Everyone knows the playground bully: that big, cartoonish oaf towering over a scrawny school mate before he delivers a gut punch and knocks the lunch money from his victim's pockets. What ever happened to this menace? According to some, he's moved down the hall--the hall of academe. Once thought to be bastions of collegiality and high-mindedness,…

The difference between the University of Texas at San Antonio's Applied Engineering and Technology Library and other science-focused libraries is not that its on-site collection is also available electronically. It is that its on-site collection is only available electronically. The idea of libraries with no bound books has been a recurring theme…

This article discusses the open-content movement in education. A small but growing movement of K-12 educators is latching on to educational resources that are "open," or free for others to use, change, and republish on web sites that promote sharing. The open-content movement is fueled partly by digital creation tools that make it easy…

The numbers are in, and they are not rosy. According to the "Schools and Staffing Survey," 64,954 public schools reported vacancies during the 2003-04 school year. Projections suggest teacher attrition rates will continue to soar, while student enrollments climb. American schools have an urgent challenge: the retention of teachers.…

So much of teaching is now driven by data (i.e., test scores) and dictated by "best practices" that teachers are losing confidence in their own creativity. Yet, despite these unfortunate consequences of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the important work of teachers remains unchanged. That work is the work of connecting personally and…

The work ethic incorporates more than just a single concept of high effort. It includes qualities like commitment, dependability, and willingness to learn. The work ethic also is closely associated with other values such as honesty, patience, and generosity. In this article, the authors emphasize the importance of hard work as well as the…