Among my students, few school diversity topics are more intimidating than transgender students. L, G, B, and even Q seem less unsettling. It’s tough, I think, for teachers to think of children’s bodies at all. To acknowledge their bodies raises contradictions for them as they talk about loving and caring for kids and making a […]
I got a chance about a week ago (February, 2021) to talk with Dr. Sarah Cooper, an assistant principal who works in Morristown, TN. Her dissertation focused on chronic absenteeism. We talked about the importance of absenteeism under current legislation and the lessons she’s learned from her dissertation that apply to life as an AP […]
Sometimes I get on fire with an idea and I start pushing it out there and lo and behold it is totally stupid. Consequences come with stupidity, but so do lessons. This particular bad idea was inspired by a will to do some kind of good towards the equity of public school funding. I just […]
I got a chance a few weeks ago (November, 2020) to talk with Dr. Angela Briggs, a school counselor who works in Mt. Juliet, TN. Her dissertation focused on parental engagement of students with special needs. We talked generally about her experience and what she learned through research.
In 1972 the Supreme Court ruled that the Amish would be exempt from a state law requiring children to attend school until the age of 16. I learned of the case while reading the indispensable Schoolhouse Gate by Justin Driver. The case raises difficult questions despite its 7-0 ruling. At the time, the Amish were […]
“No further proof is required, since the search for proof is already contaminated by an unwillingness to acknowledge the hyperobject [anthropogenic climate change].” T. Morton, Hyperobjects. Ascertain causality while the oceans rise, the forests burn, the floods rage? Think carefully before you rush into traffic to save the errant child? No, follow Nike’s advice, with […]
Derrida has it right, this toy is not just a toy. Buddhists, too. This toy is composed of a whole bunch of non-toy things. This particular toy is a thing that is so many things. It’s plastic. Its microplastics. It’s mass production. It’s pollution. It’s waste. It’s capitalism. It’s overproduction. It’s the gyre in the […]
CATEGORY: Everyone knows this but doesn’t KNOW this. People do and say various things they don’t mean. Maybe some people are trying to deceive others. Students in class nod to show the teacher they know when in fact they do not: they lie with their behavior. Maybe someone said something that came out the wrong […]
I finished my dissertation in 2016, titled the Student Experience of Other Students. I tried that summer to develop the dissertation into an article. The Qualitative Report allows articles of 40 pages, so I was cutting the 260-some odd pages bit by bit. I was informed by more experienced writers that what I was doing […]
At a recent department meeting we voted to align our grading scales. That means we decided that to achieve a grade of A, a 93% average of all course work would be required. An 85% average would yield a B, 75% a C, and on down the line. There was not much debate, but some […]
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