worse yet, no address at all. Additionally, don't use text language, emojis, or hashtags (#thatwontendwellforU). In exchange, I will communicate with you professionally as well.

2. As it happens, you already know what you will miss in class as it is outlined in the course syllabus. You will likely want to ask the friend who's kind enough to be turning in your paper if she'll also be kind enough to share her notes with you. If, after reading her notes, you have specific questions, feel free to come to my office hours, which are listed (you guessed it!) on the syllabus.

3. While I appreciate you letting me know of your absence, you actually don't have to. As it states in the syllabus, you can have four absences in my class - I don't care for what reason. If you're in bed hopped up on NyQuil for the plague-like cold that is hitting everyone, or you slept through your alarm, or you're taking a "sick day" at the beach, I don't need to know. But if you still feel obligated to let me know, you don't need to provide details. I understand what sick means: It means you won't be in class. Period.

I wish you a speedy recovery.

Signed,
The Syllabus is Your Friend

Dear Student,

Sometimes I allow myself to get troubled by things that most people would shake off. Today is one of those times. In your recent email to me, you addressed me as "Hey." Let me preface my comments by saying that you aren't the first. I've received emails the open with "Yo," "Hey Prof," "Miss A." Most times I just ignore these salutations and chalk it up to youthful ignorance, but I realized today, I was doing you all a disservice by not correcting you. So today you get to hear the words I should have said to all of those others.

My name is Professor Angela Jackson-Brown and I really wish you would address me by that name. It's the name on my syllabus and it is the name on those three, count them, three degrees hanging on my office wall. Please take the extra couple of seconds necessary to type "Dear Professor Jackson-Brown."

I know, you get in a hurry. You have other things on your mind. And you live in a culture in which manners are no longer stressed. But believe me: It is better that you learn this lesson from me than from a future employer who might not fire you for your lackadaisical manner of addressing him or her, but might think twice about elevating you to a position in the company that requires decorum. Addressing someone who is your superior, your higher up, by "hey" sends the message you don't value that person. It sends the message you don't recognize that person studied long and hard, jumped through tons of hoops, and endured countless hours of sleeplessness and stress to earn that title. I'm not royalty or a pop star, so I don't need you to "bow down." I just need you to respect the title I spent years earning.

Best always.

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A recent email to me from a student: "Hey! I wont be in class today, I feel very sick and need to sleep all day. I know we are watching the movie today so il watch that before class on Tuesday. let me know if there's anything else I miss!

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Imagine two college graduates interviewing for a job. Both applicants did well at school. Both have similar skills on paper. Both have good references. Both are enthusiastic. And both spent a semester on a study abroad program.

As CEO of a social network with users in over 160 countries, I need employees with global skills. During the job interview with our two candidates, I'd ask them to tell me about their best experience during study abroad. Here are responses I've heard in the past. One applicant talks about how awesome the experience was, that it would be too difficult to pick a favorite, but that it was the best time of his/her life. The other applicant begins with similar comments, but continues by mentioning instances where he/she interacted with locals, observed cultural differences, and experienced the feelings that come with being in another country and culture. The second applicant also talks about having a more global perspective after studying abroad.

Which applicant would you hire? I'd hired the second applicant in an instant. And I'd hire more graduates just like her. The second candidate showed me the cultural curiosity, awareness, empathy, and global perspective that will help my company grow and succeed.

Approximately 280,000 students from the United States study abroad each year for academic credit (as compared with about 820,000 international students at colleges and university in the U.S.). Students have the opportunity to return home with skills that will make them more employable in today's global economy. How can we help our student abroad students build those important global skills?

We need to show them ways to maximize the study abroad experience so they can build these skills. We need to give them strategies to implement before, during, and after their trip. First, help students "know before they go." They should spend part of pre-departure preparation connecting with people in the destination country through a social network like WeSpeke. They can learn a bit of the language. Ask about the culture and customs. Ask practical questions. Ask questions like "What are three things I should absolutely do when I'm in your city/country"? These conversations will help them be ready for the experience. Second, they need suggestions on ways to observe, process, and reflect upon reflect their interactions with the people and culture during the trip. Third, after they return home, they need ways to process and articulate the study abroad experience so they can showcase their new global skills to employers like me during job interviews.

Let's go back to those two job candidates. The first applicant may have picked up the same global skills as the second candidate, but might not have been as prepared to share them in an interview. Or maybe the first candidate didn't approach study abroad with the goal of building global skills that would integrate with a career. Whatever the reason, we can't let the study abroad trip be a missed opportunity for this student and for me. And as a parent of a study abroad student, I'd feel the same way (especially after writing the check).

As we move deeper into the 21st century, it is critical that the United States (or any country) improve the ability of its workers to operate in a globalized and multi-cultural economy. Study abroad can be the transformative journey to prepare students for the global workforce. We need to examine how we prepare students for study abroad with the goal of helping them maximize this once-in-a-lifetime experience as they enter the global workforce.

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Study Abroad as Preparation for Joining the Global Workforce

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Imagine two college graduates interviewing for a job. Both applicants did well at school. Both have similar skills on paper. Both have good references. Both are enthusiastic. And both spent a semester on a study abroad program. As CEO of a social network with users in over 160 countries, I need employees with global skills.