Mr. Yunus states. “When we were in the caves we were all self-employed … finding our food, feeding ourselves. That’s where the human history began … As civilization came we suppressed it. We became labor because [they] stamped us, ‘You are labor.’ We forgot that we are entrepreneurs.”
From The Little Big Things, by Tom Peters
Let’s make all student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy, but instead of the taxpayers taking the hit when student loans go sour, colleges should absorb the loss, or at least a portion of it.
This would incentivize colleges to focus on providing educational value and help their students launch a career–knowing that if they fail in their mission, there are real consequences. Maybe then colleges would be more attentive to helping their students succeed.
Daniel Bennet, “When Good Loans go Bad” (http://www.forbes.com/2010/05/25/student-loans-bankruptcy-leadership-education-bennett_2.html)
Pretty interesting concept. It certainly would be opposed by most higher education institutions I believe. I imagine that it would severely alter U of Phoenix and the other for profits recruiting efforts.
Best song intro I’ve heard in a long time. So good.
I’m currently listening to Phantogram non-stop, this is my favorite:
people first, people second, people third, people ad infinitum
That’s the way I like to do business.
From The Little Big Things by Tom Peters
…a video version of the course supplemented with a set number of hours of live teaching support, either delivered remotely by a…grad student, or live and in person from a local instructor, for a charge somewhere between zero and several thousand dollars, with credit awarded by your local institution. The existence of such an option–call it MIT on Demand–might even enhance the MIT brand, as OCW already has.
A company called StraighterLine already offers and important version of this idea: accredited online college courses for $399 per course, which includes ten hours of one-on-one tutoring. But the course credit is granted by just four small, unknown, community and for-profit colleges. This approach is half a step away from really blowing things up. It would just take a few more prestigious institutions getting on board to change the way people feel about online, on-demand education.
Anna Kamenetz, DIY U (pg 128)
I’m addicted to this song at the moment. There’s also a great remix of the beat featuring Kanye and Common (The Graduate).
Pale Blue Dot from Amy Bach on Vimeo.
I’m not sure why they took down the original version (which was very, very cool). But here’s a replacement that’s AOK as well.
Could our fore-fathers have actually created the best business model when they created democracy as we know it?
Case in point: www.Quirky.com.
The Post Office Department of the United States is an Ass.
Mark Twain, Who is Mark Twain