Author: Steve
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We’re Doomed
I just saw an English professor post on Facebook that taking students to the theater “Solves nothing,” but is a “nice distraction from things.” We are doomed if English professors have given up on the political, social, and psychological transformations that theater provides. I think we need to force people to read Kenneth Burke.
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Three Takes on the U.S. Presidential Election
Take 1: The difficult rhetorical lesson – if there is any perception that one’s economic situation is not as good as it once was, that belief cannot be engaged with any claims about human rights, rights to live how one wishes, civil rights protections or any such claim. This perception can be very minimal. For…
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Writing Studies
Writing studies seems so much more serious than anything going on in speech communication rhetoric to me these days. I think what’s most attractive is the focus on the idea of pedagogy. This requires the assumption that people can change if we give them opportunity to do so, and that opportunity exists in the carefully…
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Working in the Library
There’s nothing like it. Bukowski really nailed it when he wrote about it. It’s my second day here at the Saratoga Public library doing some work and it’s overflowing with joy for me. I’m in Saratoga Springs with my partner as she is here attending a state teacher’s meeting. I tagged along for support, good…
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New Job
I’d like to say I have a new job but this would be equivocation. What’s really happening is my relationship with my job is totally different than it used to be due to distance in many ways. The first kind of distance – geographical. I now live an hour and 20 minutes from the office.…
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An Argument
The most valuable things for me in college were reading books and discussing them (or listening to the professor talk about them). The other valuable thing was being in clubs, meeting people and making relationships. I don’t think either of these are possible any longer. Students are on campus a minimal amount of time due…
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Bad Teacher
I’ve become a very bad teacher recently and I’d like to figure out why. Reflecting on what a bad teacher is, I’ve come up with the following ideas All of these things are elements of bad teaching and being bad at teaching, but perhaps the bad teacher is someone who just disregards these and doesn’t…
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Rhetoric is too Important to be left to the institutional rhetoricians
Rhetoric historians – I know you are reading. Please let me know what the analogue is to this issue? I beg you, I need to read some of the historical material. Rhetoric has been ruined by the Institutional Rhetoricians. By this I mean rhetoricians who think NCA is more important than rhetoric; that NCA represents…
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Bad Teaching is Debate Coaching
Still thinking about what makes bad teaching/good teaching. I found this atrocious lecture from “debate coaches” supposedly teaching the best and brightest young debaters at an exclusive “forum” for debate at Emory University. The Barkley Forum doesn’t seem to have any quality control standards. We get a route lecture that is thin, vapid, and incorrect…
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The God Damn University Athletic Department
Known as the “grease trap” or “drip tray” or “Spill tray” of employment, the University Athletic department is one of the things that needs to be eliminated from the university in totality. Why? University athletics is like an addictive drug to the administration. They see it as easy mode, a way to attract tuition-paying students…
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