The main reason I enjoy Facebook, despite all the petty posts and sophomoric banter, is that I can keep tabs on my former students, to some degree. Christian P.? What college is he attending again? Megan L.? Is she still with the Italian boyfriend and working for the Red Cross in London? Facebook usually allows me to answer these questions of young people who have so enriched my life. In this spirit I went looking for Nick F., a student of mine who must be around 25 years of age now. Nick had a sarcastic sense of humor and a wry view of the world; I enjoyed his intelligence, even…
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Kill Your TV, Twenty Years Later
Today I read yet another article about cord cutting, and how the business model for cable TV in the United States is changing. The idea that one must pay for many channels in which one has no interest in order to get the few one does. The cable companies are, they say, fighting a long rearguard action which they will eventually lose, if they don’t change. Or so the story goes. I have been a huge enemy of television in America, as has long been known to my family, friends, and students. If technology disrupts the television industry and nearly destroys it the same as technology did to the music business…
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Time, Effort, and Patience Equals Progress
Julia and friend as beginners at tennis. I remember trying to teach Julia how to hit a tennis ball when she was around three years of age. It was a disaster. A torrent of tears. Lots of blaming daddy. Julia was really too young still to hit a tennis ball with any success. Julia has always been a perfectionist, and nobody is perfect at tennis in the beginning. So the toddler threw a temper tantrum and blamed her father. Julia would cry and scream at me, sitting down and refusing to get up. Not fun for anybody. So I outsourced it. Around six years of age we started Julia with tennis lessons…