Carlin Romano reviews Daniel Dennett’s Freedom Evolves.… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Fun at Skool
Mar 15th, 2003 8:23 pm | By Ophelia BensonJohn Sutherland has redeemed himself. I took issue with him a few weeks ago when he wrote a column recommending the UK imitate the US in using athletic scholarships to increase minority access to higher education. I think there are some serious drawbacks to that way of doing things, so I said as much. But I think he’s right on the money here. I’ve nattered about this issue of students as consumers several times on B & W. I’m glad to know other people are noticing. One would think it would be self-evident that 18-22 year olds might possibly want qualities in their teachers other than scholarship or the ability to inspire, and that hence their evaluations would be of … Read the rest
The Action is on the Surface 
Mar 15th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Janet Malcolm interviewed on journalists as vampires, psychoanalysis as literary technique, lawsuits and more.… Read the rest
Would an SAT Help?
Mar 15th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Would an aptitude test like the ones used in the US help recruit working class students to university in the UK?… Read the rest
Theory, Theory Everywhere
Mar 15th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
How do people manage to generate ‘theory wars’ out of teaching a basic skill that should be learned before university?… Read the rest
Student Consumers
Mar 14th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Spot on. John Sutherland on student evaluations: ‘the one criticism which is never made is: “This professor is just an entertainer”.’… Read the rest
Competing Goods
Mar 14th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Targets or no targets? How does one increase university admissions for excluded groups without discriminating against currently-included groups?… Read the rest
Discrimination Against Men?
Mar 14th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Women’s colleges are ‘all full of lesbians now,’ is one rumour. ‘And what if they are?’ asks Joan Bakewell.… Read the rest
Liberty Letters
Mar 13th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
In The Great War we had liberty cabbage, now it’s…Freedom Toast? What planet is this again?… Read the rest
How to Make Bloody-Minded Women
Mar 12th, 2003 7:42 pm | By Ophelia BensonThe last women’s college in Oxford has just voted to remain a single-sex college. I’m always interested in these campaigns to keep women’s schools single sex, and the idea (which I tend to believe) that single sex education is good for girls and bad for boys. I went to a single sex school myself, one that combined with a boy’s school the year after I graduated. I regretted it at the time but later decided I’d been lucky. If nothing else, I derived the benefit (at least I think I did) that it never crossed my mind for an instant that women were supposed to shut up and let men do the talking. So when I went to a double-sex … Read the rest
Single-sex Education Good for Women
Mar 12th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Women benefit from a single-sex education, whereas men benefit from a mixed one,’ a former student at St. Hilda’s says.… Read the rest
Single-sex Education
Mar 12th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
St. Hilda’s college votes not to admit men.… Read the rest
Missionary Formulas
Mar 11th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Historian Jackson Lears suggests ‘providence’ might not be all that predictable.… Read the rest
One in Four of Everyone Has Something
Mar 11th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
So if one in four has something, and one in four has a different something, and the number of somethings is large and growing…… Read the rest
Rorty Reviews Dewey Biography
Mar 10th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
More about events of his life than resonance of his ideas, Rorty says.… Read the rest
More on ‘Honour’ Killing
Mar 10th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
An Iranian woman writes for the Institute for the Secularization of Islamic Society on the murder of insubordinate women.… Read the rest
‘Honour crimes’ and cultural relativism
Mar 10th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Is political correctness to blame for a lack of awareness about honour crimes?… Read the rest
Education and Inequality
Mar 9th, 2003 | By Ophelia BensonInequality is an old and vexed issue. Isaiah rebuked Israel for grinding the faces of the poor, Thersites got himself beaten up for complaining about Agamemnon, and so it has gone ever since. From Marx to Rawls to Michael Young, equality and meritocracy, justice and opportunity, class and race, money and taxes, jobs and immigration, education and tuition and top-up fees, have been debated and re-debated.
Education, especially higher education, is one area where tensions and disagreements about inequality play themselves out with extra passion. Many citizens, parents, students, employers, thinkers would like to see higher education available to more people and especially to a wider range of people: more women, more non-white people, more poor people. The difficulty is … Read the rest
Green Welly Image
Mar 9th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The Independent on Bristol’s admissions policy.… Read the rest
Tinpot Trotskyists Running Bristol Admissions?
Mar 9th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The Observer samples press coverage of the row over Bristol’s acceptance of lower marks for students from state schools.… Read the rest
