Quote: Zhuangzi, 286 BC

The Downside of the Academic Meritocracy

The sentiments of a current second-year college student attending a public flagship university in California when reflecting on the perils of the academic meritocracy: Rewarding/punishing requires less effort [by faculty and students] though, making it the easier default [system for measuring academic performance]. Assigning expectations, whether positive or negative, is a low-effort path that leads…

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Zoom School.Joe Visitacion

An Inconvenient Truth

Since 1635, the three-dimensional American classroom, now replicated amongst thousands of school districts comprising millions of school children and teachers, is relatively unchanged.  Yet, starting in mid-March 2020, a single RNA sequence causing COVID-19 and the subsequent social response to the health risks, has holistically breeched the brick and mortar walls of the modern American…

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Learning to be self-directed

With school closures and the substitution of distance learning, every student is learning to be self-directed, rather than teacher-guided or parent-approved. Although parents worry their children are falling behind, maybe they’re actually catching up, trying to reconnect with their authentic selves, discover more about their interests and aptitudes, which unfortunately, students can lose, in the…

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Imagine

A Renaissance in the Midst of COVID-19

Educators and students, participants in the Modern American Educational Industrial Complex, are mere glimmers of the Jeffersonian ideals of “essential merit”, which historian Joseph F. Kett defines as:  …merit that rests on specific and visible achievements by an individual that were thought, in turn, to reflect that individual’s estimable character…’Merit’ was that quality in the…

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Easy Does It

School district officials around the country are struggling to define how instruction will continue, and more importantly how students will be evaluated, given that school sites will be closed through the end of the school year. Some district administrators have decided to emulate the actions of many US colleges, and implement a Pass/No Pass grading…

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The Early Admissions Arms Race

According to the Common Application, “around 860,000” applications were submitted on November 1, 2019 for Early Action, Early Decision and Regular Decision application deadlines, which for the first time, exceeded the “around 720,000” applications submitted last year on January 1 for traditional Regular Decision deadlines. The increasingly competitive nature of the college admissions process—evident in…

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The Dilemma

Apparently some town founders in Pennsylvania we’re also parents of high school seniors or community college transfer students who are applying to college. 😆 While college applicants “Desire” to be admitted to the college of their choice and often the freedom of moving away from home, they can also “Panic” about the risk of not…

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Depth Over Breadth?

“Well-lopsided” is the new catchphrase in college admissions. In CMC’s recent conversation with an Ivy League admissions officer, she mentioned that the trend for applicants are either well-rounded, with depth in each activity or well-lopsided—which means if applicants are going to focus on one activity, like a sport, Olympic training should be in view for such a candidate. In…

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