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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Paul Lockhart
Three and a half years ago I wrote a post about Paul Lockhart’s book, Mathematician’s Lament. Now he has a new book, oddly titled Measurement. Why, you ask, is that title odd? It’s because the book is only peripherally about measurement. Mostly it’s… Read More ›
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My Short, Happy Life in “Jeopardy!”
I reviewed Ken Jennings’s book Brainiac seven years ago. (Was it really seven years ago‽ Yes, it was!) So I figured I should also read the latest book by another Jeopardy champion, Brendan DuBois, whose short fiction I had read several times… Read More ›
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Lobstah Bake at Ashmont Grill
Mmm…what a feast! Last night was the much-anticipated occasion for the Ashmont Grill’s annual Lobstah Bake, three hours of unlimited grilled lobsters, tuna ceviche, striped bass ceviche, mussels, potato salad, tomato salad, cheddar-and-scallion biscuits, fresh corn on the cob, wine,… Read More ›
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It's better than sleeping on the keyboard.
Usually Douglas annoys me by sleeping on the keyboard and “helping” me type. I guess this is better.
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Typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong.
“Typing two spaces after a period is totally, completely, utterly, and inarguably wrong.” So observes Farhad Manjoo, in a well-reasoned article entitled “Space Invaders: Why you should never, ever use two spaces after a period.” This is not a matter of opinion; it’s… Read More ›
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College admissions, the achievement gap, and throwing money at the problem
Boston College (2), Boston University (2), Brandeis, Clark, Denison, Framingham State, Hamilton, Harvard, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Northeastern (2), Skidmore, Suffolk, Tufts, U. of Maine, UNH, UMass Amherst, UMass Boston, Union, Wheaton, and Williams. That’s the complete list of where the… Read More ›
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From strangers to family
Yesterday evening the Crimson Summer Academy held its Tenth Annual Celebration to recognize the conclusion of another summer’s hard work. (Hard to believe that it’s been ten years!) Among the many fine presenters, one in particular stood out: the junior class… Read More ›
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Surrounded by police
“The house next door is surrounded by police, including a swat team.” This wasn’t really what I wanted to hear (four hours ago) in a phone call from Barbara. By now, of course, you’ve probably heard the main story: two… Read More ›
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How many levels should there be?
“I don’t want to stay in Honors Geometry. It’s too difficult!” “I’m bored in regular Geometry. It’s too easy!” We hear remarks like these from a sprinkling of students — sometimes both of them from the same student — usually… Read More ›
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Wall to Nowhere
Sarah Palin may have her Bridge to Nowhere, but Lesley University in Cambridge apparently has its Wall to Nowhere. I spotted this hard-to-miss wall in the parking lot of the Shops at Porter, part of Lesley University. As you can… Read More ›
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All iPads, all the time?
Can we survive in the classroom if we entirely replace laptop computers with tablets? Last summer we converted from laptops to iPads for the incoming sophomores at the Crimson Summer Academy. This summer we expanded the program to the juniors…. Read More ›
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Plagiarism: Pro and con
Pro and con? Perhaps you think this is a deliberately provocative title. Every teacher, after all, is vehemently against plagiarism, right? We are justifiably outraged when a student turns in a paper in which whole paragraphs are cribbed unattributed from… Read More ›
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Graphing lines
So here’s the question: should we teach students that the slope-intercept form of the equation of a line is y = mx + b ? Or should we teach it as y = a + bx ? And does it matter? I contend that it does matter, and that there are several good reasons… Read More ›
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“It’s all mine,” says Douglas
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Not Harry Potter
Just finished reading the first of J.K. Rowling’s two post-Harry-Potter novels. This was The Casual Vacancy, the one she published under her real name. On the whole, my reaction was far more positive than negative. It has very little in common… Read More ›
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T-R-E-A-T-S
Now we have to spell out “T-R-E-A-T-S” instead of saying the whole word…otherwise this is what happens:
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Finally resuming the blog…
…after a four-month hiatus. Stay tuned…
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Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra Concert
Yesterday afternoon, Barbara and I attended a beautiful concert given by the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra at Symphony Hall. Picture yourself there. Close your eyes and just listen. You forget that this was a youth orchestra; you think that the… Read More ›
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As Good as it Gets
So I managed to watch three quarters of As Good as it Gets before deciding it was time to make dinner and I wasn’t interested in finishing this 1997 movie. Despite an excellent performance (of course) from Jack Nicholson, it all just… Read More ›
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As you know, college admissions have become more competitive.
Does it matter that the most competitive colleges are harder to get into than they used to be? It certainly matters at Weston, and I’m sure at other top-ranked high schools as well. The question is whether the net effects… Read More ›
Learning Strategies 