This section of the site contains pieces that aim to challenge existing ideas or point to new lines of thought.  All entries are copyright but may be quoted if credit is given. 

Vocation
    December 2011

Greece in a Troubled Time Travel
    October 2011

Expansion and Contraction in Thucydides
    October 2011

Revising the curriculum, again? Better luck this time.
    September 2011


Five Greatest Hits (click here and scroll down) 

     What to do with Harvard's Missing $390 million     

     Being Systematic about Student Learning 

    Hibernating Occidental Obama 

    Kaizen Anyone?

     In Praise of Literalism 
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 Greed Is Not Enough 

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 Susan Goes to College

Susan Smith is a modal student. Maybe she's a model student too. But for our purposes, she's a modal student, a statistical construction based on the most common patterns in American higher education. I met her while I was trying to figure out what was really happening in the immense, varied, sprawling world of higher education in this country.

Some statisticians told me that there is no Susan--no modal student--in a system as complex as American higher education.  They are right about the complexity; Susan, I expect, finds it baffling too. But I believe that if we don't look for the typical, we might be in danger of overlooking the reality that surrounds many of today's college students.  

So here is Susan's story, chapter by chapter.  

Enjoy!

Bob Connor  
March 2010


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Chapter 1: Meeting Susan
In which I meet eighteen-year old college student Susan Smith for the first time and discover that she's from the population center of the country

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