Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

It may seem unnecessary to state it, but schools are places where children are present. Lots of children. Children who reflect the social, racial, ethnic, and other characteristics of the local population.

Lysenko's influence led to the suppression and imprisonment of many geneticists who opposed his views, including the renowned botanist Nikolai Vavilov. Just in case any one cares.

A post for students studying databases:
https://hackscience.education/2025/06/09/data-information-and-databases/

I’m try to decrease the number of autocorrect and other typos that are making it into my posts. It looks like this will be a serious time commitment.

Thinking and learning is an emotion and cultural and cognitive endeavor... teachers who focus on one aspect to the exclusion of the others will fail. #education #teaching #teachertips

I’ve seen an increase in “blame the user” among IT in recent years... it is synchronous with “blame the IT” among users.

When AI and technology help me find “that paper I read ‘a while ago’ that seemed to support my point in the paragraph that was opposite the graph that showed something, and I think it was near the bottom of the page,” but with fewer details, I will be happy.

If doing qualitative research has taught me anything it is that perceptions are reality.

You know those educators who advocate a single method for all purposes... they annoy me. #education

Never underestimate the value of a critic.

Skeptics are leaders’ most valued assets... they point out weaknesses... laggards and the “this is they way we have always done it crowd” are not skeptics. #leadership

Uncertainty, ambiguity, complexity... yup let’s keep those because that’s where reality exists. Volatility, we can do without.

I used to teach #highschool students how to write essay answers on exams. “They have little time to grade ‘em, make it easy to read and find what they are looking for” was my rationale... and I taught them a formula “which is *terrible* writing, but effective in this case.

If you believe one method of #teaching can be applied to all learning tasks, then you are wrong.

School math was originally grounded in what was needed for successfully navigating business and commerce. #math #maths #mathchat

That education is a public good is a long-forgotten reality in education policy.

Jean Lave suggests #math is qualitatively different in different settings.

The people with whom I get along the best at work tend to be Warren Zevon fans as well. The pattern has held true since the late 1980’s. Seems like I need to add it to my CV.

Theory, of course, permeates everything we do. -Stephen Jay Gould

If the trial version of your plagiarism/ AI checker cannot accurately identify text I copied off my own public blog post which has been online more than two years, I’m pretty sure it isn’t worth subscribing.