Comments on: Holiday reading list

By: hng

hng — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 01:51:38 +0000

Regarding “The Decline of the English Department,” Gore Vidal–years ago–put it down to “literary theory.” Maybe that’s what the author of the article alludes to when he writes that “the focus would or should be on the books, not on the theories they can be made to support.” Good reading, thanks!

By: Scott Mize

Scott Mize — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 11:56:00 +0000

Here's another great quote:"The walls of the large, rectangular room were covered with photographs of Barack Obama and various news clippings. Just to the right of a poster that proclaimed 'Bloomberg’s 3 Rs: Rubber Room Racism,' a smiling young woman sat in a lounge chair that she had brought from home. She declined to say what the charges against her were or to allow her name to be used, but told me that she was there 'because I’m a smart black woman.' I asked the woman for her reaction to the following statement: 'If a teacher is given a chance or two chances or three chances to improve but still does not improve, there’s no excuse for that person to continue teaching. I reject a system that rewards failure and protects a person from its consequences.' 'That sounds like Klein and his accountability bullshit,' she responded. 'We can tell if we’re doing our jobs. We love these children.' After I told her that this was taken from a speech that President Obama made last March, she replied, 'Obama wouldn’t say that if he knew the real story.' "Accountability = bullshit. *That's* what I call The New Math. Heh.

By: Scott Mize

Scott Mize — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:52:00 +0000

I particularly liked that "Seven of the fifteen Rubber Room teachers with whom I spoke compared their plight to that of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay or political dissidents in China or Iran."Methinks the lady protests too much.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000