the learning curve is real

i have absolutely refined my assignments over the years toward things that i am genuinely curious to read.

This Is Just To Say

I have turned off
the AI features
that were in
the update

and which
you were probably
hoping
to monetize

Fuck you
they were stupid
so unnecessary
and so annoying

During the peak of COVID, a number of parents learned or re-learned that teaching is difficult. But this has had no lasting impact. Hasn't translated to calls to increase teacher pay, for example.

🔥SEN. @ossoff.senate.gov : “Ivanka’s husband Jared Kushner’s on the Saudi payroll for $2 BILLION— as he leads 🇺🇸 diplomacy + asks sheikhs for billions more… Never have we seen so little effort to hide so much corruption. The Mar-a-Lago mafia taking corruption to spectacular new heights.”

My work draws on anthropology and sociolinguistics, as well as sociology and psychology. (Oh, and have a degree in mathematics to understand the content of my field of mathematics education.)

“We’re making the wealthy even wealthier… THIS IS IRRESPONSIBLE OF US.”

Senator Oliver savages @GovBillLee’s $300,000,000 per year private school voucher scam as Jack Johnson & William Lamberth expand an unproven program that explodes the state budget + drains💰from public schools.

Ritual is how a culture writes its definition of a person into the body. Anthropology departments knew this. Shutting them down wasn't budget math - it was a civilization deciding it no longer wanted to understand itself.

AI is pushing a crisis of meaning. What makes graduation meaningful? Sitting in a robe and a silly hat and waiting your turn to get a piece of paper? Or participating in a ritual that signals your membership into a new kind of person?

Too bad so many unis shut down anthropology departments.

100% agree! just for a cuddle or a chat or...

Now that Sal Khan failed to use AI to revolutionize math worksheets, he is gonna "revolutionize" post-secondary ed 🙄

Read @ddmeyer.bsky.social's post-mortem of the rise & fall of Khanmigo (RIP 2023-2026) to see what I mean.

We need guardrails on this stuff

danmeyer.substack.com/p/rip-khanmi...

my 8am course next fall didn't have enough students in it and they asked me to write an exciting blurb to entice students to register. I promised snacks. And now it is full. 😂

congratulations!

holy crap, "girlhood is a grooming process" stopped my heart!

as a mother of two daughters, the conversations we had about what was deemed as "fashion" were critical ... thank goodness my kids didn't like to be sexualized but they also saw how this sensibility kept them from being "cool kids"

any young person with a modicum of talent left to make a career elsewhere in Europe or the US. A crucial aspect of Magyar's success that seems to have been overlooked was the network of civil associations that supported the cause. Called Tisza Islands --a play on the party's acronym that spelled out the name of a river in Eastern Hungary-- these groups were established at the local level all across the country. They mobilized their compatriots in ways a traditional party could not have done. This may account for the fact that nearly 80% of the electorate voted. Magyar served in the Fidesz government for years until breaking away to mount a campaign against corruption, so his political profile is decidedly conservative. The promise of a return to a liberal democracy will no doubt draw the support of leftists who might otherwise be critical of his priorities. he did make a point of saying in his acceptance speech that the rights of all citizens to choose their partners would be respected, ending the longstanding campaign against the LGBTQ community. It was so much fun to take to the streets last night, blowing whistles and screaming for joy while cars honked in solidarity. Of course, now the hard work begins. Let us wish Magyar and his supporters success, however slow it may be, in returning Hungary to democracy. And as one joke goes, Pope Francis did try to warn Orban of welcoming Vance to Budapest, to no avail.

continued (2/2)

Historic! I rarely post on Facebook, but last night I watched TV in Budapest to see how the election was faring. Within two hours of the polls closing, Victor Orban called his opponent Peter Magyar to congratulate hi on Tisza's victory. We were fairly confident that Magyar would win the election, but th strenght of his victory -- how many of the people running on the Tisza ticket would be elected to Parliament -- was unknown. Orban gerrymandered the election roles early in his return to power in 2010, making it virtually impossible for his opponents to run against him successfully. With this strong base, he succeeded in tearing down or compromising key government instiuttions, such as the judiciary, and crucial intellectual bastions like the Academy of Sciences. Magyar has now achieved what was thought impossible: a super-majority in Parliament. This will make it possible for him to actually tackle the task of restructuring government institutions. Orban built up an extraordinarily corrupt political system, in which cronyism held sway, forcing competent bureaucrats and members of the judiciary to resign or be kicked out. Orban, his family and his cronies comandeered much of hte crucial money the EU had been sending Hungary, by consistently rewarding lucrative contracts to those in the inner circle who often proceeded to build shoddy services. They took over businesses and drained them of any value, leaving an unproductive shell behind. Orban had soccer stadiums built all over the country, often seating far more people than actually lived in the town, all the while neglecting hospitals and schools. His childhood friend was elevated over the course of several years from the status of an unemployed pipe fitter into a billionaire. The economy stagnated, and

Sharing some screenshots texted from a friend who worked with Martha Lampland, a sociologist who studies socialist/postsocialist Hungary. Lampland is in Hungary observing the transition of power and has insights that might be of use to the US. (1/2)

If any other intervention produced outcomes of this size - GPA improvements of .24SD & reductions in course failure of .14SD - districts would be desperate to implement it.

Instead, because ethnic studies has been labeled as "woke," efforts to scale have slowed.

From EARTHSEED: THE BOOKS OF THE LIVING Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen. To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies. To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery.

Octavia E. Butler, 1998:

the criminality is right out in the open. they are not even trying to pretend otherwise except in press conferences, when they just insult anybody asking a direct question about it.

a picture of me smiling as i gaze up at the lights in the infinity room at the broad museum in los angeles. there are tiny lightbulbs suspended which are reflected all around me by walls of mirrors. it was magical

I got to see infinity #AERA2026

i love this idea!

Hall of fame FT correction

Jia Tolentino went to UVA. Tina Fey went to UVA. YOU went to UVA.

Clearly they are doing something right!

A flyer featuring the cover of the book entitled, "Teacher Learning of Ambitious and Equitable Mathematics Teaching: A Sociocultural Approach." There is a discount code for 20% off at the top in red: 26AFLY2, followed by a description of the book and some nice blurbs by colleagues.

... and here is a discount code for those inclined to purchase...

Our book has been out for a bit, but faithful readers say it really helps them understand the phenomenon of teacher learning -- particularly of the non-routine parts of instructional practice (e.g., the part that makes or break student engagement).
#AcademicSky

www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/1...

a shanda

Forbidden Words Quilt - Quilting in the Fog Help us send the Forbidden Words Quilt to communities around the country!   The Forbidden Words Quilt is a nonprofit project sponsored by Intersection for the

The Forbidden Words Quilt #AcademicSky

quiltinginthefog.com/forbidden-wo...

In this paper, we develop conceptual tools to look at *collective* teacher learning through collaborative talk -- in particular, we look at what happens in interactions that shift teachers' shared understandings about important aspects of their work.

#OpenAccess #AcademicSky

In my lab, we study teacher learning as a socially-embedded phenomenon that is shaped by personal histories, institutional logics, and policy narratives. For a long time, our focus has been on using this lens to understand individual teachers' sensemaking and learning through their talk and action.