In my search for signs of serious writing instruction in America high schools, I have stumbled across a rare creature: a physics teacher in Fairfax County who makes everyone in his honors classes enter a national science essay contest.
The 67-year-old West Springfield High School instructor, Ed Linz, is unconventional in other ways. He is a retired naval officer who once commanded a ballistic missile submarine. He was an All-Met Coach of the Year in cross country. He had a heart transplant 16 years ago. (When I asked how that was going, he said, “I woke up this morning.”) He wrote a book, “Life Row,” about the experience and does a weekly column for a newspaper in Spokane, Wash. Teachers with dynamite résumés are not uncommon in the Washington area. Like Linz, they don’t take any nonsense from me. When I gushed over the writing he was teaching his students, and mentioned my view that all schools should require major essays, he said that showed how naive I was about demands on teachers’ time.
Tigers shutout Leopards as Oxy attacks through the air For the first time in 2010 the Occidental College Tigers hit the road, but it was apparent that they felt right as home at the University of La Verne. The Black and Orange opened up a quick 7-0 lead on their opening drive en route to a 30-0 shutout in Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play today at Ortmayer Stadium.
The air attack, which included a 25-for-33, 353 yard overall performance for quarterbacks Luke Collis and Ryan Rodriguez got off to a hot start from the get-go. Collis found Nate Sulliven for his first pass of the day before hitting Wes McDaniel for a 53-yard touchdown three plays later. Joshua Mun added the point after to put the Tigers up 7-0 after just 2:46 in the opening stanza.
Two possessions later Collis found Matthew Tuckness for a 23-yard touchdown, which Mun capped off with his second PAT of the game.
Explosive ending to home opener for polo players For the first time in 2010 the Occidental College men’s water polo team played at home. In the friendly confines of Taylor Pool, with the bleachers packed and the crowd thoroughly involved, the Tigers left the deck with a 18-17 victory over the visiting Vanguard University Lions in non-conference play.
A close battle, in which the teams were never separated by more than three goals, came down to the final possessions of the game.
When Richard Dybas scored a behind-the-back no-look goal, followed by a fist pump and a roar from the crowd, Oxy tied the game up 16-16 with 1:50 left on the clock.
This time of year, with high school seniors slogging through one college application after another, and parents jittery about their children’s futures, I often write columns explaining why it doesn’t matter where they go to school.
The invariable reaction from many readers, and some of my friends, is that I went to Harvard, so what do I know about their problem?
It is true that I am a Harvard grad . I wrote a book titled “Harvard Schmarvard” that argues that the Ivy League, and other top-ranked colleges, add no discernible value to the lives of their graduates. They are good at attracting students with character strengths, such as persistence and humor, that lead to success. But applicants with such qualities who decide instead to attend places like Boise State do as well in life as those who attend colleges older than the country.
There is research on this by economist Alan B. Krueger (Cornell grad) and Stacy Berg Dale (Michigan). The pro
They posted quotes around campus from Henry David Thoreau. Meditation groups discussed Buddhist techniques of emptying the mind and overcoming attachment. Some sipped organic tea or took knitting and crocheting classes. The dean took off his shoes and socks and led students in qigong, a traditional Chinese breathing exercise to promote awareness of body and mind. Still, no matter how much administrators at Clark University sought to promote their Day of Slowing — 24 hours without texting or checking Facebook or listening to an iPod — nearly every student in the academic commons of the main library yesterday was either talking on a cellphone, checking e-mail on a laptop, or otherwise connected to a digital device.
MONROE — Wingate University’s most unusual dorm comes with a pool, ice machines and basketball court. Laundry service is free. And Spiro’s Hilltop Bistro and Bar serves as a dining hall.
For this semester, the dorm is America’s Best Value Inn motel off U.S. 74 in Monroe, about four miles from campus. Faced with an unexpectedly large freshman class and an on-campus apartment housing project still under construction, the university decided to renovate and then rent the entire motel for the semester.
“My first reaction was, ‘Can they do that?’” said sophomore Shelby Wilkinson, when she learned she would have to live in the motel. “But it was a lot better than I expected.”
The rooms were clean and a little bigger than anticipated, while neighboring Spiro’s offered much better food than Wingate’s cafeteria, she said.
Spiro’s is an 80-year-old local institution that has served everyone from Bob and Elizabeth Dole to the actors who played Bo and Luke on “The Dukes of Hazzard.”
About 96 Wingate students, mostly freshmen, live at the motel, along with three residential staffers.
Think again, but no need to duck out, we’re talking about shooting videos.
Renee Olson, the editor of Drew Magazine, shared on the CUE listserv a couple of weeks ago the first video piece she completed as a web extra for her magazine: a profile of a Guggenheim winner and faculty member Patrick Phillips.
At a time when many university print magazines are trying to reinvent themselves – and adopt a more integrated print/web approach, I was really interested in learning more on how Renee went from print to video.
1) What was your goal for this video?
For some time now, I’ve been fascinated with the idea of telling stories using images and sound, so I finally made up my mind to try video. I wan