Blogs

I can hardly believe it; after ten straight years in graduate school, I will be graduating. There were definitely times in my graduate career when I thought this day wouldn't come, but it's just a few short weeks away. Graduation is a special event that calls for a bit of preparation, including some things you might not consider. Here are a few reminders.

My annual trip to the New York automobile show took place recently. I have been going to this show since the 1960s, even before I learned to drive, and have only missed one or two shows in all these years.

As recorded here last week, my extended family recently traveled to Ireland. The trip, especially the Belfast portion, was deeply moving, disturbing and important to us all, given our family's history of disowning and abandoning members because of religious differences. And being in Ireland over Easter weekend — a pivotal time in the history of Irish Republicanism — reinforced our feeling that our family's history was a valid part of a much larger story.

Should we take a pass on past writing?

The language of madness is beginning to creep into the commentary on Rutgers basketball coach Mike Rice, star of The Mike Rice Viral Video Show. Narcissism, sadism, psychotic rage, all the terms we've learned from the psychiatrist's bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, now routinely appear, as sports writers and cultural observers express outrage that a mentor of young men at a respectable educational institution could inflict such sustained and intense punishment upon them.

Several years ago, I started musing about the potential for an upscale for-profit college. (Here’s the first piece in which I floated the idea of “Mercedes U,” back in 2005.) Since then I’ve returned to the idea several times (such as this piece from 2010, and this from 2012). Founders College gave the idea a shot several years ago, but flamed out quickly due to terrible planning and a quixotic Ayn Rand fixation. As far as I know, that has been the only credible attempt.

Picture this: one day, after a morning when you desperately tried to cope with a schedule without anything related to your academic credentials, that continued with a less academic business meeting and an even less intellectual afternoon of careful family budget planning, you have a moment of truth. For almost ten years, or even more, you had had a hard time trying to get the best grades at the university and read all the complicated and sophisticated books included in the bibliography.

The other day I had one of those realizations that come initially as a total surprise, and then on further reflection seem glaringly obvious. We are in the middle of campus creative renaissance built on learning design.