Understand Wisconsin politics and understanding American politics becomes possible. The “badger state” is a fascinating mix of people, cultures and economies, from industrial to rural. Democrats, Republicans (the party was started in Wisconsin), progressives, socialists and many other groups from across the political spectrum have won office in Wisconsin. From 2011 to 2019, Scott Walker…
Author: David Potash
Pruning The Ivies
For a recently written full-throated critique of elite private higher education in the United States – not a political action or lawsuit, but instead a book – check out Poison Ivy by Evan Mandery. In lively prose, mixing personal experience with scholarly research, Mandery argues that elite higher education harms students, communities, and the overall…
Seeing Each Other
Being human is a social activity. Connections between and among fellow humans are how we make meaning, understanding ourselves, our actions and our world. Interacting with each other keeps us healthy, guides us to happiness, and gives us the tools to deal with the many challenges that life brings. Exploring that theme in the workplace…
Shining Light on Community Colleges’ Impact
America’s Hidden Economic Engines: How Community Colleges Can Drive Shared Prosperity is a short book from Harvard Education Press. Edited by Rachel Lipson, co-founder of the Project on Workforce at Harvard, and Robert B. Schwartz, emeritus professor of education at Harvard, the volume is part of a larger series on Work and Learning. The workforce…
Do We Really Have to Disagree So Vehemently?
Read broadly, across the disciplines, and it is amazing what can be found. There might be a narrow monograph here or an obscure treatise over there, but scholarship can surprise and enlighten in so many ways and fields. Come across a tight, well-reasoned work that resonates? One has to share. Matthew Levendusky is a political…
Learning to Love (and Use!) Data
Amid the sea of tutorials, reports, books and worksheets about higher education and data, finding a clearly written study of data and change management is most welcome. Please consider Brad C. Phillips and Jordan E. Horowitz’s Creating a Data-Informed Culture in Community Colleges: A New Model for Educators. While I cannot speak to how new…
Boys to Emotionally Healthier Men
What happens to far too many many emotionally healthy boys when adolescence hits? In a few short years they transform from trusting, caring and loving teens into macho posers, lonely and fronting in attempts to be masculine. The costs are profound, at the individual and societal levels. While many might recognize the changes in teen…