We are spending tonight with family in Austin, then we are off to Paris, Arkansas to conduct a 40-mile hike starting at Mt. Magazine; I have invested a great deal in building my climbing and trekking equipment. Above is a picture of my $500 mountain tent; it is supposed to withstand high winds and low [...]
Entries from June 2009
June 22, 2009
The Greatest Generation: The 1960s
A few years ago I heard a speaker talk about how terrible the 1960s were; his contention was that it was a period marked by immorality, crime, and vice; sure, those things took place as they did in the 1920 or the 1950s — two decades often thought to be a period of morality and [...]
June 20, 2009
AP European History Reading 2009: Too Much Hitler
It has been an excellent week at Colorado State University in Fort Collins – – site of the 2009 European history read. We spent our days reading essays while attending seminars, lectures, and forums at night; I found myself dinning most nights with bright scholars, ambitious teachers, learners, and colleagues. Honestly, to call them just a colleague [...]
June 15, 2009
Top 10% Rule
Hopwood v. Texas, 78 F.3d 932 (5th Cir. 1996), was the first successful legal challenge to a university’s affirmative action policy in student admissions since Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978). In Hopwood, four white plaintiffs who had been rejected from The University of Texas School of Law challenged [...]
June 10, 2009
European History Reading and Debating the Drinking Age
Above: Downtown Fort Collins
For the third year in a row, I am spending the second week of June doing European history work and reading at Colorado State University. It is safe to say that I love this college town; it has all of the ingredients one would want: shops, bookstores, restaurants, bars, live music, and [...]
June 6, 2009
I Used To Be Hard
In the world of independent schools, most places have an evaluation process in place in which students mark evaluation forms of their instructors. For the most part, I have enjoyed the feedback from students on my teaching and the general nature of my courses. Before students evaluate me, I always ask them to write a [...]
