Nine Shift

Push Back: Purdue Buys For-Profit Kaplan

In a huge and positive move, Purdue University has purchased the for-profit Kaplan. Here's the story.

Positive in that it represents push back by the nonprofit and public higher education sector against the for-profits that have sapped public tax payer dollars, charged higher than believable tuition, and boosted student debt in this country. 

Whether Purdue was aware of it or not, the purchase of Kaplan may be a pivotal event in the eventual and can't-happen-too-soon downfall of for-profit higher education in this country.

Nice job Purdue.  

Springtime at a Wisconsin cheese factory along the Mississippi River.
 

Why Government Needs to Regulate Passenger Trains

Government is unlikely to be running trains in the future, but government sure has to regulate passenger trains.

There was 200 people crowded into the hall at the Midwest High Speed Rail annual meeting in Chicago this month. The highlight of the day was the train executive from Brightline, the private sector train that will begin operations in just a few months from Miami to West Palm Beach, eventually going to Orlando and then Tampa, connecting the state of Florida by rail.  

We were actually cheering the guy.  It is very exciting.  And then I knew it was coming, I just didn't want to hear it yet, the executive said, "This is not public transit.  We will be charging market prices."    Meaning, no poor people, no working class people going to work on the train.  If the train is filling up, the price for a seat will skyrocket.

The private sector will run the passenger trains.  But here's one reason Government should own the tracks:  so Government can regulate train fares, schedules and routes so they serve everyone in society. 

Faculty Are Science Deniers

Faculty scoff at the climate change deniers, then proceed to deny science themselves.

Researchers at one end of campus cite the science of gender as something everyone in the scientific community agrees upon, much like everyone in the scientific community (ok, 97%) agrees on climate change.  

And throughout the rest of the campus, faculty are emphatically denying the science of gender, the very same evidence that researchers on their own campus take for granted.

One faculty member even refused to give me his research data because I was going to differentiate the results by sex. The faculty member in no way wanted to acknowledge there might be differences by sex.  That's denying science.

Here's two examples of scientific research reported recently that 99% of faculty (including their own university faculty) would deny:

University of Iowa.  "Men consistently outperform women on spatial tasks.....Now, a University of Iowa study shows a connection between this sex-linked ability and the structure of the parietal lobe, the brain region that controls this type of skill." Full story.

Northwestern University. "Researchers have long agreed girls have superior language abilities to boys.....For the first time -- and in unambiguous findings -- researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Haifa show both that areas of the brain associated with language work harder in girls than in boys during language tasks, and that boys and girls rely on different parts of the brain when performing these tasks."  Full story.

 

The Other Thing Educators Don't Know: Learning

You would think. You would really think educators would be specialists in how we learn. Guess again.

In addition to not knowing about the Knowledge Society - - their mission of which is to prepare students for - - educators do not know about learning, especially learning styles.

In the last century treating every student "equally" meant treating every student the "same."  In this century, every student learns a little (or a lot) differently. And people need very niched and different skill sets, almost unique to that person, to succeed. So in this century we have to treat every student "equally" by treating each one "differently," not the same. 

Enter learning styles, how different people learn differently. Here's the big four about which educators are clueless. I mean absolutely clueless.
1.The Brain and learning, how it all works neurologically and hormonally.
2.Generational learning styles (this is the easiest one for educators to grasp)
3.Gender and learning.  Educators refuse to even consider the science that shows females and males learn differently.
4.Autism spectrum and learning.  Every teacher has had someone on the spectrum in her or his class, Julie Coates says, the teacher just doesn't know it.

This - - helping students to learn - - is what education and educators' careers are all about.  It's time educators learn what they're doing. NASA Photo: Desert as seen from outer space.

Educators Don't Know Basic Economics: Plumbers Don't Create Jobs

There's two important critical things educators don't know.  One is the economics of the Knowledge Society.

An educator from Spokane, Washington, recently engaged me in a discussion of jobs and job training. 
He cited the shortage of plumbers and welders in Spokane, saying that plumbers make more than he does.
This may be true.  I don't question it. 

But here's the deal:
1.The greatest shortage of skilled workers is for four year college graduates, as all unemployment figures by education level confirm.
2.Plumbers don't create jobs, knowledge workers do.

It is basic economics.  A plumber gets paid by someone locally. She buys groceries, clothes and so on.  But that does not grow the local economy. It passes the same dollars around to different people.

A knowledge worker gets paid, in part or in large part, by people from outside the local community, outside the state, sometimes even outside of the country.  With 'new' money coming into the community, she creates 4 other local jobs. 

My son is one such job creator. He sells synthesizer parts he creates (with his brain, and then his hands) all over the world. Some 60% of his clients are outside of the country.  None are in his town of Manhattan, Kansas.  Because all that income comes in from outside his community, he creates 4 other local jobs, whether he or the mayor knows it.  

It's basic economics.  It's the Knowledge Society.  If higher education is going to prepare for people to be successful in the workforce, historically its primary role, educators have to understand the Knowledge Society.  They don't. Society suffers.
Photo: NASA photo of some part of the earth.

A Story- - And Lesson- - Everyone Should Know

Every parent, teacher, educator, government official, and workplace manager - - everyone-- should know this story.

It is a true story, with a lesson, my brilliant co-author Julie Coates tells.

When Thomas Edison was in school, he was regarded by his teachers and head master as being "addled" - - slow, unable to learn. 
Thomas brought home a note from the headmaster one day and gave it to his mother.  His mother read the note, and when Thomas asked what was in the note, his mother looked at him and lied to his face saying, "The headmaster thinks you are too smart for your school - - they just don't have the resources to teach someone as smart as you are.  So he suggests I teach you here at home."

She tutored her son for years.  It wasn't until his mother died that Mr. Edison, then successful and famous, found the note the headmaster actually wrote in her possessions, saying of course that young Thomas was too slow and unable to learn that he recommended he be taught at home by his mother.

If  you don't get the lesson, reread the story. 

Told You So. Told You So. Told You So.

Another NineShift prediction comes true!

I was in the train station and shouted when I read the stories, sorry fellow passengers.

We predicted that in 2017 the shortage of college educated workers would hit a crisis point. Here we are.

Silicon Valley is screaming for college educated workers, and last week the NYTimes reported that "H-1B applications pour in by the truckload" as the government admits a limited number of college educated (80%) boys to work in the high tech industry.

Then Upshot writer Neil Irwin of the NYTimes reported that job growth, which slowed in March, and the unemployment rate are no longer the best measures for economic progress now.  Why - - because everyone is in the workforce, and with full employment the unemployment rate cannot drop any further.  

Higher education still refuses to produce more college graduates, failing to retain half of the students.  But sometime business will wake up to the fact that we have 14 million really smart people without a college degree, people just as smart or even smarter than the average college grad.  

 

New Answer to the Most Common Train Question

The most common question I get asked about new passenger trains coming to the United States is, "Will it happen in my lifetime?"

It is not just old people asking, people of all ages ask that question,

We now have a new answer.  It comes from Janice Rettman, citizen, county commissioner in Ramsey County, St. Paul, and Chair of the Minnesota High-Speed Rail Commission:

"If you drive safely."  

More passenger train routes are being planned than ever before. In my area, I expect three new train routes to begin service in the next 5-6 years.    Here's the latest, from Atlanta to Chattanooga.

Some people are dreaming about a maglev train from Atlanta to Chattanooga.  But the reality is we don't really need high speed trains.  We need frequent (four times a day) trains. And we need on-time arrivals.  That's what Gen Y wants and needs.  Speed will come later.