Clarissa's Blog

I feel like summer holidays have already begun, and real work can start.

There is still one more week of classes, then the final exams, grading, and submitting the grades. But for me, grading equals watching tons of TV, and I love TV, so it isn’t onerous. 

Summer, I love you. In spite of the nasty weather.

Is anybody following French politics? What’s this Macron fellow about? What are his main ideas?

Democrats lost over a thousand state legislative sears over the last 6 years. 

So yeah, Hillary is a symptom, not a cause. 

In 2011-12, Russian economy was doing great, the middle class was growing, people were improving their economic well-being. But Putin’s approval ratings were lower than ever. People were protesting in the streets, ridiculing Putin online, and it was fashionable among the cultural elites to despise Putin. 

Then, the oil prices started to drop, and the economy entered into a deep recession. In response, Putin invaded Ukraine and attached the narrative of “We are defending our fellow Russian-speakers and sticking it to Americans” to the invasion. The economy collapsed, the middle-class is in the toilet, everybody became poorer. But Putin’s approval ratings are sky-high, and the very people who used to mock him are now sincere and active Putinoids.

Moral of the story: people value a sense of purpose and of being part of something grand a lot more than they value their economic well-being. 

So you know how I always ridiculed boxed cereals as bird food, right? But today I tried one called Bran Buds with almond milk, and it was sensational. It looks like miniature goat droppings, so that’s off-putting but once you try it, it’s very good.

I want to answer the comment I got in one of the threads about the reason why I have such a lackadaisical approach to grades.

My father taught college back in Ukraine. He would come to class on the first day and say, “Everybody gets an A. Now, all who want to leave can go.” And then he’d teach those who remained. To me, hat’s what real teaching is. It’s not about control and authority, punishment and reward, policing and disciplining. It’s about working together with students on approaching truth and appreciating beauty.

Unfortunately, I can’t teach this way because the whole thing is too bureaucratized. But I can’t care enough about grades where I’d see them as sacred. I find it beyond bizarre when teachers worship at the altar of grades and do insane things like saying, “No, you got 79%, and that’s a C. I’ll never pretend it’s 80% and give you a B.” Or, “I said to hand in the essay before 4:59 pm, and you sent it in at 5:40 pm. I will not accept it! (Or lower the grade.)” There are also very strange people who see tardiness as disrespect towards themselves, as if students are not a lot more likely to have a million things going on in their lives that are not about this bizarre teacher.

If a student tells me, “My life will be ruined if I fail this course,” I don’t see the reason to test this assumption and fail them. The real tragedy is not a grade, whatever it is. It’s the reluctance of people to cultivate an interest in truth and beauty. And that can’t be remedied with any grade. 

For the first time since we moved to this state we were visited by Jehovah’s witnesses. What’s creepy is that they came on the same day as when their organization was outlawed in Russia for extremism and its assets were confiscated. 

A lot of unconvincing stuff at the link but this sounds true: “French elites have convinced themselves that their social supremacy rests not on their economic might but on their common decency. Doing so allows them to “present the losers of globalization as embittered people who have problems with diversity,” says Guilluy. It’s not our privilege that the French deplorables resent, the elites claim; it’s the color of some of our employees’ skin.”

Why Chelsea needs to go away: “God has decreed that American political dynasties decline sharply in suitability for office with each iteration. Call it the George H.W.-George W.-Jeb rule. Quit after the first iteration. Don’t trot out the second one. And, for the love of God, don’t trot out the third.”

You spend enough time with nutsos, you begin to speak like one: “She says men are the key. If men are on board, it can be solved. “Men need to feel comfortable, to say, ‘Yes, I am proud to marry a woman who is not mutilated,’” she says.” 

The dangerous inanity of the March for Science. I’ve been stunned to get emails that invite me to sign a statement that I “believe in science.” 
I didn’t know this about the American Civil War. 

Will teacher tenure die? If there is a practice I’ll never understand, it’s this one. 

And once again, Bernie Sanders has failed a purity test and this needs to be nitpicked and worried to death. Nothing will teach them, nothing. 

 Russians are celebrating the firing of Bill O’Reilly. 

The only thing in Lion King I’d prefer to be different is to have more African rhythms and less signature Elton John stuff.

African rhythms return us to the genetic memory of our shared origins. It’s like hearing the heartbeat of our archetypal mother that all human beings have in common. 

As the cradle of humanity, Africa is a place whose well-being is the pre-condition to the well-being of the entire planet.

The Lion King was the best show ever. People are not allowed to film the show, so here is a picture of me that transmits my enthusiasm. This is the 3rd Broadway musical I’ve seen, and unlike the horrible previous experiences (which I had on actual Broadway), this one was beautiful and redeemed the genre in my eyes. 

P. S. It’s not amazing weight loss (I’m still at the exasperating 203 lbs) but the optical illusion of selfie. Just in case people wonder.