Basically socially complex texts are authored by opposing forces discussing an issue with equal passion and often mutual disdain. This requires a new set of reading skills to detect bait-clicking, astro turfing, and real grass root efforts. Accomplishing these goals requires readers to put a much larger emphasis on not only sourcing skills but also analytics.
Cellphones vs. Learning: The Great (& Somewhat) Pointless Debate
Asked to rate their level of agreement or disagreement, 87% of faculty members expressed some level of agreement with the idea that using a phone to send text messages or check email in class is never appropriate, Less than half the students surveyed agreed with this statement. While 48% of students supported quiet cellphone usage in class, only 13% faculty members were on board with this idea.
Classroom education has long been criticized for being disjointed from the real world. Millennials believe that classrooms without an abundance of electronic devices are even more unrealistic and artificial (p.277).
Why Don’t the 1 Percent Feel Rich?
But another part of it is status anxiety. Not just conspicuous consumption, though there is plenty of that. Rather, it’s the terror that their kids will fall behind. That if they don’t get their toddler into the right preschool, they’ll blow any chance of getting them into Harvard. So they spend ungodly sums on tuition, tutors, and enrichment activities to try to keep up with the other 1 percenters in the college admissions arms race. There’s a perverse logic to it all: the richer the 1 percent get, the higher the cost of falling out. And that’s why the “bottom of the 1 percent” in particular aren’t getting wealthier. They’re making more, but they’re also spending more on their kids.
A Quick Way to Cut College Costs
Consider a family of four, earning $100,000 in income and having $50,000 in savings. The E.F.C. says that this family will contribute $17,375 each year to a child’s college expenses. A $100,000 income translates into take-home pay of about $6,311 monthly. An E.F.C. of $17,375 means the family must contribute about $1,500 a month — every month for four years. But cutting family expenses by 25 percent every month is unrealistic.
.. Meanwhile, lobbying expenditures by colleges, universities and higher-education organizations have totaled more than a half-billion dollars over the past five years — the eighth highest special-interest category attempting to influence Congress.