Catching Cheaters: Now Is the Time

Sadly, a second German minister with a PhD has been discovered to have plagiarized her dissertation. It is an odd thing about English that this somehow implies that the prior minister was also a woman; that is not the case.

Allow me to say that I am not speaking about dissertation quality. I doubt anyone will read my dissertation. It has some nice parts, and I'm proud of much of it, but it was not of fundamental importance. I have put my lab research on hiatus, so even for me it is gathering dust.

However, the PhD dissertation must be novel research. More than any other academic work, the dissertation can not be plagiarized, since its very purpose is to explain a novel contribution to the discipline.

Arguing this point is not the purpose of this post. I want to talk about two issues surrounding detection: who is currently doing it (and why), and how it should be done.

It seems that both of the Germans were outed by anonymous people who published lists of the stolen material. Since both held important government positions, I have to assume that the outers were motivated by politics. I normally don't support this kind of witch hunt, but I feel equally that I don't feel sorry for these people having been caught at a game many probably play.

We need a mechanism to audit dissertations, which requires a tools and a surrounding process. The tool part is easy: http://turnitin.com/ should be able to catch some, and more depending on integration with Google Books (yes, an academic mentioning Google Books without pillorying it). The process is trickier. This will miss indirect plagiarism (copying ideas or paraphrasing text without citing), but that cannot be automated at this point with existing technology.

Who should do the checking? Well, it can't be the student, since the untrustworthy ones aren't, well, trustworthy. One possibility is the Graduate School; at most US institutions, the Graduate School is an entity independent of other subunits, and they receive and certify the dissertation. However, they do this at the end of the process, usually after the final version has been approved by the student's committee and advisor.

My preference is that this be done by the chair of the student's dissertation committee, who can be the student's advisor, but need not be. It's a minor burden; even a professor with a large research group might do two or three a year. Most faculty do not average one dissertation per year.

The next question is: what do you do when you've discovered plagiarism? There are two choices, and they may not be what you expect, because they are meta-process choices. The first would be to have a policy, at the institution, college/school, or departmental level. The second would be to allow the chair to handle the situation.

If there is a policy, it will inevitably involve a new committee, lots of rules, and high penalties for the caught student. Most likely would be expulsion. I don't know if that's a good idea; it's a permanent black mark. Students working on dissertations are in a real bind; they're under extreme pressure to produce and do so more quickly than they ever have. I can't defend them, but I can see, having been through it, why someone could get tempted. The extraordinary pressure leads to many poor decisions: the number of divorces that happen during one spouse's dissertation process is high.

Personally, my hope would be that an awareness of this looming process would encourage all dissertators to not commit at least direct plagiarism. I think that if I had a students who did plagiarize, and I caught them, I would be tempted to throw them out.

A final note that plagiarism and theft are not new to academia. C. P. Snow (of "Two Cultures" fame) wrote an excellent (fiction) book about this The Affair.

The Necessity of Algebra

When I originally read Andrew Hacker's op-ed in the New York Times calling for abolishing (or at least replacing) algebra as a core requirement, I dismissed it. It reminded me of a colleague and mentor who had stopped writing a critique of a book dismissing computers because there was so much wrong to correct. However, one of my indefatigable students found it and asked my opinion, so here we are.

Hacker's premise are these:

• Algebra is obscure
• Algebra is too hard
• Algebra is not taught well

Of these, I can only agree with the last. We as a nation produce so few talented math teachers that high schools are often unable to offer sufficient coverage for four years. As a computer scientist teaching at a large research institution, I can verify that our students come woefully unprepared in terms of math. However, the solution that Hacker proposes, removing algebra as a requirement, is not going to create more math teachers, or raise their salaries. It would gut math departments. No one likes math, because math is hard. Conversely (or perhaps perversely), everyone likes the things that math can do.

I'm not going to address the second point. The literature from mathematics education indicates that someone of average (as compared to the median) intelligence can learn algebra. The fact that many don't learn has to do more with how we teach math and fund math education.

I can address the idea that algebra is an obscure field with bizarre rules that most of us don't completely remember. Recently, some colleagues in the math department proposed adding an end-of-summer bootcamp for new freshman on math. I was skeptical; was this going to address remedial skills or advanced skills? Who needed the most help?

The profound answer I received convinced me to support their effort enthusiastically. The bootcamp was agnostic in reference to a topic; it was a bootcamp on understanding the rules of algebra. Whether the students were going into college algebra, precalculus, calculus for business, or calculus for scientists/engineers (the latter has trig), they could attend and benefit.

If you aren't in the sciences (and perhaps even if you are), you may be puzzled. Isn't algebra at type of math? The simple answer (not entirely complete, but correct) is that algebra is the fundamental unification of arithmetic that allows useful things to be done.

Being able to use the concepts from algebra effectively allows a students to learn to:

• Balance equations and predict effects in chemistry
• Program computers
• Understand statistics, calculate them, and analyze the outcome

There are others on this list. You would be hard-pressed to find a science (including the social sciences) that do not rely on algebra when analyzing quantitative phenomena (those things that can be counted).

No sane educator would tell you that students don't need to learn to write essays. I regularly push my students to develop their writing. It's not that the exact format of an essay will be used regularly in work, but the tools that it integrates are used constantly. Analysis of a problem or question, forming a response, making an argument in support of the response, adding additional arguments, and then summing up: these are all required to complete a day's worth of email I send.

The needs of our workforce are not thick looking for skills developed purely in the humanities (and I say this as someone who has studied the humanities and holds them as the ne plus ultra of academic pursuits). We need technologists and information workers, and those two need to be able to comprehend and, yes, even conduct math operations at the level of algebra.

I hope I've elucidated the importance of algebra. Hacker's idea of a "citizen statistics" course can't work, because statistics require knowledge of algebra to learn. The use of statistics on an uncritical population led to British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli to state "there are lies, damn lies, and statistics." Just as we wouldn't allow a student to run from algebra because it's hard, we should not as a society run from teaching and requiring algebra because it's hard.

I'm going to add another point, one that is more personal to me. The notion of a liberal education is old, and while it has been altered to suit different societies over time, the principles have been tested against hundreds of societies over thousands of years and found to be correct. Our society (along with all stable societies in the past, western or eastern) is run by the products of liberal education. To say to mathematics, "sorry, we don't accept your entry to our system" is absurd, especially when the entry is the foundation of all science in addition to further math.

Hacker is a successful scholar and educator, but I'm bothered by his willingness to dismiss the very substance of the liberal education. He's clever to not dismiss math entirely, but it is not for the political scientists to determine the necessary components of math education, any more than it would be appropriate for a computer scientist to dictate the content of a freshman lit course, claiming that students don't need Shakespeare but do need to write emails.

The Harvard Cheating Scandal: A Response to Farhad Manjoo's Dismissal

In an occurrence that shocked precisely not one person in the world, Harvard is now investigating students cheating on an easy gen-ed class, Introduction to Congress. The nutshell is that, despite the fact that the test specifically forbade students from collaborating, they talked about their answers and did everything they were not supposed to do. This was an open-book, open-note take-home exam, so it's not like they had no other choice, even if they were confused.

Farhad Manjoo wrote an article for Slate "There Is No Harvard Cheating Scandal". It's basically a defense of the students, arguing that they weren't cheating, but "collaborating". Since collaboration is the name of the game in the business/professional world, shouldn't they be allowed to collaborate in college? It might sound reasonable, but...

The purpose of collaboration is NOT to make things easier for the individual; the purpose is to allow multiple committed people to produce something greater than what any individual of the group could create. A simple example can be seen in team sports: Michael Jordan, even though he was the greatest basketball player of an entire generation, could not play and win by himself. He needed other (very talented) players, like Rodman, Pippen, and Grant, to create an amazing basketball legacy. Having worked as part of a team does not diminish his individual contributions but allows those contributions to come to fruition.

Speaking about the specifics of the class, Manjoo stated that the exam questions were "tricky". I would argue that they weren't: the chief one was an open-ended question about the influence of lobbying on the function of Congress. When I took a college course on American government (not even specific to Congress) at a university that was most definitely not Harvard (and quite a long time ago), this topic was covered, and covered well.

Manjoo makes other excuses for the students. He suggests that some of the faculty (probably grad students, and I can assure you that Harvard does not admit idiots into its grad programs, nor does it hire unexceptional faculty) were not as good as others. This is certain to be the case, but doesn't excuse cheating. The students were not prevented from looking at notes their peers made, or reading additional material (the phrase lobbying congress pulls up approximately 14.7 million hits on Google, starting with a Wikipedia article), or checking out YouTube (approximately 6.6 million hits) if they are too lazy to read.

All of this is secondary, though. If there was possible wiggle room, we could perhaps have a real (although pointless) debate about whether or not the students exceeded the allowed activities. However, the exam clearly states (and Manjoo quotes): "students may not discuss the exam with others." Manjoo questions the wisdom of this, but experienced teachers will always explain that they construct assignments and exams around the resources they do and do not allow. Manjoo is, in essence, arguing that there should be no rules about academic integrity.

Am I pushing Manjoo's argument too far? I don't think so. There is always an argument in favor of some form of abuse: crib sheets mean you don't have to memorize and can focus on concepts, working with others is collaboration, and having someone else write your papers is just using professional expertise. The rules may seem arbitrary, but again, faculty tune their tests to whatever environment they want for the exam.

I'll cap off with a couple of anecdotes. First, when I was an undergrad, I missed two weeks of classes due to illness (I was bedridden until a trip to the hospital) and missed an exam; the prof let me take a custom makeup exam that was take-home, but without notes and with a specific time constraint. I honored those requirements. As a PhD candidate, I had to take a comprehensive examination (during which anything could be asked); I was expected to be able to cite relevant research literature from memory. Were those requirements fair? Absolutely. Had I cheated on my comprehensive, I would have been expelled. I knew the rules, I knew what was at stake, and I complied. All that the Harvard students were being asked to do was comply with one simple rule, and they chose not to follow it. It's time to pay the piper.

The Importance of a College Education, or Why Peter Thiel Is Selling a Bad Idea

Peter Thiel is a brilliant and successful man (who happens to have two degrees from Stanford, but that's not the point here) who came up with a neat program, the Thiel Fellowship, which encourages students to drop out of college and pursue starting up a business. If you are selected, you get $100,000 with no strings attached. There's NOTHING WRONG with the Thiel Fellowship. If you have an idea, apply, and if you get a Thiel Fellowship, take it. The fellowship is not Thiel's bad idea.

The bad idea that Peter Thiel is selling is that college isn't worthwhile. He has a whole page on the Thiel Fellow website devoted to the "college bubble". The Thiel Fellowship seems to be more about providing publicity to his "don't go to college message" than it is about helping young entrepreneurs start. I don't think he's being disingenuous, but I have concerns. The simplest one is this: let's say on the off chance you have a great idea and the skill to make it come to reality, all at the tender age of 18 or 19. Then let's go further and say you are one of only twenty people who are selected (I have seen no data on the number of applicants, but I would imagine that the odds are pretty low). Yes, you have two years of your young life to make a business, but don't imagine that $100K is a lot of money when it comes to starting up a business. Just like your friends in college, you are going to be living with roommates, driving a beat up car (or no car), eating ramen, drinking coffee, and working your ass off. At the end of two years you may be ready to pursue real money, hire employees, etc. However, what does the Thiel Fellowship tacitly encourage you to do if you can't realize your dream? Go back to college.

Dick Jumps Into the Job Market, While Jane Goes to School

You will see massive amounts of data on both sides of the college bubble debate, but it's hard to give that context. Yes, some people drop out and make a ton of money. Most college dropouts don't make more money, though; they make less than their peers with college degrees.

I'm going to tell you a story I've seen many times, although I'm going to genericize it. It's about time for high school graduation, and we have two new graduates to meet. They are both intelligent and hard-working, but they have very different plans.

Dick is sick of school; he thinks it is not paced for him, and he doesn't like doing homework. He has a lot of tech skills, so he decides to see if he can get a professional job. Very quickly he finds one doing IT work, and he'll be making $24,000 his first year. He's as happy as can be. He moves out of his parents' home into his own apartment, and he buys a new car.

Jane is a bit more bookish and likes school more than Dick. She is also intelligent, and also has tech skills, so she could follow Dick into the workforce, but she chooses to go to college to study information technology instead. Instead of earning $24K, she'll earn about $8K doing part-time and summer work. She'll be living in a dorm and won't have a car.

Over the next four years, Dick gets to tease Jane frequently, as she is broke all of the time and he has money. In fact, we'll be ridiculously generous and say that Dick gets a $2K raise each year for the next four years, so by the time Jane graduates with $25K in debt (even with working part-time and in the summer), he's making $32K and has earned $108K over the past four years. After Jane graduates, let's say that she's only making as much as Dick, so she gets a job making that same $32K. Now, it's really simple to say that Jane's college degree had a $133K opportunity cost.

That's oversimplifying, though.

First, Jane has some skills and knowledge that Dick doesn't. It's not that he hasn't learned anything in four years, but while Jane could focus on learning, Dick had work to do. He ended up repeating tasks (like setting up computers and unjamming printers). Jane worked hard for her degree, so classes, studying, and part-time employment took more than 40 hours during many weeks, but she was in a structured learning environment, and being broke she didn't have as much as Dick in the way of distractions. She knows a lot of the underpinning theories of technology, so when the current crop of equipment is on the scrap-heap, she'll not only learn the new tech more quickly than Dick will, she probably can anticipate some of the changes. She's also been educated in professional writing and communication, and that looks good for the boss.

Jane's Still Behind, But...

You can probably see where this is going to go. Jane is going to get promoted. Dick will be supportive at first, but as Jane gets promoted higher and given more raises, Dick will become bitter. He's just as intelligent as Jane, but something makes her promotable. To some extent Dick will attribute this to bias, since most of the managers at all levels in the company have college degrees. Yes, that's it, they are prejudiced, Dick says, ignoring the fact that they all may value college education more than he realizes for very practical reasons.

The reasons for Jane's promotability are perhaps not that she can configure a router faster than he can, but she can generally be given additional responsibility with the knowledge that she will be upfront about what progress has been made and what needs to be done. She has no inferiority complex, because she has that "piece of paper". Again, her communication skills, "soft skills" though they may be, mean that others understand what she's doing and how her work impacts others. Jane worked on group projects in college, and has practical experience. When she's asked to lead a group and someone doesn't pull their fair share, she knows how to handle the problem without stomping her feet. When this happens to Dick, he gets angry because he hasn't realized that there will always be loafers; he feels unfairly burdened to have to vet these people. He thinks it's his job to give them "what's coming to them". Jane would never have gotten through college and would be in a straightjacket if she had tried that approach more than once in college.

When Dave asks his manager why Jane got promoted over him, he gets the usual response. This isn't the post office, so seniority means nothing. The easiest point of comparison is the degree, so Dick fixates on that, arguing that it doesn't mean anything. Three years in, Jane's been promoted twice, earned $40K her second year, and is now making $50K, while Dick has gotten his usual $2K raises, which now seem measly. So in the past three years, Dick has made $102K, while Jane has earned $122K. He's still ahead by $88K, but that's dwindling fast; she has low rates on her loans and is repaying them quickly.

Short interlude on why these numbers actually don't mean much. Ask yourself how much you think Dick has saved over the past seven years? He's 25 now, but when he was 18, was he paying himself first? Was he investing in a 401k? What about a Roth IRA? His car is now paid off, and Jane's is not, but his car is 7 years old and he wants a new one. People with college degrees are more likely to save, so Jane hopefully started a little nest egg when she started. Does Dave have anything to show for his first seven years of employment? Sure, he lived better than Jane when she was in college, but ask Jane whether she had fun during college. What do you think she will say?

Moving Into Mid-Career

Let's jump ahead five years. Dick has now been given additional responsibilities and is making $50K a year, but Jane has been promoted and is making $75K. In absolute numbers her opportunity cost of college has now pared  down to below $40K, and she's not even ten years into her career.

Dick thinks that he is mature and responsible and has grown in the past five years (and he has!). He asks about being promoted to a management spot; he sees Jane in her project management role and thinks it looks more fun than administering machines. His boss, being nice, tells Dick to think about going back to school part-time and earning a degree. Dick doesn't hear this, he just hears "we won't promote you without a degree". Dick points to his certifications, and is told that those only show skill at managing technology. The truth is that Dick has never developed creative problem-solving skills because he has never been asked to be creative. If Dick had read A Brave New World, he would see that he had been a beta-minus his whole adult life. Rather than go back to school, Dick hits the bar and complains about how the company won't promote him even though he is as talented and skilled as Jane. He fails to realize that were this the case, he would be promoted. No one has the ability or desire to promote solely on a credential.

Simultaneously, Jane is enjoying her work as a project manager and happy with her pay, but she feels she could go further. She talks to her boss about how to make this happen. Her boss says, "at my level, nearly everyone has a master's degree; it's not a requirement, but it's useful to gain some additional skills." After some soul-searching, Jane decides to pursue a part-time MS in Information Technology. This requires taking the GRE, applying to school, and working hard taking two graduate classes a semester in addition to her job and her life. She thought undergrad was hard, but this is something else. She continues, though, not because of the dream of promotion (which wouldn't be enough to motivate her through this), but because she realizes she enjoys the challenge, the hard classes, the bright peers, and the practical knowledge she's gaining alongside the growth in her abstract thinking. All told, it takes her about four years (including taking time to decide, prepping for and taking the GRE, applying to competitive schools and waiting to get admitted), and at the end, she's given a promotion to lead an entire project. Her company helped pay for her MS, which was expensive, and she's now in middle management, above the first line managers but below the executives. She's starting to influence what the company does.

Then the bottom drops out. Through no fault of either, the company tanks, and Dick and Jane are both laid off.

Climbing Back into the Job Market

Conventional wisdom says that a job search will take about one month for each $10K in annual income you want to replace. Dick hopes to find another job in six months to replace his $60K, while Jane might wait a full year to replace her $120K. However, that's not what happens.

For Dick, he has trouble finding a job. There are other people his age who have similar skills sets, some with college degrees and some without. He realizes that, all other things being equal, a company will hire someone with a degree over someone without. After 17 years in industry, his first years are lost in the noise of other data, so someone with only 12 years (or only five years) is just as competitive, and doesn't make as much. Eventually Dick does find a job, but he's now making $40K again, because the only way he could get back into the market was to lower his salary expectation.

Jane's experience is more valuable because of the experiences that she was offered, not because of her degrees. Her degrees are valuable, especially the MS, because the people hiring her know that someone with an MS from a good, recognized university has skills and a strong work ethic. These people are at a level where the real risk in hiring is not the salary that they have to pay, but the outcome of the project they will put into Jane's hands. It may take her a bit longer, but Jane can command a good salary. The opportunity cost of the degree is long gone. Jane is now established middle class. She's not relying on transient knowledge or skill for her employment anymore, because she has success at running the show.

OK, wow, that was way longer than I thought it would be. Again, this is just a story, a single story, and it doesn't explain every situation. Jane won't always get a master's degree. Sometimes Dick will go back to college.

But What About Entrepreneurialism?

There's a simple solution for Dick: start his own business. He can do it, he's smart and hard-working. Let's see what happens when, after being laid off, both decide it's time to start businesses. Let's assume that each has an idea that has an equal likelihood of succeeding.

Jane starts off the way she was taught, by analyzing the problem. She researches others in the same market space, and what has worked and what hasn't. She sees what has been created and figures out a way to position herself to add something of value. Then she writes a business plan and starts talking to people.

Dick is more about passion; he jumps in and starts trying to build a prototype, thinking that he can leverage the prototype and start turning money over quickly, or perhaps use the prototype to get venture capital (VC).

Who's going to be more successful? Well, probably Jane. Remember, their ideas are equally good. However, Jane has three aces in her pocket: her professional network, her experience, and her degrees. Her professional network means that she is known to the people she needs to influence to get funding. Her experience serves as bona fides to the people who might fund her, lending her credibility as a known quantity. Her degrees helped her get both of these things, and she was able to learn about the world of entrepreneurialism and VC. She doesn't need a prototype, and she's not likely to be the one writing the code anyway. She needs a business plan showing potential investors what she's going to do that's innovative, and how she's going to use that idea to make money.

Summing Up

If tonight I had a flash of brilliance that I was sure would be the next FacePhoneNet, I have means to start a business. I know where money comes from and how it works. I know how to program, but I can also find and train the right people. I could make ten calls before the end of this evening (and it's almost 9PM!) to start the process. I don't know if I could get money, but I know I would be able to do all of the right things to get money, and that I would be competitive.

If you have a flash of brilliance and the means (perhaps rich parents?) to make the idea into something fruitful, by all means go for it. However, before you do, take a look at KickStarter, see how many projects their are by people who don't have degrees and people who do have degrees. What differences can you see? Who's getting funding.

You may not agree with it, but you know the answer. Want to prove me wrong? I encourage it.

The JoCo Factor and Tech Growth

Take a look at Jonathan Coulton's list of tour dates:

• Boston, MA
• New York, NY
• Rochester, NY
• Toronto, ON
• Pittsburgh, PA
• Alexandria, VA
• Philadelphia, PA
• Ann Arbor, MI
• Chicago, IL
• Minneapolis, MN
• San Francisco, CA
• Portland, OR
• Seattle, WA
• Vancouver, BC

Notice anything? You might notice the big cities, but what about Rochester, Pittsburgh, and Ann Arbor? Not big cities, but all of these cities do have a common thread: they are the various centers of technology throughout the US and Canada. If your city/area is not on their, you probably don't have the tech talent pool you want to have.

Who is JoCo, you ask? He's an eccentric balladeer who writes music for geeks and nerds. He became famous among the overeducated and socially inept by spending an entire year creating and distributing free music on YouTube with his Thing-A-Week program, not only allowing free downloads and distribution, but encouraging users to create their own videos. He not only has a wiki, it contains data from a tool designed to count the number of times each song is played live. Sure, you may love your favorite band, you may talk about them on a forum, but how many of you have programmed for your favorite musician? If you haven't heard him, hit YouTube and/or his website. If you like it, buy some music and/or some swag (most of which was developed and is sold (possibly with licensing) by fans).

JoCo developed a loyal following from Thing-A-Week and writing the closing-credit songs for the games Portal and Portal 2. He hits on geek and nerd culture, with humorous songs devoted to topics like loneliness, mad science, Ikea, and fractals (his song "Mandelbrot Set" includes the Mandelbrot Set formula). He releases his music online and generally doesn't worry about copying. All of this makes him very popular with his target audience, the ones who get his jokes and approve of the postmodern capitalism that seems to sustain him just fine.

Unlike many artists, JoCo (mostly) determines his own tour cities. When his star was beginning to rise, he looked at data on the locations of people who bought his music, and played at venues in those cities. The result is what you see above. It's not the most complicated formula, but if you look at the cities and states involved, you'll see the big picture. Since geeks and nerds love JoCo, he goes to places where there are geeks and nerds.

If your city is not on here, you might just be missing something. Do you find it difficult to recruit and keep tech talent? Do you programmer/developer job postings languish? If you want to be the next Silicon Valley, what are you missing that is keeping the tech talent away? I'm going to post about VC and angel investing later, but money is secondary; to build a tech future for your city, you need the JoCo factor.

Now, how to get the JoCo factor, that's a tougher question...

The Myth of the 2+2 (or Using a Community College to Start a Bachelor's Degree)

The idea seems perfect:

• Community colleges (ccs) have lower tuition than four year schools, so you'll save money
• A student at a cc can live at home (there's a cc just about everywhere); that's a big cost savings
• Ccs have smaller classes than large universities
• Ccs are less of a cultural shift from high school than a traditional college or university with lower emphasis on socialization
• Ccs have full-service part-time programs

All of these statements are true, but they hide other crucial factors. What's wrong with this picture? It's incomplete at best, and doesn't consider any of the negatives.

Before I dig in, let me be clear that community colleges are often fantastic institutions that can serve populations and needs that traditional colleges and universities have difficulties with (at best); no one institution can serve and be appropriate/optimal for all students. Money is finite, and a cc is better than not going to school. There are students who are successful in a 2+2, so in that sense it's not a myth. However, before going this route you should carefully consider some consequences, and this essay will explore both the advantages and difficulties.

What's the Idea, and What's the Benefit?

The idea behind a 2+2 is simple: take two years of college courses at a community college and then transfer to a four year school. There are some important advantages:

Community colleges (ccs) have lower tuition than four year schools, so you'll save money

Tuition for a community college is often as low as $3,000 annually,vs. four year schools starting at $6,000, rising up to $15,000 for in-state tuition at a state university, and out-of-state tuition and private schools, well, the sky's the limit.

A student at a cc can live at home (there's a cc just about everywhere); that's a big cost savings

Living at home (zero rent) is cheaper than living in an apartment (if you happen to have friends or family who can support you this way). An apartment is typically cheaper than a dorm.

Ccs have smaller classes than large universities

This is very true. At a large state university, you may have multiple hundreds of classmates in a single course. Your profs might not know you by sight or name. You can be anonymous. At a community college, that's not the case; you will typically have a smaller class size and your profs will be more likely to know you. 

Ccs are less of a cultural shift from high school than a traditional college or university with lower emphasis on socialization

The culture of a cc is not going to emphasize socialization, sports, and other perceived distractions. Fraternities and sororities have no presence. For an immature student, living in a more controlled environment puts a safety net that might help keep students working. It's a way of getting your feet wet without diving in head first. Going to school full time is a major life change, and it's not always possible to make that change. Going to a cc can help bridge the experience, letting a student try to answer the question, "is college right for me?"

Ccs have full-service part-time programs

Even relative to urban universities that regularly offer part-time programs, community colleges tend to do a better job of serving part-time students. Rolling admissions and matriculation mean you can often start in a few weeks, rather than planning out a year ahead, and courses are planned for evenings and weekends. Even issues like parking can be simpler (although not necessarily).

If All of That Is True, What's the Problem?

In my field (computer science/information systems CS/IS), the reality is that the 2+2 outcome is a rare and best-case scenario. Some of this is the responsibility of the student and some the responsibility of the institution, but a lot of it is systemic.

So, the myths:

I'll save money

Not typically and not in the long run if you finish a bachelor's degree. Obviously, if you leave school before completing a bachelor's degree, it's cheaper to go to a cc. Unfortunately, students at ccs often fail to complete coursework for their transfer in two years. Suddenly an additional year of tuition and living expenses have to be factored in, eating into any cost savings. Also, you are delaying entering the workforce for an additional year, and that will impact earning (see the Bureau Of Labor Statistics data on relative earning and unemployment).

Living at home doesn't tend to save much money. Yes, dorms are expensive, but if you add in the expense of a car, gas, and parking, it's tougher to justify. Living in a shared apartment near campus can save money; some schools require freshmen to live on-campus, but very few require students to stay on campus after freshman year.

Everything will transfer

Many states have compacts to guarantee or nearly guarantee transfer of credits, which is nice but misleading. These compacts are not the same as articulation agreements. An articulation agreement is much more detailed and concrete, showing which courses transfer and (more importantly) how those classes transfer. If all transfer credits are general education credits, you'll be starting out your major from scratch.

I see this frequently with CS students. In CS, you'll typically take 2-4 sequenced programming classes before upper-division classes are available to you, and you'll also typically need at least a semester of calculus and possibly some other classes (matrix math, stat/probability, discrete math) as prereqs for the upper division classes. This is quite simply because most upper-division coursework in CS requires a great deal of programming expertise and additional knowledge in math, critical thinking, and logic. Assuming you have to take three sequence classes in programming, you won't start upper-division courses until your fourth semester, and you'll be looking at three years to degree completion.

Suddenly, your 2+2 with a savings of $6-24K is now a 3+3, and you've spent an extra chunk of change on tuition and living expenses before you even consider the lost wages from entering the professional workforce two years later than expected. In addition, some states and schools (including my current institution, UNC Charlotte) have a tuition surcharge for students who exceed a certain number of credits. At UNC Charlotte, you pay an extra 50% after 140 credits.

The lack of extracurricular activities will help me focus

There are many extracurricular activities in college, but they are typically focused on some aspect of professional or personal growth. Intramural sports build teamwork and help develop a healthy lifestyle. Social groups build interpersonal skills. Any organized group needs leaders, so if you get involved and stay involved, you'll likely have the opportunity to learn some leadership skills. Many groups have a service focus or component, and getting involved in service is fulfilling and rewarding in unpredictable ways.

In addition to personal/professional growth, there are many groups that are co-curricular. These groups tend to offer programs that help students learn more about their chosen field. For example, most schools with a CS program have a student chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), which will offer activities to help students master concepts and practices of programming.

Don't underestimate the impact of social networking. The reason students from Ivy League schools do well is somewhat based upon skill, but also based upon the fact that every student has a peer whose mother/father works on Wall Street, in a big law firm, etc. Social and socio-professional networking happens at all schools, but the opportunities are very limited at a cc. Students spend relatively little time on campus and even those who do are unlikely to have extensive networks.

Even living at home is problematic. Residential students tend to outperform non-residential students. The best explanation I can give for this is a residential Learning Community (LC). These are typically self-selected programs where students live in the same dorm (sometimes the same floor or wing) and have special sections for intro courses (often LCs are specific to a major). I help advice a CS/IS LC, and have worked with them before. These students are around each other constantly, so they have a strong social support network. They can roll out of bed into a study group. They need to succeed in order to remain in their peer group.

In short, all of the activities students (and parents) are concerned with tend to improve education, both in-class and beyond.

Summing Up

You will note that nowhere in this essay I have challenged the academic quality of ccs. I'm a supporter. Many community colleges are or are becoming the trade schools of the modern world, providing relatively inexpensive educations and good career options. My point is that community colleges are not the best places to work on a four-year degree for most students.

I'm a fan of value in education; I did my undergrad and PhD at public schools, and attended public K-12 for the most part. I teach at a public school, and my last school (and the school before that) were public schools. I worry about the growth of student debt both for individuals and families and for society as a whole.

However, there is a vast difference between a value-driven decision about education and going with the cheapest option. For some students who have their backs to the proverbial wall, a cc is the only option. However, anyone who has the academic and financial wherewithal to go to a public university may very well save money in the long run.

In a future post, I will address the issue of easing the transition to a four-year school, but here's a hint: it involves planning.

Obsession with Fame

One of my student leaders pointed me to an article about how Ryan Reynolds is not a movie star. The article is about who is and isn't famous (and why), but also a commentary about fame. Unfortunately, the article loses steam and the sports analogies are apt but distracting.

Actually, I don't think the rules have changed. Most films are crappy. Being famous is not a guarantee of success. The best actors and actresses are generally given supporting roles (William H. Macy), and only star in indie films. Actors aren't under contract, as they were up until the late forties or early fifties (I think), but still a studio banks big on a name for most movies. The number of theaters a movie opens in, which strongly correlates to box office take, usually depends on the actors involved. Occasionally there's some "buzz" generated.

I no longer have a TV feed, and with Pandora, I never listen to ads on the radio, so I honestly don't know what's playing or coming out. I used to read IMDb news every day, but they switched formats and linked out everything and put stuff behind their paywall, and as a result I lost interest. I'm still a movie fan, but Netflix suggestions are usually pretty on-target (although Netflix thinks I like horror movies and even has that as a category it prompts me to). I have unintentionally insulated myself from most commercial media, but I don't really mind.

K-Pax

I've been meaning to see K-Pax, a film with Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges, since it first came out. It's ostensibly based on a novel, but the parallels between K-Pax and Man Facing Southeast are unavoidable, although apparently legal action was dropped.

Man Facing Southeast is an Argentinian film from 1986, and I saw it for the first time a few years later. Wow, 25 years old now. The story in both is that a man in a mental institution claims to be an alien, despite being completely human. No laser, no special powers, maybe a little off the charts, but no obvious signs of being an alien. In both, the man is exceptionally intelligent and a polymath.

In both films, the alien (Prot in K-Pax, Rantes in Man Facing Southeast) spends his time in the mental institution performing miraculous (but not scientifically impossible) interventions with patients while showing talent in art, science, and math far beyond what would be normal. In both, the psychiatrist in charge is intrigued enough to get personally involved.

While Man Facing Southeast leave the ambiguity in place, K-Pax attempts to reconcile the ambiguity with an obvious and trite explanation, which leads to a personal reconciliation for Bridges' character and his son. Bridges and Spacey are charismatic actors, but the last part of the film gets tiring and has what amounts to a boring and indefensible climax/conclusion. It was as though the writer could make up his mind about the central plot point, so produced two endings and interleaved them.

There is an explanation for this. One of South America's strongest literary traditions is magic realism, which is similar to science fiction and fantasy, but not quite the same. In books by Borges or Marquez, the world is altered to account for something exceptional and inexplicable. No justification or explanation is offered. In the US, we have a strong sci-fi/fantasy tradition, but it has to be explained: think about X-Men or Heroes, in which superpowers are explained in evolutionary terms.

Man Facing Southeast doesn't directly address the tension of the is-he/isn't-he question. We're intentionally left unsatisfied, because in reality, any satisfying answer would act as a trick ending to be guessed. Think The Sixth Sense, which worked well, but made every subsequent film by Shyamalam a guessing game and a yawner.

What could I have done differently? I could have rewatched Man Facing Southeast, or just watched a different movie altogether. Still, I'm glad that I watched it; Bridges and Spacey are great actors; although their chemistry in this film was not ideal, they were still fun to watch. I could also have accepted what I knew would be true, which is that K-Pax would explain itself to us and answer any question it proposed. It's not a painful thing to do if you are anticipating it, and if you aren't holding the film up to the unrealistic measure of a very artistic that was an exceptional success (artistically) and a personal favorite. The similarities may be too striking to discount, but they didn't have to make the experience painful. I often find myself not having fun at my own expense (in situations like these); no one wins, and I end up losing. I know that this is shocking if you know me, but I think I might be able to periodically overthink things a bit. Just a bit.

Hadewijch by Bruno Dumont

I will start this by saying that I've never liked Bruno Dumont's films. They strive for greatness but end up being a mix of confusion and pedestrianism. My first exposure to Dumont was Twentynine Palms. I was excited to see that film, but it went nowhere and offered no insight into the characters. Was it plot-driven, rather than character-drive? That would have required a plot.

In Hadewijch, we meet a young nun about to be thrown out of the convent because of what is ostensibly her religious zeal, but is really because she's a conceited behavior problem. She has isolated herself from the world because she's bat-shit crazy, not because she is really passionate about religion. We never gain any insight into her religious fervor, but that's not surprising, since we never learn anything about her. Per the rules of French cinema, she prays in a slurred whisper with occasional sharp consonants, and since she's mostly babbling, the translators chose not to subtitle much of it.

After the convent, she runs to a shrine, cries a bit, and then heads home to Paris and her family. She barely interacts with her parents, is supposedly in school studying theology (although we never see her in school or studying). She is invited by several young Muslim men to join them for a drink and then a concert. One of the young men makes a pass at her, which she blows off. This is significant. Really, it is. Sure. Yawn.

Through the young man, she meets his brother, an older man who acts as a lay theologian for a poor, public-housing group of Muslims. He invites her to one of her theological discussions (think Bible study, but a bit more didactic and abstract). She wasn't wearing a bra, and one of her fellow classmates openly gawked at her breasts through her thin shirt. This upset her, she later explains, because she only loves Christ.

In continuing the non-sequitor that is Hadewijch, she's now recruited to travel to some Muslim country, perhaps Lebanon, perhaps Palestine; regardless, it has just been bombed. Dumont is a master of indirection: he never says "the Jews did this", but the idea hangs heavy in the air. Celine's character now decides to become a terrorist, commit a terrorist bombing in Paris, and then feel really, really bad about it. Cue dramatic music, an attempted Ophelia-style suicide, and a rescue by a hero, and close curtains.

Honestly, I found the movie xenophobic. The Muslims are all unemployed and uneducated, and apparently by the time you've met your second French Muslim, you're now in the world of international Islamist terror. Celine's savior is a Frenchman, a habitual criminal who spends most of the film's timeline in jail for a parole violation, but hey, he's employed and presumably Christian.

This could have been a good film about the dangers of religious fervor, but it wasn't that. The nuns are straight out of The Sound of Music, and the only other religious people (two Muslims and Celine) end up being terrorists.

What could I have done to make this a better experience? I think I should have read some reviews from more insightful reviewers. Perhaps I'm just missing something. I should also NOT have gone in with the thought "I'm seeing a film by a terrible director". I don't know that I would have enjoyed the film more, but I doubt I would have enjoyed it less.

Am I glad I went? Yes. Dumont has style and panache that are unique to French film. He does go in for languid shots of inaction, but his cinematographer is excellent. Even if this were a parody of recent French film (and it seemed like that at times), it was a good parody.

Week 2 of Classes Done

After a full two weeks of Fall Semester at UNC Charlotte, I'm in a happy state of exhaustion and appreciative of the extra day off.

ITCS 1600 is going well. The students seem to be responding to the material we're covering; they understand what is expected of them, and to some extent the "why" of what we expect of them. What I have yet to figure out is how to track student progress on a reasonable sliding metric; this became particularly apparent when Evie Powell told me that only about half of my students had signed up for Snag'Em, and of those only 8 had completed the initial survey. Getting direct info from Evie on the location of the survey seemed to help, but in the future I would ask Evie to delete my account, or create one with a different email, in order to refamiliarize myself with the process. It's not that the link is hidden, but I can see the cause of the confusion.

Catching up with depeche mode

I'm remiss in my posting, but in my defense it's been a hectic couple of weeks. Fortunately, I've been able to take today to catch up on email, twitter, blogging, and news.

The biggest new in my world is that my class, ITCS 1600 - Computing Professionals, has started. We're just over halfway through the first team meetings. The groups are diverse; the learning community and the transfer students have very different needs and concerns.

This week's lecture was one I actually gave, and it was, as always, a mix of success and opportunities for improvement. One thing that went well was that students did respond to the idea that they are responsible for developing their identity and they seemed to understand that the class is about teaching them how a successful student operates at UNC Charlotte. I offered them an option: I would pay lots of attention to them in exchange for just $20,000, about half the difference in price between UNC Charlotte and a private school; none of them took me up on the offer. One thing that didn't go well was that I had underplanned the preparation for the blogs, the forum, and the description of the Engagement Scavenger Hunt; fortunately, my trusty TA, Ryan Marsh, was able to backfill much of this information, but the issue with student confusion over the Scavenger Hunt is concerning me. Before I run this class again, I will probably poll some students about what confused them, although I will wait to do this until they have a couple of weeks of activity. I need to make sure that students are making progress on the Scavenger Hunt, so I will rely on my TAs for reports. I really hope that we will have a high number who clock at least one hour this week.

Active Teaching and Learning Workshop

On Tuesday, August 9, 2011, from 09:00AM-10:15AM, I attended a workshop on Active Teaching and Learning taught by Drs. Nancy Cooke and Jaesoon An. One thing that I learned was about using color-coded response cards for large-class engagement. Unfortunately, many engagement techniques are not appropriate for large classrooms, so what I would do in the future is discuss the problem with the workshop leaders before the workshop.

Engaging Millenial Students

On Thursday, August 11, 2011, I attended a workshop on Engaging Millenial Students, taught by Dr. Nancy Cooke, Faculty Fellow at UNC Charlotte. One thing that went well was that I learned from a video about how millenial college students prioritize. One thing that didn't go well was that I was expecting to learn about cultural touchstones of millenials, sort of the opposite of the Beloit List. One thing I would do differently is find and watch some media that are important to millenials; I suppose I would in a sense be paid to watch movies and TV!

Motivating Students Workshop

On Thursday, August 11, 20111, I attended a workshop entitled Motivating Students, taught by Faculty Fellow Dr. Concepcion Godev. The best part of the workshop was learning how other faculty get students motivated, including using high energy, passion, and topic expertise. One thing that didn't go well was that I was that I haven't yet experimented with different styles or looked at my own teaching critically. Before attending another session on the topic, I would like to find and read more about student engagement techniques to take full advantage of the workshop, but I don't yet have reading resources, so I will contact Dr. Godev.

STARS Leadership Celebration

I'm in Raleigh participating in the STARS Leadership Celebration, a conference to coordinate and share information about developing student technology leadership. I've meet a lot of interesting people (including Professor George Thiruvathukal) and had some great discussions. More here later; you can follow me @DrGrossUNCC.

Initial Reflection

If you had told me a month ago that I would be going to a third-world country, I wouldn't have believed you. I was in the middle from the California coast to Charlotte, North Carolina, a modest move of 2,500 miles. I was tired, having rapidly closed my semester at CSUMB, and starting a new job at UNC Charlotte.

If you had told me that I would find something important for me personally in Haiti, especially Tovar and Milot, I would have had you hospitalized. I've seen the pictures of Haiti, and if you are reading this, you probably have, too. In the photos, it's dirty, and that's not wrong (especially Cap Haitien, aka Okap in Creole). The houses are dilapidated shacks, and they often are. There's little functioning economy and people just hope to scrape by, and that's true as well.

So why am I already trying to plan my next trip? I'm already thinking of times to visit Port au Prince; Adam told me about Grassroots United, a group that has a facility for volunteers working in Port au Prince; it's $15 a night, and you bring your own tent. They don't even have dorms, but they have wireless internet; can I just say that as a technologist I find that perfectly charming? And yes, yes, they have showers and potable water and security.

The answer is twofold: people and opportunity. Every travel blogger/voluntourist/etc. talks about the wonderful people they meet, which leads me to believe that the world is full of wonderful people. I do really like the Haitians I've met, but I won't go on about their generosity and hospitality, although they certainly have them in spades.

The people of Haiti are amazing, but still a mystery to me. What should be cognitive dissonance turns out to represent a precarious balance in a precarious situation, and how they do it is something that may take a lifetime to understand. Haitians are generally poor. They are used to seeing NGOs and voluntourists and aid workers and missionaries, and they are appreciative, but they are still poor. However, poverty does not equal despair; they're just as happy as Americans (if not more so, since we are a morose bunch). Poverty also does not equal shame, although they have a legitimate complaint (voiced loudly, but never violently) when an American takes a picture of, for example, an overloaded taptap. Poverty does not equal homogeneity; Haitians are as different from one another as Americans, although it seems that all of these people have pride in their history and country. I would say that the one universal theme that pervades all of the people we met is hope for the future. The Haitians don't want another handout; while they graciously accept the help of NGOs, missionaries, and others, they want to do it themselves.

There are no simple solutions to Haiti's problems. Creating a native economy is a challenge faced by other (and better organized) states, and we can't just try to replicate what India did; Haiti is its own country with its own history and culture. What we can do is what we're good at (as scientists), which is experimenting. We have many protocols in place to ensure that risk to persons is minimized, and we always ground ourselves in theories that predict positive outcomes. We know that Haiti is not a toy or piece of lab equipment, but without experimentation, we're unlikely to find something that works.

It's absolutely essential that this "we" include Haitians. American academia cannot just come in and say "this is how we will do it". I hope to create partnerships with Haitians, not just because hey, it's their country, but because I believe the following about working with and for Haitians: first, it's their culture, second, it's necessary to create sustainable models, and third, because I'm selfish. Yes, you read that right, I'm selfish. I want to get out of this more than I put in, which is one mantra of science. I want at least some of the knowledge they have, I want to learn about the alien world they inhabit between feudalism and postmodernity, and I want to be more than another helping hand, a do-gooder who doesn't leave behind a legacy. I don't care if my name is remembered, but I do want things that will last beyond my trips and beyond even my life.

It's rare that someone blogs about both Martin Buber and the criticality of small-business startups making profit, but I'm going to try. Buber was a German social philosopher whose work can be in part boiled down to the phrase, "all real life is meeting". What is important is interaction; without it, what would science be, and how could we communicate our findings? If we can make the right connections, we can see what can be done.

Opening a Bank Account in Haiti

We had two final tasks to accomplish before returning to the hotel for our last night. The first was to get some souvenirs at the tourist market, and the second was to open a bank account.

Opening a bank account in Haiti is odd, and would have been impossible without Bernard. UMCOR and Providence Methodist have an existing relationship with a Haitian bank that allows them to do international wire transfers for a low cost, so I opened an account with them. It's a personal account for me, not a UNC Charlotte account.

We started out by going to get photos taken. An international account needs two people to be opened, so both Bernard and I had to get our picture taken. When I saw it, I realized how haggard I look. There was an adorable little girl (maybe two?) who would peek at me, smile, and then hide; we played this game while Bernard and I waited for the photos to be printed.

An odd realization occurred to me when I saw Bernard pay for the photos (I paid him back); we (SLC folks) came to Haiti with precisely the wrong cash. The amounts were correct, but the bills were terrible. We think of a twenty dollar bill as an effective balance between high value and spendability, but that's not true in Haiti. Almost no one can make change; even the hotel gives us a hard time. What we should have done is changed money regularly into small bills (25, 50, and 100 goud, equivalent to thirty cents, sixty cents, and $1.20) would have upped our bargaining power, made transactions easier, and cost us significantly less. If you pay in US bills, you pay tourist prices; if you pay in goud, you pay less. This isn't true at the hotel or the Digicel store, but everywhere else it's true.

After the photos, we went to the bank. There is no line; people come in and sit down to wait for the next teller. Bernard put on his best BMOC attitude and got us started on the forms. Rather than fill out the entire form, we passed the form back and forth, filling out one section at a time. I couldn't even remotely follow the Creole involved. I deposited $20, filled out a signature card, and voila, I had a bank account. Eddie from Milot came in to do a transaction with Bernard, and it was nice to see him again. The Haitians we have worked with have been more than hospitable, they've been friendly.

Back to the hotel, and we saw Sanchez (our translator) off after a couple of drinks and exchanging email and other contact information. He's our last goodbye until Bernard sees us off. I might write again tonight, but for now adieu.

A Business Proposition

Reginald and Davni were very mature for seventeen-year-olds. They know what they want to do, which is create an internet cafe/library somewhere in Tovar or Grison Garde. This is a tricky enterprise, because it would require space, power (generator or solar panels), and an internet connection. Everything else is trivial; we can get used laptops (which use less power and can be charged and detached, allowing a generator to be shut down), and the orphanage has a carpentry shop for young adults to learn woodworking, so they could make furniture.

The chief unknowns are costs, both for startup and operations. Space is expensive, so the young men hope to build an addition to Reginald's parents' house. Cost: unknown. They hope to buy a used diesel generator. Cost: unknown. HaiTel has reliable highish-speed internet, using fixed broadcast (presumably via microwaves). Cost: unknown. The chief operational cost is fuel for the generator; since we don't know how much the generator will need, that cost is unknown.

We also asked about the customers. Reginald estimated that 70% of the people around Tovar and Grison Garde are literate, but that estimate may be high. I'm not sure anyone knows how many people live in the two towns, let alone the immediate area. Reginald hopes to keep costs reasonable; a few goud for an hour of internet, and one Haitian dollar per minute for phone calls to the US. They also plan to offer classes on using computers and the internet, and they could charge tuition for these.

I should say here that I would love to offer all of these things for free, but there are two problems with that. The first is that even if we got a grant to cover the startup costs, it's not self-sustaining, even if we used solar power and didn't have to pay for fuel. The internet connection will cost money, as will maintenance, and purchasing books for the library. That doesn't even consider paying staff.

The second issue is bigger; the goal is always a self-sustaining economy. If this business didn't make a profit and financially enrich (to some extent) the owners, it wouldn't create the economic churn that needs to happen in this area to become economically viable. Bernard's dream of jobs for Haitians requires a robust economy.

Right now, the existing economy is geared entirely toward the export of currency to Haitian cities and eventually out of the country. The market is consists largely of independent retailers who buy wholesale in the city markets and return to Grison Garde. The local business include:
- at least one pawn shop (bureau d'affaires)
- countless lotto shops (for all of the major lottos in the area, including Rapid Bank, Patience Bank, and Apotheose Bank)
- stores selling national and international brands of soft drinks (boissons gazeuses)
- Digicel, Digicel, Digicel (global cell phone company with the majority of the Haitian market)

Creating a new business that serves the local community, as this cafe would, has the long-term possibility of providing a new way to move money around. I'm really hoping we can find a green initiative to fund solar panels, as fuel costs will always siphon away from the villages and Haiti. The internet connection will also cost, but that's a relatively fixed cost. To be really successful, this business would need to generate sufficient revenue to pay for operations, salaries, and the ability to expand (possibly even beyond the immediate environs).

However, it would be foolish to dismiss these young men. I doubt many American teens have established ideas of the cost of business. Reginald assured me that he would estimate costs and send them to me. We left the discussion open, after exchanging email addresses. I know this is not a new observation, but being able to communicate reliably with people in a foreign country still somewhat amazes me. This would not have been possible even five years ago; Reginald stays connected to the world with a 3G wireless internet card from Digicel.

My plan is to solicit CCI/Business students to help write a business plan and solicit/secure financing; the Haitians would be responsible for incorporating (to whatever extent that is done) and building and operating the business. Assuming we could do this as a business, rather than a non-profit, the business would be co-owned by the Haitians and Americans. We would want to send the Americans down to Haiti at least once. I'm hoping they could stay at the orphanage, which has security and facilities, although they may need to pitch a tent. Talk about an experience learning about international business! I'm meeting with Dean Kerr in the Belk College of Business in a week or so, and I'll bring up the idea.

Will it happen? Depends on what you mean. Sooner or later, someone will open an internet cafe; if nothing else, the local kids who are learning about computers via Waveplace and OLPC are going to want to use it. Will this initiative take root, ensuring local ownership? I can work on it and hope.

Multinationals succeed in Haiti and elsewhere because they have capital and know how to work the system. They can put money up front, and through advertising they build brands recognized even in rural Haiti. They can pay experts on the ground. We can't easily replicate this, because we don't have the money. What we do have is spirit, local partners who are committed to bettering their community, and a mix of drive and top-shelf business acumen.

Quite simply, there are two ways of looking at this. First, as a risky business venture, and it is that. Second is a challenging opportunity that will leverage everything we have in Haiti and everything we know about Haiti and our Haitian friends.

Ah, so the business aside, it was time for a last round of goodbyes with Adam, Junior, Elizabeth, Mishna, and Bastien. This goodbye was sad, since it was au revoir (until next time) rather than a demain (see you tomorrow). We started back to Cap Haitien in an odd mood; we're exhausted but happy. The week has gone by far faster than I would have expected, and we have some great things to work on.

Le football et plus d'education (football and more learning)

We woke early again for the trip to Tovar. It was strange riding back; it seemed both familiar and strange, welcoming and alien.

Today we had a present to bring to the kids; two soccer balls. Our Massi clone, Shaun, even signed one as Massi. We gave one ball to the boys and one ball to the girls. The girls accepted theirs conditionally; they wanted to play by themselves. I don't know if they wanted to exclude me or the boys. Certainly I was no threat, because the girls were good. I had hoped for a short, informal match between the adults and the kids, but it was clear that I would not be able to keep up with the girls or boys.

We caught an early morning math lesson for younger students, and Shaun and I could be heard chanting "deux plus zero..." for a while. The educational day for the Waveplace project started with a Haitian version of "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes". This I could keep up with (the movements if not the song) until they started doing it ultra-fast; at least I wasn't the only one who couldn't keep up then. Our crack videographers/photographers (Shaun and Katelyn) were hard at work capturing this.

We watched the kids and adult mentors work with eToys some more, but the real event was a business meeting. Somehow several boys in the community (rising seniors in high school) found out about the whole project, and came to talk to Adam a few days ago. He arranged for us to meet them today.

l'Ecole Carmelot (Carmelot School)

Back down the hill, we could see the panorama of the region, and even could see Tovar and Grison Garde. We could see the cape (Cap Haitien) itself and the sea (well, ocean) beyond. The weather was starting to cloud up, and it finally became clear that this area is naturally a tropical rainforest. Again, massive deforestation (to make charcoal) has wounded this country, but I believe in the Haitians. I have never before encountered so much will to improve, so much commitment to the nation and local communities, as I have in Haiti.

The city of Milot (population, approximately 30,000 is sort of built around the ruins of a castle destroyed in 1842 (and considered the closest thing to Versailles that existed in the Americas). The town tapers up the mountain, but gets dense back down on flat land. Before we returned to flat land, relatively normal driving, and back to Cap, we stopped for a meeting at another school, Carmelot.

The director, a studious man and the founder of the school, met us outside and took us in a classroom. His school is only through primaire, up to sixth grade. The room we met in is for the second grade. A detailed schedule hung on the wall, and every day began with "Drapeau" (flag).

I asked the man sitting next to me about that. When I asked (in my horrid French, which I'm using to try to improve) about that, his eyes lit up; every day, all of the children sing the national anthem. The anthem, which I need to look up, is in French and Creole. The Haitians have a strong national pride, despite the horrors that have visited them since, well, since forever; they started as slaves, revolted, were under bloody wars (much like the US civil wars) that led to a democratic society, have been hit by massive earthquakes which only recent building techniques can help, and through in multiple hurricanes each year, for which adequate supplies for preparation just aren't present. The massive earthquake of January 12, 2010, was only the latest in a string of tragedies. To me, a nation that survives such challenges is a strong nation, regardless of the current state of affairs. Haitians love their country, flaws and all.

During the meeting, we got to enjoy a bit more of Haitian food. I don't know how much I've talked about the food, but it's wonderful. Maybe another post on that after dinner tonight.

Bananas were the first treat; they were grown on trees on school grounds. Even better, a few minutes later we were asked if we would like some coconut milk. Sounded great after that long hike, but we got more than expected. One of the men disappeared and a few minutes later began bringing each of us a coconut fresh from the tree. They chopped off the husk (with an actual machete, using maneuvers and speed that would have somehow lost me both hands and a foot) and cut a piece out of the top so that we could drink. Adam got the largest coconut (perhaps the largest I've seen by a couple of inches) and guzzled coconut milk for the next 20 minutes as we talked with the director.

This school is special: they don't charge the students at all. They have 250-260 student, from kindergarten through sixth grade. Classes run from 7:50AM (national anthem) to 1:00PM. The school has previously not had facilities to feed lunch to the students, so afternoon class is not possible. This summer the school was able to construct a new building for a kitchen and new storage rooms for the food, so they hopefully will be able to feed the children lunch and continue classes.

Another side note, this time about food and clothing. The Haitians I encountered were practically all very thin, but by no means emaciated. I am not a doctor (well, not that kind of doctor), so I can't tell you if there were signs of malnutrition. There are no stomachs bloated from a lack of food (again, I can only speak of what I saw). The image you may have of some "save the children" TV ad does not apply in this area. Everyone over the age of five is well-dressed (the younger boys may go shirtless). Today is Sunday, and many Haitians (a very religious nation) were in their Sunday best. Women wore nice dresses, and many of the men were wearing slacks, a long sleeve shirt, a tie, and shined shoes. I can't figure it out; the Haitians seem to repel dirt. It's embarrassing enough that I sweat heavily while they don't (hey, my family is from northeastern Europe), but I feel a fair bit underdressed (although no one ever notices). Mishna wore fashionable open shoes (nicer than anything called a sandal) on the hike up. No one ever wore dirty clothes, and Haiti is, well, it's not the cleanest place. It can be very dusty, and there is little pavement outside of the city. All of the clothes washing (as with everything else) is done by hand.

When we finished drinking the coconut milk, the discussion began to get serious (although not negative). Oh, the Haitians took our coconuts and broke them so that we could eat the meat. I have never had coconut like this, although I've had fresh coconut before. Fresh coconut from the store, a thousand or more miles away from where it was grown, is not the same as FRESH coconut off the tree for only a few minutes. It's like a creamy melon, and the coconut flavor is not as pronounced. Adam's giant coconut was so young that the meat hadn't matured, but we all shared.

The serious discussion was about the structure of the school. As I said, there are 250-260 students in seven grades (including kindergarten). There are nine teachers and three staff, including the director. Because the school doesn't charge tuition or fees, it cannot pay its teachers as well; they are compensated by the appreciation and respect given to them by the community. Four of the teachers are in the Waveplace training, and they are staying at the orphanage, as the commute would be too long and too expensive. There are two more Carmelot representatives training to be mentors, one a staff member, and the other from the local version of the PTA. The Haitians care greatly about education; because of their history, they don't have the same foundation as, say, India, but they aspire to teach more students.

One odd anecdote; I asked through Adam (our impromptu translator) about the distribution of students. It seems that the number of students drops off as the grade level increases; Carmelot only has 10 students (3 girls and 7 boys) in sixth grade. I asked why, and the director replied that at the end of sixth grade, there is a national three-day exam to determine if a student can continue. This isn't an answer to the question, as their school stops at sixth grade, but I think there are two factors at play.

The first is the Ministry of Education. They dictate a national curriculum and even as far as nation-wide start and end date; the school doesn't even know yet when they can start. Oh, and this is a private school; they still have to comply. As a result, the curriculum can't be tailored to the area around the school. I don't know that I would change the curriculum, but the children aren't learning things like animal husbandry or effective crop strategies. Where do they learn things like this? Most of these children are from (or spend time working on) small farms.

The second issue is the lack of future. We often hear students complaining that they won't apply the lessons they learned ("why do I have to learn calculus?"), but for these kids, all of the knowledge can be seen as theoretical. Hopefully the laptops will work as symbols of integrating with the larger world while staying in Milot and contributing to the economy. Milot is great; I wish I had more time to spend here.

Only a few months ago, a new road was built from Cap Haitien to Milot. It's by far the best pavement I've seen, and one section even had a yellow lane-marking line in the middle. We passed several places of interest, including a beautiful villa that houses doctors (mostly American) who come as volunteers for 1-2 week stints. I really don't think I had much of a conscious preconception of Haiti, but whatever I might have thought was wrong; this place is paradise; it might be paradise lost right now, but it can be paradise regained. I would bet that it will be.