This post is a piece I originally published in a 2000 book honoring David Tyack, Reconstructing the Good in Education: Coping with Intractable American Dilemmas. which was edited by Larry Cuban and Dorothy Shipps. Here's a link to a PDF of the chapter. I republished it as a chapter in my recent book, The Ironies … Continue reading No Exit: Public Education as an Inescapably Public Good
This post is an essay by Devon Halliday, "Literary Fiction Has Lost the Plot," recently published in her Substack. Here's a link to the original. I'm less interested in her critique of literary fiction, which I generally don't read, than in her tight focus on the need for writers to grab the reader on the … Continue reading Devon Halliday — Literary Fiction Has Lost the Plot
This post is an overview of the book I published two years ago. It’s available on Amazon both as an e-book and a paperback. The title is The Ironies of Schooling. It's available as both an e-book and paperback. As I did with my earlier book, Being a Scholar, I published this one myself using Kindle Direct … Continue reading The Ironies of Schooling
This post is a tribute to one of the great books of the last century and for me the greatest book about war, Joseph Heller's Catch-22. Published in 1961 it became an instant bestseller. Two years ago I highlighted another bestseller and first novel from the same period, Mrs. Bridge by Evans Connell, which was … Continue reading Catch-22
This post is a piece I published several years ago in Inside Higher Ed. Here's a link to the original. Advice for New Ph.D. Students David F. Labaree Entering into a Ph.D. program is a challenging endeavor for anyone, so I thought I’d pass on a little advice to those of you beginning such a … Continue reading Advice for New PhD Students
This post is an op-ed that Steven Pinker published in the New York Times in 1994. Here's a link to the original. It's about a tendency toward euphemism that was in its infancy back then but has how now become the new norm. The bewildering feature of political correctness is the mandated replacement of formerly unexceptionable … Continue reading Steven Pinker — The Euphemism Treadmill
This post is a piece of mine that was published a few years ago in Inside Higher Ed. Here’s a link to the original. It's also included in my newish book, Being a Scholar. It’s about an inherent tension in the act of writing between arrogance and humility. AN EXERCISE IN ARROGANCE AND HUMILITY TO BE … Continue reading Writing as an Exercise in Arrogance and Humility
This post is a collection of some favorite cartoons about the nature of academic research. All of them are from the website PhD, which stands for Piled Higher and Deeper. The author is Jorge Cham, who got his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford and then taught at Cal Tech. Enjoy!
This post is an overview of the book I published several years ago. It’s available on Amazon both as an e-book and a paperback. The title is Being a Scholar: Reflections on Doctoral Study, Scholarly Writing, and Academic Life. Below is the book’s introduction, which provides the rationale for the book and summarizes the eleven pieces that you … Continue reading Being a Scholar
This post is an essay by Carl Hendrick published on his Substack, The Learning Dispatch. Here's a link to the original. In it he develops a pleasingly optimistic argument about the increasing role that humans will have to play in the emerging world of artificial intelligence. Given all the gloom and doom surrounding the subject, I … Continue reading Carl Hendrick — AI Automates Scut Work But Requires Increased Human Supervision
