It’s 8 a.m. and you are sitting in your most boring general education lecture class. As the professor drones on, your mind wanders to various subjects of little relevance. When you realize you don’t know what the professor is talking about, you say...
I have increasingly noticed how little attention is paid to professors in those large lecture classes. With this in mind, I decided to play a little game of Bingo. Not normal Bingo, though--an adaptation of the classic game for a college lecture class...
When a child is ready to start school, his or her parents have many options in regard to where he or she is going to go: Public, private, charter, voucher, home-schooling--oh my gosh, it is too much. In my opinion, I think there is one option with the...
As a perspective columnist, opinion is a big part of my job. However, I realize the importance of hearing other peoples’ opinions on current issues as well as my own. For months now, I have been aching to hear what someone else has to say about current...
When it comes to education, one issue in particular comes to everyone’s minds: tenure. Whether you are in support or in opposition to tenure, people have very strong opinions of this process, which is said to protect bad teachers. However, the simple...
It was just last week that I was walking back from class and at noon when I heard the church bells, keen to alert the campus of the hour. After 12 strikes, the bells started a song and it one I could not place. I knew I had heard it before, but what song...
Health class. I don’t know about you, but those two words bring me back to scenes of an overcrowded classroom as a teacher leads discussions on exercise, drugs and--of course--sex. According to the National Conference on State Legislatures, 22 states...
There are two things wrong with special education: It’s not special and it’s not education. What I mean by that is our special ed programs need work. Although many may come up with causes and solutions, touting facts and statistics, I believe that...
COMS 100, ENGL 103, MATH 109: the dreaded courses first assigned to every freshman entering the gates of NIU. I think it is safe to assume there is not a single person on this campus that has not once thought something along the lines of, “Why do I...
The numbers do not add up. According to the The Schott Foundation for Public Education, in 2008, the graduation rate for black male students was 47 percent in the U.S., whereas the rate for white male students was 78 percent. In a nation that promotes...
NIU: an institution of esteemed learning and scholarly pursuits where students with large minds work tirelessly towrad the larger goal of receiving a degree. This is the classic view of American higher education, and for many students that may be a reality....
We’ve all been there: at the bus stop, the wind blowing, the temperature dropping, the clock slowly showing that you are late for class and the bus is no where in sight. And when the bus does come, your relief is short-lived as you cram yourself between...
