Category Archives: education

Let’s talk about the ways fundamentalists can abuse each other and create a society of 10 year olds

I don’t think the author meant to be bullying, and I do think this attempts to be more satirical than mean, but experience has taught me that this is not innocuous in the least So that link above is a really good look at where I go to school. A lot of things I’ve struggled …

February 21, 2013 – 4:19 am | By ashok | Posted in education, politics | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Let’s Talk a Little about Sports in American Life

1. To those of you outside the United States who are curious: we do not just have professional sports leagues like the NFL and NBA. Nor are there just minor league teams, like the farm teams each associated with a Major League Baseball team. No, we also have collegiate athletics. There are plenty of student-athletes …

December 27, 2012 – 11:51 am | By ashok | Posted in education, politics | Tagged | Comments (0)

The State of Philosophy on the Internet

1. Sometimes the Internet and modern media technology are responsible for explosions of new talent. There’s no doubt in my mind we’ve been treated to a bunch of exceptional chess players and some great photographers because of our increasingly digital life. I have reasons to suspect that despite access to a number of terrific resources, …

April 19, 2012 – 5:22 am | By ashok | Posted in academia, education, movies | Tagged | Comments (2)

Letter to a Young Intellectual

for Madeline Frohlich – happy birthday Dear Madeline: Humid air yesterday and today weighed us on campus down. It refreshed at first. Before – too much dryness, an annoying cold. A breeze and some accompanying warmth, moisture and sunshine invigorated many. Then we started feeling sluggish and sleepy. I got little done yesterday, a bit …

March 15, 2012 – 3:22 am | By ashok | Posted in academia, education | Comments (0)

Colin McGinn: “…it is really quite clear that academic philosophy is a science.”

Note: someone pointed out that McGinn’s piece is probably satire. I had suspected this, but was looking for “A Modest Proposal” type reasoning. Still, the acronym he uses for his renaming committee is “C.R.A.P.” Is that enough to make this whole thing a joke? I’ll admit I’m not the best at spotting jokes. I did …

March 5, 2012 – 7:16 am | By ashok | Posted in academia, education | Comments (2)

“Git ‘r done” and attempting scholarship

A student’s attitude of “get it done” is bad for anyone who wants to teach. It makes a teacher or tutor a human dictionary or encyclopedia. It reduces difficult, intricate themes and questions to bullet points. But it absolutely destroys what I specifically do: the close, analytical reading and rereading of texts. Everything about what …

February 27, 2012 – 2:46 am | By ashok | Posted in education, personal | Comments (3)

On the funeral of Elizabeth Burris, 2/13/12

Collegium Cantorum attended the funeral of one of our own, Elizabeth Burris. She served as the Music Department secretary, but that doesn’t say anything about the enormous amounts of work she did and her tireless defense of that work. When pressed by others to take it easy – she had a host of medical issues, …

February 14, 2012 – 2:18 am | By ashok | Posted in christianity, education, personal | Comments (0)

For those going to University for the first time

for Madeline Frohlich and many, many others University was at once exciting and terrifying for me. A friend at the same school at the same time remarked (in one of his papers, no less) that it was just a bunch of people standing around smoking cigarettes. I think both of our initial impressions correct. That …

February 13, 2012 – 3:07 am | By ashok | Posted in education | Comments (1)

The fight over college athletics is really a fight over what the University means

1. In some ways, it was natural for the university to become a type of sports franchise. I think of the pettiness of various professors, administrators and students I’ve encountered at a number of schools – schools that may not have Division I teams – and can’t help but wonder what end that spirit of …

January 29, 2012 – 9:39 am | By ashok | Posted in academia, education | Comments (0)

The Accessibility of Philosophy

1. At Barnes & Noble today. It looked trashed from holiday shopping. There wasn’t much left on the Philosophy shelves. Very few volumes of Nietzsche or Plato; couldn’t even find a copy of “Twilight and Philosophy” (my favorite book, besides this). The store was also reorganized. Philosophy was back in a corner that it took …

January 5, 2012 – 6:36 pm | By ashok | Posted in academia, education | Comments (1)