Socially Distant Cuisine

Okay, so I was spurred by the Didion love to go read some stuff I wrote early in college... so cute! Was I ever that young? Earlier in the evening, she twisted the top off of her first bottle of Bud Light self-consciously, as if everyone was watching. In her mind, this room of strangers just might base their opinions of her on whether or not she could gracefully complete the task. It’s the kind of insecurity that plagues a novice drinker’s mind as she tries to embrace the complicated and nuanced practice of social alcohol consumption. Judging by the ease with which those around her were rid of their lids, she was obviously surrounded by people who had been acquainted with the process longer than she. A guy across the room, a football player type wearing a muscle shirt, had used the skin of his forearm to grip and twist the cap, a move that both impressed and repulsed her. How many beers did he have to drink in order to learn that one? No doubt, many nights of slovenly drunkenness ...

So sad-- just realized yesterday that Joan Didion is doing a reading of her new book at the Folger Shakespeare Library, but that it's sold out. I called to see if I could show up for some standing room love, but no dice. I'm hoping that someone will answer my Craigslist ad for a ticket, but something tells me that the bulk of the PEN/Faulkner Society crowd doesn't use CL. I'm an underliner-- when I'm reading, there are always passages or sentence I want to mark to note... for their beauty, or their truth. When I'm reading Didion, I want to underline everything. Freshman year in college, in my Women and Memoir class, we read Goodbye to All That , an essay she wrote in her early 30's about living in New York as a young woman. Choice bits below in an homage to Didion, and to being young: Quite simply, I was in love with New York. I do not mean "love" in any colloquial way, I mean that I was in love with the city, the way you love the first perso...

My elementary school, Centennial Elementary in Mt. Vernon, WA, was featured in the PBS special, Making Schools Work . They were chosen because of pretty incredible increases in student performance as a Success For All school. Eduwonk has an interview with the filmmaker . A lot has changed at Centennial Elementary since I was a student there. Though Mt. Vernon is a rural community, Centennial had a largely white, middle class student body back in the day. Now, it has a significant population of children of former migrant workers, 35% English Language Learners, and 75% qualifying for free and reduced lunch. But looking at the school's website, one thing struck me as constant: the teachers. Several of my former teachers were still teaching there: Mrs. Raschko, my first grade teacher, Mrs. Prange, who taught me 4th grade, and Mrs. Moore, who I had in 3rd. Several other teachers also worked in the school when I was a student. I remember these teachers, and the things I learne...

New NAEP data out today. NCES doesn't have up any charts of trend data by race, so I used the NAEP Data Explorer to make my own. Posted them, along with some thoughts over on Kindling Flames . Call me a nerd if you like, but man... do you see any improvements since 1990?

The Times today talks about the "new" popularity of beer pong . Total ridiculousness: The recent tournament in Philadelphia was sponsored by Bing Bong, a company that sells portable beer pong tables for $150. In the past year, Bing Bong has sold more than 2,000. "It was something a lot of people needed," said Tom Schmidt, the 27-year-old chief executive. He added that he wanted to turn the game into a socially acceptable barroom sport, like darts. Now, I love an occasional drinking game as much as the next girl. But one of the main points of these things is that they're completely irrepsonsible. Your future hangover is totally in the hands of fate and the "skill" of increasingly drunk teammates and opponents. Yeah, Schmidt. Beer pong is some good, clean fun--can't wait to transport my Bing Bong table to my next family Thanksgiving. I also loved Anheuser-Busch sponsoring "Bud Pong" promotions, where they supposedly encourage hos...

The arrival of Fall always makes me reassess my life. Maybe it's something about the life cycle of a student--it's the beginning of a new year, and spending some time on self-evaluation and goal-setting is well advised. Or maybe it's that it's starting to get cold out, and all I want to do is sit on the couch and drink cocoa and stare off into space, which gives me plenty of time to think. Either way, I've been in an introspective mood recently. I've come to a few conclusions about my life. Ask me about them, and I'll tell ya. This mood was assisted by reading Indecision by Benjamin Kunkel. It was great. It was outlandish enough and true enough and sympathetic enough... just right. Highly recommended. I started trying to write a review of it, and realized that it's been WAY too long since I took an English class. And most of what I wanted to say, was said already by Michael Agger in Slate last week, anyway. I'm not about to become a Democ...

After attending a brown bag lunch on optimizing Outlook Express, I'm spending some time cleaning out work e-mail this afternoon, and came across this gem, which was prompted by a lunchtime conversation a couple of months ago. I thought it should be saved for posterity: Baby corn really IS immature corn. But baby carrots are, as some knew, long skinny carrots chopped into little pieces . Ask yourself this: how did you ever live without that knowledge?

Reading this post was like deja vu for me! I took a class just like this as an undergrad... (surprise, surprise) in the education department. I made it through that semester by taking solace in two facts: (a) I was also taking The Sociology of Education in the soc department, with a professor who actually taught the material and (b) most of us in my little liberal arts bubble wouldn't end up teachers, thus wouldn't have an opportunity to inflict such pedagogical torture on kids who needed to actually learn stuff. It would appear that Newoldschoolteacher has neither of those to help her out. God save her. The professor in my class repeatedly insisted that we were a "democratic classroom" and that she wasn't any more of an expert on the material than us. WHAT? I paid good money for that course, money that employed her to teach me. I hope that she was more expert on the material than I was! Also, when I "took responsibility for myself" and said that ...

Last Friday, a project I've been working on for the past year released 2 reports. All the hoo-hah around getting it out the door and following up meant that I haven't had time to post about it until now. But it's pretty exciting! It's titled Who's Left Behind: Immigrant Children in High and Low LEP Schools . We break public elementary schools into 3 categories: those with high concentrations of LEP kids, those with fewer LEP kids, and those with none, and compare across the three types to examine differences in student populations, teacher and principal training, and special services and programs. For a summary of findings, check out the press release , or go to the whole thing . The demographic profile, which was done by the immigration group here, also has really interesting info here . This project really turned me on to the wonders of the Schools and Staffing Survey. SASS is a Department of Ed data set compiled from a group of nationally-representative s...

Yes, the life of an undergrad. So filled with useless information! N: there's a cricket somewhere in my room N: it's loud, and i can't find it E: it's a male E: as far as we know, only males sing E: he's looking for a lovely lady E: using trills and chirps that make up the calling song E: with a 5 kHz frequency, and an interchirp rate of 30ms

Anyone who's ever been to a company potluck should really appreciate this . The funniest thing is that I find myself making bizarre casseroles and jello salads for these events too, despite the fact that I'm a pretty good cook. What is it about lunch in Conference Room 5A that makes me reach for the cream of mushroom soup?

The New York Times' most forwarded article today is Many Women at Elite Colleges Set Career Path to Motherhood . At its most interesting, the article asks what it means for society when well-trained, smart, and motivated women groomed for positions of leadership and power opt out of the 9-to-5 (or, more realistically, 9-to-6, 7 or 8) workday and take up the full-time work of raising children. The article argues that this is an important question for elite institutions as The women [these schools] are counting on to lead society are likely to marry men who will make enough money to give them a real choice about whether to be full-time mothers. What the article fails to properly acknowledge is that the majority of the "stay at home moms" who come from these high-achieving, privileged backgrounds probably won’t be structuring their days like those of a middle-class 1950s housewife. Instead, most will channel at least some of their hyper-perfectionist, overachieving, multi-ta...

Jonathan Kozol has a new book coming out this week, and will be speaking twice in DC to promote it: Politics and Prose on Friday and Blair HS in Silver Spring on Saturday morning. It's called The Shame of the Nation: Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America . I haven't seen a copy yet, but the press release for the Silver Spring event that I saw contained some excerpts, including the following: 'I went to Washington to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations,' said President Bush in his campaign for reelection in September 2004. 'It's working. It's making a difference.' Here we have one of those deadly lies that by sheer repetition is at length accepted by surprisingly large numbers of Americans. But it is not the truth; and it is not an innocent misstatement of the facts. It is a devious appeasement of the heartache of the parents of the black and brown and poor, and if it is not forcefully resisted it will lead us further in a very dangero...

Just put a long post over on Kindling Flames. I'm excited about this metaphor-- education entrepreneurs as development NGOs. Fleshed out, I think it has the potential for a really interesting paper! Especially because there's been a lot of talk recently about philanthropy in education, and its impact on the policy process. Reminds me of this great (if not a little abstract--but I love that stuff!) article I read last year--written by a linguist--about the power of metaphor to restrict or expand your thinking about an issue. From August 2003's TCR: The Matrix, Metaphors, and Re-imagining Education. I think I originally found it because some blog I was reading was mocking it as EduFluff, but the overall point, I think, is a good one. Good abstraction can open new understandings.

I couldn't help but laugh at this article today. Richard Hatch, the first winner of Survivor, apparently didn't report his prize money to the Feds, and thus didn't pay any taxes on it. Survivor was not only one of the most popular shows on TV, but also launched a cultural phenomenon... you'd think the dude would assume *someone* in IRS-Land watched it!

The Washington Monthly has long been a critc of the US News and World Report college rankings. Finally, they've come up with an alternative . The idea of ranking schools based upon "what [they] are doing for the country," is an interesting one... and not just because my alma mater ranks as the number one liberal arts college. In the Monthly's own words: Imagine, then, what would happen if thousands of schools were suddenly motivated to try to boost their scores on The Washington Monthly College Rankings. They'd start enrolling greater numbers of low-income students and putting great effort into ensuring that these students graduate. They'd encourage more of their students to join the Peace Corps or the military. They'd intensify their focus on producing more Ph.D. graduates in science and engineering. And as a result, we all would benefit from a wealthier, freer, more vibrant, and democratic country. I think the business of coming up with more mea...

So, all summer I've been obsessively reading Tomato Nation for its fabulously frank advice column The Vine. Honestly, everyone should read a good dose of this advice, though sometimes I wonder if my addiction is starting to make me a little callous. I find myself saying to people things like "No, I don't think he's in love with you," and "She's being a hosebeast, and you shouldn't have to put up with it." Is it better to be reassuring, even though it's just platitudes, or to give people a dose of reality when they're bordering on delusional? The Vine has convinced me of the latter, I think.

I'll be posting from time to time on my grad program's blog, Kindling Flames . I'm totally excited to have a place to muse about issues of education policy... you should check it out!

If you haven't, you must visit Toothpaste for Dinner . Pure brilliance!