Students and Carson’s Cookout

I invited both sections of my Advanced Placement United States History class over to the house for a Memorial Day cookout; I enjoyed teaching this group of students this past year. I will see some of them again next year in my AP European history course. I believe this is all of them except for [...]

Thoughts on America’s Presidents

I was having a conversation with a friend today about America’s presidents, and thought I would re-post this categorical list. Note: I will let other historians judge W once he is out of office.
Category I – Most intellectual Presidents – Criteria: bookish, academic appeal, education, communication skills, publications/scholarship, and awards.

Teddy Roosevelt 1900 – 1908

Thomas Jefferson [...]

Faculty Tension Over Courses

The dichotomy that exists between college and upper school faculty appears to be clearly defined: college instructors teach specialized courses to students in a less democratized fashion; students who apply to attend a college or university are supposed to be the best and the brightest from their high schools – – of course that is [...]

Busy Week….Great Students II

It has been a very busy week as I move towards completing my 8th year of teaching. I did not leave the office until almost 11:00 last night. I am still marking papers, working with various colleagues on projects, and writing finals for next week. I really should recycle exams, but I will not since [...]

California and Gay Marriage

The Political Cartel (operated by a group of Harding University students) posted a piece on California’s recent decision regarding gay marriage. The last time I blogged about this topic, I took a great deal of heat. So, since this is not an anonymous blog, I will let you read what others have to say about [...]

Finals are Here

I am 95% of the way done writing my semester final for World History; none of my advanced United States or European history students have to take a semester final. This is one of the perks of taking the national AP Exam. A number of the questions on the final have been used on a [...]

My Trip Home to Arkansas

h/t: Jeff and Debbie Grooms
I had a great trip to Fayetteville, Arkansas — home to the University of Arkansas. Jeff Grooms’ commencement went well — though I wish he were the guest speaker. Later, both tornado warnings and watches marked the afternoon; I did not realize this until I arrived in the state, but Arkansas [...]

Graduation Time

I am leaving for the University of Arkansas in 30 minutes; Jeff Grooms, a close friend and former student will be graduating with a degree in German and European history. Jeff, and his wife Amy Clothier were a part of the last AP European history class I taught in 2004 at CAC (N. Little Rock, [...]

Independent Schools Face Campus Racism

Photo [Boston Globe]
I am currently serving on a student diversity committee chaired by the Director of Admissions and co-chaired by the Associate Director of Admissions at Houston Christian. Our meetings have been good and to no surprise full of interesting student anecdotes; I suspect matters such as race is not a huge problem at HCHS [...]

What Makes an Independent School Different? By Guest Blogger (ESA)

I have asked students, independent school faculty members, and administrators to participate in a blogging forum addressing matters of independent school life. Below is a piece written by a guest blogger who will be refered to here as Elite School Administrator (ESA). ESA works at a top tier independent school in North Carolina. Creatively, [...]

It is May Day ‘08

I am going to celebrate this day with yet a 5th reading of Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto. This might be the day American businesses stop exploiting the labor of Mexican Americans — legal or not. To me labor is labor, as long as you are not asking this student [here].
According to Democratic Socialist of America [...]