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Quick Takes: 1 Million Online Common Applications, Protest at Michigan Museum, Chinese Warnings Worry Canadian Educators

February 20, 2007

The Common Application -- which allows students to use the same application to apply to multiple colleges -- last week recorded its one millionth online application this academic year, up from 682,357 online applications during the entire previous academic year. While many have feared that the online Common Application would lead to a sharp increase in the number of colleges that students apply to, the average number of colleges of online applicants this year through Common Application is 3.9, a marginal increase from last year's average of 3.8.
A group of University of Michigan students on Sunday placed screens over dioramas at the university's Exhibit Museum of Natural History to prevent viewing of depictions of Native American life hundreds of years ago, The Ann Arbor News reported. The students maintain that the depictions are historically questionable and demean American Indians.
Canadian educators are concerned about warnings issued by Chinese officials about some low quality, private career colleges in Canada, The Toronto Star reported, and a new law in Ontario aims to assure foreign students and others of higher quality in these programs.

— Scott Jaschik

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Censorship v Protest
Posted by Quizzical on February 20, 2007 at 8:17am EST
To cover is to edit or censor - forbidden in a free society.
Comment and protest are permitted.
The students must be taught the difference.

What goes round comes round
Posted by Thomas Simmons , Dr. on February 20, 2007 at 10:31am EST
The situation in Canada--I watched this happen many times. It is still happening in Japan where Japanese students are scammed by the conversation schools and the Japanese language schools for non-Japanese from Asia front for cheap illegal labour pools. What they do to the teachers is much the same story. There was a major overhaul of the laws in New Zealand after some bad experiences both happening to the students and caused by the students but rather than improve the education for the incoming students, the public institutions have simply accelerated their marketing--do this course and get into our university. Like Canada, Chinese government personnel got into the act and painted everyone with the same dirty brush before the NZ government got off its backside and acted. The schools in Korea include their share of bad apples but the Korean government is really under no pressure to improve them -- for teachers or students. The story in Canada is hardly unique.

RE: Censorship V Protest
Posted by Acupuncture School Teacher on February 20, 2007 at 1:41pm EST
Quizzical, it's not so simple as you say. First of all, when has editing ever been forbidden in a free society? This very page of "Quick Takes" is an editing of the original article, which says:
"To the extent that the dioramas prompt students to ask questions, they are good teaching tools, said [museum director Amy Harris]. She said that the museum staff shares many of the same questions as the students.
"The students who created the protest were part of an art class asked to design projects to be installed at the museum. The projects were to relate to an exhibit or the nature of museums."
Regarding your statement "To cover is to edit or censor — forbidden in a free society," how do you rectify the success of Wikipedia, for example, made viable by a community of editors and volunteer coverers?

Posted by Free to choose on February 22, 2007 at 12:31pm EST
Thank goodness we have a group of people that are so concerned for my sensibilities and protect me from historical inaccuracies! Perhaps they could be persuaded to protect me from historically incaccurate movies or radio broadcasts?
Last time I checked in to real life, it was up to each of us to decide what we would view or not view, not a vigilante group of self appointed cultural guardians.