By JOHN M. CRISP, Scripps Howard News Service
Students' evaluations of professors are misused
Even college professors who pretend to be uninterested in what students think about them and their courses probably have trouble resisting an occasional glance at Web sites like www.RateMyProfessors.com.
Crisp: How much is too much population?
In December I sat in a large auditorium among several thousand academics at a conference in San Antonio, Texas. The keynote speaker was Henry Cisneros, former four-term mayor of San Antonio and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development during the Clinton administration.
Crisp: Chance for enlightened thinking
The film "Milk" ends on a triumphal note. A candlelight procession of 30,000 mourners marches from San Francisco's Castro District to city hall to mark the murder of gay activist Harvey Milk and the defeat of Proposition 6, an initiative that would have barred all homosexuals from teaching in California's public schools.
Crisp: Newspapers provide snapshots of the past
The news for newspapers hasn't been good lately. Circulation has been in decline for years, partly because the people who grew up using newspapers as their primary news source are in decline as well, and the Internet beguiles young readers.
Two bad ideas for college campuses
Sometimes you encounter two ideas so bad that it's hard to tell which one is worse. Put them together and the over-used "perfect storm"metaphor seems perfectly apt.
Pledge of Allegiance: Patriotic ritual or loyalty oath?
When does the Pledge of Allegiance, our venerable assertion of loyalty to the flag, become too much of a good thing?
Here in Texas, public school students declare their allegiance to the United States flag every morning, and then, in a second pledge, affirm their commitment to the Texas state flag. Many football games begin with the Pledge, as well, right after the national anthem.
Crisp: Don't fear liberal professors
Last week one of my students expressed a conventional sentiment about colleges and politics: with her daughter approaching high school graduation, she was wondering aloud if she and her husband would be able to invest their child with conservative principles sufficient to resist the liberalism that will confront her in the classroom when she goes off to college.
Crisp: Don't blame Obamas if they choose private school
The moment president-elect Barack Obama and our new first lady began to shop around Washington, D.C., for a private school for daughters Malia and Sasha, proponents of school choice already had their eyebrows well prepared for elevation.
