Folks, is Romania considered Eastern Europe?

Of course, the method described in the previous post also fits in perfectly with the neoliberal idea of replacing 15 highly qualified teachers with 1 unqualified cheap one. 

I’m stunned to see how many of my colleagues are celebrating this horrible idea. Folks, stop forwarding the link to me. There’s nothing here to feel giddy about. 

FINLAND WILL BECOME THE FIRST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD TO GET RID OF ALL SCHOOL SUBJECTS

Actually, this teaching method is gazillion years old. It was ridiculed by Chekhov and others back in the 19th century. The method was popular with the newly emerging middle classes whose members wanted to give their kids an imitation of aristocratic education. They couldn’t afford it, though, and had to settle for this method of teaching. The results were ridiculous.

The method was revived in the 1920s and the 1930s when developed countries tried to make secondary ed truly comprehensive and thought this was a good way to help the children of illiterate peasants and factory workers to catch up with middle-class peers. It failed just as badly as in the 19th century. 

Today, wannabeism happens on the planetary scale, and this old teaching method is being disinterred yet again.

My experience with the Finnish students and colleagues, by the way, is that only the Japanese are more ignorant in terms of any but the most ultra-specialized, technical knowledge. 

I’m truly puzzled by people who ask me why Klara is in daycare if I work from home this summer. I decided not to provide any answer to this question and treat it as if my interlocutors have committed a social faux pas that I’m graciously refusing to notice. 

I’m in the wrong profession, folks. I should have been an index-maker. My brain is set up in a way that makes this kind of work extremely easy.

Of course, I would die of boredom and lack of challenge within a month, so nothing is perfect.

Why are both Obama and Trump so subservient to the Saudis? Ten years ago, OK, there was no choice. The Saudis held the control over the world economy in their pockets because theu could manipulate oil prices. But there’s been a fracking revolution in the US. Things have changed but the US presidents act as though it never happened. 

When will the Saudi rule over the US finally end? The Saudis are very distasteful. I’m tired of seeing American presidents grovel at their feet when our culture is clearly superior to theirs. 

What you need to know about Herman Koch’s The Dinner is that the novel rests on the idea that violence is a disease that is transmitted genetically. Unfortunately, it isn’t revealed until you’ve read 70% of the book that you’ve got to buy into this ridiculous claptrap for the novel to make sense. 

I feel offended by this kind of writing because it’s a waste of time for the people who don’t share this degenerate ideology. 

This is turning out to be a weird reading year for me. Everything I read is either irredeemably bad or extraordinarily good with nothing in the middle. 

. . . has been solved! Remember how I shared that Klara kept saying the word “Vova”, which confused us because we don’t know anybody by this name (it’s the diminutive of Vladimir), and we only refer to Putin by his last name. 

Whenever I asked Klara to show me Vova, she would point at N, which really weirded me out. Is N a secret Putinoid, I wondered, and did Klara find this out about him? Is she trying to warn me?

This was one of her favorite words that she repeated all the time, and I had no idea what it meant. 

But now the mystery has been solved. It turns out that Vova is Klara’s way of pronouncing “yozhik” (which means “hedgehog” in Russian).

What a relief!

Have you noticed that it’s never normal students who shut down classes and wail idiotically at guest speakers but always rich spoiled brats? 

Has anybody tried assigning them homework to keep them occupied? Or would that make tyem feel too threatened and unsafe?

AT&T workers from the store around the corner are striking. I read a newspaper account about the strike and discovered that the company’s spokespeople claim that the strikers are making $140,000 and their discontent makes no sense. 

I don’t know how much workers elsewhere make but I know for an absolute fact that the people who are striking here in town don’t even make $40,000, let alone $140,000. I know that because I know one of the strikers and her friend and the Mom of another strikers. And I know them enough for them to have shared information about their working conditions with me long before the strike. 

One of the benefits for the capital of fluidity and the attendant rootlessness is that people never manage to form deep enough relationships that will allow them to share the truth about their working conditions .