What's a Teacher to Do?

BY AARON BARLOW When you rely on the numbers, you count out the people. How often have we heard that? How frequently do we remind ourselves that it’s the people—in our case as educators, the students—who matter most, the individuals and not the numbers that reflect the aggregate? Yet our actions continue to be toward…

We Have Been Too Quiet

BY AARON BARLOW What’s the point of having academic credentials if you can’t use them? Sure, we make them into bludgeons inside the ivory tower, but that’s really just child’s play: the bludgeons do all the real damage of balloons. Only when there is ‘real-world’ application can they have an impact, do they really mean…

PROFESSIONAL STAFF CONGRESS REACHES CONTRACT DEAL WITH CUNY

From the PSC-CUNY: New York—A tentative collective bargaining agreement has been reached between the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), the union representing CUNY faculty and professional staff, and the City University of New York (CUNY). The deal was announced today by PSC President Barbara Bowen and CUNY Chancellor James B. Milliken. The proposed contract provides 10.41%…

"Automation, Automation, Automation"

BY AARON BARLOW In the 30+ years since I first looked into using digital technology in the classroom, my enthusiasm for it has waned. Today, I guess I have to classify myself as a Luddite. When I re-read Thomas Pynchon’s “Is It O.K. To Be A Luddite?” my answer to his question is quite different from…

Remembering Elsie Janis

BY AARON BARLOW At the end of The Big Show: My Six Months with the American Expeditionary Forces (1919), Elsie Janis wrote: Now I must call a halt. I love talking, and as I can’t talk to everyone, I like writing. Just a few words in parting to the women: You have been wonderful–and while I love…