Academic Non Sequiturs

1.      Decision Points by George W. Bush is the number one best seller on college campuses, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

2.      2011 is the international year of chemistry.

3.      This is school choice week.

4.      More than one-third of D. C. teachers turned down bonuses because they were tied to job performance, according to The Washington Examiner.

5.      “A former McKinley Technology High School teacher was charged with second degree theft Thursday in connection with a $100,000 grant that D. C. school officials say vanished,” Lisa Gartner and Scott McCabe reported in The Washington Examiner on Friday, January 24, 2011. “Rick Kelsey was the director of STEM—science, math, engineering and technology—at McKinley when the national AARP awarded the Northeast school $100,000 to help senior citizens use the Internet in 2008”

6.      “’There can be a better world’ was the rallying cry of almost 400 participants from 87 countries who participated in Education International’s (EI) first World Women’s Conference, On the Move for Equality, in Bangkok, from 20-23 January,” and they never mentioned Shariah law in the press release announcing the event.

7.      “A recent study at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), concludes that mindfulness meditation has the ‘godlike’ ability to make positive changes to the physical structure of the human brain in as little as eight weeks,” according to Kae Tienstra of KT Public Relations.

8. “Students at universities across the United States now have an easy and convenient resource through which to sell their college book notes, book summaries, course notes, lecture notes and other study materials at their own price – FlashNotes.com,” according to Hitchcock Fleming & Associates

9.      Course Smart and College Humor are looking for America’s smartest slacker and offering a $1,000 award.

10.  The first week in May is teacher appreciation week.

11.  The National Environmental Education Foundation “will seek applications from middle school teachers across the country with a demonstrated passion for environmental education” from what promises to be a very crowded field.

12.  This is the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network’s No Name Calling Week.

Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia.

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