I like this recent article on the new school reform efforts in Philadelphia because every adult in it is trying to play the “I care about kids and you don’t” card.

Whoever can get it out first, whether a Superintendent, a Union Leader, a member of the SRC, and whoever can sing it loudest, somehow wins.

There are several variations of this tactic. There’s the “oppose me and you must hate kids” version. There’s the “I’m for kids and as such, I’m above your petty politics” version.

Unfortunately, it’s a conversation stopper and does lasting damage to relationships; it’s hard to recover good will towards someone who levels this charge at you.

I’m always dreaming of courses I’d like to teach but will never get the chance to. Today, as I finished “The Known World,” I thought of a new class: an introduction to historiography taught mostly through literature:

Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose (to discuss the use of sources)

Edward Jones, the Known World (to discuss agency vs. structure)

Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (to discuss family/diaspora)

Madison Smart Bell, All Souls Rising (to discuss what’s known and what’s ignored)

Short story: Randall Kenan, Let the Dead Bury The Dead

some wisdom

“The hitter can never be the judge. Only the receiver of the blow can tell you how hard it was, whether it would kill a man or just make a baby yawn.”

Jones, Edward P. The Known World (New York: Amistad, 2003), 1

Absolutely. I mean speaking for myself, while the nuances have changed slightly, my rooting for the Red Sox today is intrinsicaly no different than when I rooted for the Red Sox when I was 6 years old.

Soxaholix