Sallyportal: Madly Blogging Reed

A Reed Valentine

By Chris Lydgate '90 on February 23, 2011 03:58 PM

Our sister blog Voices from Reed reported on this delightful chalk graffito, which materialized on the Blue Bridge on Valentine's Day:

ovidlettersmall.JPGDear Ovid,
Apollo loves a certain Daphnia pulex,
but alas she reproduces
parthenogenetically
and is uninterested in
even the love of
some god.

Sincerely,
Aphrodite

Continue reading A Reed Valentine

A Winter's Ramble with Schubert

By Chris Lydgate '90 on February 18, 2011 12:49 PM

582_Schubert_Klimt.jpgI had to chuckle at the brouhaha stirred by New York Times music critic Anthony Tommasini recently with his ambitious attempt to rank the Top Ten Classical Composers Ever. (In case you haven't heard, JS Bach was #1.)

Lists of this sort are an old journalistic standby--subjective, outrageous, infuriating, and a marvelous device to spark debate and spur readership.

Continue reading A Winter's Ramble with Schubert

Does College Work?

By Chris Lydgate '90 on February 11, 2011 03:25 PM

155_academically_adrift.jpgConsidering the enormous quantities of time, energy, money, and anguish that are invested in higher education in this country, you might imagine that we'd have more hard data about how well it works. Yet research on the true purpose of a college education--whether it produces an educated person--is surprisingly sparse.

A major new book on the subject--Academically Adrift, by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa--presents plenty of data, and the conclusions aren't pretty. Approximately 45% of the undergraduates surveyed showed no improvement in their overall analytical competence after two years of college, and 36% showed no improvement after four years of college.

"Large numbers of U.S. college students can be accurately described as academically adrift. They might graduate, but they are failing to develop the higher-order cognitive skills that it is widely assumed college students should master," the authors write.

Continue reading Does College Work?

Hello, World

By Chris Lydgate '90 on February 11, 2011 11:52 AM

582_Sallyportal.jpg

When I was a freshman at Reed, professor Jean Delord [physics 1950-88] taught me some elementary computer programming. I can still remember the thrill of compiling my first snippet of code, which simply printed the immortal words "Hello, World!"

Now, many years later, the same words leap to mind as we introduce Sallyportal, a new blog hosted by Reed magazine.

Continue reading Hello, World

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