Posts Tagged ‘education’
There’s plenty of room for another Nashville law school
Adding another law school in Middle Tennessee only strengthens the area’s ability to develop talent and attract businesses, if you ask me. This is great news from Belmont, and I hope it will only challenge Nashville School of Law to offer even better training. Both schools and Vanderbilt should be able to coexist. It was unfortunate when Tennessee State University and NSL couldn’t work out a deal to merge and create another accredited law school in Nashville. Belmont’s plans to establish one of their own are welcome.
Tags: belmont university, education, gail kerr, nashville school of law, the tennessean, vanderbilt university
I’ll take Barack Obama over Jerry Lewis any day
- Lamar Alexander is right: President Obama deserves everyone’s respect, and an audience with America’s students. That doesn’t mean you have to agree with him, but there’s plenty of precedent for Tuesday’s speech.
- This isn’t kind to say, but the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon bores me to tears. It preempted the shows I wanted to watch growing up. Despite supporting an important cause, I think it’s a product of a bygone era that sorely needs a makeover.
- I have plenty of sympathy for Phoenix Coyotes fans, but I’m sure happy to see several teams mentioned ahead of the Nashville Predators as troubled NHL franchises. Thank you, David Freeman and company!
- I wish LenDale White would keep his mouth shut and do his talking with his feet on Thursday night. The sneaky Pittsburgh Steelers, meanwhile, hope freshly released Tennessee Titan Tuff Harris has something to say, too.
Tags: barack obama, david freeman, education, hockey, jerry lewis, jerry lewis telethon, labor day, lamar alexander, lendale white, muscular dystrophy, muscular dystrophy association, nashville, nashville predators, nfl, nhl, phoenix coyotes, pittsburgh steelers, politics, president, tennessee, tennessee titans, tuff harris
Knowledge won’t turn you gay
Thank goodness Metro Nashville Public Schools will now permit student Web access to lesbian, gay and transgender community Web sites that were previously restricted. I think we’re at our best as a society when we acknowledge that there are many opinions and perspectives on life, not when we’re pretending that we all think and live the same way. Acknowledging our differences gets us much farther than ignoring them ever will.
Tags: censorship, dignity, education, homosexuality, metro nashville public schools, nashville, politics, respect, tennessee, the tennessean, tolerance
Dollar General agrees: Nashville is for all of us
Thanks, Dollar General, for offering support, rather than restrictions, for immigrants who are eager to participate in American society and are grateful to have arrived in a welcoming community in a free country. Who’d have thought that Elyass Halouf, a Sudanese native who now lives in Nashville, would have taken classes to learn English of his own free will? Thankfully, I did, and so did many other Nashvillians. This is a wonderful time to call such a great city home.
Tags: dollar general, education, english only, eric crafton, immigration, nashville, sudan, tennessee
Belmont becoming one “hell” of a university
When I asked my college French professor for permission to take classes at Belmont University in the summer of 1992, he replied by asking, “What the hell is Belmont?” He eventually agreed to let me study away from my alma mater after I explained, but he had no idea that Belmont was a small Baptist school in Nashville. Very few people who lived outside of Tennessee did, unless they had a direct connection to the city or the school.
On the heels of major campus upgrades, back-to-back NCAA basketball tournament appearances and next week’s Presidential Debate, people are taking notice of Belmont here and around the country. U.S. News and World Report recently named Belmont one of two schools that “everyone should be watching” because of its “striking improvements or innovations.”
That’s a far cry from the quiet, insular institution that was Belmont College when I was growing up in the 80s and early 90s. I’m proud that Belmont is playing an active role in our community and emerging on the national scene. It wasn’t that long ago that Belmont and its peer, Lipscomb University, had largely inward focuses that called for little, if any, relating to the greater public. It’s no coincidence, in my opinion, that both universities are enjoying unprecedented success and accolades during an era where they are engaging people and organizations outside their campuses.
(It should be noted that Lipscomb hosted today’s annual meeting of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and that the school is routinely hosting nationally prominent speakers, many of whom don’t necessarily agree with its conservative Christian philosophy and mission. Regarding the latter, I’m encouraged to see Lipscomb respectfully consider points of view that it may or may not align with its own.)
Tags: belmont bruins, belmont college, belmont university, education, lipscomb university, nashville area chamber of commerce, ncaa tournament, presidential debate, u.s. news and world report
Does it take a village?
TSU professor and official state poet Dr. Harriette Bias-Insignares is calling on men of all ages to alleviate the socioeconomic ills that are leaving so many young males, particularly African-Americans, on the outside looking in in American society. Dr. Bias Insignares will sign her new book, Power & Glory: Brothers on the Journey, tonight at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Green Hills.
It’s time for men young and old, rich and poor of all ethnicities, professions, and religions to come together and reach out to today s young men and provide moral support, guidance, and encouragement. The inspiration for the book comes from the life of my father … and the way he approached the many roles men must play that define manhood: husband, father, son, brother, friend, mentor, colleague, citizen, and leader. I wrote this book to honor my father. Bias-Insignares wants to revive the conversation between the generations and create a bond, a sense of mutual investment. She wants young men to be exposed to the experience and wisdom of an older generation. I hope that men will see themselves as every father, the universal fathers who will invest time, talent, and resources to improve the prospects for young men.
With a school board election a week away and Metro Nashville Public Schools under direct state oversight, there’s a lot of change coming in the near future for our local school system. Schools and parents are often easy targets for those looking to point fingers and lay blame for what is clearly not working in our culture. Long ago, I might have argued that parents alone could be the difference between whether a child succeeds or fails, and in some cases that may still be the case. Looking at my own upbringing, though, I can unquestionably say that the influences that kept me headed in the right direction (assuming that’s where my compass is pointed) were a cast of hundreds, if not thousands, of people I encountered along the way. I am grateful to (nearly) all of them.
There is plenty to be done to improve our schools, and there are plenty of parents who can stand to take on more responsibility for raising their children. As a married adult without kids, that’s easy for me to say. What’s more difficult is to acknowledge that each of us shapes many lives beyond our own, and that, in my opinion, we have a responsibility to make those opportunities to influence as positive as we possibly can. I’d have never admitted it at the time, but Hillary was right: It does take a village–and good parents and good schools–to raise a child.
Tags: crime, education, Harriette Bias-Insignares, metro nashville public schools, nashville, poverty, power & glory, social change, violence
