Download or read book Iconoclast Abraham Flexner and a Life in Learning written by Thomas Neville Bonner and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2019-08-16 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abraham Flexner (1866-1959), raised in Louisville, Kentucky in a family of poor Jewish immigrants from Germany, attended the Johns Hopkins University in the first decade of its existence. After graduating in 1886, he founded, four years before John Dewey’s Chicago “laboratory school,” a progressive experimental school in Louisville that won the attention of Harvard President Charles W. Eliot. After a successful nineteen years as teacher and principal, he turned his attention to medical education on behalf of the Carnegie Foundation. His 1910 survey — known as the Flexner Report — stimulated much-needed, radical changes in American medical schools. With its emphasis on full-time clinical teaching, it remains the most widely cited document on how doctors best learn their profession. Flexner’s subsequent projects — a book on medical education in Europe and a comparative study of medical education in Europe and America — remain unsurpassed in range and insight. For fifteen years a senior officer in the Rockefeller-supported General Education Board in New York City, he helped distribute grants — more than 6 billion in today’s dollars — for education in medicine and other subjects and started the Lincoln School in 1917. His devastating critique of American higher education (“Intellectual inquiry, not job training, [is] the purpose of the university.”) raised important questions, upsetting many educators. In 1930, Flexner created and led the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, convincing Albert Einstein to accept the first appointment at the new institute. “Iconoclast is a thoughtful, wonderfully crafted, solidly researched account of an uncommon life that far exceeds Abraham Flexner’s association with reform in medical education... Bonner’s labors have produced a critical, insightful portrait of Flexner as a brilliant, tireless, extraordinarily persuasive visionary. In addition to detailed portraits of the man ‘at the vortex of swiftly moving scientific, educational, and philanthropic currents’ in higher education in the United States, Bonner also provides an account of Flexner’s personal life... Iconoclast offers a learned portrait of the distance traveled in medical education during the past 100 years, along with consideration of the curricular and pedagogical problems that persist.” — Delese Wear, New England Journal of Medicine “Bonner’s great achievement in this scholarly and captivating book is to model Flexner’s critical appraisal skills in writing about him. Even Flexner himself lacked critical awareness in his autobiography... Bonner, on the other hand, offers a gentle and thoughtful appraisal. The elements that contribute to Flexner’s greatness — perseverance, vision, clear thinking, and fair mindedness — are all balanced with his weaknesses — an obstinate unwillingness to retract and clouded political insight... Bonner dissects Flexner’s contribution with meticulous scholarship, avoiding all cheap adulation or debunking. This is an outstanding book.” — Ed Peile, British Medical Journal “The book offers historical insights about philanthropy, educational reform, and institutional governance and decision making... In Bonner’s capable hands, Flexner emerges an interesting figure whose successes are combined with contradictions and shortcomings.” — Amy E. Wells, Academe “An outstanding and thorough study of this remarkable American educator who, more than anyone before or since, defined what a medical school should be, left indelible marks on public education, and founded one of the most innovative centers of advanced study in the world. Bonner adroitly portrays in this masterful biography what America and the world owes to Flexner for his vision, creativity, tenacity, and advocacy of progressive education.” — John S. Haller, Jr., Journal of American History “Few nonphysicians have had as profound and long-lasting an effect on modern American medicine as Abraham Flexner... An excellent book about a highly significant and neglected figure.” — Janet A. Tighe, Ph.D., JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) “Not only fills a major void but also provides an important evaluation of an individual whose contributions to education and a variety of social problems have generally been overlooked... Bonner’s biography restores Flexner to the position of importance that he merits... This biography is a major addition to American historiography.” — Gerald N. Grob, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences “Excellent... Deeply researched, carefully presented... This thorough, creative biography adjusts our view of this powerful man so engaged in an astounding array of twentieth-century educational developments.” — Linda Eisenmann, H-Net “Thanks to Thomas Bonner’s Iconoclast, we finally have the biography Flexner deserves and readers seek.” — John R. Thelin, Journal of Higher Education “If you want to know why more than half of the Nobel Prizes in medicine and science since 1945 have gone to Americans, you must read Thomas Bonner’s book. Abraham Flexner was the architect of a revolution in medical education in the United States that explains how this country became the medical mecca of the world. Bonner brings Flexner’s remarkable story to life with clarity, sympathy, and verve.” — James H. Jones, author of Bad Blood and Alfred C. Kinsey: A Public/Private Life “At last we have a life of one of the most powerful shapers of medicine, science, and higher education. This beautifully crafted life of Flexner will rescue a giant of his times from fragmentation and, sometimes, misunderstanding. Bonner has written not only a very important book but a deeply thoughtful and searching interrogation of recurrent social and moral problems that take on life and meaning in a concrete, historical setting.” — John C. Burnham, Ohio State University “Abraham Flexner was one of the great innovators in education of the twentieth-century. Thomas N. Bonner, a distinguished historian as well as an educator/manager, is the biographer Flexner deserves.” — Daniel M. Fox, President, Milbank Memorial Fund, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine “This biography is a solid, well-researched study of a towering figure in American biomedical research.” — Darwin Stapleton, Rockefeller Archive Center “This is a brilliant, beautifully crafted, and much needed biography of one of the legendary figures in American medicine and higher education. Once again Thomas Bonner has shown that he is one of the great medical historians of our time.” —Kenneth M. Ludmerer, Washington University “Though [Abraham] Flexner wrote an autobiography, until now we have had no comprehensive biography. Fortunately, Thomas Bonner has filled that gap with Iconoclast. As a former university president with significant experience working with donors, Bonner is well qualified to understand his subject.” — Martin Morse Wooster,Philanthropy “As Thomas Bonner relates in his excellent biography, [Abraham] Flexner initiated several... significant developments in American secondary and higher education over some three-quarters of a century.“ — David Mitch, History of Education Quarterly “Iconoclast captures the boldness as well as the sweeping impact of Flexner’s work in the field of American education in the first half of the twentieth century.“ — Adam R. Nelson, Paedagogica Historica

Download or read book A History of American Higher Education written by John R. Thelin and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2011-10-11 with total page 499 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Colleges and universities are among the most cherished—and controversial—institutions in the United States. In this updated edition of A History of American Higher Education, John R. Thelin offers welcome perspective on the triumphs and crises of this highly influential sector in American life. Thelin’s work has distinguished itself as the most wide-ranging and engaging account of the origins and evolution of America's institutions of higher learning. This edition brings the discussion of perennial hot-button issues such as big-time sports programs up to date and addresses such current areas of contention as the changing role of governing boards and the financial challenges posed by the economic downturn.

Download or read book The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge written by Abraham Flexner and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-21 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A short, provocative book about why "useless" science often leads to humanity's greatest technological breakthroughs A forty-year tightening of funding for scientific research has meant that resources are increasingly directed toward applied or practical outcomes, with the intent of creating products of immediate value. In such a scenario, it makes sense to focus on the most identifiable and urgent problems, right? Actually, it doesn't. In his classic essay "The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge," Abraham Flexner, the founding director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and the man who helped bring Albert Einstein to the United States, describes a great paradox of scientific research. The search for answers to deep questions, motivated solely by curiosity and without concern for applications, often leads not only to the greatest scientific discoveries but also to the most revolutionary technological breakthroughs. In short, no quantum mechanics, no computer chips. This brief book includes Flexner's timeless 1939 essay alongside a new companion essay by Robbert Dijkgraaf, the Institute's current director, in which he shows that Flexner's defense of the value of "the unobstructed pursuit of useless knowledge" may be even more relevant today than it was in the early twentieth century. Dijkgraaf describes how basic research has led to major transformations in the past century and explains why it is an essential precondition of innovation and the first step in social and cultural change. He makes the case that society can achieve deeper understanding and practical progress today and tomorrow only by truly valuing and substantially funding the curiosity-driven "pursuit of useless knowledge" in both the sciences and the humanities.

Download or read book Villard The Life and Times of an American Titan written by Alexandra Villard de Borchgrave and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2019-08-15 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born Heinrich Hilgard in Bavaria, Henry Villard (1835-1900) emigrated to the United States at age 18 after a disagreement with his father, penniless, not speaking a word of English and without his parents’ knowledge. Within five years, he had mastered the English language and was covering the events of the day for the nation’s top newspapers. Villard reported firsthand on the Lincoln-Douglas debates and from the front lines of the Civil War, filed graphic, hard-hitting reports that earned him the admiration of the newspaper community. His circle of acquaintances included President Lincoln, General Grant, and the famed abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, whose daughter Villard married. When the Civil War ended, Villard’s penchant for risk-taking and adventure and his uncanny business acumen led him to become a restless innovator, breaking new ground in many areas. In journalism, he launched the first news syndicate in the United States; in the world of finance, he was a pioneer of venture capitalism and one of the first to employ the leveraged buyout. He catapulted himself into the presidency of the Northern Pacific Railroad and shared with Thomas Edison the vision of an electrified nation. His investment in Edison’s electrical enterprises paved the way for Villard to mastermind the consolidation of what is now known as the General Electric Company. In 1883, triumphantly driving the last spike himself, he completed the nation’s second transcontinental railroad. Later that year a financial panic nearly ruined him, but within a few years he made a phenomenal comeback based on his faith in Edison and the future of electricity. Drawing on unpublished letters, Henry Villard’s German and English memoirs, and other sources, this biography vividly recreates Villard’s times and tells the rags-to-riches story of a German immigrant who made major contributions to his adopted homeland. “[Villard’s] story is worth telling and in this biography it is told well.” — The Economist “The account here of young Henry’s ghastly first year as an immigrant is terrific, as good a piece of American biography as I’ve read. In general, you come away from the book with a much clearer idea of the Civil War as opportunity, not merely disaster, and as the watershed in U.S. history... Villard was an attractive character: optimistic, generous, affectionate. His attitudes toward slavery and female emancipation need cause his great-granddaughter no blush... [B]ecause we have so much information about Henry Villard [...] he comes alive for us as no other businessman of his age.” — James Buchan, The Observer “In their well-crafted biography, Alexandra Villard de Borchgrave and John Cullen lovingly recount the meteoritic rise of one of the nineteenth century’s most unsung business ‘titans,’ Henry Villard.” — Ryan J. Carey, Harvard Business School’s Business History Review “An insightful, lively and much-needed biography...” — John M. Lindley, Ramsey County History “Henry Villard is a name not widely known today, but a century ago this would not have been the case. Alexandra de Borchgrave’s and John Cullen’s biography of her greatgrandfather’s rise from penniless and prospectless young German immigrant to prominence and wealth has the fast pace and rich detail of a good novel and the meticulous research of a good history.” — Dr. Henry A. Kissinger “Henry Villard’s great-granddaughter Alexandra de Borchgrave and John Cullen have brought us a fascinating, brisk, and judicious life of one of the most intriguing figures in American history. Villard is the story not only of one man’s heroic enterprise, but also of Abraham Lincoln, William Lloyd Garrison, and the Civil War, the rise of railroads, the contradictions of the Gilded Age, and New York’s arrival as a world-class city.” — Michael Beschloss, historian “A spruce, engaging account of the life and services of one of the great public and private figures of our time. Anyone engaged with New York and American values in the past century should certainly read it. It will be time admirably spent.” — John Kenneth Galbraith, professor of economics, Harvard University “A remarkable, illuminating portrait of one of the great figures of New York history. Superbly told. An important adjunct to the library of anyone who is interested in the history of New York City.” — George Plimpton, author; editor of The Paris Review “The stirring saga of a truly remarkable man who enthusiastically embraced the challenges of his turbulent century. Immigrant, journalist, explorer, war correspondent, entrepreneur, tycoon, and visionary — Villard’s boundless energy, adventurous spirit, and courage in the face of adversity are an inspiration.” — Brian C. Pohanka, Civil War author and consultant to Time-Life Books’ The Civil War “Alexandra de Borchgrave and John Cullen at last do justice to a forgotten giant of American journalism and finance. A Civil War correspondent who invented the news syndicate and knew and was admired by President Lincoln, he then entered the world of finance to tussle with the likes of J. P. Morgan in the building of American railroads, and the founding of what became General Electric. Almost ruined in the panic of 1883, he returned to rebuild his empire and regain his place both in business and society. It’s a great addition to the story of America.” — Walter B. Wriston, former chairman, Citicorp

Download or read book Philanthropy and American Higher Education written by J. Thelin and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-08-19 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philanthropy and American Higher Education provides higher education professionals, leaders and scholars with a thoughtful, comprehensive introduction to the scope and development of philanthropy and fund raising as part of the essential life and work of colleges and universities in the United States.

Download or read book Science Democracy and the American University written by Andrew Jewett and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-05-01 with total page 567 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book reinterprets the rise of the natural and social sciences as sources of political authority in modern America. Andrew Jewett demonstrates the remarkable persistence of a belief that the scientific enterprise carried with it a set of ethical values capable of grounding a democratic culture - a political function widely assigned to religion. The book traces the shifting formulations of this belief from the creation of the research universities in the Civil War era to the early Cold War years. It examines hundreds of leading scholars who viewed science not merely as a source of technical knowledge, but also as a resource for fostering cultural change. This vision generated surprisingly nuanced portraits of science in the years before the military-industrial complex and has much to teach us today about the relationship between science and democracy.

Download or read book The Encyclopedia of New York City written by Kenneth T. Jackson and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2010-12-01 with total page 1582 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covering an exhaustive range of information about the five boroughs, the first edition of The Encyclopedia of New York City was a success by every measure, earning worldwide acclaim and several awards for reference excellence, and selling out its first printing before it was officially published. But much has changed since the volume first appeared in 1995: the World Trade Center no longer dominates the skyline, a billionaire businessman has become an unlikely three-term mayor, and urban regeneration—Chelsea Piers, the High Line, DUMBO, Williamsburg, the South Bronx, the Lower East Side—has become commonplace. To reflect such innovation and change, this definitive, one-volume resource on the city has been completely revised and expanded. The revised edition includes 800 new entries that help complete the story of New York: from Air Train to E-ZPass, from September 11 to public order. The new material includes broader coverage of subject areas previously underserved as well as new maps and illustrations. Virtually all existing entries—spanning architecture, politics, business, sports, the arts, and more—have been updated to reflect the impact of the past two decades. The more than 5,000 alphabetical entries and 700 illustrations of the second edition of The Encyclopedia of New York City convey the richness and diversity of its subject in great breadth and detail, and will continue to serve as an indispensable tool for everyone who has even a passing interest in the American metropolis.

Download or read book Learning to Practise written by Ruby Heap and published by University of Ottawa Press. This book was released on 2005-10-25 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How does one become a professional? This interdisciplinary collection offers new insights into that fundamental question. Employing a wide variety of approaches and methodologies, the original and thematically linked essays discuss such problematic issues as the most appropriate site for professional education, the proper focus and content of the initial and on-going preparation of professionals, and the nature of both continuity and change in professional education. In the process, they raise challenging questions about the development of professional education in Canada and elsewhere from the early 19th century to the present day, in fields as diverse as the health sciences, law, engineering, social work, theology, and university teaching. An essential resource for those studying the professions, this book will also appeal to practitioners, professional associations, administrators, and faculty in professional schools, and to all those interested in the past, present, and future state of their professions.

Download or read book Visions from Professional Development School Partners written by Michael Cosenza and published by IAP. This book was released on 2018-01-01 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rich clinical preparation combined with progressive experiences in professional development school (PDS) settings are proposed to bring about systemic and impactful transformation of educator preparation and professional growth in order to improve and enhance P-12 student learning. In this book, diverse authors describe their efforts to forge PDS partnerships to develop and deliver high quality training and practical experiences for candidates, and simultaneously provide professional development for experienced practitioners in ways that mirror recommendations found in authoritative reports and literature. The authors’ collective wisdom is vividly captured in the multi-voiced chapters that are collaborations between cooperating teachers, school administrators, county and district level administrators, university supervisors, and instructional faculty. The contexts authors write about are recognizable, and the accomplishments they experienced and challenges faced will resonate with institutions courageously undertaking change or renewal. The book will be invaluable to school and university faculty and administrators as they transition to a partnering model of clinical preparation for teacher candidates: it will help stakeholders decide if their schools and institutions are ready to commit to a partnership, and highlight the benefits they stand to gain, but realistically address challenges that may be faced by administrators and faculties as well as teacher candidates in the PDS enterprise.

Download or read book Oxford Textbook of Medical Education written by Kieran Walsh and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 775 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Providing a comprehensive and evidence-based reference guide for those who have a strong and scholarly interest in medical education, the Oxford Textbook of Medical Education contains everything the medical educator needs to know in order to deliver the knowledge, skills, and behaviour that doctors need. The book explicitly states what constitutes best practice and gives an account of the evidence base that corroborates this. Describing the theoretical educational principles that lay the foundations of best practice in medical education, the book gives readers a through grounding in all aspects of this discipline. Contributors to this book come from a variety of different backgrounds, disciplines and continents, producing a book that is truly original and international.

Download or read book International Encyclopedia of Civil Society written by Helmut K. Anheier and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-11-24 with total page 1722 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recently the topic of civil society has generated a wave of interest, and a wealth of new information. Until now no publication has attempted to organize and consolidate this knowledge. The International Encyclopedia of Civil Society fills this gap, establishing a common set of understandings and terminology, and an analytical starting point for future research. Global in scope and authoritative in content, the Encyclopedia offers succinct summaries of core concepts and theories; definitions of terms; biographical entries on important figures and organizational profiles. In addition, it serves as a reliable and up-to-date guide to additional sources of information. In sum, the Encyclopedia provides an overview of the contours of civil society, social capital, philanthropy and nonprofits across cultures and historical periods. For researchers in nonprofit and civil society studies, political science, economics, management and social enterprise, this is the most systematic appraisal of a rapidly growing field.

Download or read book Wars Civil and Great written by David J. Silbey and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2023-07-11 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although the Civil War and the Great War were fought only fifty years apart, the perceived time between these two cataclysmic events seems far longer in popular American memory: the Civil War was the centerpiece of the nineteenth century and lies deep in America’s past whereas World War I was a modern prelude to World War II, a conflict still in living memory. Wars Civil and Great breaks down these barriers of time and memory and shows how close and how similar these two conflicts really were in the American experience. Setting both wars in the long nineteenth century, the authors of this volume reveal how the Civil War cast its long shadow over the events of the Great War. President Wilson looked to Lincoln during the Great War for guidance on national leadership at wartime; General John J. Pershing remembered the Civil War of his childhood and sought to learn lessons from Grant and McClellan; and the doughboys on European battlefields held firm to the culture of honor and duty that had inspired their forefathers to take up arms. In this volume, every author as an expert in their own field addresses four overarching questions: What legacy did the Civil War leave? Did the Great War generation interpret the lessons of the Civil War, and if so, how? How did the Great War change the lessons from the Civil War era? And finally, how did both wars contribute to the modernization of the United States? Wars Civil and Great highlights the striking similarities between the two wars by analyzing how the Civil War affected the American reaction to and experience in the Great War while attending to enlisted men, military officers, and political leaders. Other chapters address the environmental effects of both wars, the wars’ impacts on medicine and mental trauma, and the experiences of Black American soldiers in both wars as they fought for a country that treated them so terribly. This volume, while at first appearing as a disparate pairing of conflicts, deftly opens a new window into the past and establishes an illuminating paradigm in the two wars of the long nineteenth century.

Download or read book Beyond the Sea of Beer written by Miloslav Rechcigl Jr. and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2017-11-09 with total page 1523 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a comprehensive history of immigrants from the historic lands of the Bohemian Crown and its successor states, including Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic, based on the painstaking lifetime research of the author. The reader will find lots of new information in this book that is not available elsewhere. The title of the book comes from a popular song of the famous Czech artistic duo, Voskovec and Werich, who described America in those words when they lived here, reflecting on their love for this country. It covers the period starting soon after the discovery of the New World to date. The emphasis is on the US, although Canada and Latin America are also covered. It covers the arrival and the settlement of the immigrants in various states and regions of America, their harsh beginnings, the establishment of their communities, and their organization. A separate section is devoted to the contributions of notable individuals in different areas of human endeavor, including Bohemians, Moravians, Bohemian Jews, and the Slovaks. These people excelled in just about every facet of human undertaking. Even though a total number of these immigrants were fewer than other ethnic groups, their accomplishments were phenomenal. Nothing like this has ever been published since the time Thomas Capek wrote his classic The Cechs (Bohemians) in America some one hundred years ago.

Download or read book Active Education for Future Doctors written by Nomy Dickman and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-05-11 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is designed to aid the faculty of medical and other health related schools in developing the pedagogical skills to transform their teaching in multiple settings including the classroom, the conference room, the ambulatory office, and the hospital from a passive learning experience to an active learning experience. In this transformation, the teacher morphs from the ‘all knowing expert’ to the ‘learning facilitator and coach’. After a brief review of adult learning theory the remainder of the book will focus on a broad variety of teaching techniques and classroom activities that ‘flip’ the classroom from a passive to an active learning environment. In addition to condensed explanations of each of the techniques, examples of each process will be presented with suggestions for flexing the techniques to better accommodate a variety of learning settings and a diversity of learners.

Download or read book Plowshares into Swords written by David Ekbladh and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2022-09-30 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An in-depth look at how the ideas formulated by the interwar League of Nations shaped American thinking on the modern global order. In Plowshares into Swords, David Ekbladh recaptures the power of knowledge and information developed between World War I and World War II by an international society of institutions and individuals committed to liberal international order and given focus by the League of Nations in Geneva. That information and analysis revolutionized critical debates in a world in crisis. In doing so, Ekbladh transforms conventional understandings of the United States’ postwar hegemony, showing that important elements of it were profoundly influenced by ideas that emerged from international exchanges. The League’s work was one part of a larger transnational movement that included the United States and which saw the emergence of concepts like national income, gross domestic product, and other attempts to define and improve the standards of living, as well as new approaches to old questions about the role of government. Forged as tools for peace these ideas were beaten into weapons as World War II threatened. Ekbladh recounts how, though the US had never been a member of the organization, vital parts of the League were rescued after the fall of France in 1940 and given asylum at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. However, this presence in the US is just one reason its already well-regarded economic analyses and example were readily mobilized by influential American and international figures for an Allied “war of ideas,” plans for a postwar world, and even blueprints for the new United Nations. How did this body of information become so valuable? As Ekbladh makes clear, the answer is that information and analysis themselves became crucial currencies in global affairs: to sustain a modern, liberal global order, a steady stream of information about economics, politics, and society was, and remains, indispensable.

Download or read book Diploma Mills written by A. J. Angulo and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2016-03-15 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A provocative history of for-profit colleges and universities. Honorable Mention, PROSE Education Practice Award by the American Association of Publishers, FY17 The most significant shift in higher education over the past two decades has been the emergence of for-profit colleges and universities. These online and storefront institutions lure students with promises of fast degrees and “guaranteed” job placement, but what they deliver is often something quite different. In this provocative history of for-profit higher education, historian and educational researcher A. J. Angulo tells the remarkable and often sordid story of these “diploma mills,” which target low-income and nontraditional students while scooping up a disproportionate amount of federal student aid. Tapping into a little-known history with big implications, Angulo takes readers on a lively journey that begins with the apprenticeship system of colonial America and ends with today’s politically savvy $35 billion multinational for-profit industry. He traces the transformation of nineteenth-century reading and writing schools into “commercial” and “business” colleges, explores the early twentieth century’s move toward professionalization and progressivism, and explains why the GI Bill prompted a surge of new for-profit institutions. He also shows how well-founded concerns about profit-seeking in higher education have evolved over the centuries and argues that financial gaming and maneuvering by these institutions threatens to destabilize the entire federal student aid program. This is the first sweeping narrative history to explain why for-profits have mattered to students, taxpayers, lawmakers, and the many others who have viewed higher education as part of the American dream. Diploma Mills speaks to today’s concerns by shedding light on unmistakable conflicts of interest long associated with this scandal-plagued class of colleges and universities.

Download or read book Rejuvenating Medical Education written by Alan Bleakley and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2017-08-21 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Returning to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey for inspiration, this book uses these epics as a medium through which we might think imaginatively about key issues in contemporary medicine and medical education. These issues include doctors as heroes, and the legacy of heroic medicine in an age of clinical teamwork, collaboration and a more feminine medicine. The authors challenge ingrained habits in medical education, such as the way we characteristically “train” medical students to communicate with patients and colleagues; the reduction of compassion to the “skill” of empathy; the rote recital of the medical history as a “song”; and the new vogue for “resilience” as response to increasing levels of stress and burnout in the profession. A Homeric lens also shows new ways of thinking about translation of medical lingo into patients’ understanding, the relatively high levels of anger and error shown in clinical interactions, and modern phenomena such as “whistleblowing” in the face of unacceptable error or misbehaviour. While exhaustion and burnout are becoming more common in medicine, the authors ask if a more lyrical, rather than epic and tragic stance, might benefit medical work. Drawing on a wealth of experience in the field, the book promotes a new kind of medicine and medical education fit for the 21st century, but envisages these through the ancient lens of Homer’s two epics. In the heroic glory elaborated in the Iliad and the themes of homecoming and hospitality set out in the Odyssey, Homer provides a narrative arc that is a blueprint of modern medicine’s development from a heroic endeavour to a contemporary collaborative provision of hospitality, where the hospital remains true to its name and doctors engage in work of care rather than “fighting” disease with the hospital as battleground.