MooPig Home School Department :: "Universities" PART ONE

Treatment by Pat Darnell | Apr 12, 2013 | Bryan TX

[Picture LINK]

The Practical University - NYTimes.com:
"What is a university for?

Are universities mostly sorting devices to separate smart and hard-working high school students from their less-able fellows so that employers can more easily identify them? Are universities factories for the dissemination of job skills? Are universities mostly boot camps for adulthood, where young people learn how to drink moderately, fornicate meaningfully and hand things in on time? (DAVID BROOKS. Published: April 4, 2013. LINK) ... "

'via Blog this'

" ... A recent article in the Washington Post began with the statement that today’s college students “may be part of the last generation for which ‘going to college’ means packing up, getting a dorm room and listening to tenured professors.” By using these three aspects of college life – packing up, dorm rooms, and tenured professors – the writer was able to clearly illustrate the ritualized process of traditional university education, setting the stage for major changes coming in the very near future.
In 2007 I released a paper on the future of education, culminating an 18 month effort to probe the likely evolution of a system that has become emotionally linked with many of our country’s and the world’s deficiencies. (By Futurist Thomas Frey. no date. LINK) ... "

Thomas Frey describes in his article deficiencies that come with dominant world powers. He relates dominant world power with a kind of tunnel vision mentality. The Romans, while in power, did not add much to mathematics because of their numbering system, Roman numerals. Because each Roman numeral was more of a "formula" than a "place holder" number. As a deficient numbering system, Roman numerals did not "promote" higher math.

" ... [What] made Roman numerals so inferior was that each number lacked specific numeric positioning, making each number more of an equation than a single integer. The added layer of complexity prevented people from doing higher math. (ibid. Frey, Thomas) ... "

Unfortunately, in our cataloging society, we are today, like the Romans, too deeply immersed in our systems:

" ... Most of these systems we take for granted – systems for weights and measurement, accounting, banking, procurement, traffic management, and food labeling. With each of these systems we are much like the Romans, immersed in the use of these systems to a point where we seldom step back and question the reasoning and logic behind them. ... "

Universities traditionally are the "conveyors of wisdom and culture from generation to generation." Human intelligence, still not fully understood, might be genetically passed on from parent to child -- but memory of how we became intelligent must be relearned by each child. Memory is not passed on genetically in humans.

However, Universities are "about to find out" that our digital revolution with its "counterparts in education" will outdistance the pedantic task of passing on wisdom and culture.

" ... College 2.0 will witness a massive peeling apart process. Learning will become separated from the classroom. Courses will be created organically and formed around an on-demand, any-time, any-place delivery models. Professors will declare their independence and work for multiple institutions rather than just one specific college. Accreditation will shift from the Institution to the course and to the individual. And textbooks, the ink-on-paper version that we know today, will all but disappear. (Frey, thomas. ibid.) ... "

What MooPig Wisdom wants to pass on to its reader is that you don't have to wait for this to be perfected. Stay at home higher learning is here already, and effective as a source of educational advancement. It doesn't hurt to go ahead and enjoy the cost advantages of digital learning today; especially since it is how things are going to be. Just like libraries, music, newspapers, and broadcasters, Universities adapt to the digital era.

" ... An August 2009 study released by SRI International for the U.S. Dept of Education concluded that “On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.” (ibid. Frey Thomas. [NY Times]) ... "

Meeting in classrooms, instead of driving to and from a location while supporting oneself, can be done online virtually. Room and board is no longer an added cost factor in educational pursuits.

" ... For colleges to survive and thrive, the coming years will find them searching for higher ground. Their struggle will be to transition themselves beyond regional objectives, political boundaries, and short-term thinking. ... "

" ... Cultural shifts: The perceived value is a core component of a college’s reputation, and that reputation is being continually re-defined in online communities.

• 81% of Americans age 18 and over use the Internet. (Harris Poll)
• On average, 245 million word-of-mouth conversations occur in the U.S. daily via e-mail, IM/text messaging or chat rooms/blogs, and 35% of advice givers in online conversations fall within the 13 to 17 age bracket. (Keller Fay Group)
• 64% of college student Internet users consider word of mouth the most useful type of advertising. (Alloy Media + Marketing)
• Many of the top attributes that teenagers value in a brand — community, collaboration, co-creation, empathy, real story and meaning — relate to authenticity. (ibid. Frey T. [Ypulse]) ... "

SUMMARY
" ... The problem is that as online education becomes more pervasive, universities can no longer primarily be in the business of transmitting technical knowledge. Online offerings from distant, star professors will just be too efficient. As Ben Nelson of Minerva University points out, a school cannot charge students $40,000 and then turn around and offer them online courses that they can get free or nearly free. That business model simply does not work. (DAVID BROOKS. Published: April 4, 2013. LINK) ... "


_____________________Reference
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/opinion/Brooks-The-Practical-University.html?src=me&ref=general
http://moopigwisdom.blogspot.com/2013/02/moopig-home-school-department-moocs.html
http://www.davinciinstitute.com/papers/the-future-of-colleges-universities-blueprint-for-a-revolution/

MooPig Report from the Middle :: "That year Reagan formally switched to the Republican Party"

What is the Middle Anyway?
by Pat Darnell  |  July 2, 2011  |  Bryan TX

[IMAGE: File:1960prescountymap2.PNG] 1960 Election Results by County

EXCERPT  |  " ...In recent years, the South has operated both as a blessing and a burden for the GOP. The region, defined as the 11 states of the Old Confederacy plus Oklahoma and Kentucky, has become the cornerstone of the Republican electoral coalition. Yet as the GOP has become dominant across Dixie, and more closely identified with its uncompromising brand of social and economic conservatism, it has struggled in other regions, especially during the Bush era. (Brownstein, Ronald. June 29, 2011. LINK )... "

" ... After all, Perry, who visited Southern California this week as he explores the race, is a big-state executive with a strong economic record and hard-edged fiscal and social views attractive to the party’s most energetic grassroots conservatives. “He checks so many boxes,” says Mark McKinnon, an Austin-based Republican consultant. ... "

Unfortunately, at this time Governor Rick Perry, Republican from Texas, somehow represents the Middle that MooPig so loves to tout. Today we try to define that Middle; but not favorably to Perry type hype.

The Middle wasn't always so conservative. Texas was totally Democratic in the elections of Kennedy and LBJ. Of course, and that was a "liberal" Democratic group. Somehow the Middle still meanders about like it has jet lag from those events of election of JFK and eventual murder of JFK. The Middle resonates with lawlessness, bigotry, and seldom has time to resolve national issues.

Kennedy asked Johnson to be his Vice Presidential candidate, despite opposition from many liberal delegates and Kennedy's own staff, including brother Robert. He needed Johnson's strength in the South to win [LINK] ... "

In the Middle, it is two ideologies colliding: how to train a large big dumb animal, like a horse. Two extreme ideals take front stage. 1) You whip the beast into submission, and therefore train him for riding; 2) or, you horse-whisper the beast using its various quirks to train it into a riding horse, without beatings.

Texas has a unique position as anchor to the Middle. That is because Illinois is the buoy of the Middle. Midwesterner ideals came from Big Shoulders of liberal Democrats, and conservation of methodology of those values beloved to Illinois. Remember "His Honor the Mare" Richard J. Daley -- 1902 - 1976? Democrat mayor of Chicago for two decades. He was an only child, was born in 1902 into an Irish catholic neighborhood of south Chicago. He went to Catholic elementary school.

One wonders what school of hard knocks old mayor Daley came from. I am sure he was whipped into shape like many of his era. Spare the whip, spoil the child? You tell me which is the best meaning of those words. Some may not know but his son and namesake was mayor for decades after his father moved on, "His Honor the Mare" Richard M. Daley.

Switching now to the other lush, unwieldy, state -- California. What a mess. California is full of Texans. Born in Texas, young people migrated to the west coast for decades, especially in the 60's. It is similar to Illinois born people who migrate to Texas and Florida. But is California part of the Middle?

California Republicans were impressed with Reagan's political views and charisma after his "Time for Choosing" speech, and nominated him for Governor of California in 1966. [LINK] In Reagan's campaign, he emphasized two main themes: "to send the welfare bums back to work," and in reference to burgeoning anti-war and anti-establishment student protests at the University of California at Berkeley, "to clean up the mess at Berkeley."[LINK] He was elected, defeating two-term governor Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, and was sworn in on January 2, 1967. In his first term, he froze government hiring and approved tax hikes to balance the budget.

Reagan defines the Middle. By now Reagan was a Republican, "Reagan began his political career as a liberal Democrat, admirer of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and active supporter of New Deal policies, but in the early 1950s, ... he shifted to the right and, while remaining a Democrat, endorsed the presidential candidacies of Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956 as well as Richard Nixon in 1960 ... " in 1962.[LINK] That year Reagan formally switched to the Republican Party, stating, "I didn't leave the Democratic Party. The party left me." ... "

Reagan opposed certain civil rights legislation, saying "If an individual wants to discriminate against Negroes or others in selling or renting his house, it is his right to do so". (Kyle Longley Deconstructing Reagan: conservative mythology and America's fortieth president, M.E. Sharpe, 2007 ISBN 0-7656-1590-8 p. 76. [LINK]) He later reversed his opposition to voting rights and fair housing laws. He strongly denied having racist motives. [LINK]

June 7, 2004 – Roger Wilkins commented on Reagan's Jefferson Davis remark. Wilkins also said the following: "I had one extraordinary conversation with him in which he called me to tell me he wasn't a racist because I had attacked his South Africa policy in a newspaper column and he was very disturbed by the implication that this had any... he spent 30 minutes on the telephone trying to convince me about it, and talked about how he had played football with black guys in high school and college in order to try to make that point."

Conclusion
So to summarize this, the Middle today is neither all Republican or all Democrat. The Middle includes California, after JFK\LBJ elections -- and Illinois, Midwesterner ideals, along with the "Confederacy."

The Middle is two-faced, and uses either of two arguments, depending on who they are talking to. Rick Perry unfortunately has gone bi-coastal now, and will suffer immensely if he chooses to spew the whipped horse speeches. By the way, he is a surrogate Governor, acting in place of "W" when "W" left office of governor open. Most Texans say "Rick Who?"

Ronald Reagan set in motion his whipping post model for the Middle, and has been the "impossible" act-to-follow for other want-to-be political leaders, for a generation and a half.

Some may say, the Middle is not worthy. That is understatement. The Middle includes all those who believe in the "common good," as long as that does not interrupt nor interfere in their lives. Therefore it boils down to the "Middle" and then the "Others." The Middle resonates with lawlessness, bigotry, and seldom has time to resolve national issues.

In 1960 the Middle mostly was won by JFK with LBJ, Democrats 303 electoral votes to 219 for Nixon.

That's MooPig Report from the Middle, where it would be nice if we had some rain -- the men all have good hair, the women are exceedingly strong, and the children have hats that don't blow off in the wind.

[IMAGE: Colors are reversed in images to confuse the innocent]

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