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12/13/2024, Pod pick: Ultra-processed food
I recently tuned into an intriguing episode of The Daily podcast by the New York Times about ultra-processed food. Health and nutrition reporter Alice Callahan described a surprising experiment conducted by Kevin Hall et al. at the NIH. The goal was to better determine the health effects of a diet high in ultra-processed food. One group of volunteers ate only non-ultra-processed foods for two weeks and another group ate only ultra-processed foods. The two groups then switched. The researchers fastidiously created meals in which the servings of foods provided to each of the two groups were nutritionally identical (same calories, fat, etc.). Participants were able to opt for more servings if they desired. When the results were tallied, participants were found to have gained an average of 2 pounds during their two weeks eating ultra-processed food. They had eaten an average of extra 500 calories per day.
Aside from this arresting result, the episode also delved into some of the history of ultra-processed foods (a term originally coined by a Brazilian scientist named Carlos Monteiro). Loosely defined, a food can be considered ultra-processed if it could not be prepared in a typical kitchen from normally available ingredients. Although these foods made up a substantial portion of the American diet even in the 80's, the purchase of several major food brands by tobacco company such as R.G. Renyolds and Philip Morris led to a related innovation: "hyperpalatable" foods. These foods contain unnatural combinations of common nutrients (e.g., fat, salt, carbohydrates). There is evidence that our brains are especially susceptible to eating these foods to excess. Currently, about 70% of the American diet is now made up of ultra-processed foods and hyperpalatable foods are ubiquitous across brands.
This episode made me think about my own diet. I dropped a portion of the food I typically eat into ChatGPT and asked for an analysis. I eat lots of whole foods which are not ultra-processed but some of the foods I added in the last few years to boost my protein intake were flagged as ultra-processed. Some examples:
Unsweetened soy milk (ultra-processed but low in sugar, high in protein, not hyperpalatable)
Plant-based protein powder (ultra-processed)
Protein bar (ultra-processed, probably hyperpalatable)
I worry more about the food I see my students eating. The meals served in our school cafeteria seem to be largely ultra-processed. Walking around the grocery store recently, I noticed how branding has shifted to highlight protein content (much the way the focus used to be on "low fat"). As we learn more about the ramifications of ultra-processed foods on health, I remember Michael Pollan's succinct recommendation from his book The Omnivore's Dilemma: "eat food, not too much, mostly plants." He wrote about how the "food" in that statement should be something your grandmother or great-grandmother would recognize. In a typical grocery store, the best place to find this in on the periphery of the store. The inner aisles are packed with ultra-processed, hypermarketed pseudo-food. For someone aspiring to a better diet for themselves and/or their family, I think we could do worse than Pollan's simple heuristic, especially in light of Hall's research.
12/8/2024, Cold weather running
I aim to be active year-round, but how I sweat varies with the seasons. My activities are most omnifarious in November and December as I supplement my usual cycling (usually moving to all indoor by mid-November) with erging, weights (especially leg work to get ready for winter hiking), and a smattering of running– typically leading up to a "turkey trot" of some kind on Thanksgiving. This year, training for the Lake Placid Classic 10K with Rashna in mid-October got me running earlier in the fall and I regularly run with the Glens Falls Run Club on Tuesday nights. The group runs a 5k loop starting at 6PM and ending at Mean Max brewery. A far as I know, they always run, even through the winter and in poor weather. I've had to adjust to running in the dark but, with a cheap running light, some waterproof socks, and various pieces of hiking and cycling kit, I've been quite comfortable. Moving outdoors during the work week, even when it's very cold, has a positive effect on my mood. The social component has been great too; even though my "social battery" can be pretty low by the afternoon, a few panted conversations while running followed by some drinks afterwards have become something I look forward to each week. Mean Max even has AF beer— great for me since I don't love alcohol after exercising.
11/28/2024, Pod pick: The self-driving revolution
This episode from Derek Thompson's Plain English podcast was a pleasant distraction from news podcasts I've been wallowing in. Here in the snowy, densely populated northeastern U.S., we are far removed from the latest exploits of self-driving companies such as Waymo One (a subsidiary of Alphabet). That company has worked its way up to around 150,000 weekly autonomous rides in locales such as San Francisco and Phoenix. In Derek's lengthy interview with Timothy Lee, I learned about the cautious roll-out of these technologies and some of the technology that is slowly lifting self-driving out of the trough of disillusionment. I especially liked listening to the bits about how AI "transformers" are now being used to teach software how to respond to the rigors of the open road.
Lee discussed how various companies have approached the self-driving problem and speculated that the reason for their failures is the scope of the challenge. Some companies wrongly reasoned that they could tackle a sector of the self-driving space (e.g., urban deliveries, highway travel) only to concede that a system capable of operating in every environment is the only practical model.
About 40,000 Americans lose their lives in motor vehicle crashes each year. But despite over 6 million accidents, fatalities are relatively rare. Actually, the U.S. suffers just a bit more than 1 annual fatality for every 100 million miles driven. Waymo has not even logged enough autonomous miles to make a straight annual comparison (no fatalities yet). However, where comparisons are possible, Waymo's record is impressive when compared to human drivers.
Cutting-edge safety features seem to be coming online just as the scourge of distracted driving is cresting. I'm fascinated to learn how self-driving cars will be changing our lives in the next few decades.
Fall 2024 pictures
Around Glens Falls, Split Rock and around Pharaoh Lake, Lake Placid Airport
11/1/2024, Reread: "Dividing by Zero" by Ted Chiang
What if you had a belief so intuitive, so unassailable, that you oriented your life around it? What if you then had a personal role in upending this belief?
The story “Division by Zero” is part of "Stories of Your Life," a collection by Ted Chiang. It appears immediately before the short story that inspired the movie "Arrival."
I’ve read most of Chiang’s short stories (he has just two celebrated collections published in the last three decades). As the title might indicate, mathematical concepts are part of “Division by Zero” but only in the minimal dose needed to tangle with a few deep philosophical ideas. The story is incredibly concise. In a scant 20 pages, we meet Renee, a generational mathematical talent, and Carl, her biologist husband. Renee has made a mathematical discovery that upends her life. Although Carl is sophisticated enough to technically understand the broad strokes of Renee’s realization, he discovers he is unable to empathize with his wife’s devastation.
I studied math in college and identified with the lovely descriptions of a precise and elegant mathematical conclusion. The Renee experienced this as a precocious seven-year-old:
“…Renee had been spellbound at discovering the perfect squares in the smooth marble tiles of the floor. A single one, two rows of two, three rows of three, four rows of four: the tiles fit together in a square. Of course. No matter which side you looked at it from, it came out the same. And more than that, each square was bigger than the last by an odd number of tiles. It was an epiphany. The conclusion was necessary: it had a rightness to it, confirmed by the smooth, cool feel of the tiles.”
When compared to Renee, my experience studying math involved exponentially more striving (due to my disappointing dearth of instinctive observational prowess). I’m in the same boat as Carl, who is aware that his sympathy for his wife can never rise to the level of empathy. He can’t really understand the worlds that Renee has spent her life constructing– or her devastation as these are dismantled by her own discovery.
“Division By Zero” reminded me of Mary Doria Russell’s “The Sparrow.” That novel is also science fiction but deals more with theology (a space-faring, Jesuit priest named Emilio Sandoz suffers the collapse of his dearly held faith after a Job-like trial). “The Sparrow” is one of the most disturbing books I’ve ever read. The lengthier format allowed Russell to portray Sandoz’s haunting experience with a suspense and vividness that might not be possible in a 20-page story. But both Chiang and Russell’s works feature the blissful ignorance of bystanders as they issue platitudes to the devastated ex-believers.
Of Chiang and Russell’s themes, the rarified field of mathematics is perhaps even less relatable than a belief in God. Chiang’s story shows us that paradoxically, a casual, underexamined structure of meaning may be more durable than one where each intricate piece of truth follows from the last.
10/22,2024, Pod pick: How to predict the presidency
This episode of Freakonomics Radio is part of a two-part series on the U.S. presidency. I found the second half of the podcast (starting at about 0:35) to be the most interesting. Koleman Strumpf is an economics professor who does research on prediction markets. He explains the various ways that it is now possible to bet on the presidential election (exchanges like PredictIt). It turns out that betting markets have the potential to be more accurate than polling and are especially good at predicting outcomes of hyperlocal events. They respond instantly to new information while polling usually lags at least several days behind.
Stumpf points out a few issues with betting markets. For example, some only use cryptocurrency for betting. In these cases, the pool of betters might be skewed for political bets since crypto enthusiasts tend to lean right (betting markets also tend to be younger and more male than the electorate). There is the potential for entities to place bets in order to hedge against an alternative outcome (e.g., a company stands to lose big if Trump is elected so they bet on him to reduce their losses if he does win). Finally, as in any betting market, manipulation is possible (e.g., a candidate bets against themselves and then throws the election).
Political polling is struggling to adapt to new era of mobile phone use. Large errors in the polling in the last several election cycles have left pollsters struggling to adjust and weight their models to provide the best representation of the electorate. Despite their flaws, the betting markets do provide an alternative perspective to complement polling (at the time of this writing, Kamala Harris is significantly underwater in election betting on PredictIt).
Note: The first half of this episode revisits an interview with Eric Posner about the power of the presidency and the possibility of a U.S. president becoming a dictator. Posner comes off as pretty sanguine in the face of a second Trump presidency, arguing that becoming a dictator is actually really hard! I thought that this audio essay, which identifies Trump's disinhibition as his most important trait, is a good complement to Posner's optimism.
10/19/2024, Morning ride
I got the day wrong for a group ride I had been invited to and found myself riding alone just after sunrise. Since there wasn't anyone to keep waiting, I brought by camera and stopped as often as my frozen fingers would allow. The thick fog made for some interesting images. I especially like this one of a Coca Cola truck trundling by a mist-cloaked fence line.
A few more images from the ride:
10/18/2024, Bike club
A colleague and I started a bike club at our high school in 2022. A boost of enthusiasm from some busy, super-involved seniors powered our first few rides. Since they graduated, our club is small– you could say it barely exists some weeks. We attract the elusive student who isn't already involved in organized school sports but also has a notion of biking as something other than a transportation method of last resort. The mix of riders has been fascinating: freshman boys who have a terrifying tendency to veer into traffic, a girl who struggled on the hills but proudly declared her watch had recorded one of her highest ever heart rates (she never rode with us again), a wrestler who considers his occasional rides with us to be a form of cross-training, an aspiring gravel-racer who never has a negative word for anyone, and a competitive mountain biker who can do "gear talk" as well as any adult cyclist I know.
Students have shown up on cruiser bikes, BMX bikes , and knock-off trail bikes. Wobbly Walmart specials with well-worn tires and rusty drive trains. A single-speed bike festooned with stickers. A tiny blue bike with a handlebar cushion and pink wheels (white sidewalls). Helmets are required but are often too tight or too loose.
I've offered students my old mountain bike but most prefer their own bikes, even when they aren't exactly what I'd call "trail ready." I recognize and respect the pride that students have for their own bikes.
Recently, we've been eschewing the longer ride to Rush Pond with its well-designed mountain bike trails for the quick commute to the Cole's Woods. The latter has a more modest trail system that is also well-used by walkers and runners. The trails are windy and mostly unmarked. But the area is smaller than Rush and it's not really possible to get lost. We've been letting the kids lead us around, turning onto whatever trails they want, knowing we can easily get back to school when needed. Just when I think bike club has evaporated we have a great ride.
Maybe a successful school is a place where every student can find a niche or two for themselves where they can grow (or find refuge amidst all the growing). As long as we can be that for a few students, I'm happy to keep riding.
10/13/2024, A contrast in cars
We've taken our new Prius Prime car on a few longer trips now and I'm just getting used to the modern amenities. "Penny" has a suite of intelligent driving features, including adaptive cruise control with a lane-keeper function. This system keeps you in the center of the lane, eerily nudging the wheel this way and that with no input from the driver. Penny is liberal with warnings for her untrustworthy human passengers, including alerts when it detects cross traffic or vehicles in adjacent lanes. A sensor array watches my face and isn't shy about reminding me to focus on the road if my eyes aren't fixed forward. Most emasculating are the proximity warnings when parking. I pride myself in my ability to parallel park, but when gliding into a spot this weekend, the maneuver triggered such a series of alarms and warnings it was clear that Penny had little confidence in my judgment. The car's systems alternate between minimizing the attention needed to drive and anxiously reminding me that my attention is essential.
When it comes to sheer volume of silicon, Penny dwarfs my 2015 Crosstrek ("Stewie"). In the latter, a stick connects me to an honest-to-god five-speed transmission. The cruise control relies on me to steer and would happily ram me into the back of the vehicle in front of me if I neglected to make a correction. Stewie's one modern amenity is a rear camera that feeds to a tiny screen on my dashboard (I remember when this was quite the party trick!).
All in all, the new technology is wonderful. The Prius has a plug-in battery and we recently went over 800 miles on a single tank of gas. The adaptive cruise control makes it the best choice for longer trips. But driving "Stewie" is a freshly sentimental experience that I'll appreciate as long as I can.
9/28/204, Whirlwind bikepacking trip
I went on a rapid, semi-local bikepacking trip with two parents of young children this weekend. In order to squeeze the trip into their busy family lives, we left at 3:30 PM, arrived at camp at sundown, and left camp at 5:30 AM. We rolled back at our cars a scant 15 hours after we left them. The experience challenged my self-conceptions as a cyclist/bikepacker. I like to think of myself as someone who rides fast and stays on the move. But I felt rushed as we barely paused on the whole trip (I realized how often I usually stop for photos). Meals for my friends were sourced from Stewart's on the way to and back from camp. They didn't exactly jog around the shop selecting food, but their movements were certainly urgent. In contrast, I take special pleasure in cooking at camp and rarely purchase meals when on a bikepacking trip (leisurely coffee at cafe's excepted!). But I had a great trip and especially enjoyed bikepacking with other people for a change.
Summer 2024 pictures
Fishbrook Pond, RPR, Pilsbury Mountain cabin wreck, elaborate food truck door, Glens Falls truck, house with roses, Kru Coffee, tree frog
Mushroom farm visit
Prague, Danube, Passau, Vienna, Budapest
8/1/2024, Street photography in Europe
In late January, I purchased a used Olympus EM-1 Mark II mirrorless camera. I had been using a nice point-and-shoot camera (Canon G9X) and a Panasonic bridge camera for photography. After a few months using the Olympus, I was excited to bring the camera with us on our first big trip since COVID– a few days in Prague followed by a cruise on the Danube with stops in Vienna and Budapest.
One skill I tried to work on during the trip was street photography. While this is probably possible in a place like Glens Falls, the quantity and diversity of people in a large European city like Prague put me on an accelerated learning curve when it comes to taking candid pictures of people in the urban environment.
My primary lens for much of the trip was the M.Zuiko 14-42mm F3.5-5.6 EZ lens (purchased used from MPB.com). Coupled with a slick auto open lens cap, this very compact lens made my camera feel like a point-and-shoot but with all the tactile controls I love about the EM-1 Mark II. The lens also doesn't scream "photographer!" which made me feel less self-conscious when pointing the camera at people. The 14mm focal length (28mm equivalent in 35mm) was what I used most for street photography because the wide field of view gave me the best chance of capturing something interesting when there was no time to compose the frame. The modest focal range available to me allowed me to also use the lens for architectural and landscape photography without switching lenses.
Some settings I experimented with included:
1/350 shutter speed (or faster) and f8: I needed a relatively fast shutter speed to make up for my movement and the movement of subjects. I went faster when I could. I know that the f8 aperture is a standard starting point for street photography because it allows for a decent slice of the scene to be in focus.
Manual focus (pre-set): The camera lets me pre-set a manual focus distance that becomes the default when the camera is placed in this mode. When used with a somewhat forgiving f8 aperture, I eventually adapted to the distance that I would need to be from subjects to get a focused image. I did get many good shots with C-AF but occasionally the camera would fail to focus on the subject that I hoped it would.
Autofocus failed me here. ISO bracketing: The bright summer sun and narrow, shaded European city streets made it tough to find a suitable ISO that would work in all situations and I really didn't want to be constantly fiddling with my camera (at least not more than I already was). With ISO bracketing, the camera takes three shots with one above and one below the selected ISO. A downside of this setting is that it cluttered up my camera with lots of repetitive images. I've since been relying more on auto ISO (with defined limits) and I've been happy with the images I've gotten. In the future, I'd probably try this instead of ISO bracketing.
Alternating shade and harsh sun in a Budapest street market. Sequential low with silent shutter: This setting captures about 10 frames per second, increasing my chance of catching an interesting shot when I noticed an interesting subject and/or background. The silent shutter made me feel less conspicuous.
I often wore a small back back with a sternum strap when we were exploring a city. I rested my camera on the strap with my finger on the shutter as we walked around. Here are a few favorites:
Spring 2024 pictures
Nashville lobby, cashmere animal butts, backyard fern, Adirondack eclipse
4/7/2024, Week in Nashville
Before COVID, Rashna and I used to travel quite a bit with a few biggish domestic trips (4 or 5 days) and maybe one international trip each year. With our first visit to Europe since 2018 booked for the summer, we decided to dust off our luggage and take a 5 day trip to Nashville. It was my first time there and Rashna's second (although the first time she was mostly sequestered in a hotel for a conference). The warmer southern weather we had hoped for never really materialized but we got a brisk preview of spring and the opportunity to explore a new city.
Food: Rashna put in the work ahead of time, bookmarking a raft of vegan or vegan-friendly establishments. There were actually an impressive number and we sometimes structured our day around various culinary experiences. Avo was probably our favorite but we also enjoyed several delicious vegan/vegetarian options at the Assembly Food Hall (a modest walk from our hotel). Other spots we loved: vegan sushi at Blue Sushi Sake Grill, brunch at Milk and Honey, and the coffee at Frothy Monkey.
Music: It took us a while to visit a honky tonk bar on Broadway but we enjoyed it very much when we did. We listened to one of the famed cover bands and were astounded by their skill and repertoire. We spent an evening at the Grande Ole Opry and every single act was amazing. A visit to Printer's Alley and a blues bar was also a fantastic experience. The amount of musical talent in Nashville is certainly not overstated.
Culture: Our hotel was just a few blocks from Broadway which was a blessing and a curse. It was easy to get to the downtown sites but when the evening party crowds really got going towards the end of the week, we could hear the hootin' and hollerin' (and copious sirens) from our hotel. The cacophony of overlapping bands, roving bachelor/bachelorette parties, and a variety of souvenir shops dominated the Broadway area.
The Museum of African American Music turned out to be a real gem and a great place to spend a few hours (and wait out a tornado warning). We also enjoyed the Frist Art Musuem.
Getting around: We walked a lot and especially enjoyed strolling around the neighborhoods of East Nashville. A walk on/walk off tour bus was a good way to see the sites in western part of town and we used lots of Lifts to get to more far-flung spots (the Opry and certain restaurants).
Overall, we had a great trip. Good food, plenty to do, and some of the best randomly chosen music I've ever experienced.
Winter 2023-2024 pictures
Backyard birds, door in Elmira, Saratoga grocery store, Briggs Marsh, Shirt Factory, my mom sewing
Fall 2023 pictures
Padanarum Road, finishing a ride at sunset, Duck Hole
Summer 2023 pictures
Bike frame, Marcy Field
3/15/2023, Pod pick: The men – and boys – are not alright
Richard Reeves has been on the podcast circuit recently talking about his book Of Boys and Men. Reeves researches inequality and social mobility, with a particular focus on men and boys. I've heard several interviews with him but the most thorough was on the Ezra Klein Podcast where the discussion dipped well into the statistical weeds. Some of the most compelling stats from this discussion included:
When Title IX was passed in 1972, men earned bachelor's degrees at a rate 13 points higher than women. The statistic today is almost exactly inverted: women outpace men by 15 points.
During COVID (2020), college enrollment for men fell at seven times the rate as it did for women. About twice as many middle age men died of COVID than middle aged women.
There are meaningful differences among high schools in the U.S. due to income distribution. But in a typical school district, girls tend to be 3/4 of a grade level ahead of boys in English and even in math. In poorer districts, they are about a full year ahead in English and 1/3 a grade level ahead in math. Two-thirds of the top 10% of students by GPA are girls and the bottom decile is two-thirds boys. Boys and girls do about equally well on standardized tests.
There is evidence that boys are less resilient than girls in the face of poverty, challenging home environments, poor supervision.
Some interventions, such as state college scholarship programs for high achieving high school students, disproportionately benefit girls.
Approximately 70% of opioid-related deaths are male, with men being four times more likely to commit suicide than women.
The high school and college statistics weren't surprising to me. On average, boys seem to develop executive skills that allow them to be successful in school earlier than girls. I teach more "remedial" math classes but even there, girls seem more open to going to college than boys.
I'd like to read this book to get a better handle on some of the solutions that Reeves proposes. One of the more extreme ideas, increasing the default age of kindergarten for boys ("red-shirting"), is already common practice among parents sending their boys to elite private schools. Reeves supports growing and celebrating spaces where boys can be among boys with guidance from adult males (Reeves laments Boy Scouts of America's change to "Scouting America" as it opens its programming to girls). He also advocates continuing funding for STEM and vocational training but also promoting male entry into HEAL vocations (health, education, administration, and literacy) where male participation has cratered.
Winter 2022-2023 pictures
Haystack Mountain, bluebirds on the birdcam
Fall 2022 pictures
Rashna is a 46-er! and other hikes
Summer 2022 pictures
Montreal, Hudson Valley bike tour, Keuka Lake, Adirondack Loj Road
8/25/2021, Expecting the unexpected
Our department will have a new teacher this year and when I met with her earlier this month, she was understandably curious about what she would be teaching (I didn't know). She also had other logical questions about her new job and school opening, many of which I had no answers to. COVID has made the 2021 school year start especially confusing, but in my experience, the beginning of the school year is often characterized by a "fly by the seat of your pants" ethos. Critical information about our schedule and what/who we are teaching is often delivered days before school starts. My new colleague was fortunately able to get access to a relatively firm teaching schedule, although I cautioned her to be ready for quite a few bumps on the road during the weeks before and after opening day.
Like the sucker that I am, I have been digging a bit deeper than I probably should be into planning for the first month of school (I've been burned before, with my assignment being changed at a late date, rendering my summer preparation useless). I've often thought about how this hard restart each year makes teaching unique among professions. Late August is for dreaming up ambitious plans and aspirational schemes for big changes in how I run my classroom. September and October are often humbling as these plans run up against intractable realities. Many do not survive the encounter. But I can be do my best to be flexible (I've had lots of practice) and I'm excited to see what this second (third?) pandemic school year has in store.
7/18/2021, Trading spaces
This past week, I moved out of the classroom that I have worked in for the last three years. I am relocating to a classroom in the same hallway as the mathematics teachers I will be working with next year. My new room is larger and equipped with windows (!). It also has a set of furniture designed to be easily shifted into different learning configurations. The longest that I have ever taught in the same classroom was when I taught in Providence, RI (a 5 year stint). I managed to accumulate an alarming amount of stuff during that period and am happy to say that moving this time was relatively painless, mostly due to the tiny size of my old room. It was still time-consuming packing and unpacking, organizing and purging. This phase is the fun part for me and, thanks to a boon from the floor-waxing gods, I have been able to get into the room earlier than usual to putter and push furniture around.
This is a time for optimistic signage and aggressive nesting. I've learned that it is well worthwhile to invest some time in making my classroom feel like home as I will be spending so much time in it both with and without students. Well-proven small conveniences and soft lighting schemes have made the move with me. I'll be spending less energy with posters, inspirational quotes, etc. as I don't feel like these have any real educational value. However, having a place for everything at the start of the year (often with labels) makes it infinitely easier to stay organized during the chaos of the school year. A goal that I have for this year is for students to play a more independent role in maintaining classroom systems and using resources in the room. For this reason, intricate systems and crowded walls will be impractical. I'm excited to have much of the physical adjustment done so I can focus on planning instruction in the latter days of summer.
6/28/2021, Training drivers to give cyclists space
New York's traffic laws regarding passing cyclists are too vague. They require that vehicles pass cyclists at an unspecified "safe distance" while many other states specifically require 3, 4, or even 6 feet when passing. A New York State bill sponsored by my state senator would require at least 3 feet of passing distance is currently stuck in committee. Cars usually give me adequate space when passing (although the occasional exceptions are harrowing). When I'm behind the wheel and need to pass a cyclist, I give as much space as I can, even if it means slowing down so I can pass into the opposing lane when it is safe. One frightening phenomenon is drivers that give me enough space but steer dangerously into oncoming traffic to make room for me. Just slow down and pass me when it is safe for everyone!
I've taken to waving at basically everyone I see when riding: other cyclists, pedestrians, and motorists. I'm really trying to say "Hi there! I'm a human, not a hyper-focused Lance wannabe or a piece of traffic furniture!" I try especially hard to wave when a car passes me in a safe and respectful way. I also wave at cars that wait for me to pass before turning onto the road I'm using. As a teacher, I understand the power of positive feedback and I like to give it to good drivers. Maybe my friendly waves will validate people's good behavior and make them more likely to behave that way in the future. I've definitely noticed that when one car passes me respectfully, the cars that follow them are more likely to do so. Maybe they want a wave too?
6/27/2021, "Captain Crunch," the giant carrot
School is done and day one of summer found us puttering in the yard and digging in the garden (that was mostly Rashna). Our raised beds are hosting a variety of vegetables including tomatoes, lettuce, kale, peppers, and beans. We planted carrots last year but decided not to grow them again because, despite gaudy, healthy surface flora, their edible roots tended to be less than two inches long: not exactly a great use of our limited garden real estate. I'm sure there is some reason for this failure (we are extremely novice gardeners) but we figured we'd skip the carrots this year and plant more lettuce and kale since these actually provided us with salad for much of the summer and fall. But one carrot either somehow survived the winter or managed to successfully seed the earth with its offspring. The result is a single giant carrot in the center of our garden. Rashna checked the root: it is actually a carrot (a very diminutive one, naturally) and it is now "bolting." We have named this carrot "Captain Crunch" and will leave him in place to taunt the rabbits who will be able to see it from a great distance only to be thwarted by my new fence. Perhaps someday it will adorn a small corner of one of our salads. Long live Captain Crunch!
6/19/2021, Team of Rivals
I'm a big fan of Steven Spielberg's 2012 film "Lincoln" and when I learned that it was partly based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, I knew I had to read her book. My grandmother begrudgingly leant me her copy last month and I'm most of the way through it. I've enjoyed it immensely. I've always appreciated history but this is no dry textbook; almost every page features some interesting or eloquent quote from our sixteenth president. A few of the events depicted in the book have scary parallels to the present. For example, there was a real fear that secessionists would disrupt the certification of electoral ballots after his election in 1861. The atmosphere of intense animosity and division in 1850's America reminds me of the current mood of our country. Here are a few somewhat random thoughts bouncing around in my head as I read this book:
Life was harrowing and short in the 1800's. In the early chapters of her book, Goodwin describes the upbringings of Lincoln and several members of his cabinet. Their biographies are all marred by heartbreaking tragedy: death from disease, death from childbirth, death by infection and accident. I wonder how these constant and inexorable reminders of mortality affected the perspectives and choices of people living at that time.
Lincoln's good humor and willingness to forgive were his secret weapons. Again and again, he smoothed over disputes, secured allies for the future, and charmed both voters and politicians. He had an intensely empathetic nature and constantly imagined himself in other people's skins. When he did offend somebody, he addressed it head-on and with humor and humility.
Lincoln understood other people's strengths and was willing to look past previous disagreements in order to harness their skills for his purposes. Even those who haven't read this book have probably heard the title phrase, used here to describe Lincoln's diverse and often contentious cabinet. Over and over, Lincoln was happy to bring previous adversaries into his orbit when he sensed that he needed them.
Lincoln never blamed others when things did not fall his way. If someone in his cabinet or government was under attack, he did not waver in their defense and accepted responsibility for their failings. Almost every member of Lincoln's cabinet faced the specter of public outrage and ouster at some point only to be rescued by their president.
America in the 1850's and 1860's was a thoroughly racist place. It doesn't seem like an overstatement to say that slavery shaped almost every political debate and calculation during those decades. Although groups of abolitionists did decry slavery and fought for the humanity of all races, even those that argued against slavery still held deep prejudices against blacks. Any politician hoping to assemble a coalition of voters had to take this into account. Lincoln skirted the issue of slavery whenever possible and his early positions, while anti-slavery, still did not acknowledge the humanity of black Americans. His famous Emancipation Proclamation was a careful calculation that he recognized could have perilous consequences. For example, a major fear was that the populace of the North would interpret the Proclamation as a reframing of the goals of the Civil War from preserving the Union to abolishing slavery. Although Lincoln's evolving beliefs around race could rightly be called bigoted by modern standards, he was also endlessly practical. He had a genius for embracing small steps towards racial equality, especially when they were in accord with his central goal of preserving the Union.
The media landscape and the nature of public discourse in Lincoln's time had some interesting parallels with today as well as some striking differences. Newspapers were unapologetically political and biased towards one party or another. Press objectivity didn't exist: if you wanted to understand the arguments for or against an issue, you simply had to read a variety of newspapers and draw your own conclusions. The power of the spoken word (in the form of political speeches and debates) surprised me. For example, the famous Lincoln-Douglas series of debates were media events that lasted for about three hours each. Senators and politicians routinely gave speeches stretching as long as five hours in length. Several times, a speech or letter printed in the press shifted public opinion in an important way. Again and again, I read anecdotes depicting politics as an unabashed blood sport only to find out later that a politician had managed to shift public opinion in a major way. This is harder to imagine today.
6/12/2021, Rhythms of the school year
We have just a few weeks left of school and really only a handful of "normal" days remaining. This is my twelfth June in the classroom. Like the turning of the seasons or the gradual approach of a holiday, I recognize some of the same themes and melodies from school years past: stressed out (or checked out) seniors and their exasperated parents and teachers. Stifling classrooms slowly taking on the baked smell that I recognize from cracking open the door in September after a long summer. Fans push warm air around and posters drop off the walls.
I caught myself getting extremely anxious about one student's chances of graduating last week. I don't have as much experience working with seniors and I realize that as immature as ninth and tenth graders can be, at least I don't usually have to participate in the harried dash to the finish line that some seniors force on themselves by degrees in the final months. My lessons are now mostly review and our schedule will soon contort to accommodate more than week of testing. I've been creating final exams and projects. Soon my focus will be on grading and end of the school year tasks- and then it will be over.
For me, summer is a time for some adventuring that doesn't fit nicely within the strictures of the work week. I'm hoping to do plenty of hiking this summer- maybe a section of the Appalachian Trail, the Cranberry Lake 50, as well as some peak-bagging with Rashna. I'll also be doing a good deal of curriculum writing with two different groups of teachers. I have to complete my "Maintenance of Certificate" work for my National Board Certification next year and there's plenty of work to do there. There is a stack of books I want to read and some house projects that will keep me busy too.
If it were up to me, a teacher's year would have a slightly different rhythm with less time off in the summer. The negative effect of such a long break for my students is hard to overstate. While I always make the most of my summers, I feel that I could do with a much shorter and less disruptive break. I think teachers and students would benefit from shorter breaks spread out more regularly throughout the school year.
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