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Thesis Statements of Various Interlocutors in Recent Weeks
Thomas Frank, in Listen, Liberal:
The Democratic Party has ceased to represent the interests of working-class Americans and has ingratiated itself instead to the so-called creative classes of Silicon Valley and Wall Street. By framing the public debate about wealth disparities in terms of innovation and increased access to education, the party ignores the role played by power relations and the loss of union representation for the working class.
Mike Lofgren, in The Deep State:
Electoral politics might as well be a spectator sport for all the good it does to change the arc of American business and military affairs. No matter who is nominally at the head of government, the set of acceptable actions has been constrained by interest groups, from Wall Street and Silicon Valley to DOD contractors, before an elected president even takes office.
Max Frisch, in The Firebugs:
Any of us can be tricked into allowing unwholesome influences to take root in our lives. We fear so much the possibility of being disliked that we entertain dangerous guests and believe dangerous ideas, allowing them to linger and become for us the new normal.
Mazen Zarrouk, at 10 a.m.:
After three meetings of the precalculus curriculum revision workgroup, no firm recommendations have been set for fall semester implementation. Gateway exams and more modular lessons have come up in discussion, making the course more like MATH 080 in its delivery. The instructor should still be given the chance to provide the big picture to students, so the course can't be entirely self-paced.
Brian Mastro, at 10:30 a.m.:
Striking Verizon workers demonstrate that organized labor still can assert power over large corporations. Even in healthcare delivery it should be possible to unionize nurses and doctors, wresting power back from the big hospitals and insurance companies.
Kim Fouche, at 11 a.m.:
When teaching MATH 080 you expect to have students from the lower end of the math ability distribution. It can be frustrating to find students from those same ability levels filling the MATH 130 classroom, since you know their math phobia has a good chance of being passed down to the kids in their elementary school classes.
James Lang, in the Chronicle of Higher Education:
(March 7) A more productive use of the last five minutes of class is to practice metacognition. Don't try to cram in new ideas or grand syntheses that won't be appreciated (in one ear and out the other). Have students test their recollection of the key points, and celebrate whatever level of understanding they do manage to demonstrate.
(April 3) Give students some freedom in designing the course -- what to focus on and how to assess. Maybe a blank spot on the syllabus that can be filled in using student input after several weeks have gone by.
Carol Moore, in the Micro-Interventions workshop:
Can any of the coaching practices needed for MATH 080 be adapted to serve students in the higher-level math classes?
A rubric based on Bloom's taxonomy can help avoid assessing students on higher-level skills before they've had a chance to practice them. (cf. Ellen Olmstead's moving window through which she views her students' essays as the semester progresses.)
Brad Stewart, in the Micro-Interventions workshop:
How high up the ladder of math courses can the practice of mastery-based learning be deployed? At Virginia Tech even the calculus courses are taught using modular computer lessons.