Opinion

I am working on a presentation today, a riff on a theme I have often mentioned in these blogs under the title: The Internet transfigures humanity. In the course of reviewing the history of U.S. higher education in the twentieth-century, I reread President Eisenhower's farewell speech. In search of understanding the context around which he coined the famous "military-industrial complex" phrase, I discovered that higher education has a walk on role in the drama. Here is what President Eisenhower had to say:

By Tracy Mitrano

Thomas C. Terry asks why academics who would never joke about or question the beliefs of many groups are so quick to mock or criticize Mormons.

By Thomas C. Terry

I did it! I made it all the way through a MOOC, submitting the final assignment in Coursera's Computer Science 101 this afternoon.

By Audrey Watters

When skyrocketing college tuition becomes the target of public critique, I tend to think about the recent study of spoiled American middle class children as opposed to academic salaries.

By Elizabeth Lewis Pardoe

There's a lot of talk about the future of the humanities and humanities education here at Congress 2012. Guess who is missing from the discussion?

By Lee Bessette

If you read The Economist then Time to Start Thinking is your kind of book. There is something almost soothing about a book that is simultaneously well-written and depressing. Somehow learning about the decline of the U.S. from a Brit -- Luce is the Washington Bureau Chief of London's Financial Times -- feels more palatable than similar arguments made by an American.

By Joshua Kim

The Boy turned 11 this weekend. I remember day one. He was born tall for his age; he was the biggest kid in the nursery. He’s still tall for his age, and well on his way to being tall for any age. (He’s five foot five, and growing pretty much every time I turn around. I shudder to think what the adolescent growth spurt will bring.)

By Dean Dad

I began playing capoiera a few months ago, and I am terrible at it. Which is pretty perfect. My foray into the Brazilian fight-dance began academically enough, but the process of practicing something that I am not -- and will perhaps never be -- good at has been a refreshing change of pace during a life point of increasing responsibility and supposed expertise development.

By Myra Ann Houser