Author Archives
In 2018 I semi-retired by retiring from Weston High School after my 21st year teaching mathematics there. This was also my 44th year as a teacher altogether. In 2023 I retired fully, adding in my 18 years at Harvard’s Crimson Summer Academy each summer. For 21 years I had taught at the Saturday Course in Milton, MA, and I used to serve on the board of the Dorchester Historical Society.
I read, cook, and spend a lot of time building my model railroad. For some reason I’m left with less free time than would be ideal, considering that I’m supposed to be retired, but somehow I also manage to devote time to my wife, Barbara, and to our varying number of cats (once up to six, but now sadly down to one).
Larry Davidson
ljd@larrydavidson.com
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Chinese food in Elmira
We had lunch today at Beijing Garden, a reasonably good Chinese restaurant in Elmira. Why were we the only customers using chopsticks? Why was everybody covertly looking at us? And why wasn’t this restaurant open yesterday (Christmas Day)? I guess… Read More ›
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What do I need to do to get an A?
“What do I need to do to get an A?” asks one of my students in an honors math course. I wish I had a magic recipe. I can say with reasonable confidence that it’s possible to get a B… Read More ›
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More about the Ashmont Grill and Tavolo
I’ve written a couple of previous posts about the Ashmont Grill — two years ago and five months ago. Since the latter post, Barbara and I have visited several times, mostly for the Monday Night wine club, which I highly… Read More ›
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Donovan's in Savin Hill over the Bridge (well…almost over the bridge)
The Savin Hill neighborhood in Dorchester is conventionally divided into two parts, at least by real estate agents. The “better” half, according to some, is “Savin Hill over the Bridge,” namely the portion to the east of the bridge that… Read More ›
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David Handler's Berger & Mitry series
David Handler, best known for this Stewart Hoag series and other novels, has also written six books (so far) in his Berger and Mitry series: The Cold Blue Blood (2001) The Hot Pink Farmhouse (2002) The Bright Silver Star (2003)… Read More ›
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Kindle for textbooks?
One of my students asked me why his textbooks aren’t available for Kindle. Currently the typical Weston student’s backpack weighs 42 pounds*; Kindle weighs only ten ounces! Aside from everything else that’s available for it, imagine replacing your math book,… Read More ›
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Obedience
Obedience, by Will Lavender, is a fascinating but flawed novel. Not flawed like Strip Search, which I reviewed the other day; this novel is worth reading. But it’s flawed nevertheless. It shares with Strip Search the characteristic of a great… Read More ›
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Where are my model railroad pix?
One of my students asked me why I haven’t yet posted any photos of the model railroad I’m building. One answer is that it’s still in such an early stage that I don’t have much to show yet. Another answer… Read More ›
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Strip Search
Strip Search, by William Bernhardt, is an irritating novel. Why do I say that? Well, it’s not just because Bernhardt portrays math teachers as weird and psychotic, though that’s certainly a major part of it. And it’s not just because… Read More ›
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Misreading Larry Summers
Continuing yesterday’s theme… There has been renewed interest in Larry Summers’s supposed sexist remarks. When Senator Obama (I almost said “President Obama”) announced that he would appoint Summers to be his senior White House economic advisor, bloggers and others revived… Read More ›
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And they say that girls can't do math…
So why is it that the top two mathletes on Weston High School’s Math Team are freshmen girls? And a year young for their grade, at that? Check out the situation from ten months ago. But it’s only two data… Read More ›
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Obama and the Achievement Gap
Now that we’ve elected an African-American intellectual to the highest office in the land, can a reduction in the achievement gap be far behind? For many years we’ve been observing that black male students see very few role models for… Read More ›
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iPhone games
Having been an enthusiastic iPhone user for the past four months, I’m not surprised that many of my students want to play games on it (at least those students who don’t have iPhones themselves; this is Weston, after all). That’s… Read More ›
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Turn your iPhone into an ocarina.
I recently installed an unusual application on my iPhone: Ocarina. This program turns your iPhone into a four-hole ocarina, with the holes outlined on the iPhone’s touch-sensitive screen. But the really cool thing is that you actually blow into your… Read More ›
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Teaching spreadsheets in high school math classes
Should high-school math classes be teaching Excel? Or, more generally, should we be teaching spreadsheet use — and Excel just happens to dominate the market? We have been exploring these issues at Weston High School. Certainly the right point of… Read More ›
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"Everyone else does it."
The Josephson Institute Study of the Ethics of American Youth has been widely reported on such widely varied outlets as National Public Radio, Fox News, and Yahoo News. They report “a troubling picture of our future politicians and parents, cops… Read More ›
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The Big Ideas of Algebra, Part One
Earlier this month I participated in a fascinating two-day seminar on The Big Ideas of Algebra, taught by Deborah Hughes-Hallett and sponsored by Teachers as Scholars. Although I undoubtedly talked too much, I figure that that was because I had… Read More ›
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"Opportunity, compassion, honor, excellence, Davidson"
I saw this catalog the other day, and I found the cover strangely appealing: I’m not sure which part I liked better: the “Davidson Bill of Rights” at the bottom, or the list of words at the top, terminating in… Read More ›
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The Girl of His Dreams
If you can’t travel to Venice in the real world, the next best thing is to travel vicariously in the novels of Donna Leon. Formally speaking, these novels are squarely in the mystery genre, but Leon devotes as much attention… Read More ›
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Meme abuse
What’s a meme? Well, those of us who have spent too many years on the Internet (from its inception in 1969, actually, when it was called the ARPAnet) and those of us who have read The Selfish Gene, by Richard… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 