I’m sitting here at the computer with a lukewarm cup of coffee and a sore throat. I have about seven tabs open on my browser that open up to a bevy of good things. I’ll link to the articles, nuke my coffee cup, and then decide which one I should expand on.
The whole story about what happened to Margaret Mary Vojtko, the adjunct at Duquesne University who died in poverty.
Great letters to the editor in the New York Times about the study that found that adjuncts were better teachers than tenure track professors at one college. “While the tenure-track faculty have comparatively high wages, great benefits and lifetime job security in the form of tenure, one million contingent professors have none of these things, often teaching for decades for poverty-level wages, and wondering whether they will even have a job next quarter.”
For obvious reasons, I have several friends on Facebook who are academics or writer-types with disabled kids. A few weeks back, they all exploded about a review in the Chronicle by Christina Nehring of a book, Regarding Henry. Nehring hated the book and said the author was a narcissist. Historiann has two posts about the controversy and her own review of the book.
I’m not the history book consumer in this house, but Doris Kearns Goodwin’s new book about Teddy Roosevelt and the Progressive Era looks fantastic. Whenever I dig back into the history of education or other public policies, I always end up in this time period. Also, I would have very much liked to be a muckraker.
UPDATE:
Still reading… More links…
Wendy reminded me to link to the controvery around the resignation of John Elder Robison from Autism Speaks. Autism Speaks is the largest autism advocacy group in the country. Robison resigned from the board, because he was annoyed at the group’s message that autism was a tragedy. Robison believes that autism is both a gift and a disability. I’ve also read parents of more disabled kids complaining that Autism Speaks features too many Asperger-y kids in their videos. Ain’t nobody happy.
Apt. 11d 