Thanks for your patience!

A special thank you to Andrew Biro, the faculty association spokesperson at Acadia University, for his comment on my previous post. 

Here’s the core of it:

Acadia faculty salaries are now 6% below the average in Atlantic Canada, and 20% below the average across the country. If we accepted the administration’s offer, that gap would, at best, be about the same at the end of the contract. We might well fall even further behind. The market for recruiting faculty has become increasingly competitive (as David’s comment about “failed searches” suggests), not only at the entry level, but also as more faculty adopt a free-agent attitude and jump (or are enticed) to other universities mid-career. So the longer and further our compensation package lags behind that of other universities, the harder it will be to get and keep good faculty here, the more the quality of education at Acadia will suffer, and finally, the less value an Acadia degree will hold.

Precisely.  This is really what this strike is all about.  I’ve been drawn into discussions of apples and oranges (non-profs versus profs) but that doesn’t get to the heart of the matter, which is that faculty at Acadia should be paid as well (and receive the same benefits) as faculty everywhere else in Canada.  Period. 

Like every Acadia parent, I want my daughter to earn a degree that is both relevant and respected.  And in order for her to get a top-quality education, her professors at Acadia need to be supported just as fully and enthusiastically as they would be at any other institution.  We need them to WANT to be there, and even more than that, we need them to value the opportunity to teach at Acadia just as much if not more than similar opportunities to teach elsewhere. 

I’m glad to see that students are becoming more involved in this debate.  It’s one thing to take a week off to relax, but it’s another to sit idly by while the university education you (or your parents) are paying for is rendered ridiculous. 

I’ve never been through a college strike before, but as a student who worked three jobs while going to university (and still graduated with thousands of dollars in debt–back in 1982!) I can only imagine how frustrated I would have been if my classes were cancelled and I could add up the hundreds of dollars a week I was wasting while waiting for negotiations to kick in. 

Yes, the faculty at Acadia deserves better.  Yes, students deserve to get the classes they’ve already paid for.

Let’s get this show on the road.  It’s time for the administration to suck it up and sign on the dotted line. 

 Acadia’s future is at stake.

Oh, wow.  I got a lot of comments on my last post responding to David McMullin, a professor at Acadia University, where the faculty are in their second week of a strike.

You’ll notice that I approved only one of them to be shown on this blog.  The others were, shall we say, offensive.  And personal.  We’ll just delete those, if it’s okay with you. I’m not trying to get into a cat fight here.  I’m an Acadia parent, education researcher, and someone who is writing a book on great ways to get a college education.  So, I do have my reasons for wanting to understand this issue and I do have a right to express my views.  

I’d like to respond to the one comment that I did publish.

The big complaint is regarding what is perceived as my characterization of professors as not working as hard as someone who has a typical 9-5 job.  And so I stirred up a bit of defensiveness among profs who work more than that.  Sure, they teach only two or three courses a term, but they have a lot of prep stuff and other work related to their courses and if they want to do research, that’s on their own time.  I get that.  Really, I do.  I used to be a part-time teacher at a private university in the US, so I know how much time is invested in each hour of class time.  I have no argument with this.

Let me be clear:  My husband and I have been self-employed for most of our lives.  We understand what it’s like to have work that doesn’t have set hours–and how that is both liberating and exhausting.  Ask any storefront business owner if they work nine to five, and they will laugh out loud.  Ask any freelancer if they work more than 40 hours a week and they will howl. 

Because here’s the reality–if you choose to work for yourself, you tend to work longer hours.  Not everyone, sure, but most people.  It’s not as easy as some would believe.  I certainly know what it’s like to be on the “you’ve got it made” side of the argument and to have someone think that a self-employed person has it so much better than a person with a Real Job.  I can understand how it might make one defensive to be accused of working fewer hours than you actually do.

Okay, so you work long hours.  Point taken.

But remember this:  YOU ARE CHOOSING THIS PROFESSION.  And it’s not like it’s not at all what people told you it’d be like.  If you are a professor, then at some point, you got to know professors and started to get more degrees, and surrounded by professors, you had a pretty good idea of what the lifestyle was going to be for you.  Working on weekends should not come as a surprise, just as every business owner knows that they’re the ones who will end up staying late to take care of those accounting tasks or attend all kinds of conferences and meetings after work and on weekends in order to network and increase business.  That’s the way it works. 

So, I’m not trying to say that professors have it made because they don’t have a nine-to-five job.  I’m saying that having a nine-to-five job is not what you WANTED when you signed up for this.  If you’d wanted that, you’d be out working in a corporate job or something else that didn’t allow you to follow your passion and do your own projects. 

Personally, I don’t want to work a nine-to-five job that I turn off at night.  I love having my own projects, my own choice about the way I arrange my time to work on them, and that’s why I’ve chosen this path.  I LIKE spending my weekends thinking about the things I am doing.  I LIKE knowing that work and play are blended in my life and I can’t tell one from the other.  I LIKE that I am excited about the work I do and I enjoy doing it.

I still maintain that profs have a relatively sweet life.  They have the safety net of a regular paycheck and benefits (okay, some).  They have some stress, sure, but they don’t have to sweat each month wondering if they’re gonna get a paycheck.  They have a fair amount of freedom in their daily routine–for the most part, they can teach what they want to teach in the way they want to teach it.  Those who live in nice little towns like Wolfville have a pretty good quality of life.

I guess for some people, it always seems like the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.  I know I’m fortunate to have the freedom to choose the way I work–even if I have no guaranteed income whatsoever–and so I’m willing to forego the perks of being an employee in exchange for that freedom.

I guess I still want to believe that profs teach because they love to teach, and they’ve chosen the academic life intentionally because it allows them to do what they love–no matter how long the hours are or how frustrating it might be at times. 

And if that isn’t true, well, I guess it’s time to look for another way to make a living. 

BOTTOM LINE:  For every prof who complains about the hours they’re putting in, I’ll show you a nine-to-fiver who is working weekends for free or a small business owner who hasn’t paid herself in months.  This is not a perfect world. 

But let’s not make this a debate about hours.  It cheapens the discussion.  We AGREE here.  Let’s stay focused on what matters most.

I hope you find a way to do your very best work, give your very best talents, show your dedication and provide a valuable “product”–education–to those who are paying you for it. 

I hope you all–faculty, Board of Governors, staff, students–figure out a way to get what you need and forge stronger bonds in the process.

You’ve got your work cut out for you.

A special tip of the hat to the main strike site for sending visitors my way.  I don’t pretend to be an expert on this strike.  These are simply my opinions.  You’re entitled to your own, and I invite you to share comments as long as you refrain from calling me names.

I received a comment on this blog written by an alum and prof at Acadia University (yes, that “striking” place).  I’d like to respond fully to David McMullin’s thoughtful remarks.  His comments are in italics below:

I’m an alumnus and a faculty member at Acadia. The place is very dear to my heart. But I’d like to correct at least one misconception on your part (and one that seems to persist throughout those who don’t see much inside the University “bubble” as you put it).

University teachers do not work only 8 hours per week and get summers off. For many of us, our contact time with students (i.e., class time) may be as “little” as 9 hours (mine varies from 15 to 28 per week depending on the term) but that is more than made up for in other work, including but not limited to: preparing lectures, grading assignments and essays, doing research, writing research papers, giving talks at conferences, writing grant proposals, etc. My work week is generally not less than 50 hours and often longer. I know that I was in my office for 8 hours on Thanksgiving Monday.

Yes, okay, so I did exaggerate a bit.  I’m well aware of the fact that teaching requires a lot of back-end hours that aren’t obvious to those who sit in class (or simply write tuition checks).  But again, I am coming from a parent’s perspective, and it is important that professors and administrators “see” what it looks like from where we sit.  We don’t see those hours you spend–YOU need to make clear that you are doing more than meets the eye.  So, thank you for that. 

Also, I do not have the summer off. Many of the things listed above happen during the summer months including more classes. I taught a course this past summer.

Yes, but most professors do not teach every summer, right?  You teach some summers, and others you don’t.  And let’s face it–a summer schedule doesn’t have the same rhythm as the other semesters do.  The classwork can be intense–you tend to cover more material in a much shorter time–but there is definitely a summer vibe to it.  I’ve taken summer terms–and encourage my kids to do so–precisely because you get to learn a lot in a short period of time and the whole thing feels more relaxed.  So, sorry–teaching a summer course just doesn’t seem to be the same kind of thing as working a 40-hour 9-5 job that doesn’t allow for, say, sitting in the grass on a nice day.  But this is small stuff.  Let’s get back to the bigger issues.

I am on strike because of my concern for the academic health of my alma mater. This concern actually spreads beyond Acadia to every university campus in Canada. For years, administrative budgets have ballooned while academic budgets have stagnated or worse. At Acadia, the administrative budget has grown by 105% (i.e., more than doubled) in the past 7 years, the academic budget has grown by 34%.

Now, THIS I can get behind.  Rising administrative costs should be a concern for all universities–and parents.  So, yes, I respect your position on this and couldn’t agree more that this is a dangerous trend.

This course of action has weakened Acadia’s ability to attract and retain good faculty. We have lost a number of high calibre people recently and we’ve had far too many “failed searches” for new ones. Failed searches occur when selected candidates have declined to come to Acadia, many of them because they have a better offer elsewhere. Acadia has promoted itself, with good reason, as one of the best, if not THE best, undergraduate universities in the country. But unless we can hire good faculty, faculty who stay at Acadia for more than a term or two, Acadia’s reputation will diminish. Such loss will affect everyone who will graduate (and has graduated) from Acadia.

Absolutely true.  I completely agree that the reputation of the university (and the diplomas granted) is at stake, and any administrative issues that create barriers preventing outstanding professors from joining the Acadia team are going to hurt both the future of the university and the current morale and cohesiveness of the faculty.

The current offer from the board (there has been only one, the bits of which the Board shuffles around to present as a “new offer”) would see cutting of faculty positions, increased hiring of part-timers, the continued lack of a dental plan, and many other undesirable elements. The hiring of part time faculty may seem like a good idea but if that habit becomes endemic in this (and/or other institutions) there is precious little incentive for talented people to spend 10+ years of their lives in university earning multiple degrees.

No argument here.  A sustainable work force requires a commitment to support those who are willing to devote themselves both long term and full time to the development of the organization.  I’m all for the free agent approach to both employment and education–going where the best deals are, trading up when it seems like the right thing to do–and I recognize that if we lived in a perfect world, we’d get everything we wanted in one place and wouldn’t feel compelled to move on (or strike) in order to find that ideal package.  As you know, this is not a perfect world, and I get the fact that your intention is to create better working conditions not only for yourself but for everyone who winds up at Acadia or other institutions in Canada.

I am in a privileged position. I get to see some of the brightest and best minds of the next generation. I have a role in shaping them. It’s an awe-some (in the old fashioned sense) responsibility, one I take very seriously. But in the final analysis I cannot stand idly by while those who never see a single student in a year would erode the quality of education at Acadia. And, with luck, and letters like this one, I hope to pass on that message. I’m on strike FOR the students and their future.

I respect this.  As I’ve stated, I’m certain that the vast majority of faculty members are devoted to Acadia and want the best for their students.  This is as it should be.  And I’m sure there is more than a little concern on your part for the fate of the students in this strike.  You want to get a good contract, yes, but you don’t want students to miss out on learning or–God forbid–not get any credit for this semester.  That would be horribly unfair and create a backlash against the university from which Acadia might never recover.   Nobody wants that.  And though the professors are standing firm in their commitment to getting a fair contract that will ultimately serve the best interests of the students, that’s a tough thing for a tuition-paying parent to swallow.  Sure, I want Acadia to be strong.  Yes, I want the profs to be happy and thriving and dedicated to the institution and their students. 

But–pardon the whine–does it have to be done on my dime?  That’s the issue that affects me most as a parent.  I’m spending money for my daughter’s education, and she is teaching herself the material.  When classes resume, she will show up ready to take the tests on the topics that her professors have never discussed in class.  I mean, if I wanted her to take an online course, I wouldn’t have sent her to Acadia for $10,000 a semester (give or take).  And as a parent, it is perfectly within my right to feel that, no matter how much I might support the cause for which the professors are striking, I’m still getting screwed in the process.

P.S. Lest you think I’ve avoided the issue of salaries, I will agree that I’m better paid than many in the so-called real world, but after training for 14 years (to gain 3 degrees) and nearly 15 years of work at Acadia, a salary of under $60,000 is hardly exorbitant. If I’d left university after one or two degrees and got a job in the “real world” (as people are so fond of saying) I suspect I’d be earning a lot more than that.
Now, see, we’ll never know that, will we?  I know plenty of people with multiple degrees who are not making $60,000.  And in most cases, it’s because they’ve chosen to dedicate their lives to a profession (or cause) that they feel passionate about and they’re willing to forego the higher salary in order to do what they really want to do.  I’m not saying profs need to be saints or martyrs or go without dental care.  I’m merely pointing out that those degrees do not necessarily translate to high-paying jobs and there are plenty of people who choose to work for themselves or in positions in which they don’t earn high salaries and it’s because they’re trading money for the freedom to do what they love.

As a parent, I’m kind of hoping there’s a little of that sentiment among the professors at Acadia. 

It’s never a bad idea to say, “I love what I do, I’m great at it, and I want to work to the best of my ability and for as long as possible right here.  Help me find a way to continue my good work for this institution so that everyone can benefit.”

I like to think that this is the approach you’re all taking, and that the administration will recognize the power of this opportunity to invest in the future of Acadia–for the faculty and the students.

Good luck.

I just finished watching all of the YouTube videos about the professor strike at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada.

I wanted to add some comments.

One of the main questions asked of various students and professors interviewed was, “Do you think it’s ethical for the professors to go on strike?”

And I have no problem stating that I think it is ethical to strike.  If an employer is not willing to discuss demands and there seem to be no other options for coming to an agreement, going on strike is the last resort.

So my personal view has nothing to do with me thinking the profs don’t have a right to strike.  They do have that right.  And from most accounts, it appears that their requests/demands were not being met and they agreed (reluctantly) that going on strike was their best option.

As a trained mediator, this disappoints me.  Acadia profs and administration butted heads four years ago and the resulting three-week strike created tension but did ultimately result in an agreement.  This particular strike is really Phase 2–the promises made by the administration at that time have not been met.

I’m heartily in favor of supporting outstanding teachers at all levels and recognize that the greatest investment we can make in general is in teachers above all.  So, I don’t have a problem with the idea that profs should get paid what others in similar situations are getting paid. 

In fact, I’d pick higher prof salaries over just about any program or other expenditure if it meant attracting and maintaining a talented pool of dedicated instructors devoted to teaching.  In many cases, it does, but there are plenty of campuses full of highly-paid profs who focus on research instead of teaching.  I think Acadia has, at least until recently, maintained a very clear focus on providing students with an excellent education. 

What’s at question is the future:  will the administration continue to focus on what’s best for students by paying great profs what they’re worth?  Or will they choose to invest in the things that tend to attract those wide-eyed high school seniors over supporting the departments doing the work of excellent teaching?

This is an issue that has been stirred up for four years.  FOUR YEARS.  There has been plenty of time for both sides to address concerns.  Where are the mediators? 

Ultimately, a university’s responsibility is to the students (and parents) who are paying to go there.  (Yes, the board, blah blah blah—but without students, nobody gets paid and nothing happens.) The university administration should be using every avenue possible to come to an agreement with the professors in an effort to yes, appease the teachers but ultimately serve the students. 

That there should be even ONE DAY of class missed because the university can’t find a way to engage in meaningful and fair negotiation is a rather sad statement about the university’s priorities.  While the president is off recruiting students in China (those international students–like my daughter–pay thousands of dollars more each year than their Canadian peers) talks are failing and resentment is rising.  Chasing cha-ching (note:  that is not a racial reference–I’m talking $$$) instead of focusing on the homefront is not a savvy move.

I guess I’m surprised that there aren’t some sort of measures in place to prevent striking by professors–and I mean that not in the sense of preventing profs from recourse but in ensuring that universities are committed to both their key customers (students) and vendors (professors).  If education is a business–and yeah, it is–then this is just really bad management.   And let’s not even start the discussion about what a strike does to a university’s reputation in this age of blogs, YouTube, Facebook and other new media.  Marketing 101, anyone?

The failure of the university to value its most important players is likely to result in fewer excellent profs and motivated students making the choice to become affiliated with this otherwise outstanding college. 

It’s not too late to turn things around, but it will require a great deal of mindfulness on the university’s part to pay attention to what matters most.

So, what do students do when profs are on strike and classes are cancelled? 

Well, if you happen to be at Acadia University during what is being called “Striketoberfest” you’ve got some great options.  Sure, about half of the students have gone home or elsewhere during the week, but those who remain are making the best of it.

And it just so happens that the weather there this week has been fantastic and it’s the peak of the fall season.

Here is how my daughter has been spending the week:

1)  Picking apples.  Wolfville and the surrounding area are full of apple orchards, so she made sure to get out and grab a few while enjoying the crisp fall weather.

2)  Carving pumpkins. 

3)  Going to a jazz concert in town.

4) Going on walks.  The town is adorable and the area is spectacular. 

5)  Studying and keeping up with reading–upperclassmen have coordinated a tutoring schedule to help students stay on task even when their profs are out picketing.

6)  Hanging out–whether a movie night featuring “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (with pizza, of course) or other events,  RAs and others are coordinating various activities to keep the students connected and engaged in campus life. NOTE:  My daughter would like me to point out, for the record, that she did NOT watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Okay, that’s done.

7)  Learning about labor unions, picketing, scabs, negotiations, how much their professors earn, how the media interviews people (and what ends up on television), and the roles played (and opinions expressed) by various parties (administrators, profs/librarians, parents, students, hourly employees who don’t have much to do when half the students are gone, etc.)  

When I was in high school in my tiny Oregon town, there was a sit-in.  We were on the news for basically sitting in the grass all day and refusing to go inside the school.  Perhaps it was just spring and we wanted an excuse to be outside.  No, actually, it had something to do with a student who was not allowed to take classes because she was pregnant.  I know that seems really old-fashioned, but see, you were supposed to drop out of school if you got pregnant.  I guess those bulging bellies were deemed distracting.  So “nice” girls who got pregnant did the honorable thing and dropped out of school.  It makes no sense at all now but it was the way it was then.   And when you live in a tiny town with not much to do, well, let’s just say that the pregnancy rate seemed a little high, and so some of the brightest students ended up dropping out in order to follow the rules. 

Maybe it was worth sitting in the grass after all.

I think my daughter has had a great week at Acadia.  I am certain that this week will stand out in her memory for years to come.  And whether she was talking with her profs about the strike or out picking apples, she was learning and experiencing new things.  That’s not a bad way to spend a week.

So, okay, time’s up.  Please get things settled this weekend so everyone can get back to work next week. 

For the latest updates on the strike, check this site which does a great job of keeping the campus informed. That’s where I found the link to a blog written by an English professor at Acadia  who shares his thoughts about picketing and this YouTube video offering opinions from some Acadia students.

So, Day 3 of what is being referred to as “Striketoberfest”–the prof strike at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, where one of my daughters is a student–has ended with crossed arms and pursed lips. 

Can’t you people figure this out?

 Honestly, this thing has been simmering for months and there were all kinds of opportunities to come to an agreement before, say, the beginning of school.  But then, who would care about a prof strike during summer vacation, right?  It just wouldn’t make it on the national (Canadian) news. 

Well, it’s on the news now.  And after three days of no classes, profs are still picketing, students are bringing refreshments, and RAs are trying to come up with activities to keep the half the student population remaining on campus (the others went home for the week) busy.

I have to hand it to the students.  The upperclassmen have organized a tutoring schedule to offer help to freshmen who want to keep up with their work.  That’s cool. 

But, um, as a parent paying for tuition, I have to wonder how long this is going to go on.

I posted before that I was fine with a strike lasting a week.  I mean, I like to think of it as a learning experience for my daughter.  Pickets, scabs, union meetings, national media attention, endless analysis of the issues….this is all pretty interesting stuff.

I’d be more pissed if I didn’t have a way to handle it.  You see, we pay our daughter’s tuition by Visa card.  Yep.  Air miles, baby.  And if this thing goes on and there are, say, two weeks or more of suspended classes, well it’s a simple process to do a chargeback for services not rendered (in this case, a pro-rated chunk of tuition).  I’m not kidding.  The university says it is not liable for reimbursements due to labor issues.  We’ll see what the Visa folks say.  Guaranteed refund for services not rendered sounds good to me.

But I don’t want to get snarky.  I am hoping for the best for the profs, the students and the university in general. Honestly, I’m not one of those easily riled parents.  I love Acadia.  Our oldest daughter loved it there and got an outstanding education that prepared her for the Real World in ways that still surprise her.  (She’s in NYC getting her master’s in urban health now–at age 21.)  And I’m delighted that Daughter #3 is going to Acadia. 

For one thing, Acadia is fantastic about accepting transfer credits.  This is not very common.  Most colleges SAY they will accept transfer credits from other institutions but once you get there, they find some reason to disallow those credits you were counting on when you decided to enroll.  Not nice.  Acadia comes through each time and I give the admissions folks there high marks for working with students instead of making them jump through ridiculous hoops.

So, I’m a fan.  Don’t get me wrong. 

And though I don’t know enough about the issues to point fingers, my knee-jerk response is that profs in general tend to live in a bit of an academic bubble and expect salaries that are a lot harder to earn in the Real World (where you don’t have summers off and sabbaticals and teach only 8 hours a week). 

Disclosure:  My husband and I have been self-employed for years so any time we hear someone talk about the lack of benefits or guaranteed pay raises, well, we sort of roll our eyes.  We’ve been paying the self-employed rate (meaning twice the usual) for American health insurance for two decades now.  Yes.  We’re talking several hundred dollars per month for the most BASIC health care (catastrophic only) and no dental plan whatsoever.  We’ve always paid out of pocket for that, so that means it’s $700 a year to get the family’s teeth cleaned.  EVERY year.  But Michael Moore already covered this–go watch “Sicko”.

 Anyway, I hope you can see how we might get a little cranky about people striking over benefits when we’ve never had them.  It’s not that I begrudge the profs good dental care–I don’t begrudge ANYONE good dental care.  But I’m not sure that I feel the profs’ pain on some of their issues thanks to my own biases.  Teaching at a university sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me–and I’m guessing it sounds pretty sweet to most parents as well.  Oh, and let’s not forget that nice tuition waiver for the kids of profs.  Of course, I could have chosen to work at a university (I used to, actually) so I get that we’re all making our own choices.  My point is simply this:  most tuition-paying parents (especially the international ones) are not likely to feel sorry for the professors.

So, that’s my little rant.  I’m entitled to it.  Two self-employed parents putting four daughters through college at the same time get to rant whenever they like.  I just made up that rule, and I’m standing by it.

For the record, Acadia is one of the most expensive colleges in Canada.  And they even REDUCED tuition costs this year (technically, but it had a lot to do with offering a no-laptop rate instead of only the laptop-included price), for which I give them credit–I mean, who does that?  

But even with this relatively high price tag,  it doesn’t come close to the costs of a comparable private college in the US.  In fact, even with the extra pile we pay for our daughters as ”international” students, the total cost per year is very close to what they’d pay for a year at a state school in Oregon as residents.  It used to be a bit cheaper for us when the US dollar was stronger, but even now, when the Canadian and US dollars are about equal, it’s a heckuva deal. 

I think there are great people at Acadia who want the best for the institution. So, please.  Start talking.  Everybody needs to get realistic and reasonable. 

The students deserve it–and so do their parents.

Hats off to this site on campus for keeping everyone updated. 

I’ve said before that high school is wayyyy too long. 

Or, to be more precise, students spend wayyyyy too much time on irrelevant fluff (I’m referring to the going to/from, attendence activities, social dramas, and basic classroom blah blah–though there is certainly irrelevant fluff among the course offerings as well).

Well, a new documentary follows six students in three countries–China, India and the US–to show how the two million minutes of high school (do the math!) are spent. 

Oh, wow.  Just watching the trailer, I cringe when listening to the American students.  I mean did they have to focus on a cheerleader who is excited about tailgate parties and sorority rush?  Or the guy who has a full academic scholarship but hasn’t had to do much yet? 

I’m hoping the movie shows something a little more encouraging regarding US education, but something tells me it’s going to feel like a Michael Moore film–you know, where you leave the theater shaking your head sadly or smacking your forehead in frustration.

Actually, I feel that way just contemplating the fact that students spend two million minutes in high school. 

Anyway, take a look at the trailer for the film here:

In this piece in the New York Times, we learn about a middle school that uses iPods loaded with English songs to help non-native speakers get their English groove on. 

The students–known at the schools as “Pod People”–listen to songs while reading the lyrics and do exercises to fill in the missing words. 

They learn something relevant (middle school, remember), they integrate writing, reading, listening and speaking skills, and they look cool at the same time.

I love it.  Now let’s start using iPods for foreign language learning as well.  Fire up the ‘Pod with tunes in Spanish!

I love Car Talk.  And I don’t even own a car!  I love the idea that these two brothers have created such a devoted following by simply sitting around and joking on the radio while diagnosing oddball car noises and funky starters.  They are wonderfully irreverent and have a great time while helping people solve their auto mysteries.

So, imagine my delight when, while checking out a homeschooling site, I found a link to the Education Forum On Car Talk.  At first I thought it was a typo.  The Car Talk guys?  Talking about education? 

But sure enough, they have devoted a section of their site to their particular concerns–namely, how to deal with a system that doesn’t work–regarding education in the USA.  And they’ve received thousands of responses from, they assure us, really smart people, including those who’ve received those pricey degrees that prepared them perfectly for the life of a 19th century gentlemen.

So, yeah.  They get the relevance issue.  They get the wasted money issue.  They get that things need to change in a great big way.  And I’m just thrilled to have such wise and wisecracking characters willing to take this on just for the sake of, I don’t know, stirring things up and getting people talking in order to discover creative solutions. 

That’s what they do best. 

Welcome aboard, Click and Clack.