Patrick Gleeson

Patrick Gleeson is a widely published Ph.D. and was formerly a Registered Investment Advisor and musician.

Articles by Patrick Gleeson

• 2 essential reasons you can’t protect your stock portfolio from loss

  A recent internet ad showed a handsome, self-assured older white male relaxed in expensive surroundings…

  Monday, December 14, 2020

• Will ‘robots’ make good teachers?

  We humans have long been fascinated by our interactions with robots. For decades, the interaction was…

  Wednesday, December 09, 2020

• Why post-COVID-19 U.S. education will be even less like it used to be than you think

  When COVID-19 first became a national conversation topic, a flurry of articles in major U.S. publications…

  Thursday, October 22, 2020

• How colleges are spreading COVID-19

  Most of the attention and controversy over school attendance in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic these…

  Wednesday, September 23, 2020

• Will there be teachers’ strikes over classroom teaching this fall?

  As schools have been reopening the past few weeks, I've been following teachers’ responses to classroom…

  Monday, August 31, 2020

• Will classrooms stay open this fall?

  Will your child’s K-12 school be open and stay open for in-person instruction this fall? Unfortunately,…

  Monday, August 17, 2020

• Will classroom teaching this fall lead to increased illness?

  In this time of every kind of uncertainty, one of the most troubling decisions Americans must make is:…

  Wednesday, August 12, 2020

• Are K-12 schools on the brink of financial disaster?

  What financial impact will the COVID-19 pandemic have on K-12 schools? Opinion is mixed, ranging from…

  Tuesday, July 21, 2020

• Why teachers’ salaries will fall as unemployment rises

  An April 2020 overview of K-12 job losses notes that, more than 10 years after the Great Recession, employment…

  Tuesday, July 14, 2020

• Schools and police: How strongly do teachers believe Black students’ lives matter?

  In the wake of George Lloyd’s killing, Americans have become increasingly critical of their police.…

  Wednesday, July 08, 2020

• Redlining: Why white people are typically wealthier than Black people

  After a relatively long period of stable opinion, a confluence of early 2020 events has rapidly changed…

  Wednesday, June 24, 2020

• Qualified immunity and why changing US policing will be very difficult

  Less than a month after four Minneapolis policemen were charged with the killing of George Floyd —…

  Tuesday, June 16, 2020

• The forthcoming budget battles in K-12 education

  Once we're past the horrifying COVID-19 pandemic, states are going to be desperately looking for ways…

  Monday, June 08, 2020

• Charter schools: The good, the bad and the Betsy

  It’s good to remember that the charter school movement began with a 1988 speech on education by Albert…

  Thursday, June 04, 2020

• The future of work: Why resistance is futile

  I've had two careers in my life: one as a college English professor, the other as a composer. What both…

  Wednesday, May 27, 2020

• How much inequality is enough?

  Eighteenth century French moralist Joseph de Maistre observed, "Every nation gets the government it deserves."…

  Thursday, May 21, 2020

• An overview of education policies proposed by Trump, Biden

  In a recent article, I compared the views of President Trump and former Vice President Biden on K-12…

  Thursday, May 14, 2020

• Where Trump, Biden stand on charter school policy

  This article compares the two major-party presidential candidates' policies on a single issue: charter…

  Wednesday, May 06, 2020

• When the failing US response to the COVID-19 crisis really began

  Beyond all the political posturing — both Democratic accusations of Trump administration failures and…

  Monday, April 27, 2020

• Being a performing artist after the coronavirus pandemic

  A few years ago, I retired from writing music for film and television. I'm aware how incredibly lucky…

  Wednesday, April 22, 2020

• The retirement elephant in US classrooms

  By now, most Americans know that pension plans in this country have a problem — put simply, many and…

  Wednesday, April 15, 2020

• How COVID-19 affects the school lunch program

  In a couple of earlier articles, I wrote about how the coronavirus threatens U.S. education in general.…

  Wednesday, April 08, 2020

• The CARES Act and public education

  On March 27, President Trump signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES) Act…

  Wednesday, April 01, 2020

• Could your school district run out of money?

  As we all struggle with the unprecedented threat to our health the coronavirus represents, it’s becoming…

  Tuesday, March 24, 2020

• The coronavirus threat to US education: Part 2

  In part one of this two-part series, I explained that the consequences of this pandemic for school funding…

  Wednesday, March 18, 2020

• The coronavirus threat to US education

  Like everyone these past few weeks, I've watched the rapid worldwide spread of the coronavirus with alarm.…

  Monday, March 16, 2020

• US higher education funding has a long way to go

  The state of higher education funding in the U.S. was recently described in a carefully documented report…

  Tuesday, March 03, 2020

• Is a liberal arts education still worth pursuing?

  A couple of generations ago, a liberal arts education was highly respected and easily led to a lot of…

  Wednesday, February 19, 2020

• Third-party suppliers can jeopardize your small business

  One of the less-glamorous aspects of contemporary business is the essential role played by third-party…

  Wednesday, January 29, 2020

• Battles won and lost in American education’s bitter reading wars

  American and British educators are divided into two opposing camps over the best way to teach children…

  Thursday, January 23, 2020

• ‘Growth mindset’ in education: Great new tool or overrated fad?

  "Growth mindset" theory in education proposes that minds are malleable: teachers can improve students’…

  Wednesday, January 15, 2020

• The real reason a new K-12 teacher probably can’t afford to live on their salary

  There are two different reasons a beginning teacher in this country likely can't afford to live on their…

  Thursday, January 09, 2020

• Teachers are a lot less enthusiastic about innovation than you think

  A courageous teacher fights an unwieldy bureaucracy to introduce powerful new learning strategies. Recognize…

  Friday, January 03, 2020

• Common Core: Who loves it, who hates it and why?

  Recently, I wrote about the history of opposition to Common Core, noting that at this point it is neither…

  Tuesday, December 17, 2019

• How Brexit could hurt you financially

  Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party scored a huge victory in the Dec. 12 U.K. election, giving the Tories…

  Monday, December 16, 2019

• Can Common Core ever really work?

  An embarrassing failure in U.S. education has been the persistent underperformance of K-12 students in…

  Monday, December 09, 2019

• The stock market was supposed to crash. What happened?

  Perhaps the most basic truism about the stock market is that it's cyclical — first it goes up, then…

  Wednesday, December 04, 2019

• The real reason rich kids do better in school

  It’s frequently asserted that the reason rich kids do better in school than poor kids has to do with…

  Wednesday, November 20, 2019

• Why are US K-12 reading scores falling?

  After 25 years of stable or mildly improving reading scores in U.S. schools, scores began dropping in…

  Monday, November 18, 2019

• How do the presidential candidates propose to make education better?

  One of the hot-button areas for all the Democratic presidential candidates is education. How do they…

  Wednesday, November 13, 2019

• Can Elizabeth Warren’s education plan finally end segregation in US schools?

  One of the more disappointing failures in U.S. K-12 education has been the attempt to end segregation…

  Friday, October 25, 2019

• The crippling American teacher shortage

  A teacher shortage doesn’t look the way you might expect. Your child doesn’t come home from their…

  Wednesday, October 16, 2019

• Does class size actually matter?

  Most parents agree that kids are going to learn better and faster in a smaller class than in a large…

  Wednesday, October 09, 2019

• Over 50? Sorry, we just can’t see you

  Every minority in this country faces discrimination in one way or other, including Americans over age…

  Wednesday, October 02, 2019

• Why the SAT can’t be fixed

  Your dear mom has fallen down a flight of stairs. She has severe skin cuts, several broken bones and…

  Friday, September 27, 2019

• Is the investment industry beginning to change?

  One of the shocking things I learned about the personal investment industry during the years I worked…

  Thursday, September 19, 2019

• Why teachers are quitting in droves

  Almost half of all K-12 teachers quit teaching within five years. Those who quit are disproportionately…

  Tuesday, September 10, 2019

• Why schools can’t hire enough good teachers

  You've probably read about the awful teacher shortage in this country. School districts just can't get…

  Wednesday, September 04, 2019

• What happened to bilingual education?

  Discussions of the benefits of a bilingual education often emphasize how it improves critical thinking,…

  Wednesday, August 28, 2019

• The economic impact of our aging population

  A 2016 article in The Lancet on the implications of rapidly aging world populations cites some disturbing…

  Monday, August 19, 2019

• Beating age discrimination just got harder

  Fighting age discrimination in employment was never easy. Perhaps the most important obstacle is that…

  Wednesday, August 14, 2019

• Age discrimination harms everyone, but it’s hard to prove

  You may think you have a realistic understanding of discrimination against older workers, but it's likely…

  Tuesday, August 06, 2019

• Aging: What you don’t know can hurt you

  I don't recall legislation outlawing the discussion of aging, do you? Yet, it’s a topic often avoided…

  Wednesday, July 17, 2019

• What should we do about economic inequality?

  In our increasingly fractured political sphere, one of the hot-button issues is "economic inequality."…

  Friday, July 12, 2019

• What you don’t know about growing old — and why

  Americans haven't always faced our national shortcomings very well, although we're probably getting a…

  Thursday, July 11, 2019

• How white Americans and black Americans lead separate lives

  Increasingly, Americans live in separate worlds, divided by race, class and political allegiance. Not…

  Thursday, June 20, 2019

• The empathy gap in education

  Let’s begin with a lede borrowed from the June 5 edition of The Los Angeles Times: "Leaders of the…

  Tuesday, June 18, 2019

• Who’s against affirmative action in education?

  Americans' views about affirmative action are notoriously slippery. To give you some idea of how slippery…

  Friday, June 14, 2019

• Why minority students get bad grades: The Pygmalion effect

  This is the third of four articles dealing with inequality in U.S. public education. It addresses a persistent…

  Tuesday, June 11, 2019

• Why minority students get inferior educations: School funds and teacher expectations

  Public schools in the U.S. are generally funded by a combination of federal, state and local governments.…

  Wednesday, June 05, 2019

• Why black and brown students get inferior educations: Segregation

  In recent years, more energy has been devoted to the pros and cons of affirmative action than probably…

  Friday, May 31, 2019

• Do ‘zero-tolerance’ policies in education really work?

  In principle, zero-tolerance policies in U.S. schools are obvious and almost indisputable. Some kinds…

  Friday, May 24, 2019

• A closer look at the College Board’s controversial ‘adversity score’

  In yet another instance of the truism that no good deed goes unpunished, the College Board — which…

  Tuesday, May 21, 2019

• Great new approaches to teaching — until they’re not

  Social science and technology research offer teachers many promising new ways of educating but not always…

  Wednesday, April 10, 2019

• What’s behind the Department of Education’s school funding rollbacks?

  Why is the Betsy DeVos-led Department of Education continuing to slash education programs? And why, despite…

  Monday, April 01, 2019

• The sooner you start, the better off you’ll be

  Someday, you'll retire. When you do, how will you finance your retirement? And when should you start?…

  Wednesday, March 27, 2019

• Has the Department of Education given up on poor kids?

  It's no secret that the current administration's highest funding priorities don't include the Department…

  Thursday, March 21, 2019

• Betsy DeVos’ controversial scholarship proposal

  On Feb. 28, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced a new school choice proposal. According to a…

  Wednesday, March 06, 2019

• Is there a guaranteed annual income in your future? — Part 2

  Until recently, most guaranteed annual income proposals centered on moral arguments for providing everyone…

  Monday, March 04, 2019

• Is there a guaranteed annual income in your future? — Part 1

  Nominally nonpartisan banking institutions like the World Bank have long held that a job "is the fastest…

  Wednesday, February 27, 2019

• Are classroom sizes hurting students?

  Is there some point beyond which every student added to a classroom reduces the overall result? As a…

  Monday, February 25, 2019

• When do you owe too much on your credit cards?

  Putting the title of this article another way, how much can you owe on your credit cards before it lowers…

  Friday, February 22, 2019

• How to leave your job

  For any number of reasons, it's time to move on. How should you do that? If you’ve had problems at…

  Wednesday, February 13, 2019

• Is economic inequality rising?

  Economic inequality is a popular media topic but it’s hard to get objective information about it. Is…

  Monday, February 11, 2019

• Is retirement bad for your health?

  Floating out there somewhere in the vast Sargasso Sea of unexamined opinion is an idealized conception…

  Monday, February 04, 2019

• Did the Los Angeles teachers’ strike change US education?

  The Los Angeles teachers’ strike — settled in January — was 1) an expensive waste of time or 2)…

  Friday, February 01, 2019

• Why your job may be disappearing

  For more than 50 years now, intellectuals like Herman Kahn have been predicting a future where very few…

  Wednesday, January 30, 2019

• Why the Los Angeles teachers’ strike matters

  The Los Angeles teachers’ strike brings home some uncomfortable truths about American education. The…

  Monday, January 21, 2019

• The real reason to wait to draw your Social Security

  Go to the web with the question: "When should I begin drawing my Social Security benefits?" If you were…

  Thursday, January 17, 2019

• Is a college degree worth what it costs?

  It's long been held that a college education is worth what it costs. According to College Data, continuing…

  Wednesday, January 16, 2019

• American education’s teacher crisis

  After decades of largely ineffective attempts by American teachers to raise salaries and improve teaching…

  Thursday, January 10, 2019

• Should you invest in real estate or stocks?

  In the long run, stocks have a higher return on investment than real estate. But in some circumstances,…

  Wednesday, January 09, 2019

• Is your 401(k) plan good, bad or ugly?

  401(k) savings plans are a great idea. Within limits, you get to decide how much you’ll contribute…

  Tuesday, January 08, 2019

• How to survive a bear market

  When a bear market begins, get rid of everything and move into cash! No, that’s not what I’m recommending.…

  Wednesday, January 02, 2019

• A mentor is good — now you need a sponsor

  In corporate America, it’s long been recognized that for high-potential employees, finding a mentor…

  Wednesday, December 19, 2018

• A stock market survival course: Part 5

  This is the final article of a five-part investor’s survival course designed to give you essential…

  Monday, December 17, 2018

• A stock market survival course: Part 4

  This is the fourth of a five-article survival course designed to give you essential information you need…

  Thursday, December 13, 2018

• A stock market survival course: Part 3

  This is the third of a five-article survival course designed to give you essential information you need…

  Monday, December 10, 2018

• A stock market survival course: Part 2

  This is the second article of a five-part survival course designed to give you essential information…

  Tuesday, December 04, 2018

• Disorganize to increase your creativity

  Increasingly in this century, researchers and business analysts are paying attention to what increases…

  Friday, November 30, 2018

• A stock market survival course: Part 1

  For several years, as a Registered Investment Advisor with my own small investment firm, I managed the…

  Wednesday, November 28, 2018

• If you hit a wrong note, hit it again

  On my first night on the bandstand in Herbie Hancock’s band, I was somewhere between panicked and terrified.…

  Thursday, November 15, 2018

• Toxic boss syndrome and what to do about it

  The phrase "toxic boss syndrome" is widely used to describe a continuing workplace problem: the really…

  Tuesday, November 13, 2018

• What’s the best way to teach children to read?

  The two most often-used ways of teaching children to read are phonics and whole language. Each of these…

  Friday, November 09, 2018

• Don’t toot your own horn? In corporate America, that’s bad advice

  Have you ever been up for a promotion you deserved but didn’t get? Maybe it’s because you mistakenly…

  Wednesday, November 07, 2018