Archive for the ‘Education’ Category
Place: “writing from a place, from a community, from a location in the world”
Reconnecting with my Upper Peninsula past in the summer of 2010, I visited the Iron Mountain Iron Mine, one of my most favorite historical locales as a child. Part of the profession of writing and studying history demands an indifference to place. One reason for this is the slim chance of finding an academic position [...]
January 27th, 2011Why I love what I do:
"American Progress," by George Crogutt, 1873. Finishing up the semester next week, and I’ve got one major paper left. The class is Issues and Interpretations in American History, and without being to prosaic, the professor has decreed that our final assignment is to consider and reflect on the twelve books and three articles we’ve read [...]
December 2nd, 2010Modern-day “Peril”? Chinese language in American classrooms, and that long-standing friend-or-enemy dilemma
China has the second-largest economy in the world, a fact that looms ominously over the shoulder of El Numero Uno: the United States. And when you are as connected economically as China and the U.S., it behooves each side to attempt friendliness; it also means it would be nearly impossible for either side to start [...]
October 7th, 2010On travelogues, and the winding road to ending up where you intended
There was a time, several years ago, when I rarely left the travel essay section of a bookstore. I suspect it began around the time I starting subscribing to National Geographic, and I discovered the art of writing about travel. Reporting on what you ate every day or which monuments you visited is not of [...]
September 20th, 2010