It is a week or so early but I am declaring myself undepressed now for four months, although November is always stressful. I had an emotional crisis that I let run, so that I could see what it was. I could have shut it off by keeping busy, but I wanted to see what it was. … More Four months
Luis Enrique Galván has an article by this title in Amauta 20 (January 1929): 58-63. It is a brilliant critique of examinations, particularly standardized tests, and particularly those administered by a central authority. “Como un regazo anacrónico de las viejas máquinas usadas para la tortura escolar, desde las humildes escuelitas primarias hasta nuestras universidades hinchadas de … More La psico-pedagogía de los exámenes
Dear Z, I hope you enjoyed The Modern and the Postmodern. If you would like to support Wesleyan’s effort to offer future Coursera courses, please consider making a gift to the Wesleyan Fund in support of online education by clicking here. Any amount you are able to donate will be greatly appreciated. Of course, this … More I will e-mail Michael Roth, after all.
I do not think of myself as a teacher of foreign languages or have a great interest in this but I am a zealot if required. This is my manifesto. 1. The custom of presenting all grammar in the first year, and reviewing it in the second, is incoherent and must be revised. 2. The … More Manifesto
Here is a bell curve. I could use it. I could also have: 20% W and F, 20% D, 20% C, 20% B, and 20% A. This would up my grades, and be nicer than a bell curve since more people would have A than F. Not that it will help you at all, but … More On grades
There are also those inexperienced professors and otherwise unqualified individuals who insist that they know more than one does, and who require one repeat efforts already tried and failed, or re-run investigations which have already had clear results. I cannot count the number of times I have had some person saying to me, you must … More And then, the opposite kind of academic advice
The correct academic advice is that you should decide what you want to do and concentrate on that, and insist on conversing about that, as opposed to get caught by mentoring and advice. The problem with academic advice, normally, is that it is given by people who believe themselves infinitely superior to those they are … More Yet, still, more on academic advice
I have now been un-depressed for over three months and the way to become un-depressed is to resist oppression. I am not entirely there yet: it took all Sunday to submit an article and all of today to work on my vita, a project with which I am still not finished; these were in fact … More Into month four
A local radio station is attempting to instill pride of place in children. Announcer: Have you ever had to go somewhere else and missed home? Children: Yes. We went to Georgia once and it was so strange. The coffee was not the same brand as we have in Louisiana, and it was very hard to … More Provincialism, an aspect of exceptionalism
Anxious doctoral researchers can now call on a proliferation of advice books telling them how to produce their dissertations. This article analyzes some characteristics of this self-help genre, including the ways it produces an expert-novice relationship with readers, reduces dissertation writing to a series of linear steps, reveals hidden rules, and asserts a mix of … More On the failure of dissertation advice books
coldhearted scientist وداد 