Rigor in PME: What I am talking about
In the course of an e-conversation with some friends the other day, I rounded up my thoughts on how to improve PME. It is a good nutshell summary, so I’ll share it here: They used to have class rankings at Leavenworth, publicly released, and it mattered who was no. 1. When Ike was first in ...
In the course of an e-conversation with some friends the other day, I rounded up my thoughts on how to improve PME. It is a good nutshell summary, so I'll share it here:
In the course of an e-conversation with some friends the other day, I rounded up my thoughts on how to improve PME. It is a good nutshell summary, so I’ll share it here:
They used to have class rankings at Leavenworth, publicly released, and it mattered who was no. 1. When Ike was first in his class, people paid attention. Now it doesn’t matter, because CGSC has lost its “currency.” If it mattered, people would pay attention. But you’ll only get this with genuinely rigorous education:
- that teaches clear thinking,
- that requires clear writing, and lots of it,
- that has class rankings,
- that probably gives preferential treatment to the top 10 percent and tells the bottom 10 percent that they are on thin ice,
- that ejects students for plagiarism, and makes it public,
- that perhaps fails the bottom 5 percent of the class, giving them no credit for the year of any sort.
More from Foreign Policy


At Long Last, the Foreign Service Gets the Netflix Treatment
Keri Russell gets Drexel furniture but no Senate confirmation hearing.


How Macron Is Blocking EU Strategy on Russia and China
As a strategic consensus emerges in Europe, France is in the way.


What the Bush-Obama China Memos Reveal
Newly declassified documents contain important lessons for U.S. China policy.


Russia’s Boom Business Goes Bust
Moscow’s arms exports have fallen to levels not seen since the Soviet Union’s collapse.