Missing Freshman Comp – Lingua Franca – The Chronicle of Higher Education

Have you hugged your college’s freshman writing course today? (Not the students, not the teachers—we don’t want disciplinary hearings. The course.) Like most who have worked in English departments, I was rarely excited to be assigned freshman rhetoric (as it was called where I started). The essay-grading was back-breaking and social-life-destroying, to say nothing of…

That’s an interesting privacy policy

While signing up for some online training for work, I found this screen, which seems to ask me to grant my consent to permit the service provider to use my private information in one of zero ways. Similar:Russian troll factory paid US activists to help fund protests during electionRussian trolls posing as Americans made …CybercultureThere…

Reports suggest UVa board wanted president to eliminate language programs

Apparently, her defense of the classics and German was among the reasons UVa recently ousted the presudent. As a grad student needing to beef up my foreign kanguage credentuals, I took the summer German course Herr McDonald comments on here. William C. McDonald, director of undergraduate studies in German at the university, stressing that he…

Father’s Day Kirktopus

via Rainbow Hector Weblog Similar:This Is How Tyranny Begins (Robert Reich)As the faculty advisor to a college jour…CultureAn important day to remember.Never again.PersonalPut up the Hoop Sooner: 10 lessons of parenting from one wise guy who's done doing the dad…Earlier today, we dropped our daughter o…AcademiaIan Bogost Has Won a HuffPo Badge for his Anti-Gamification…

Teresa Sullivan fired from UVA: What happens when universities are run by robber barons.

On Monday Dragas, sensing that the university community might want some explanation for such a radical act, sent out a second message: “The Board believes this environment calls for a much faster pace of change in administrative structure, in governance, in financial resource development and in resource prioritization and allocation. We do not believe we…

My daughter playing “Alice in Wonderland” in her dollhouse

Stop drinking from random bottles, child! Similar:Homeschool prom 2017PersonalWhat blogging wasI’ve maintained this blog since the spri…CybercultureSon took out trash w/o being asked; daughter wore papercraft tophat to grocery store. Life…I took my daughter to an Alice-in-Wonder…ArtRoyalty: For the Irish, it’s like having a neighbour who’s really into clowns and, also, y…When I lived in Canada,…

Kindle iOS Update

I find it really amazing that it has taken this long for Amazon to finally shrink that ridiculously huge margin, which persisted like fake stirrups on a horseless carriage. Similar:Is Babylon 5 secretly the most influential TV show of the past 25 years?When my wife and I were grad students in…CultureMy Minecraft-obsessed tween made this…

9-Year-Old Who Changed School Lunches Silenced By Politicians

This young blogger has learned a very important lesson about power and privilege. I’m sure the story does not end here. We anguish about getting kids to be enthusiastic about healthy, sustainable food — to not prefer the bad stuff, not waste the good stuff, and not be entitled little monsters who whine about when their next…

Happy Flag Day from Stage Right Musical Theatre Campers (Greensburg, Pennsylvania)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BYkuRBVXN4 Similar:The Pope's Prayer for Countering "Fake News"Today is the feast of St. Francis de Sal…CultureKeyboard Shortcuts for Novelists Use the command-alt functions to add s…AestheticsThe Backstory: A reporter arrested while covering a protest faces trial Monday. Here's why…Journalists are human, humans make mista…CultureSaint Crispin's Day Speech from "Henry V"Dennis Jerz performs the famous speech…

Grocery Store Lesson

As a kid, I loved the feeling of confidence that came when my mom handed me a few bucks at the pool and told me I could get what I wanted from the concession stand. Since my main responsibility for the afternoon was to keep the kids occupied, and I was in no rush to…

Testing

I’ve been having some problems with the WordPress iOS app. Just testing. This should be a robot inspecting a donut. Similar:Motivation Amid Crisis (Autotrophic Bat)As part of an independent study project,…BooksIn September, 2000, I was blogging about PICK UP AX, Bellamy's Looking Backward, WB Yeats,…In September 2000, I was blogging about …BusinessIn November 1999, I…

Pride and Pedantry

“What’s a meme?” I took my daughter to the birthday party of a 12-year-old friend yesterday, and hung around with the adults as the kids splashed in the pool. After a round of Chuck Norris jokes with his dad (“When Chuck Norris goes into the water, he doesn’t get wet, the water gets Chuck Norrissed”),…