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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

  • Why Don’t Students Like School?

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    On the whole it was refreshing to read Why Don’t Students Like School? A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions about How the Mind Works and What it Means for the Classroom. Despite the misleading title and overly long subtitle, Daniel Willingham’s… Read More ›

  • Diamonds for the Dead

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    Diamonds for the Dead, by Alan Orloff, is a reasonably compelling mystery with an interesting cast of characters, many of whom are Russian immigrants in northern Virginia. The characters and the place make the book. It’s fun to read — nothing… Read More ›

  • dBar/Chau Chow

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    It was a good way to end one year and start the next. For New Year’s Eve, Barbara and I went out to eat at dBar; then, for breakfast the next morning, we went to Chau Chow for dim sum…. Read More ›

  • Doodling in math class

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    And the award for coolest math video ever goes to…Vi Hart, for her Doodling in Math Class series. These videos are “subversive,” as one of my colleagues (approvingly) labels them. The common theme appears to be that math classes in… Read More ›

  • Negative attitudes

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    Quotation from one of my students: “I hate it when people don’t like negative attitudes.” (Context: He had been solving a problem at the board and made a negative remark, causing one of his classmates to say that he was… Read More ›

  • Themes in precalculus

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    A course ought to tell a story. If it doesn’t, it’s just a collection of topics, not a course. Honors Precalculus at Weston definitely does tell a story. I was thinking about the themes of that story today, and I… Read More ›

  • Model railroad exhibit at the National Heritage Museum

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    Barbara and I just came back from a model railroad exhibit at the National Heritage Museum, sponsored by the HUB Division of the National Model Railroad Association. This was the same exhibit that I missed three years ago because of… Read More ›

  • Missing Justice

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    Although it was published over six years ago, I’ve just gotten around to reading Missing Justice, a worthy early contribution to Alafair Burke’s Samantha Kincaid series. Actually, I didn’t read it; I listened to the audiobook version, narrated by Betty Bobbitt…. Read More ›

  • Names of polygons

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    Why do so many of my students use incorrect names for various polygons? They claim that they are merely recalling what they have been taught; maybe this is so, maybe not.  I suppose there are two major possibilities: They are… Read More ›

  • Yankees’ fans in Weston

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    In my geometry class today, some students caught sight of a file on my computer named Weston+Yankees.pdf, so of course they wanted to know what it was. It turned out to be a Boston Globe article from six and a… Read More ›

  • Hangman

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    I just finished listening to the audiobook version of Faye Kellerman’s latest novel, Hangman, beautifully narrated by Mitchell Greenberg. While I liked it a lot, I can understand why some people might not. In the first place, this book is… Read More ›

  • Chanukah is not the Jewish Christmas

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    Do read this excellent piece by Penelope Trunk. Although her focus is on Christmas in the workplace in the context of promoting diversity, her views have much wider applicability. Here are a couple of brief excerpts: It seems there should… Read More ›

  • Born to Kvetch

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    So what’s not to love about this book? Just don’t expect Leo Rosten’s The Joys of Yiddish, which is a much lighter and less consequential work. Michael Wex’s Born to Kvetch is a serious, in-depth, expert analysis of conversational Yiddish… Read More ›

  • Making order out of chaos

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    My principal has selected me to give the first presentation in a proposed series of talks to be delivered by faculty and staff; the audience will consist of colleagues, students, parents, and community members. I’ve written a very rough description… Read More ›

  • This Body of Death

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    This Body of Death, the latest in Elizabeth George’s series of literary mysteries, is well worth reading if you’re familiar with some (or preferably all) of the earlier novels in the series. I’m not at all sure, however, that it’s… Read More ›

  • Don’t dismiss Wikipedia!

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    The Weston High School Library recently posted a slide show from Rutgers University explaining why students shouldn’t use Wikipedia. This carefully produced polemic deserves a thoughtful rebuttal; I have endeavored to write one here. Be sure to watch the slide… Read More ›

  • Sleeping moon

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    Apparently in honor of the holidays, someone has “enhanced” local artist Joseph Wheelwright’s sculpture, Sleeping Moon, which sits prominently in Peabody Square in Dorchester right next to Ashmont Station. I have no idea whether the modification was authorized or not…. Read More ›

  • Shanghai dumplings and the gas tank

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    Just got back from another excellent dim sum at the Dorchester branch of Chau Chow. If you live anywhere near Dorchester, come here for dim sum! Unlike Chinatown, parking is easy in their own lot and the overflow lot across the… Read More ›

  • An international Thanksgiving

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    It was another international Thanksgiving at my sister’s house this year — nine Americans and nine visitors from abroad. I counted three from Germany, one from France, one from Korea, three from Taiwan, and apparently one from somewhere Spanish-speaking, but… Read More ›

  • Capitol Betrayal and Inside Out

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    Because I have such a large backlog of reading material, I often put print books and audiobooks on a queue; I get to them whenever I get to them. It could easily be months later, so I no longer remember… Read More ›