Ben Nelson: The Man Who Would Overthrow Harvard by Matthew Kaminski
“Ben Nelson: The Man Who Would Overthrow Harvard”, by Matthew Kaminski. The Wall Street Journal.
The Minerva Project founded by Ben Nelson who also happened to be the founder of Snapfish the online photo sharing company, wants to create a new model of education and is trying to overthrow Harvard. Ben Nelson wants students to stop paying for things which they can learn for free and be taught communication skills during freshmen year. Many people are on board with this new line of education even “Larry Summers, the former Harvard president, agreed to be chairman of Minerva’s advisory board”. (Page 1). “Stephen Kosslyn, previously dean of social sciences at Harvard, is Minerva’s founding academic dean.” (page 1). The Minerva Project has many positive points and also negative points’ as well.
During freshman year, students will be staying in a residence hall in San Francisco, and will have to move on each of the six semesters from one city to another, cities like San Paulo, London or Singapore. Ivy League schools tuition is about $20,000, many people can’t afford to pay that much so Minerva Project claims to be lower and affordable. There wouldn’t be any teacher tenure which means teachers that have to been working for well over 10 years can also be let go. Ben Nelson say “the school has to become roughly the size of an Ivy League University, enrolling around 10,000 students, to break even.” (page 4). All incoming students will take the same four yearlong classes. But ben wants to teach students how to think and study Multimodal communications which also works on practical writing and debating skills. Also classes will be taped to see if students are understanding what they are learning.
But the bad things about the Minerva Project is there is not any campuses, which means students won’t have anywhere hang out with their friends to relax. And Minerva undergrads will miss out on lifelong bonding in classrooms and dorms. They also don’t have a college library, and
The Minerva Project founded by Ben Nelson who also happened to be the founder of Snapfish the online photo sharing company, wants to create a new model of education and is trying to overthrow Harvard. Ben Nelson wants students to stop paying for things which they can learn for free and be taught communication skills during freshmen year. Many people are on board with this new line of education even “Larry Summers, the former Harvard president, agreed to be chairman of Minerva’s advisory board”. (Page 1). “Stephen Kosslyn, previously dean of social sciences at Harvard, is Minerva’s founding academic dean.” (page 1). The Minerva Project has many positive points and also negative points’ as well.
During freshman year, students will be staying in a residence hall in San Francisco, and will have to move on each of the six semesters from one city to another, cities like San Paulo, London or Singapore. Ivy League schools tuition is about $20,000, many people can’t afford to pay that much so Minerva Project claims to be lower and affordable. There wouldn’t be any teacher tenure which means teachers that have to been working for well over 10 years can also be let go. Ben Nelson say “the school has to become roughly the size of an Ivy League University, enrolling around 10,000 students, to break even.” (page 4). All incoming students will take the same four yearlong classes. But ben wants to teach students how to think and study Multimodal communications which also works on practical writing and debating skills. Also classes will be taped to see if students are understanding what they are learning.
But the bad things about the Minerva Project is there is not any campuses, which means students won’t have anywhere hang out with their friends to relax. And Minerva undergrads will miss out on lifelong bonding in classrooms and dorms. They also don’t have a college library, and