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Morning News, July 14: The Day After

 Many of us are glued to, or at least checking frequently, media accounts of the shooting last night.  Donald Trump is very fortunate, and I hope he sees the spiritual reality of this incident--his life was spared--and lives in gratitude.  He is not "lucky," he was saved from death or significant brain injury. It's hard not to predict this propels him to the White House, but just as no one expected the back lash toward Biden about his debate performance or this shooting, we cannot assume the future.  And of course, the incident will be investigated for a long time to come; the fact a sniper was even there is pretty disturbing. On the "Twitters" there were some funny memes about how the media's coverage. One large outlet I was checking last night, even with the very clear Fox News footage of gunshots and blood, wrote as a headline, "Secret Service interrupts Trump Rally." You can't make this stuff up.  I'll let the chattering classes interpr...
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Further criticism of higher education

Derek Thompson, who is never short on opinions, published this in the Atlantic . Despite this first sentence, I agree with him. I have lived it over the last 20 years. And I would say my institution is quite conservative in this regard, but we have had to, because of federal law and student expectations mostly, add several non-faculty positions. Fortunately, we do not depend overmuch on part-timers, not like many institutions, and their service is limited to two classes per semester in most cases.   The issue is also, are these burgeoning staff positions even effective? Well, it could be considered Apples and Oranges. Today there is almost no barrier to getting into some kind of (access) college. That access does not mean success. (Sounds like a good slogan for someone:  Access means success [or not].) But because there are few barriers, more come, and that means more issues to deal with, mental health being one of the largest, as well as academic unpreparedness.  A secon...
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Do Social Media and Phones Hurt Teens, OR NOT? A different view

This article argues that Jonathan Haidt's and Jean Twenge's work is extreme in its placing blame for teen mental health problems on social media and phones. She focuses on the methodology of the studies, in somewhat narrow ways. All studies have flaws if you are looking for them; that is the nature of social sciences research and why every journal article ends with "we need more research." ("Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth" says II Timothy 3:7.) She doesn't address the question of why mental health is so much worse now than twenty, even fifteen years ago.  The phones themselves would not have done this without social media, and social media would not have blossomed without the phones. And of course there is not direct causation in every instance. But my students know they spend too much time on their phones, and they feel guilt about their addiction.  And perhaps they should. They are not outside, not with friends, not ...
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