Ben Guest’s Blog

Gladwell

nobody@vox.com(Ben Guest) — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:12:58 -0700

Malcolm Gladwell is one of my favorite authors. He has a great ability to assimilate and explain complex data. I've been reading through some of his past New Yorker articles. Here are three of my favorites, with quotes:

The Taboo of Race and Sports:

To use track as an example-since track is probably the purest measure of athletic ability-Africans recorded fifteen out of the twenty fastest times last year in the men's ten-thousand- metre event. In the five thousand metres, eighteen out of the twenty fastest times were recorded by Africans. In the fifteen hundred metres, thirteen out of the twenty fastest times were African, and in the sprints, in the men's hundred metres, you have to go all the way down to the twenty-third place in the world rankings-to Geir Moen, of Norway-before you find a white face. There is a point at which it becomes foolish to deny the fact of black athletic prowess, and even more foolish to banish speculation on the topic. Clearly, something is going on. The question is what.

The Rise of the SUV:

According to Bradsher, internal industry market research concluded that S.U.V.s tend to be bought by people who are insecure, vain, self-centered, and self-absorbed, who are frequently nervous about their marriages, and who lack confidence in their driving skills... At a focus group in Los Angeles "an elegant woman in the group said that she needed her full-sized Lexus LX 470 to drive up over the curb and onto lawns to park at large parties in Beverly Hills. " One of Ford's senior marketing executives was even blunter: "The only time those S.U.V.s are going to be off-road is when they miss the driveway at 3 a.m."

Is violent crime a choice?

In his confession to the police, after he detailed every step of the synagogue attack, Franklin was asked if there was anything he'd like to say. He stared thoughtfully over the top of his glasses. There was a long silence. "I can't think of anything," he answered. Then he was asked if he felt any remorse. There was another silence. "I can't say that I do," he said. He paused again, then added, "The only thing I'm sorry about is that it's not legal."

"What's not legal?"

Franklin answered as if he'd just been asked the time of day: "Killing Jews."

Bonus: Gladwell speaking, about the way genius works, at the 2007 New Yorker Festival.

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Links

nobody@vox.com(Ben Guest) — Sun, 11 May 2008 10:19:50 -0700

Three links about teaching in America:

High School teacher fired after these photos appeared online. Yet more evidence of America's insane prudishness...

How do you, as a teacher, feel about cell phones in school? Would you feel differently if you were a student? A parent?

Interesting organization: The Center for Teaching Quality. I haven't had time to read through much of the website but, to me, the solution improving teacher quality is simple. Make the starting salary of a public school teacher $100,000. Make the ceiling $2,000,000. Watch teacher quality sky-rocket.

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Admissions

nobody@vox.com(Ben Guest) — Sat, 10 May 2008 14:02:07 -0700

Amherst College has record number of applicants:

In what many call the most grueling college admissions year ever, Amherst College finally sent out 1,096 letters of admittance to the class of 2012. The College accepted 14.2 percent of all first-year applicants (including early decision), a considerable decrease from last year’s acceptance rate of 18 percent. The College admitted 85 fewer students than it did last year, out of a record large applicant pool (17 percent bigger than last year) in an effort to offset this past year’s unexpectedly large first-year class.

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Prison

nobody@vox.com(Ben Guest) — Fri, 09 May 2008 07:34:14 -0700

An Amherst student and a Hampshire County Correctional Facility inmate have a Boston Globe op-ed:

Yes, going to prison necessarily entails the loss of liberty. But the right to vote is in many ways more important than the right to walk freely down the street: Voting is the most basic check against the coercive power of the state. The places where that coercive power is most starkly exercised, such as prisons, are also the places where that most basic of checks becomes more important. The fact that prisoners have a big stake in governmental choices isn't an argument in favor of disenfranchisement; it's an argument against.

And because the vote is so essential to democratic citizenship, it is also an important part of reintegrating inmates with society. Prisons separate and divide, but at their best they also prepare inmates for life after imprisonment. Rebuilding civic engagement is perhaps the most important part of that process.

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Burgandy

nobody@vox.com(Ben Guest) — Thu, 08 May 2008 10:42:03 -0700

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Creationist

nobody@vox.com(Ben Guest) — Thu, 08 May 2008 07:12:10 -0700

Freakonomics Q and A with Frans De Waal:

Q: Does religiously motivated rejection of evolution (e.g. creationism) ever get in your way when working?

A: I don’t experience this kind of resistance in science, in which evolutionary theory is obviously the dominant paradigm. Creationists sometimes try to create the impression that lots of scientists have their doubts about the theory, but I have yet to meet such scientists. I’d be surprised if more than 0.1 percent of active research biologists have such doubts.

When I came to this country, over twenty-five years ago, I was amazed that creationism was still taken seriously, and assumed that it would blow over. It never did, of course. I can’t help but look at it as a left-over of a medieval mind-set unresponsive to overwhelming counter-evidence.

At the same time, I must say that I don’t think the recent wave of God-questioning rants have helped much. They have polarized the issue, whereas in my mind it is eminently possible to look at religion as a collective value system and at science as telling us how the physical world operates. Even though I am not religious myself, I think the conflict between science and religion is unnecessary and overblown.

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Point

nobody@vox.com(Ben Guest) — Thu, 08 May 2008 05:55:11 -0700

Fiel, as usual, on point:

First off, it's illogical to suggest that these voters who may prefer her over Obama will not vote for Obama if he's the Democratic nominee. Why is it that Hillary can win 60% of the white working class vote, and we assume none of them will vote for Obama in the general election, but I don't hear the same argument when Obama wins 90% of the black vote. No one makes the assumption that the black voters won't back Hillary if she's the Democratic nominee. On the news this morning, they said that Hillary won big in the "much sought after white working class vote." No mention of Obama winning 90% of the black vote or of the huge black turnout in North Carolina. No mention that the black vote was "much sought after." No mention of the fact that a Democrat who cannot win the black vote has no chance in a general election in the post-Civil Rights bill era. The coverage seems to be implying that the black vote is not as important as the white working class vote and that Hillary can take their votes for granted if she is the Democratic nominee. Meanwhile, she continues to alienate them through divisive campaigning focusing on Rev. Wright in states that have long histories of racial division.

Another thing is the fact that Obama is labeled as out of touch, liberal, and elitist. Hillary was on the damn corporate board at Wal-Mart until Bill ran for Pres. in 1992. And she's branded as the populist who is in touch with the working class. There isn't a more anti-union, anti-working class operation on earth than Wal-Mart. Obama spent years working as a community organizer in Chicago, probably with people who were poor and lacked important services due in part to companies and policies like those of Wal-Mart.

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Intern

nobody@vox.com(Ben Guest) — Wed, 07 May 2008 05:52:07 -0700

Part Two of the MTC 2007 Summer Intern film. Watch Part One here.

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Deck

nobody@vox.com(Ben Guest) — Tue, 06 May 2008 05:06:52 -0700

Zaza don't want none...

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MTC Monthly Update

nobody@vox.com(Ben Guest) — Mon, 05 May 2008 10:08:53 -0700

News Update

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Mississippi Teacher Corps Class of 2006 is finished (MTC designates each class by the year entered). The '06ers presented their final portfolios last month and will graduate with a Master's Degree in Education this Saturday. You can view the portfolios here. You can see photos of the final day here.

Each year MTC presents awards to the graduating class. This year's award list:

Academic Achievement: Jeremy Fiel

Class Speaker: Jon Zarandona

Outstanding Portfolio: Stephen Scriber

Mullins Award (named after MTC co-creator Andy Mullins, this award is voted on by the class and given to the participant who best represents the values and ideals of the Mississippi Teacher Corps): Jeremy Fiel

Photo of the Month is of the graduating Class of 2006.

Profile of the Month is of second-year Robin Lewis, a science teacher in Laurel, MS.

Alumni Profile of the Month is of Kathleen Sullivan. Kathleen, MTC Class of 1995, taught English at Yazoo City High School in Yazoo City, MS, and is currently the Executive Director of the Boston Collegiate Charter School.

Be sure to check out the MTC/YouTube Page. We've got a several new videos up, including Part One of the MTC 2007 Intern Film. We've also been adding videos to on our SmugMug page, which has better quality than YouTube.

One of our first-years, Anna Morrison, has recently published two pieces on her time in the Delta:

Teaching 'Things Fall Apart':

The complaints began the moment I started passing out copies of the novel "Things Fall Apart" to the 17 and 18-year-olds of my English IV classroom. "What this book is?" moaned LaJohn, a big football player who always nabs a seat in the back of the room. J.T. was even more pointed when he turned to Tierra, shook his book in the air and said, "Man, she ain't gonna make us read this whole book!"

Down in the Delta:

Driving down Route 61 into the Mississippi Delta I notice the expanse of cotton and soyabeans unfolding all around me. Thousands of years of flooding across this alluvial plain has flattened the land to an unbelievable degree. It's hard to describe just how powerful the effect is: low-lying fields seem to stretch for miles in every direction. Growing up in the Midwest, I am accustomed to this sort of openness. But I am still at a loss for words to describe the Delta's sweeping vistas.

On to the blogs:

Each graduating member of the Class of 2006 has posted a reflection about his or her time in the Teacher Corps. I've posted excerpts and a link to each on my blog.

Karl goes to the laundromat:

As our conversation wraps up, she says, "I got to go home and cook supper now. I don't like doing it, but nobody else is goin' to." I tell her that I hope it turns out well and the food tastes good. She waves her hand and says, "Oh, he eats pretty much whatever I cook. He's just like that. That's how I got so big, because when you be cookin' so much like that, you got to taste the food. When you always around food, you just get big."

With those words hanging in the air, she opens only one of the two doors and gracefully exits with her laundry bags or any part of her massive body touching neither door or frame or anything but the sunshine.

Ruth, an alumna of the program, has photos up.

Lisa has three weeks left:

Three weeks before the end of the two years, I step out of the house in Leland into the night, and it's all lavender and lightning. The combination cuts beautifully through my haze of questions and doubts. Near the end of a personal era, for lack of better terminology- it feels so wrong to call this a phase because it has had such impact on my character and my plans- every sensation is stronger, and living is somehow ultra-nuanced. Maybe I just hold on.

Michael has a day in the life, starting with the moment school lets out:

Four o'clock. Out to duty. Four-fifteen. Back to the classroom for tutoring.

Anna had a moment.

Angela gave her students a fairly common logic puzzle. The answers she received were anything but common.

All of the first-years have posted advice for the incoming class:

Chimaobi writes:

I bequeath whatever energy I have left. You're going to need it. Lots of its. When I was a senior in college last year Ben told me that teaching in Mississippi would be the hardest thing that I've ever done in my life. I thought he was joking. I mean, I've survived life in a Nigerian dictatorship, shootouts in my hometown, the *worst* high school in New Jersey, and the most elitist, gag-inducing few square miles in the world... what could be so rough about Mississippi? I had no idea...

Michelle's advice has caused quite a commotion.

Lisa writes:

The most important thing you need to know is that you are starting, quite possibly, the most challenging, frustrating, two years of your life. You are also starting what could be the most rewarding two years of your life.

Robert starts with:

First and foremost, you are crazy. Not few eggs short of an omelette crazy. We're talking about Hunter S. Thompson tripping on LSD in the Arizona desert crazy. Hillary Clinton remaining in the Democratic primary, despite not having a snowball's chance in the 5th circle of hell according the delegate count crazy. Starting a petition to get Stokely Carmichael's birthday made a national holiday in Neshoba County crazy. Mike Tyson crazy.

Dani says:

MTC has been a wonderful experience for me so far, and I am going to try to give some suggestions that will help the first years think the same...

Finally, as one class leaves, another class begins. The MTC Class of 2008 has been finalized. We received over 270 applications for 27 spots. Photos and profiles of the new class will go up next month (the first day of summer training is June 3rd). In the meantime, several of the incoming first-years and interns (we currently have one spring intern and we will have eight summer interns) have started keeping blogs:

Kate

Karl

Matt (summer intern)

Katie (spring intern)

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