The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Education is searching for an Assistant Dean for Student Affairs. This is a critical position that is near and dear to my heart. Come work with a great team and wonderful students! Please share widely! https://unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/271061
New report: Policymakers across the political spectrum are becoming increasingly skeptical of standardized tests: https://tinyurl.com/3xtfu7ed.
To sustain this movement, we need to drive home three arguments: (1) standardized tests are deeply flawed as indicators of learning, measuring what matters least, intellectually speaking; (2) pressure to raise scores by preparing students for the tests has the same effect on learning that a noose has on breathing; and (3) more authentic assessments exist.
"We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives."
30 years ago today, Toni Morrison became the first black woman to win the Nobel Prize. Her remarkable acceptance speech about the power of language: https://t.co/Bb9NpIwCYk
Normally, making up a fake charity for *someone else's* sick dog, pocketing the money (letting the dog die!) would be the primary thing you'd remember about a person. Yet, I bet, like me, you forgot George Santos even did that...on his way to congress tossing lies like rose petals all along his path, like some kind of elemental sprite of dishonesty.
That's an advantage of doing enough terrible things. No one can hold them all in their mind at once: appreciate the true scope of depravity. LMAO
And so striking UAW workers can raise not only their own wages, but also the wages of non-unionized workers at other firms. The UAW strike was so effective that these other firms took note and chose to raise wages pre-emptively rather than face a union drive, the costs of a strike on top of higher wages.
Here’s the lie of supply and demand: demand didn’t change, and neither did the supply of labor, but the “price” went up. Nothing at all changed in the “market” in any neoclassical sense. Workers simply organized themselves to bargain more effectively, and yet prices still changed.
Because while supply and demand might inform prices, it’s only by changing the relative bargaining power of capital and labor that price changes.
Which is why capitalist ideologues have worked so hard to create and propagate the idea that labor unions are somehow antithetical to capitalist markets, when really labor unions are functioning sort of like labor-selling firms. Labor unions can boost wages through nothing more than coordination between individual workers, giving lie to the idea that the default unit of labor is the lone worker or that wages are the product of impersonal and uncontrollable market forces.
You would think that consistent advocacy for free trade would also include free association for workers, but you’d be wrong: that’s for capitalists, not for us peasants. The point is not consistency, but rather to create an atmosphere hostile to labor organizing and to ideologically justify anti-union policies.
5/5
Let’s talk a little about labor unions and wages.
It is a shibboleth on the right that labor unions are very bad. But it’s hard for them to come right out and admit that they hate workers, so they’ve concocted an elaborate explanation for why unions are bad. Unions, you see, are like cartels or even monopolies. By setting aside competition and agreeing to Bartali collectively, workers in unions are interfering with the efficient functioning of the market, stealing from employers, and hurting non-union workers.
https://mises.org/wire/how-unions-reduce-real-wages
1/5
In a far cry from the days of Don’t Be Evil, a US judge vowed to investigate Google for intentionally and systematically suppressing evidence, calling the company’s conduct “a frontal assault on the fair administration of justice.”
This is due to the fact that Google’s internal chats are set to auto-delete messages even though they were supposed to be preserved due to legal proceedings.
It’s hard to imagine a company as technically savvy as Google doing this by mistake.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/12/1/23984902/judge-james-donato-investigate-google
Hi,
I have a question about academic job applications.
Is it a pretty universal rule that your recommendation letter writers should be senior to you in academic rank? Obviously this is true for people applying out of their PhDs and Post-Docs, but is it also true of tenured but-not-full professors? What are the general rules of thumb here?
#1stGenerationAcademic
#philosophy #academia #academicchatter @academicchatter
If the goal of your civics curriculum is to instill patriotism, then it isn't education - it's indoctrination. Critical thinking isn't merely slighted; it's actively discouraged: https://is.gd/78kOaG.
When you think about it, that project may also reflect insecurity about what's being sold. Whitewashing - denying the foundational racism, ignoring the worldwide human cost of our empire - wouldn't be necessary if we thought kids would love their country even after knowing all the facts.
Lots of research (reviewed in my book No Contest) shows that participating in competition undermines moral development and generosity, but one of those studies, by developmental psychologist Norma Feshbach, really stands out. It found that merely growing up with a competitive parent is enough to reduce a child's empathy - sort of like the health risks of breathing secondhand smoke.
“Housing for cars is super-cheap and housing for people is super-expensive. At some point, when the delta between the space for cars and the space for people becomes so, so large, then people begin to think about living in cars.” — @asymco https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-11-26/cal-poly-humboldt-students-who-live-in-vehicles-are-ordered-off-campus
Pursuing a PhD should be a generative time, and for some it is. It is also generally an unhealthy experience on multiple levels, with weight gain and mental health issues being major challenges.
Self care, creating boundaries, having accountability partners for well being are critical to maintain physical and mental well being.
It is important to see, acknowledge, and work to self preserve in the face of some of the toxicity of academia.
No job opening has deserved the question “Why is this position currently open?” as much as this one.
STEM teacher educator. Humanizing teaching and learning. Believer of student brilliance. Luddite. Disbeliever of silver bullets. Nobody is coming to save us. #Edutoot #Ungrading #STEMed
@ungrading @STEMed