The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach

Category: teaching

  • What’s the Matter with Kansas?

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    mongreldogs
    in ,

    Today, at least, nothing. In a curiously intense summer primary contest for the state Board of Education, the day was won by people who believe that the science standards should reflect, you know, actual science. Their opponents were a cabal of Intelligent Design boosters. There’s a nice wrap-up at Forbes.com and a more gung-ho, in-your-face…

  • Academic Freedom versus Indoctrination?

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    mongreldogs
    in ,

    A week or so ago (2006 July 23), the New York Times had an article (“Conspiracy Theories 101” by Stanley Fish) detailing a brouhaha surrounding Kevin Barrett. Mr. Barrett is a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin who has gotten into hot water because he shared with his students his strong conviction that the World…

  • Another reason why US textbooks are so lousy…

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    mongreldogs
    in

    I saw an article in the New York Times (Schoolbooks Are Given F’s in Originality; 2006 July 13) that detailed a controversy broiling for some American history textbooks. It seems that, in describing the 9/11 attacks, the books A History of the United States and America: Pathways to the Present use virtually identical language. Apparently…

  • Testing and Teaching Physics

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    mongreldogs
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    Lately I’ve been on a merciless campaign to reduce the paperwork clutter in my lab/office/classroom. Today I dove into the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet (because obviously, bottom drawer = hard to acess = most moldly junk.) and came across an envelope containing the qualifying exam I had to take when starting grad school…

  • From the Past: Instructions for Stanford Physics Qual 1993

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    mongreldogs
    in

    In cleaning out a file cabinet, I came across the Qualifying Exam that I had to take in order to pursue a degree in Physics at Stanford University. On top was a cover letter by Dr. Bob Laughlin, which I reproduce below. Hopefully he won’t have any issue with that! 🙂

  • Mainstream acceptance — woo hoo!

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    mongreldogs
    in

    Well, I went away to Vermont for four days and nearly missed the telltale sign that my blog is Out There in cyberspace. That’s right, I got my first spam comment yesterday morning. I must be on somebody’s radar… 🙂 Interestingly enough I was wondering if having comment moderation turned on was overkill. Guess that’s…

  • Why “Mongrel Dogs”?

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    mongreldogs
    in ,

    First of all, as noted on the About page, the title of this blog comes from a Dylan song, “My Back Pages”, specifically In a soldier’s stance I aim my hands At the mongrel dogs who teach Fearing not I become my enemy In the moment that I preach I like the euphony of the…

  • Snow Day

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    mongreldogs
    in

    Not really — not in mid-June in New Jersey — but I’m still learning WordPress and wanted to try uploading a picture. If I’ve done everything correctly, there should be a thumbnail image above, which links to the full image. This one happens to have been taken from the Russell portico roof on 2003 December…

  • Old proof but rediscovered

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    mongreldogs
    in

    I had to dig this out for a slashdot debate and remembered that I’m reasonably proud of it. It only relates to teaching in that I wrote it up as a handout for my AP Physics class. The basic idea is, it has been asserted that allowing an ice cube to melt in a cup…

  • Advice to New Teachers

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    mongreldogs
    in

    This is actually an ancient-of-days thing I wrote many many moons ago for a friend of mine who was beginning his teaching career. But even seven years later I think I have the same general opinion, so I’m offering it up mostly unedited. Also, I want to try out multi-screen posting. 🙂 -=-BhpG This is…