Ah, interesting, this maybe makes more sense to me now. So, the University as a whole may have admitted 100 (?) students to study English, but only 7 per college (maybe fewer), and each college (of 20 colleges ?) has its own library, each of which probably has many of the books on his list. So, he's not vying with 100 students for the library books, but 6 others. So, to compare to most American universities, it would be as if each dorm had a private library, containing much of the literature their students needed. I think most US universities tend to have one huge university library, then smaller ones per discipline.

I still think that the ethical thing for a professor who assigns his own text is to refund the royalties, to the students in his own class who have little choice to purchase the book, that way, it is clear that he assigns the text because he thinks it is the best fit for his class, and it is clear that there is no conflict of interest.

I think people overestimate how much the royalties on a textbook might be: Here's an interesting 10 year old article from the NYT on the subject: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/16/opinion/16ayres.html from a Yale law professor. While I disagree that a professor writing his own book is automatically an "egomaniacal twit", seems like refunding the royalties to the student is the ethical thing to do.

I was specifically thinking about the context of literature classes, where there is a fixed reading list: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/525008-calvins-first-reading-list/ There isn't assigned reading every night, but, as I understand it, there is a fixed set of readings that are expected to be completed over the course of a term. If, say, "War and Peace" is on the reading list, and the students don't purchase a copy of it, does the library have enough copies for everyone? Or does everyone just kind of jockey for who reads what when?

Forgive me if I seem like I'm stalking you, but I'm really quite interested in the differences between the UK and the US university systems. In some other thread, you posted the reading list for his renaissance lit class. Is it generally expected that he will just read those books from the library? Most lit classes in the US system would encourage students to buy (or rent) their own copies of all the assigned texts, leading to a large book bill. How many copies does the library have, and how many students have that same reading list? Does he get to check out the books from the library, or are they on reserve, and how much contention is there for books? Or do the students just work out among themselves who's going to read what when?

I don't know anything about the law, but I'd have to think this is legal. Imagine I own a candy store, and I give out free chocolate to kids who bring in report cards from the local public schools with all A's. Do people really believe that I'm legally obligated to respect that offer for all kids, be they from private schools, home-schools, etc.? That kind of discrimination may be unfair, it may be bad business, but I'm sure it is legal. I'm also curious how one would prove to a 3rd party that a young child is enrolled in a public school. Back when I went to school, we got IDs in high school, but not earlier. I wonder if in our overly worried times if all public school kids are issued IDs: does anyone know? I guess you could bring a report card from the previous semester to show that a student was enrolled. Come to think of it, I don't know how to "prove" that one homeschools, in state with relaxed regulations. I mean, if I owned a denim jumper, that would be one way...

There's also the assumption that books on the shelves are sorted into some particular order.

See, I didn't get "competitive and aggressive" from the article, even as hyped-up as the article was, I got that the class was active and participatory. The teacher asks a question that everyone in turn has to answer. Seems like good teaching to me.

Isn't that a separate issue, though? Presumably, this seminar-style teaching method (just like traditional lecture) has required reading assignments before each session, that would give you the time to personally engage with the material before discussing it with the professor and peers. It's just with the seminar style (which is an old form of teaching), it is blatantly obvious to everyone if you haven't done the prep work before the seminar, whereas you could "hide" the fact that you hadn't done the reading in a lecture from your professor. And as an introvert, I appreciate the challenges here, but I think an important part of college isn't just internalizing the scholarship, but to be able to discuss and defend it with others.

Agree with the above, and if every third word out of your mouth is the f-bomb, what do you have left to say for when you are really upset?

How do you know that he won't need the computer? Even if assignments proper aren't online, aren't there all kinds of administrative tasks that would be easier if he had his own computer: emailing professors, checking class and exam schedules, signing up for 2nd semester classes, arranging study groups with peers, general research, etc. etc. etc.

This may very well be the best idea I've heard all year.

We have a board game store in town that has an open gaming room in the back which is free to use, and has scheduled times where kids can come and play certain board games. Perhaps your town does too?

Thanks for posting this -- sounds like heaven to me! I'm curious how he plans to take notes or memorialize the readings for future reference? If it isn't inappropriate, I'd be very interested in his Latin reading lists, especially the translation class. Also, I'm curious what prerequisites there are for a classics major. If he hadn't had any Latin or Greek before college, would it be possible to major in classics?

Honestly, I have no idea what you personally can or cannot believe in. However, in general, I believe that most people cannot both believe that homosexuality is venially wrong and also at the same time be close friends with gay people. And because of the above, there has been a massive change of opinion in the United States in the last 15 years about the legality of gay marriage.

My understanding is that there is a lot less funding for non-science, tempered by the fact that scholarship of that nature is generally less expensive than that which requires expensive lab equipment, etc. These funding sources include the National Endowment for the Humanities at the federal level, and a whole slew of smaller sources, both government, and private endowments.

While there is some private funding of public research, Federal dollars fund the overwhelming majority of all public scholarship in this country. Private industry has little interest in funding basic research which may not pay off for years, and even if it does pay off, might not pay off for them. And if this research were potentially valuable in the short term, why should they fund the effort and make the results public? They'd be better off hiring the scientists and keeping the work for themselves. And this is just in the sciences. I think you'd be hard pressed to find much industrial sponsorship of, say, Art History graduate students, excepting perhaps some small token corporate charity.

I suspect the big difference is that hard-science people can pretty easily find well paying, gainful employment in industry, even after a BS or MS. So, there's a constant siphoning off of talent in the sciences before they even get to the PhD program. Perhaps their jobs aren't in the field they studied, but if you can understand math well enough to either work on Wall Street, or to study for a PhD in math, and the wall street job today pays better than what you'd make after you finish the PhD, well, who is to begrudge those decisions?

What do you want "World Literature" to cover? Some call anything non-American "world literature", others, only non-English literature in translation.

Not to threadjack, but is there an equivalent term in Commonwealth English for "thesis statement"? If not, does that say something about a difference in how writing is taught?

After the first two years of Latin, students spend almost 100% of their time reading and translating ancient literature. Very little time is spent creating or composing new Latin sentences. While there is a tremendous amount of creativity in providing a new translation aimed at non-Latin readers (i.e. How would Cicero have said this, if he spoke English), high school or even college level students spend very little time doing this: their objective is: provide the most literal translation of Cicero, no matter how clunky that may sound in English, and the "correct" literal translation is surprisingly objective. As I understand it, programming is almost the complete opposite: programmers spend all of their time creating new things, they rarely spend much time reading other programs, except to learn how to interact with the programs they themselves are creating. And there usually is not one way to do things, there is substantial leeway, and a lot of room for subjectivity in terms of what is best, or the "right way" to do things.

Right, but presumably, not all homeschoolers are above average. I have no idea how many homeschoolers there are in Colorado, let's say there's 10,000. If 10% score less than this 13th percentile, and are sent back, we'd be hearing about it.

I don't live in Colorado, but if this rule is uniformly applied, and homeschooled 3rd graders' scores are distributed in the same way as everyone else, this would mean that about one in eight homeschooled 3rd graders would be forcibly returned to public schools. I would have thought that we'd have heard a cry and uproar if this were actually happening. Can any of our Colorado boardies comment on how common this really is?

UNC-CH is a great school, and becoming more selective. Your post makes it sound like you are 100% sure that she can get admitted in a few years, and high school class selection is mostly about being able to knock out gen-ed requirements. I don't know you or your DD, or her ACT/SAT scores, but I might focus more on making her the strongest possible candidate, eligible for the most aid. DE classes have their place, and I think it is great to give high schoolers a college-like experience to test their wings, but conventional wisdom is that AP classes are generally much more rigorous. Have she looked at the year-by-year requirements for her desired major? Often, major requirements are sequential, so that you still need four years to graduate, no matter how many gen-ed requirements you've passed out of. For someone interested in speech pathology, it seems a little odd to punt on physics until 2nd semester senior year, where it won't show up for admissions purposes. Same for bio senior year. I would also strongly considering finishing the Latin sequence with a fourth year of Latin. College adcoms consistently say that they want their applicants to have taken the most rigorous courses offered, and a student that stuck with four years of a foreign language is going to look better than one that stopped after three.

Forgive my misunderstanding. At any given university, there are probably more math TAs than any other department: the math department needs to teach at least one math class to the majority of all students, and that requires a small army of TAs. At all universities that I know of, TAs have their tuition completely paid for, one way or another. I would be more concerned about his GPA in major than overall GPA, if he isn't getting all A's in his math classes, it is going to be difficult to get into a reputable graduate program. However, doing well on the Putnam exam would be a huge feather in his cap. I would encourage both you and him to check out the various web forums dedicated to getting into graduate school, including the graduate section of college confidential and thegradcafe, keeping in mind the usual filters you'll need when reading anything on the internet.