At the US Department of Education website is this statement: [Former] U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige said, “Anyone who opposes annual testing of children is an apologist for a broken system of… Continue reading →

However, the egg only got larger and larger, and more and more human: when she had come within a few yards of it, she saw that it had eyes and a nose and… Continue reading →

When I was in college (more than 30 years ago) I would write, occasionally, about the blues music for the student paper. I haven’t written anything similar since. Last night, however, I was… Continue reading →

Back, less than a week after 9/11, when George Bush said This is a new kind of–a new kind of evil. And we understand. And the American people are beginning to understand. This… Continue reading →

One of the pressures on academia these days has come from those parts of the outside population that believe universities could be run in a more business-like fashion. That is, many people assume… Continue reading →

Hmpf. Someone without the courage to reveal his/her name (writing as “Ivan Tribble”) has written a piece called ”Bloggers Need Not Apply” for The Chronicle of Higher Education. The point of the article… Continue reading →

Not surprisingly, most academics want to focus on the work they are doing, some of which (and it is impossible to tell, now, what will prove so) will be extremely important to our… Continue reading →

In my last post on this issue, I described a problem that rises at least as much from outside perception as from actual abuse: tenure. Here, I want to talk about something that… Continue reading →

On July 5, 2005, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed House Resolution 177 inspired by David Horowitz’s “Academic Bill of Rights.” The Pennsylvania resolution establishes a select committee to examine the academic atmosphere… Continue reading →

Yesterday, a young woman walked into my store in Brooklyn.  She browsed a bit and we chatted.  As is usual these days, the subject of the war in Iraq and the London bombing… Continue reading →