Recent Posts - page 87

  • Make Just One Change

    By on

    I dunno. In this book, Make Just One Change, authors Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana try passionately to make a compelling case for their view that education can be transformed by making “just one change”: teaching students “to ask their own… Read More ›

  • Ladectsbeal

    By on

    A few days ago, in my review of Maphead, I wrote the following: I invented my own country, Ladectsbeal, when I was 11 or 12, and pursued creating its details for several years thereafter. Maps were my primary focus there, but I… Read More ›

  • The Given Day and Live by Night

    By on

    Dennis Lehane is best known as a local mystery writer, but his last two books aren’t mysteries: they’re historical fiction. They loosely form the first two parts of a trilogy (actually, I’m just guessing…maybe there won’t be a third book… Read More ›

  • Math Forum

    By on

    We had an interesting Math Forum last night, sponsored by the PTO (which I understand is called the PTA in some states). This was an opportunity to discuss Weston’s secondary math program in an open forum. Maybe 55-60 parents attended,… Read More ›

  • Do elite colleges discriminate against Asians?

    By on

    Visit any suburban high school and talk to some seniors. You’ll be convinced that most of the Asian-Americans are shoo-ins for admission to elite colleges: either they’ve already been admitted or else they surely will be by April. That’s the… Read More ›

  • Maphead

    By on

    I mentioned a few days ago that I hadn’t yet reviewed Ken Jennings’s book, Maphead…so here we go. Unlike either Brainiac and Because I Said So, this is not really a book for a general audience. It’s not that you have to be a map geek or… Read More ›

  • A double dose of algebra

    By on

    An interesting article by Kalena Cortes, Joshua Goodman and Takako Nomi appeared recently in EducationNext, a right-wing magazine that comes out of Stanford’s Hoover Institute. They claim to be fair and balanced. Sound familiar? Those aren’t their words, actually, but that’s definitely their gist:… Read More ›

  • The Ten Cent Plague

    By on

    The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America is a terrific history of the comic book industry and the role it has played in American culture. Most of my readers are too young to remember the ’50s,… Read More ›

  • Because I Said So

    By on

    Ah…Ken Jennings! The Jeopardy geek’s favorite. He’s our favorite, not just because he’s the big all-time long-lasting winner, but more because he combines encyclopedic knowledge, intellectual curiosity, sense of humor, and surprising humility. I earlier reviewed his book Brainiac, and I just… Read More ›

  • Is ed reform hurting kids?

    By on

    OK, so I’m fortunate to be teaching in Weston, not in Chicago. The populations are very different, the school systems are very different, and the school administrations are very different. Nevertheless, I highly appreciated the essay “Make No Mistake, Corporate… Read More ›

  • South Station model railroad exhibit

    By on

    Fortunately I decided to take the T, so I didn’t have to figure out where to park in the vicinity of South Station, which is featuring a brand-new model railroad exhibit this winter. Actually, they’re toy trains, not model trains,… Read More ›

  • The whole nine yards

    By on

    It isn’t often that you see an article about linguistics in the New York Times — and on the front page of the Arts section to boot! But that’s what happened yesterday, in a piece about the etymology of the expression… Read More ›

  • Champagne for Caesar

    By on

    Recently saw Champagne for Caesar, a 1950 comedy starring Ronald Colman, Celeste Holm (best known in certain obscure circles as Ted Nelson’s mother), Vincent Price, Barbara Britton, and Art Linkletter (yes, that Art Linkletter). The whole movie is very funny, and I don’t… Read More ›

  • Some ways Jews are different from Christians

    By on

    David Weinberger wrote a fascinating post yesterday in Joho The Blog: “Some ways Jews are different from Christians.” It’s worth reading carefully. He gives permission to repost, so I’m going to quote extensively from it: Jews are a people You are a… Read More ›

  • The Hobbit

    By on

    I went to see The Hobbit the afternoon of Erev Christmas, expecting it to be crowded as the theatre had warned me to buy tickets well in advance…but it turned out to be 90% empty. Maybe it had something to do with… Read More ›

  • Can't tell what street you're on?

    By on

    New England is famous for its lack of street signs — even though things have gotten much better in the past 25 years. Sometimes you can tell what the cross-street is, but you drive for blocks to discover what street you’re on…. Read More ›

  • The Math Team right before vacation

    By on

    What do geeks do to blow off a little steam after the last math team practice before vacation? Here’s what they wrote on the board: You might want to notice what’s written in Chinese and Hindi (what a surprise), the… Read More ›

  • Credit Recovery

    By on

    “Credit recovery” is another appalling consequence of No Child Left Behind. Although I know that it’s not politically correct to characterize it this way, that’s how I see it. Let’s see what it is and how its cheerleaders write about… Read More ›

  • Faithful Place and Broken Harbor

    By on

    It sounds like an old chewing gum commercial: Do you want to double your reading pleasure? Then check out two more beautifully written psychological thrillers by Tana French. Technically, I suppose, they are murder mysteries in the police-procedural sub-genre, but… Read More ›

  • Annabelle's

    By on

    The late lamented CF Donovan’s, in the Savin Hill neighborhood of Dorchester, closed its doors for good just over three years ago. Barbara and I had always enjoyed eating there — not for its gourmet food, but for the standard… Read More ›