Donald Simanek's documents and links on education.
Decline of educational standardsEducation and writing
Intellectual fads
College and university information.
The Decline of Educational Standards
- The Decline of Education, Part 1 (1974, 1994), Part 2 (1995), What Is The Meaning Of 'Academic'?, and Designing a math curriculum for today's students. By Donald Simanek.
- The Downward Spiral Of Public Education, by John T. Lowry.
- Inflated Grades, Inflated Enrollment, and Inflated Budgets. by John Stone.
- Responses to science spoofs demonstrate science illiteracy, gullibility and lack of critical thinking skills in today's students. The Invisible Killer!, and Clean Power?
- Mathematically Correct, an organization opposing the dumbing-down of mathematics and science education.
- The Textbook League. Critical reviews of school textbooks. Special emphasis on texts which present errors and misconceptions.
- Society for A Return to Academic Standards.
Education, writing
Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education. —Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)Why do some people write? Because they don't have enough character not to write. —Karl Kraus
- The World Lecture Hall. Courses, lecture notes, exams...
- A resource guide for students, especially its extensive list of links.
- Jack Lynch's Writing Resources. University of Pennsylvania.
- The Elements of Style by Strunk and White, 1918 ed. (Required reading!)
- THE SLOT: A Spot for Copy Editors by Bill Walsh.
- The Curmudgeon's Stylebook by Bill Walsh.
- Brewer's 1894 Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.
- Online Writing Labs: Purdue U., Dakota State U., DeVry Institute of Technology, Rensselaer Polytechnic.
DOCUMENTS
- How to Succeed as a Student. Excellent book by Kevin Bucknall. A free download.
- Term Paper Guidelines by Donald Simanek.
- How to Study Physics by Seville Chapman.
- Physics Course Survival Strategies. by Donald Simanek.
- Suggestions for Physics Students by Dale D. Long.
- Study Tips for Introductory Physics Students. Compiled and edited by Dan Styer, Oberlin College Physics Department.
- On Being a Student by Donald Simanek.
- How to Learn by Lewis Carroll.
- Reduced English by Donald Simanek. Ernest Vincent Wright's novel Gadsby never uses the letter e. E-prime uses no verbs of being.
- Some documents which were previously here have been moved to the physics and astronomy documents section.
Intellectual Fads.
Periodically the academic world is afflicted by pretentious intellectual fads which are so silly/stupid/inane/specious that the only intelligent response is to make fun of them, exposing them as shams devoid of worthwhile content, and demonstrating that their proponents are selling snake-oil.
- Anthropic Principles. Ian's Cosmic Matters-The Anthropic Principle, Natural Explanations for the Anthropic Coincidences,
- Anthropic Principles are a form of self-referential cosmic pseudo-philosophy so silly you'd think they couldn't be parodied. But The Completely Radical Anthropic Principle (CRAP) does.
- Paradigm. This jargon word is used by those who like to pretend they know something about how scientific models evolve. But when you hear someone use this word excessively, speaking profoundly about "paradigm shifts" you suspect that person is a shifty individual talking moonshine. I haven't found a good send-up of this fad yet, and may have to write one myself.
- Total Quality Management (TQM). So pervasive has this silly cult become in the business community that there's hardly anything critical of it on the net. This inane foolishness is even now invading the world of academic administration, where its appropriateness is even more dubious. For a critical view, see "TQM: Brave New Reductionism". Where are the other critics?
Colleges and Universities
- American Universities. Links to college and university home pages.
- Peterson's College Guide.
- The Princeton Review. Info on colleges, careers, SAT exams. School profiles based on facts (statistical) supplied by the schools, and opinions gleaned from student surveys. The latter is best taken as anecdotal.
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