22 Articles

Saturday, June 13, 2009
The Oakland School Borg?
(1 comments) Does a return to more conservative values in school – dress codes, strict discipline, and absolute obedience to authority – ensure that we can educate students better?

Monday, April 27, 2009
Where are the Teachers?
(2 comments) Not a single community college teacher was on the panel, a panel focused on problems facing community colleges. Huh? This is like not asking cardiologists to join the discussion on the heart, or holding a cooking show without a chef.

Saturday, March 21, 2009
Doing Good When the Economy is Doing Bad?
"Giving back" is outside of our normal lives. And I don't want to go back to normal.

Saturday, February 14, 2009
Octuplets are More Sexy than Education
(3 comments) We need the public to take education as personally as they take Nadya Sulman's reproductive habits.

Friday, February 6, 2009
What Do Students Learn from Multiple-Choice Tests?
(5 comments) Multiple-choice tests - with their orderly rows of bubbles, and authoritative, syntactically clear solutions - construct a polished marble facade of truth, convincing students that there are clear, unambiguous answers in the world.

Thursday, February 5, 2009
Welcome, Conquistadors!
Welcome, Conquistadors! You can put your muskets down. Your beach front property is hidden this a-way!

Sunday, January 25, 2009
3 graphic novels for people who don't know what graphic novels are
(3 comments) "Graphic novels aren't those kind of comics," I patiently explained, "they are more for adults." "What, like porn?"

Monday, January 19, 2009
It's Oscar (Grant) Season!
Unlike Slumdog Millionaire, the social ills that Oscar Grant's shooting exposes can't be solved quickly and easily, by an appearance on a game show.

Thursday, January 8, 2009
Should Obama Be A Liberal Bush?
(6 comments) Has Obama crossed the line from compromise to complicity?

Saturday, January 3, 2009
Moving Off Bush St.
Moving from Bush St. isn't just Obama's job. It's not just the President-elect's task to change the political landscape, to move us from a culture of fear and terror and partisanship. It's also our job.

Friday, December 12, 2008
Part II: Obama is Hitler? WTF?
(7 comments) Go skip to the comments now, if you like. You get my point – I give you permission.

Monday, December 1, 2008
Obama is Hitler? WTF?
(52 comments) And no doubt, the powerful orator – like Obama, like Martin Luther King, like Ronald Reagan, like Jim Jones, and Hitler – can move the masses to action. But this is where the analogy ends.

Friday, November 14, 2008
A President English Teachers Can Be Proud Of
(8 comments) Contrary to the last eight years, words matter.

Friday, November 14, 2008
We Lost the Battle Against Prop 8, but Ronald Reagan just might help us win the war
(5 comments) Gay rights advocates may have lost the battle, but are winning the war. And conservatives, who truly believe in small government, should help in this battle.

Friday, October 31, 2008
Will my college students vote?
(4 comments) Will my college students vote? Will they play a role - even a decisive one - in this election? And more broadly: what part do they see themselves playing in politics in general?

Wednesday, October 15, 2008
The Savage Nation Party?
(4 comments) Conservative commentator Michael Savage's vitriol with the Republican ticket speaks to the fragmentation of support for McCain in the "die hard" conservative base he speaks to daily, and more broadly, it suggests another sign of McCain's slowing momentum. But don't applaud yet.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Joe the Plumber for President
(3 comments) Joe the Plumber should be considered seriously as a Presidential Candidate.

Friday, October 3, 2008
Palin: Rebel Without a Brain
(1 comments) Palin framed herself as a rebel last night, as a revolutionary who is qualified to change the culture of Washington because she doesn't understand it. The rebellion she's leading? To make erudition not only a prerequisite for high office.

Thursday, September 18, 2008
"WHAT NEXT?" A Teacher's Perspective on Change
Students in my community college English course didn't seem to feel too much a part of "America's History," nor a part of it's future. And after 8 years under Bush, we know this feeling of "passionate paralysis" well.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Is Microsoft Word a Republican Operative?
(5 comments) Type in Obama into Microsoft Word, what does spell-checker suggest? Osama.

Friday, September 5, 2008
Coffee with Sarah Palin
Palin is a symbol, sure. But what she represents is the popularity of pre-scientific thought which has plagued our nation the last 8 years.

Thursday, August 28, 2008
My Students Have Cooler Phones than I
Today's American college student has more technology in her pocket than some small African country you've never heard of, which could easily be looked up in seconds on Wikipedia (if someone was actually bored enough in class to do this). The author, a college English instructor, wonders about why his students have such awesome technology - and why it is so, so much better than his clunker, which can only make calls (OMG!).