Monthly Archives: January 2011

The Real Jean Valjean

Posted on January 31, 2011 by Timothy Burke

Look, it’s not like you can’t find a heaping load of unjust judicial decisions in any decade of American life you care to name, and like as not, it’s an African-American at the receiving end. Still, the conviction and sentencing … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 6 Comments

Wait, Who Has Sinister Connections to Insiders That Influence Their Reporting?

Posted on January 31, 2011 by Timothy Burke

There’s a second story buried inside the story of events in Egypt and Tunisia. It’s the story of how mainstream American journalists find themselves perpetually staring at a magic mirror, telling themselves that they are the fairest of them all. … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging, Information Technology and Information Literacy, Politics | Comments Off

Bang for the Buck

Posted on January 30, 2011 by Timothy Burke

One of the most aggravating things about many self-proclaimed Tea Partiers both in and out of political office at the moment is their braying about their budgetary parsimony, their claim of superior attention to keeping the federal budget small and … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | Comments Off

Falling Walls, Burning Buildings, Gutting Budgets

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Timothy Burke

I’m in a very James-Scottian mood, torn between excitement and despair, watching the events in Egypt. I fully appreciate the importance of thinking locally about these events and resisting easy attempts to swallow them up in glib narratives. However, I … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 3 Comments

Skills, Competencies and Literacies, Oh My

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Timothy Burke

One of the themes that’s come up in strategic planning here is the question of the teaching of skills, competencies, literacies (and related concepts) in our curriculum. I’ve initially been a bit taken aback at the strong discomfort some of … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Swarthmore | 2 Comments

The Cold Call

Posted on January 19, 2011 by Timothy Burke

We’ve known for a while that my daughter isn’t liking this year at school as much. Yesterday she revealed one of the things that’s bothering her, which is that in her perception the teacher frequently “cold calls” on her during … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Domestic Life | 19 Comments

Fun Home

Posted on January 18, 2011 by Timothy Burke

As long as I’m talking about parenting, two anecdotes: 1) We teach on the MLK holiday, but I had time to take my no-school-that-day daughter out to lunch. We ended up talking about a bunch of things, but at one … Continue reading →

Posted in Domestic Life, Popular Culture | 3 Comments

Smarter Than the Average Bear?

Posted on January 17, 2011 by Timothy Burke

Apparently I’m not alone in not liking Amy Chua, the self-described “Tiger Mom”. If I were a superpowered person from the comic books, she would pretty much be my opposite number. I’m the “Bear Dad”: I hibernate a lot, amble … Continue reading →

Posted in Domestic Life | 3 Comments

Incentives for Faculty

Posted on January 17, 2011 by Timothy Burke

I’ve had a bunch of conversations in the last five years that have turned on the question of what makes new practices or approaches attractive to tenure-track and contingent faculty, if anything. This kind of discussion springs from a deeply … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia | 1 Comment

Blizzard Is CLU

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Timothy Burke

x-posted to Terra Nova I don’t understand why Tron: Legacy has come in for so much critical abuse. I like it as much as my colleague Bob Rehak does. Just taken as an action film, it’s considerably more entertaining and … Continue reading →

Posted in Games and Gaming, Popular Culture | 2 Comments