This evening I have been told two things, to wit: 1. Our students are a disaster area and we should cave to this situation. I disagree. They are a disaster area because they have not been required not to be, or more importantly, because they have not been shown, rather than just told how not … More Five Things
One of my students has written me a two page letter in which he recognizes that he is failing my course and requests a D because he is graduating and needs it. He is unable to earn a D, he says, because the subject is beyond his grasp. This is why he has not prepared … More A Letter
Having been in Lafayette I took U.S. 90 home this weekend, sharing the green road with trucks loaded with sugar cane. Driving leisurely through the sun in Lafourche Parish I saw a turtle, an armadillo, and an alligator, and a rat. The feeling of proximity to New Orleans begins on the Hale Boggs Memorial Bridge, … More Paroisse de Lafourche
Travailler, c’est trop dur – work is too hard. From one of my better students’ compositions: “Neither Sor Juana nor Mary Wollstonecraft were feminist authors. To defend the rights of women, including their access to knowledge and ability to write and publish, is not feminist. To accuse these women of feminism for having spent their … More Travailler, c’est trop dur
This evening our art show opened in Lafayette. I got lost along the Bayou Grosse Tête on the way and it was very interesting. There were high cane fields, a little ridge which I believe leads to Grand Coteau and beyond, small almost Caribbean style plantation houses, large trailers, and a genuine Bengal tiger in … More In French
James Baldwin died November 30, 1987, twenty years ago today. I was having a traumatic semester and I did not take note of his passing, but he has always been one of my favorite writers, so I will take note of it today. This post is intended as a James Baldwin Video Aggregator. CSPAN Baldwin … More James Baldwin
This article is of interest. For instance: Fascism creates confusion through “facts”. It relies on junk science, revisionism, the elimination of cultural records/treasures and obfuscations to create its case and gain acceptance. Fascism can also combine Marxist critiques of capitalism or faith based critics of the same to re-define middle class perceptions of democracy and … More On Fascism
If your parents believe that you can pass 15 credit hours’ worth of college level work by merely attending class, they can insist that you also work full time, because 40+15=55. If your parents insist that missing class to drive them to the doctor or babysit your sister’s children should be an “excused absence” from … More An Academic Culture
Now I am going to give back one of those exams, on which once again every one has made, essentially, either an A or an F. It is depressing. People with F’s will, as usual, have a great deal to say about how it is the fault of the textbook or other materials, or my … More Anschluß
Unless you are in the honors program or a graduate student, in which cases situations vary, you can tell me your class and a little bit about your life; I will then guess what your grades are and be right. I hardly need to see your work, because I have diagnosed you by class and … More On Grading
coldhearted scientist وداد 