Author Archives

Unknown's avatar

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

  • What do we truly "need to know"?

    By on

    According to the tenets of standards-based education, any teacher should focus primarily on what is “essential to know” and only secondarily on what is “nice to know.” It’s hard to disagree with this idea. But I’m going to try. The… Read More ›

  • Gardner at the dealership

    By on

    So I’m waiting at the car dealership in Dorchester while my car is being serviced, and I don’t want to stay in the Service Department’s waiting room because the television is blaring some stupid show and I would like to… Read More ›

  • Labyrinth of Languages

    By on

    On May 5, as you will recall, I posted an article about a proposed new class for the Saturday Course, temporarily code-named Geolinguistics. Well, that course has indeed come into existence, and I am just finishing teaching it for the… Read More ›

  • Books about high school: The Physics of the Buffyverse, Prep, & The Kings of NY

    By on

    I really wanted to like these books. I really did. And in some ways I suppose I liked all three of them. But not enough. All three are deeply flawed. First, let’s consider The Physics of the Buffyverse, by Jennifer… Read More ›

  • Veterans' Day Assembly

    By on

    Delayed post (originally written 11/10): This was the first year in my memory that Weston High School held a Veterans’ Day Assembly. It was extraordinarily well done, and a truly moving experience to boot. Second World War veterans and their… Read More ›

  • Visiting Pittsfield (…Who would visit Pittsfield?)

    By on

    Delayed post (originally written 9/10): If you say you’re going to the Berkshires for vacation, nobody bats an eye. But say that you’re going to Pittsfield, you get some very odd looks. Who ever vacations in Pittsfield? It can simply… Read More ›

  • A mostly vegetarian (and slightly Chinese) Thanksgiving

    By on

    Delayed post (originally written 11/25): I guess it’s appropriate to follow a review of a play called An Absolute Turkey with a review of a Thanksgiving dinner that was entirely turkey-free. As usual, Barbara and I participated in Thanksgiving dinner… Read More ›

  • An Absolute Turkey

    By on

    Delayed post (originally written 11/18): The Theater Company at Weston High School put on a hilarious performance of Georges Feydeau’s 1896 farce, An Absolute Turkey this weekend. Director and theater teacher John Minigan reports that “the French mother of a… Read More ›

  • Switzerland is not Sweden

    By on

    An overheard conversation: “Where’s Ms. Shields this year?” one sophomore asked. Before I could reply, one of her classmates gave her the answer: “Don’t you remember? She got married and moved to Philadelphia.” “Oh, yes,” recalled the first student. “She… Read More ›

  • Cross at the green

    By on

    “Cross at the green, not in between.” Didn’t we all learn that rule as children? Dorchester is inner-city: a very urban environment. It’s dangerous to cross against the light! It’s dangerous to walk across Dot Ave right in front of… Read More ›

  • Hiatus is over

    By on

    OK, OK, I’ll start blogging again! First I ran into recent Weston alumni Sheldon and Chester at the school play, and they asked why I hadn’t posted recently. “Yes, I know,” I replied. “I haven’t posted in five months.” “Six,… Read More ›

  • Of course we outsource game-playing!

    By on

    According to the New York Times and NPR, wealthy online gamers are outsourcing the playing of games to Chinese workers! At first glance this sounds ridiculous: surely people who play online games enjoy playing them, so it makes no sense… Read More ›

  • When did the meaning of “scavenger hunt” change?

    By on

    Since when did the meaning of the phrase “scavenger hunt” change so that it now refers to what is properly called a “treasure hunt”? When I was a kid, there was a clear distinction: In a scavenger hunt, you were… Read More ›

  • Milton K-12

    By on

    I recommend reading the website of MiltonK–12.org, a new organization committed to preserving Milton Academy as a school that runs from kindergarten through grade 12. “Why is this an issue?” you may well ask. Here’s why: Periodically, rumors surface that… Read More ›

  • OFD or DBC?

    By on

    There’s something faintly annoying about those “OFD: Originally from Dorchester” medallions and bumper stickers. Yes, it’s nice that people are proud of coming from Dorchester, but the word ‘originally’ sticks in the craw. It implies something like, “Yes, I was… Read More ›

  • Wisdom from a fourth-grader

    By on

    A fourth-grader in my Saturday Course class, “Create Your Own Computer Game,” announces to me at the end of the third day that she’s almost done writing her game. “So you are,” I observe. “How did you get it done… Read More ›

  • Which parish?

    By on

    A stranger entered my classroom just before my Algebra II class was about to start. He was wearing a visitor’s pass but didn’t introduce himself. So I went up to him, introduced myself, and of course he responded in kind…. Read More ›

  • Chinese-American writers…and doctors and engineers

    By on

    Maybe you don’t expect a Chinese-American writer to have a name like Tess Gerritsen. On the other hand, as an ABC (American-born Chinese), it’s unsurprising that she has an American first name, and if she then marries a man named… Read More ›

  • Math Tests: U.K. vs. China

    By on

    In the U.S. we’re accustomed to the bashing that the American system of teaching math receives from critics at home and abroad. Despite reservations about whether we’re comparing the wide spectrum of American population with the elite populations to whom… Read More ›

  • The Oxford Murders

    By on

    If you like math and mysteries, do read The Oxford Murders, an academic mystery by an Argentinian author, Guillermo Martinez, as translated by Sonia Soto. If you don’t like math, your interest in mysteries probably won’t sustain you throughout this… Read More ›