Dimanche matin

I woke up noticing that a large part of the anxiety and precarity is financial. I should do yoga and meditate so that I recognize this when it comes up and set it aside. How to increase income: promotion. The rest of it is the self-care issue which is really the self-love issue, as we … More Dimanche matin

Ce matin

I was thinking of the beautiful light, the January sky, the clear winter days when you can have the windows open. I was thinking of some people I know who do not converse. People for whom every conversation is a battle, and whose sentences are pre-emptive strikes against an imagined enemy. How they defend unhappiness … More Ce matin

Further reasons why it is not “the best profession in the world”

A friend writes, out of the blue: When you were younger you maybe didn’t need to adjust to being in the 99th+ percentile of IQ because you had genuine peers around you who were also smart. It’s tougher now because you don’t have the same access to smart people that you used to have. I … More Further reasons why it is not “the best profession in the world”

Afsnit ni

My wing is ready to fly I would rather turn back For had I stayed mortal time I would have had little luck. – Gerhard Scholem, “Angelic Greetings” There is a painting by Klee called Angelus Novus. An angel is depicted there who looks as though he were about to distance himself from something which … More Afsnit ni

Fragment

It is capitalism. They are not ill, they are just expected not to take care of themselves and to be on call and alert all the time, performing. They have to claim mental health problems so as to receive authorization to live a normal life, with 7-8 hours’ sleep, some recreation, and some organized and … More Fragment

La psico-pedagogía de los exámenes

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

Manifesto

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