As the assiduous reader will know, a great deal of my intellectual, emotional and creative energy is spent on two activities: irrigating a desert and understanding what follows here. Notes 1. Abused people are under the illusion that if they learn to obey more perfectly, accept abnegation more completely, the pain will stop. 1.1. If … More Et encore…
Now my problem class is complaining about its grades and I cannot rest. Their e-mails are like those the Angry Professor sometimes reproduces. The people who might have grounds to wonder exactly why they have a C+ and not a B- are silent. Those on whose behalf I moved heaven and earth to find a … More Almost Finished
Now I am reading Ancarett’s really smart post on the modern and the postmodern university. My problem is that I am in Right postmodernity and I long for Left modernity. I understand at last. Earlier today I wrote the paragraphs which follow. I wonder whether they are merely symptomatic of my longing for Left modernity, … More In Light
Hattie of Hattie’s Web said in a comment here: “There is so much pain and craziness already in your students’ lives that they can’t endure the pain and craziness of learning a foreign language.” This is, in fact, the problem. I have been trying to figure out what problem I should address – laziness? illiteracy? … More Hattie Cracks the Mystery
I It seems that now we must teach many more things at once in each course. This semester I taught three courses, to wit: A senior/graduate course in Comparative Literature, A senior course in English, and A sophomore course in Spanish. About the Spanish course I have already railed at great length. We must now … More Still More Teaching
PZ: These students refuse to learn. WM: They do not share your views on the value of learning. PZ: But they are in school, so they are on the turf of learning. They should play by house rules. WM: Not necessarily. PZ: So the house rules no longer emphasize the value of learning? WM: … … More A Corporative Whiteman
It is sunny here and cool enough for me to sleep with the windows open, and ride my bicycle. On the weekend we rode everywhere, I ate shrimp on a stick. I am still grading and not able to go to the CAC tomorrow night, but I hope you can. Here is key information from … More To the CAC
A question submitted to the most recent Republican presidential debate: Brian Denzer, Lower Ninth Ward. The U.S. would declare war if Rhode Island were bombed, yet few Americans know that the loss of an equivalent area of Louisiana wetlands has been answered with an appalling lack of leadership. At the leading edge of a range … More Brian Denzer
Watch this video, which I learned of from Liprap, and then act to help save public housing in New Orleans. The architecture in some of these projects is gorgeous, and the sturdy buildings have survived many storms. Many of those who have not been able to return to New Orleans were public housing residents and … More International Human Rights Day
… Interpretation of the Constitution to the Christian Right I thought that the way in which my academic freedom was curtailed was in the need to cater to the tendentious religions and politics of the students. I have long been aware, to give one very clear example, that I as a professor cannot criticize Creation … More On Outsourcing
coldhearted scientist وداد 