Calamities

"Calamities are of two kinds: misfortunes to ourselves, and good fortune to others."

-Ambrose Bierce

Mark of A Great Player

The mark of a great player is in his ability to come back. The great champions have all come back from defeat.

-Sam Snead

Liberal Education

Libreal education is about learning to learn, to think for yourself, on your own and in collaboration with others. Liberal educations leads us away from naive acceptance of authority, above self-defeating relativism and beyond ambiguous contextualism. It culminates in principled reflective judgement. Learning critical thinking, cultivating the critical spirit is not just a means to this end, but is a part of the goal itself. Yes, there is much more to a liberal education, than critical thinking. There is an understanding of the methods, principles, theories and ways of achieving knowledge which are proper to the different intellectual realms. There is an encounter with the cultural, artistic and spiritual dimensions of life. There is the evolution of one*s decision making to the level of principled integrity and concern for the common good and social justice. There is the realization of the ways all our lives are shaped by global as well as local political, social, psychological, economic, environmental, and physical forces. There is the growth that comes from the interaction with cultures, languages, ethnic groups, religions, nationalities, and social classes other than one*s own. There is the refinement of one*s humane sensibilities through reflection on the recurring questions of human existence, meaning, love, life and death. There is the sensitivity, appreciation and critical appraisal of all that is good and all that is bad in the human condition. As the mind awakens and matures, and the proper nurturing and educational nourishment is provided, these others central parts of a liberal education develop as well.

-Peter A Facione

Being a Professor

Being a professor is a curious job - the better you are, the less your students come to need you.

-Peter A Facione

Nation's future

The future now belongs to the societies that organize themselves for learning...nations that want high income and full employment must develop policies that emphasize the acquisition of knowledge and skills by everyone, not a select few.

-Ray Marshall & Marc Tucker

Call for change

We are more apt to endure the status quo, even as it slowly deteriorates, than we are to call for a radical change. Regrettably however, when the call for change comes, it often requires a far greater upheavel to make necessary transformations, or, on occasion, the situation has deteriorated beyong the point of no return. In those situations we find ourselves wondering why we waited so long for doing something.

-Peter A Facione

Heuristic

Any heuristic is only a shortcut, not a failsafe rule. It may work out well much of the time to rely on the heuristic, but it will not work out the best all of the time.

-Peter A Facione