Beloit College Mindset List

Each year for the past 14 years, Beloit College in Wisconsin has prepared a cultural snapshot of their incoming freshman class.  This year the class of 2014.  Each year I am a little amazed at how old I am getting and what to me makes total logical sense most of them would have no connection to at all.  The complete list can be found on The Chronicle of Higher Education site at http://chronicle.com/article/The-Beloit-College-Mind-Set/123925/

In this year's stunners -- most students cannot write in cursive - I suppose in a few years they will not be able to read it either! Bill Clinton was making his first presidential run while they were babies. Los Angelenos have always been trying to get along - and they would not even understand the reference to Rodney King nor know who he was. Russians and Americans have always lived together in outer space.  And many more similar items are listed on the list of 68.

Good or bad?  Either, both, or neither?  This is a sign for us that we may not be in Kansas any more Toto and unless this class likes old movies that reference would be lost on them too.  So I am just going to click my heels together and say "I wish I were ......"

Utterly Dismal Theory

Today in Boone was hot and muggy -- I know for those of you who live where it is really hot out 82 ºF is not hot.  But as I was thinking of the "dog days" I was transported to the time when most humans lived out doors and really watched their environments.  But did that mean that they were more considerate of their place than we are?

I concluded --probably not -- there were just so few of them that their destructive activities were of little consequence to the earth.  It is sort of like when you live in a detached house miles from your nearest neighbor -- it makes little difference to anyone if you play loud music, shoot guns, raise hogs, or whatever.  When people got crowded into apartments or postage stamp sized lots in cities and suburbs that this behavior had to be regulated.  We banded together and created laws concerning noise, discharge of firearms, livestock allowed, etc.  We had to be considerate of our neighbors and keep the loud music down and not shoot our guns whenever and wherever we want -- it is dangerous and/or annoying to others.

Many years ago, I attended a lecture on puebloan Native Americans -- and how they had slowly destroyed their environment by over-cutting, over-farming (in arid places) and in general just taking everything they wanted without regard to other peoples or the local animals. 

After a while the land could no longer sustain them and they either left or died out.  In those days there were lots of other places where they could go -- and start the cycle over again. This was called the Utterly Dismal Theory because it was like tracing a desolation band following settlements.  Can this be us?

Today we not so blessed with land everywhere that we can move to -- all we have is planet Earth and it is definitely finite --so are we like the puebloans who overused their environment and as a consequence our only alternative is to die out, since moving to Mars, the Moon, etc is just not feasible?  This would truly be utterly dismal.We do have choice if we can create a scientific literate citizenry who can stop and reverse this destruction...it is not as if we do not know how to do it -- we do.

The photograph below is taken at Wupatki National Monument and is a reminder that even advanced peoples can have problems -- is this us?

Wukoki Ruin - near Flagstaff AZ

Sunday evening

Today was a great day.  I had the opportunity to go to church and listen to a great sermon by our pastor, John Fitzgerald.  John was speaking on the idea mentioned in the Book of James about being a "doer" not just a hearer.  While this has religious implications it also has educational and social implications as well.

As an educator, I feel a responsibility to those that I teach and come in contact with as well.  Oliver Wendell Holmes is credited with a thought .."An educator can never tell where his influence stops." and I feel this is really true. I have had two recent examples of this -- one is a former student when I was teaching biology at East Mecklenburg High in Charlotte back in 1970s.  She recently found me on Facebook and wrote to tell me that I had inspired her to go into medicine which she did attending Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University.

A second was a student when I was principal at West Lincoln High in Lincolnton.  While I did not teach him directly I apparently instilled some love of learning and he is now a neurosurgeon in Chicago!!  I am so very proud of these two and all the others with whom I came into contact -- I do not know what happened to them but I hope in some small way I made a difference in their lives.

I had the opportunity to ride around Watauga County today and look at some of the Quilt Trail (http://www.watauga-arts.org/pages/barn.html ) this is where old barns get a painting of a mountain quilt pattern. There are other counties where this is being done as part of the Mountain Heritage projects.

My daughter and I road around and had a great visit.  She is leaving early tomorrow to continue a new phase in her life teaching at a school in Tucson, AZ.  She is excited and I am for her -- she is a great person and a great teacher -- I am very proud to have had some small part in her -- other than some genes that is!! LOL!!

So please take the opportunity and be a DOER yourself -- make a difference

Thoughts on Thursday

Thursday here in Boone, NC is partially cloudy with intermittent sun.  As I was looking the online editions of The Chronicle discussing for-profit schools, a couple of things struck me.

One of these is that there are some truly bad folks out there who seem to be gaming the system.  It looks like the reports from the  Senate hearing have focused mainly on the career colleges - cosmetology, barber, etc.  I have not really read/seen much on those schools that are degree granting like my school and others. The author of the Chronicle article seemed to intimate that from the committee's perspective that it is the accrediting bodies that are at fault and the article ended with a sidebar that maybe all of higher education should be looked at in this regard.

A second thought is that no one at any institution that I have ever attended (and none of them were for-profit schools) promised that the education I paid to receive was going to give me a job.  Now my expectation was that when I completed my various degrees I would be more employable with a better range of skills with which to impress an employer.

Perhaps some of the enrollment advisors do promise potential students that they can get a better  job.  While the promise would be wrong, the idea of more education leading to better employability is normal, I would opine.

BTW - my degrees are BS - Appalachian State University - a member institution of the greater University of NC system; MS- Michigan State University the first land grant college; and EdD- Duke University a school that is private but consistently ranks in the top 10 in numerous fields of study.

I am contented with what Walden University does in recruiting students and providing education to them - I can only speak directly to those in the Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership, but assume the same holds true for the other schools and colleges.

Magical Moments

I am pretty new at this blogging process but wanted to leap in with what I consider some magical things in education.I will be posting as I find new and exciting things...I encourage you to share what you find as well and I would like to have this become a vibrant PLC (professional learning community) with something for educators at all levels.

A bit about me...

Dr. Steve Canipe, is currently a Program Director for Math, Science, and Instructional Technology at the Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership at Walden University. He has been a leader in educational technology and science for many years and has presented at numerous local, state, and national conferences. He has worked in all levels of education from middle school through doctoral level at the University. A member of various technology and science groups, he continues to advance the use of educational technology at all levels of education both through speaking and writing as well as mentoring new faculty.