Rhetoric: February 2008 Archive Page

Bennett Gordon, Science and Technology blog (Utne Reader):

Every diorama in the Home School Science Fair, which took place inside a shopping mall in Roseville, Minnesota, had a biblical quote attached to it. A young woman whose project involved teaching her dog how to run circles between her legs decorated the words: "If you love me, you will obey what I command." (John 14:15) in pink lace fabric. This quote got to the crux of the science fair, in my opinion: parental commandment. These parents pulled their children out of school, away from their peers, and said, "Now prove that Darwin was wrong."

This blog entry gives the impression that one particular homeschool group's Creationist science fair is "the 2008 Home School Science Fair," perpetuating the meme that all home school families are the same.  I left a comment on the site that said, in part, "I understand and appreciate your desire to protect the name of science from those who misappropriate its terminology. I hope you'll also respect my desire to address misunderstandings about home schooling."  (My reasons for choosing home schooling are not religious; my wife and I simply don't want to entrust such an important task to strangers -- we want to be a part of it.)

Update: Gordon e-mailed me to thank me for the comment I posted on his site. He said he had thought that the word "Creationist" in the title of his blog entry was enough to contextualize this particular science fair, but noted that the comments his blog attracted have already made a pretty good case for correcting that. I suggested that he do a profile on a homeschool family that doesn't fit the stereotype.

Grand Text Auto introduced me to the excellent indie mini-game Passage.  Play it. It takes a few minutes to download and about 5 minutes to play. I'm misty-eyed.

Play it!

ABC News:

In the comic, Dilbert asks, "Why does it seem as if most of the decisions in my workplace are made by drunken lemurs?"

"I wanted to try to boost the morale for the employees," Steward said.

His bosses, however, didn't find the joke so funny. They didn't like the implication that they were the drunken lemurs in this scenario.

Using surveillance video, his bosses identified Steward as the comic culprit and fired him.

I'm posting this as another example in a long line of posts that I hope will encourage my students to be careful about what they write about on their blogs and personal profile pages.

I don't think that publishing a cartoon is a terminal offense.  I don't want to fail a student for showing passion or voicing an opinion, since I'm trained to see even a negative outburst as a "teachable moment" that can benefit the whole class (and my own superiors feel I am doing my job when I try to salvage a difficult situation with a frustrated student, rather than isolating and ejecting every student who causes friction).  I don't know anything else about Steward's situation.  Perhaps this comic was just one volley in an ongoing toxic battle that was affecting productivity.  But, more likely, his action angered powerful people who aren't used to being challenged.

But regardless of what I personally think, the truth is that employers have the legal right to hold you to whatever contract you signed when they hired you.

Elia Powers, Inside Higher Ed:

What plays into coverage of violence, both on campus and elsewhere? The answer, most experts agree, is a confluence of factors.

The obvious starting point -- and one that media analysts say weighs heavily on the minds of editors in all tragedies, not just school shootings -- tends to be the number of victims. Look at the math in the three recent college cases: Virginia Tech (33 dead, dozens injured). Northern Illinois (6 dead, 16 others injured). Louisiana Technical College (3 dead, no injuries).

It's also a matter of the news cycle. The Virginia Tech attacks took place during a period of relative calm. These latest shootings occurred in the midst of the busy election season. Some also point to the fact that Virginia Tech came first and with the descriptor "worst shooting rampage in modern United States history." Since then, school and store shootings have become somewhat regular occurrences.

"This has now become, sad to say, a genre of news story -- the crazed gunman in the school or work place or mall," said Roy P. Clark, vice president and senior scholar at the Poynter Institute.

Frighteningly sad story from a San Diego TV station.

For 17 years Corcoran taught high school for the Oceanside School District. Relying on teacher's assistants for help and oral lesson plans, he said he did a great job at teaching his students.

"What I did was I created an oral and visual environment. There wasn't the written word in there. I always had two or three teacher's assistants in each class to do board work or read the bulletin," said Corcoran.

In retrospect, Corcoran said, his deceit took him a long time to accept.

"As a teacher it really made me sick to think that I was a teacher who couldn't read. It is embarrassing for me, and it's embarrassing for this nation and it's embarrassing for schools that we're failing to teach our children how to read, write and spell!"

From the AP:

Danish police said Tuesday they have arrested three people suspected of plotting to kill one of the 12 cartoonists behind the Prophet Muhammad drawings that sparked a deadly uproar in the Muslim world two years ago.

Random thoughts are exactly what they are, random!

Anyone can say random words. It does
Have favorable results. His attempts to woo
-- But never all the way -- toward the cliff
Conform to something so unlike yourself

The other points are pretty valid. It's
A place to jot down information as
Questions. For example: how many?
Some mystery, not just telling the story

And one of the issues that I struggled with
Has meaning and the other does not.  Which
Alters it, stepping farther and farther away
From the last meeting to give you an idea.

I should just take a note book and go sit
At the food court at the mall.

I took a little break from evaluating a close reading assignment in order to look into the online chatter about George W. Bush's interpretation of a painting called "A Charge to Keep."  Bush hung it on his wall because he identifies with the guy out in front, whom he sees as leading a tough climb over rough terrain.