Good to Great

We have been exploring the topic of Good to Great on my campus. As a faculty, we even read Jim Collins’ book as a central point of what we would like to achieve as a school and a faculty;  in doing so, a number of academic departments have traveled or will travel throughout the country [...]

Mascots and Race

Being a person that discusses historical and anthropological matters related to race and culture, I try not to get wrapped up in emotions about such matters. Being an avid sports fan, I pay close attention to schools’ mascots. About a decade or so ago, the NCAA started questioning the “sensitivity” of schools using American Indian [...]

The Talk

The Warrior Round Table, a blog maintained by the headmaster at Little Rock Christian School and one that I have been reading for a while, recently drafted four reasons why they will not be viewing President Obama’s stream. You can read that post here. I am curious as to what other schools (public and private) [...]

Ann Coulter: She Hates Public School Teachers

I am ashamed to admit that I wasted ten bucks on this book on CD, but curiosity got the best of me. Ann Coulter is clearly the most pessimistic person in the media; she is not happy. According to her in The Church of Liberalism:
Liberals love to boast that they are not religious, which is [...]

Faculty Diversity and Schools

Above: Sam Mendazibal of Bolivia and the chairman of the Foreign Language Department chats with me after playing  basketball with students during a recent campus retreat.
I received an email today from a group looking to organize a sub meeting on independent school campus diversity; one of the topics to be addressed is that of comfort [...]

Black Intellectuals

I constructed the above bulletin in the room that I teach in; I wanted to present to my students a list of works and authors that they might or might not know. This is clearly not an exhausted list. And, it represents authors often ignored by teachers. Black scholars have a very important case to [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Education Gap

I still contend that the historical problems of Jim Crow have had a lasting impact on the educational attainment of minorities — especially that of blacks; people such as D’Souza do not believe this to be true. The natural conclusion is that of laziness or a breakdown in the black community; I am not saying [...]

Mark Reed of St. John’s

I wanted to say congratulation to Mark Reed, the Assistant Headmaster at the St. John’s School. Mark will become the next Headmaster at the Charlotte Country Day School in North Carolina. I met Mark a number of years ago while working on a project involving independent schools. He has been nothing but a positive influence [...]

Teachers of Color

Above: Danielle Milton, Jillian Thompson, and Ariel  Johnson during homecoming week in November.
The love and want and need to see different types of people is not a liberal or conservative thing; it is a matter of beauty and hope that brings all of us together; I smile knowing that I love all types of [...]

Princeton Visit ‘09

Left: Friend and former student Alejandro Penafiel
I have spent the past four days here in Princeton working with a group of great friends and excellent colleagues; I like to think that I am pretty smart, but when I am around this group I realize I have much to read. I find this most exciting. I [...]

Rethinking Teaching as Industry

Above: Democratic Model

My Advanced Placement United States History sections recently discussed the transformation of American identity as it related to the concepts of capitalism and democracy; I used my interest in progressive education to showcase how education was used to bring about a transformation in independent school teaching and  the political progressive reforms [...]

Great New History Blog

Here is a great new blog by Randell Stephens, a historian and teacher at Eastern Nazarene College called The Historical Society.
About Randell:
Professor Stephens began teaching at ENC in the fall of 2004. He brings expertise in many fields: late 19th and early 20th century US history, American religious history, race, and American popular music. In [...]

Book: God’s Harvard

I hope to start on this work soon. I am behind on my book count since the semester started. A friend of mine who also teaches sent this book to me saying:”it is a worthy read as you reflect and write about the historical processes of schools.” He is referring to my work on race [...]

Departmental Travels – The Calhoun School

(Sorry that the comments here got deleted. I had little choice)

Above: Carson with Calhoun’s history chair Michal Hershkovitz
The Calhoun School is an interesting model demonstrating an exercise in social analysis vis-à-vis Dewey ism, and a sense of intellectualism; it is a progressive academic culture. This past Wednesday Christine Metoyer (department head), Casey Bourland, and I [...]

Travels and Blogging

I have been busy traveling the past few days; I spent time meeting with a head of an independent school about academic matters, as well as conducting a history seminar. I will spend tonight updating my syllabus, my CV, and completing some reading for classes tomorrow; I am not set to return to Houston until [...]

Tenure, Race, Academic Freedom, and Religion

Addressing matters of faculty, academic voice, tenure, and promotion has long been an interest of this blog; I do believe that good schools — be it a university, boarding, or day school can be measured in status by the intellectual freedom and voice permitted on its campus. Honestly, it is what separates elite schools from [...]

“Just Say No”

Growing up in my circles as a teen was tough at times; I had respect for the drug dealers and gang bangers that would tell me to go home, or suggest that I not show up in a particular area at a particular time. I have seen my share of stuff; once, right after I [...]