There are many commonplaces in teaching and pedagogy. One of these commonplaces is accessible templates or forms that students can use to gain control over complex and intimidating learning tasks. These consistent formats demonstrate the essential “moves” of particular learning tasks, which the students can apply to their own work. Ideally, they will then let […]
Continue reading →It pains me to see that as careful a reader as Alan Jacobs, who writes as elegantly and eloquently about reading as he does, apparently has such little faith in reading. Why do I say that? Because he, like many, seems to think that in order to see reading as an activity worth doing, it must […]
Continue reading →While putting the finishing touches on a draft chapter of my dissertation recently, I happened to go digging around in the research archives one more time. I felt that one section, about the earliest advocates of large-scale assessment of higher education, was missing that killer quote. I happened to find an unpublished dissertation that considered […]
Continue reading →I have seen now some dozen people share this ProPublica map, about the use of restraining holds on school children, on various social networks and websites. It makes me sad, because this issue is sad. But the kind of reactions that are being provoked also make me sad, because they demonstrate the ways in which […]
Continue reading →“There’s a whorish desperation to even the very few halfway-decent writers today. You either write about the same tripe everybody else writes about—Game of Thrones, Hillary Clinton, Silicon Valley, whatever new subculture is offended by its lack of persecution, a sports star, a wealthy rapper, the Tea Party, the new iPhone—or you make a stunt […]
Continue reading →That post title might sound snotty, but I assure you that I mean it in just the opposite sense. I’m inspired by Corey Robin’s piece about riding the subway in order to find the time and space to read books, inspired by this essay by Tim Parks about how hard it is to read books […]
Continue reading →“From my place of lack,” – Sameer Pandya, “The Spelling Bee: America’s Great Racial Freaks and Geeks Show” No, man. Just no. Great piece, overall. But nothing good can ever come from “From my place of lack.”
Continue reading →Look, I won’t belabor the current fight about Young Adult fiction, because anyone who’s read me on these topics before probably already knows more or less where I stand. I will say that I am an unabashed fan of some YA fiction. Diana Wynne Jones remains my favorite author. Ever. I wrote, a long while […]
Continue reading →This tweet is just one of many. It’s just an example, and not a particularly egregious one, and one with the right intentions at heart. I like Ta-Nehisi Coates’s writing. A lot. And I loved his case for reparations, for a lot of reasons, but mostly because of what it brings to the public consciousness, or […]
Continue reading →Someone called Jonah Shepp at the Dish says that, in this piece where I criticized Reihan Salam for his wrong and insulting piece on public school funding, I “lost it.” Honey, if you think that’s me losing it…. Look: read Salam’s piece. Then read mine. Reihan Salam’s piece was far, far more aggressive and insulting […]
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