A smiling man in a tie with an “I voted” sticker.
A close up of an “I voted” sticker on a purple shirt
It’s Election Day in Virginia, and what kind of American history and civics teacher would I be if I didn’t take great joy in snagging my sticker?
Really, I do think Garland's Civil War is one of the most important movies of 'Our Time,' as much as there is any coherent such thing. It's a crystallized fusion of American cinema, political symbols and media languages, and horrifying potentialities in one powerful place. It has flaws, sure.
I just spent four days listening to a bunch of brilliant teenagers taking the Constitution and its enduring values, as well as the meanings, practices and institutions of democracy seriously. Few of the things I do each as an educator year are more worthwhile or heartening. Check out this program!
I like my job, I like my students (especially these students, they're great) but I am about to spend a week shepherding a group of teenagers in DC through an academic competition and I am already So Goddamn Tired wish me luck y'all because this job gave the previous occupant an Actual Heart Attack.
destruction of the voting rights act by a partisan court that thinks the blacks have it too good is on par with the ignominy of the courts that gutted the 14th amendment and killed the 1875 civil rights act
and boy howdy is there a lot of anxiety for the CB to capitalize on out there among students and educational leaders!
Eco's piece could fit very well into a lot of English curricula better than Mussolini better because of its biographical elements, semiotics-and-linguistics elements, and use of persuasive rhetorical tools. If you've never used it, I encourage giving it a shot!
had my political philosophy & pol. theory students read both that piece and Eco's Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt, as well as some selections from the Falange program and Sorel, just a few weeks ago in our unit on fascist thought. They were utterly fascinated and made endless connections, insights.
I dunno, I've always really liked that Clinton one because of how it gets at his refracted, deceptive, slippery charismatic qualities from his political prime.
One of the most difficult things about arguing against the College Board's project is that they've framed so much of it as being in service of otherwise laudable movements for opportunity and equality across lines of race, gender, and income, when it is not in fact so deeply allied to those goals.
I agree with you on principle, but school administrators answer to many constituencies and many masters. Some of these fights are bad and harmful (eagle feathers) others represent legitimate attempts to mediate disputes over status and recognition among groups in the school community.
It is kinda hard for high school, where administrators do want to allow certain accessories - those earned by specific national honor society guidelines, for example - a degree of pride of place over individual student decorative decisions. I agree with you on prom stuff though.
This light live set by Mandrake Handshake has also found its way into heavy repeat for me because it can stick in the mind and has power to its emotional notes but isn't particularly heavy or hype. It's nothing like Stereolab in reality but something about it gives me Stereolab vibes.
This is a pretty broad request, and hard to know what you like in general, but this album is off the beaten path with fusion, jazz, pop, arabic-pop, synth elements, is downright hypnotic slow and catchy and danceable at different points. Probably grooved to it 10 times in two months, unusual for me.
if I had an unreasonable amount of money instead of being a barely-middle-class teacher one of the first things to balloon would be my patreon and journalism subscription budgets. There are so many good writers, thinkers, researchers, and creators out there that I'd love to do more than just follow.
and EVEN BACK THEN their experience with AP in, say, 2012 or 2006 or 1999 was probably more a complex result of the freedom which the teacher was given to own the experience by the label than the curricular construction or test management and rubric-building practices of College Board's courses.
We've lost that particular battle so hard that basically every single class where I teach bears that label. Everything is honors, and "AP" or "Dual Enrollment" or "Intensive" is not merely good but (intentional use of an overused phrase here) double-plus-good.
My own post was brought on for me by my third or fourth listen in the last couple months to this Mountain Grass set - I like bluegrass but isn't a favorite so surprised to like it so much.
yes to basically anything Dessa! Though I've found that some of the rich complexity of her style happens in production, so her live stuff is markedly different in what is appealing about it. I really hope to see her perform one day.
advanced, challenging, interesting courses in high school that help students learn and deepen themselves and expand their reading and thinking - absolutely. College in high school - why? why must we try to mix incompatible instructional formats and life stages/moments?
Cool! I'm positive on Jay-Z but have never listened to this set. I'll try to make some time for it soon! My own post was brought on for me by my third or fourth listen in the last couple months to this Mountain Grass set - I like bluegrass but isn't a favorite so surprised to like it so much.
What's a recorded live set (like an NPR live concert, a KEXP set, or an Audiotree concert) that you have listened to a bunch of times, or a full recorded concert that you've listened to a bunch of times?
The anti-Amendment crowd's advertising here in Virginia is pretty interesting and I'll be really curious how effective it is or isn't in the current political environment. Anti-Trump mobilization for the pro-Amendment crowd plus the use of spokespeople like Obama may overmatch it, but hard to know.
One of the frustrating things abt teaching AP Government is trying to straddle the line between descriptive (“this is how the Constitutional system is structured and some impacts of that on policy and politics”) and prescriptive (“the framers were wise to set it up this way, these system are good”).
Great thread about the intersection of ADA compliance regulation, politically inflected surveillance, corporate power, and course management/content delivery platforms growing monopoly power in education.
the post-1990 expansion of study in political science and theory to more clearly differentiate between democracy, autocracy, and the various kinds of hybrid regimes has been super valuable, and its a real shame that sort of thing has never made it into more basic undergrad and high school curricula.
The bicentennial in 1976 was a golden age for investment in U.S. public history projects and the humanities. The federal government provided generous funding to do the work of American history. Today, on the 250th, the humanities are being gutted and history censored. #talkabouthumanities
Absolutely drives me mad that the AI companies were able to so badly damage the systems of trust underpinning good education that they can both demand students pay for AI tools to write their papers and assignments while also demanding the schools pay for the tools to police the student's use of AI.
What on earth kind of weapon is this? I'm not that much of a military hardware knower but to the untrained eye that looked like...three different hits? Or something? Regardless, apocalyptic levels of violence not required to a small bobbing boat.
To push back a little bit - I think you're MOSTLY right - it's also the case that even within a state or a few state region, the travel variety available can remain substantial and enriching if approached right. American itself - even parts of it - are huge, diverse, complex, culturally enriching.