Links for 1/12/11

Dan Ariely

If empirical observation is incompatible with a model, the model must be trashed or amended, even if it is conceptually beautiful, logically appealing, or mathematically convenient...

Michael Huemer

Should I Go to Graduate School in Philosophy?

However smart you may be, when you apply for that coveted position at the University of Colorado, your application will go into a pile of 300 others, of which at least 20 will look about equally good. All 20 of those people will have been the best philosophy students at their colleges. Think about the smartest person you have ever known. Now imagine that there are 20 copies of that person competing with you for a job. That is roughly what it will be like...

Once you’ve received your Ph.D. from somewhere other than a top-twenty school, it is extremely difficult to advance in the field... Hiring committees are lazy and very prestige-oriented...

Since 1940, about 400,000 philosophy books and articles have appeared. What proportion of those do you suppose the average person in the field has read?...

Roxanna Elden

failure IS an option. Ironically enough, it tends to be an especially popular option at schools with giant "Failure is not an option!" posters in front of the main office...

the term paradigm shift has undergone a shift of its own. It has become a code word in any presentation that means, "You can stop listening now."...

Paul E. Peterson

the evidence is showing that schools of choice are compiling a consistently better record than that of traditional public schools.

The Institute of Education Sciences study headed up by Patrick Wolf found students more likely to graduate from voucher schools in Washington, D. C. Kevin Booker, Tim R. Sass, Brian Gill and Ron Zimmer found the same for charter schools in Chicago and Florida. Now a new report from John Warren shows similar results for voucher schools in Milwaukee…

Just why schools of choice produce higher graduation rates—even when, as in Milwaukee and D. C., test score results are not noticeably different—remains a puzzle…