Critical Education has just published a new issue. Check out Perry Marker’s essay review of Christopher R. Leahey’s book, Whitewashing War: Historical Myth, Corporate Textbooks and the Possibilities of Democratic Education.
Category Archives: Miscellaneous
MLB 2010 Prognostications
MLB predictions from five of the most knowledgeable and bias baseball experts in North America and the Caribbean.
1. The Unassailable 2010 MLB Picks from Just North of the Border:
[Never, ever, start with the AL]
NL East
Philadelphia Phillies (They are monsters, pitch, hit, hit with power, Da Champs)
Atlanta Braves (Jason Heyward, rookie of the year; Braves give manager Bobby Cox a nice run in his last year)
New York Mets (Suck)
Florida Marlins (Good hit; only average pitching)
Washington Nationals (Even Stephen Straussburg can’t save this pitching staff)
NL Central
St. Louis Cardinals (Should probably pick em to battle with the Phillies, but I hate LaRussa)
Chicago Cubs (Could be the wild card, but lots of “ifs”; A plus that Milton Bradley is gone)
Milwaukee Brewers (Will play .500 ball and be third in the Central agin)
Cincinnati Reds (Chapman got the big contract, but can these guys hit?)
Houston Astros (Play in a bandbox but can’t hit it out)
Pittsburgh Pirates (Those are really cool statues outside PNC Park)
NL West
Colorado Rockies (Speedy and powerful, plus decent pitching)
Los Angeles Dodgers (Manny, will he be weird and good or weird and bad?)
San Francisco Giants (First class pitching, but last year lowest OBP and only 122 homers)
San Diego Padres (Give me a break, camo unis?)
Arizona Diamondbacks (Lot’s of candidates for the bounce-back award)
AL East
New York Yanquis (They are like capitalism, I’ve got nothing good to say about them)
Tampa Bay Rays (Should have the guts to pick em to beat the Yanquis, love Carl Crawford; Soriano will be big time help)
Boston Red Sox (I’m tired of these guys, especially Papelbon, if it’s between NY and Bosox I’ll watch soccer)
Toronto Blue Jays (Cito will never get these guys going)
Baltimore Orioles (Love Boogs BBQ, but not much else to like in Balto…ceptin’ “The Wire”, sorry Kev and Larry)
AL Central
Minnesota Twins (Out of the horrid HHH dome and on to the AL pennant and these boys can hit)
Chicago White Sox (Lot’s of pitching but not enough pop)
Detroit Tigers (Damon helps the offense, but not enough)
Cleveland Indians (Worst pitching in baseball from the team that’s traded away two recent Cy Young winners)
Kansas City Royals (Good young core, on the upswing but not there yet. I picked em below the Tribe to help Perry feel better when he talks baseball with Marty in April…”See Wayne thinks the Tribe is better than KC!”)
AL West
Seattle Mariners (Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez, take that)
Los Angeles Angels (Figgins and Lackey are gone)
Texas Rangers (Wish I could pick em last, just based on past ownership, but the A’s are that bad)
Oakland A’s (Why on earth did Mr. and Mrs. Crisp name their kid “Coco”? Their No. 1 starter, Ben Sheets, missed all of ’09; has made 30 starts once since ’05.)
Playoffs:
NL Pennant: Phillies
AL Pennant: Twins
WS Champs: Phillies
Awards:
NL MVP: Albert Pujols (StL)
AL MVP: Evan Langoria (TB)
NL Cy Young: Roy Halladay (PHL)
AL Cy Young: Justin Verlander (DET)
NL Rookie: Jason Heyward (ATL)
AL Rookie: Wade Davis (TB)
2. MLB Picks from The Edge of the Continent:
AL East
Tampa Bay
NY
Toronto
Boston
Baltimore
Tampa Bay will surprise and mercilessly stomp the Yankees into oblivion (or at least second place). I hate the Fucking Yankees. Toronto will be a surprise with their young, solid prospects.
AL Central
Minnesota
Detroit
Chicago
Kansas City
Cleveland
It hurts me deeply to pick The Tribe last. They are but a shadow of the 2007 team that was one game from the World Series. The ownership in Cleveland is back to their 60’s and 70s style: CHEAP! So it will be a long year. Shin -Soo Choo will be an all star. Sizemore will comeback after injury. Pitching is dismal. Carmona is a head case. The Twins may win it all this year.
AL West
Los Angeles
Seattle
Texas
Oakland
This may end up being a very competitive division in the AL. The A’s may surprise but will fall short. Milton Bradley will be tamed by the presence of the great Ken Griffey Jr. Cliff Lee may win 30 games if he is healthy.
NL East
Philadelphia
Atlanta
NY
Florida
Washington
The weakest division in all of baseball. It’s the Phillies and no one else. They could win this division by 15 games. No one else has game in this division. Atlanta is the only hope here to give the Phillies some competition. Will the Nationals (they need to put image of the the Capitol on their hats) win 55 games? It’s over by May 1st in this division. Only two teams over 500 in this division.
NL Central
St Louis
Chicago
Cincinnati
Milwaukee
Houston
Pittsburgh
St. Louis will be just good enough to hold off the Cubs. The winner of this vision will win no more than 86 games; the weakest division winner in baseball. LaRussa is overrated. The Reds and Brewers may surprise a lot of teams and win some games. One of these two teams will finish over 500.
NL West
Los Angeles
Colorado
Arizona
San Francisco
San Diego
Another weak division. I hate to say it, but the Dodgers will end up on top of this mediocre group. The Giants have great pitching and no hitting. A lot of 2-1, 3-2, 5-4 losses are in their future. Giants fans will be jumping off the Golden Gate by July 4th. The Rockies may surprise the Dodgers. San Diego needs to dump the camouflage uniforms, then I’ll pick them higher.
Playoffs:
American League Wild Card Team
New York
National League Wild Card Team
Chicago Cubs
ALDS
Twins over the Yankees
Rays over Angels
NLDS
Phillies over the Cardinals
Los Angeles over Cubs
ALCS
Rays over Twins
NLCS
Phillies over Los Angeles
World Series
Phillies over the Rays
AL MVP: Evan Longhoria, Rays
NL MVP: Albert Pujhols, Cardinals
Cy Young – AL: Cliff Lee – Mariners
Cy Young – NL: Chad Billingsley, Dodgers
3. MLB Picks 2010 by Himself (aka The Ethnarch of Puce; aka Del Cerro Bad Boy)
Well, I cannot stand the fucking Yankees either and hope that, well, I cannot say what I hope as the Michigan case now shows that the Sedition Laws are firmly in place.
But, here are my picks, having been humbled last year. Except everything I said last year was right. I stick to my premise of being the fairest of fair weather fans, especially since I just attended the LAST big league Spring training game ever at Hi Corbett field in Tucson, the Diamondbacks and Rockies left after demanding a billion dollar stadium from Tucson, moved to that desert horror, Phoenix, so I shall root for the game which is better than the people who own it and many of the people who play it too. Up the Lake Elsinore Storm, sez me!
AL East
Yankos (I cannot stand it and hope OBL changes this)
Rays (they restore the Devil name and it works)
Red Sox (losing Tiger Damon ruined ‘em)
Orioles (Baltimore, whadda pit)
Blue Jays (Canada hits bottom after the Olympic Crosby Nightmare)
AL Central
Tigers (a homer call if ever there was one but Cabrera is sober, Willis may not be crazy, Damon might have another winner’s year, the rookies Might come through, yadayada)
Twinkies (how do they do it??)
White Sox
Indians (river catches fire again but Indians do not)
Royals (killed off half the schools so what is left?)
AL West
Rangers (sheer guesswork)
Angels (LA is simply in the way and that is all that is worth knowing about it)
As
Seattle
NL East
Phillies (the only real team in this league this year)
Mets (playing over their heads)
Braves
Marlins
Nationals (that boy from San Diego will come up and help, but not enough)
NL Central
Cards (Bob Gibson reborn in Wainright and Carpenter)
Cubs
Brewers
Reds
Astros
Pirates (pity the Pirates, Somalis are doing better than the Pitts boys)
NL West
Dodgers
San Diego (homer surprise! total speed Go go Pads –in camo! with flyovers! )
Diamondbacks
Rockies (my guess is injuries as the boys are not really better)
Giants (because I like to see Bochy chew his hat)
ALCS–Tigers
NLCS–Cards
WS Winners –Bless those boys, it is a Tiger Year!!!!
It is 68 all over again! A great year! Woo hoo!
AL MVP–Tigers Cabrera
NL MVP–Pujols
AL Cy Young—Verlander The Tiger
NL Cy Young—Wainwright Cards
4. From somewhere deep in the middle of Pennsylvania a Yanqui fan?:
How could such smart people be so dumb about baseball.
Yankees get 28th by beating the Rockies, who beat the Cards and the Braves. Joe’s boys beat Rays after beating the Twins.
Mets, Nats, Pirates, Stros, Diamondbacks, Padres, Os, Blue Jays, Cleveland, Royals, and As are no longer really trying to win or play baseball in some cases. There must be a salary cap in baseball after Jeter retires this Fall in order to become Governor of NY.
Yanks
Rays
Bosox
Twins
Chisox
Tigers
Rangers
Mariners
Angels
Braves
Phillies
Marlins
Cards
Cubs
Brewers
Reds
Rockies
Giants
Dodgers
Jeter finally gets his MVP and then they break the mold in both leagues because Pujois is found to taking HGH or is that Arod?
No rookies of the year because the Yankees don’t play rookies. So why give awards away.
Halliday is DL after July sinking the wins.
5. Caribbean via the Charm City predictions for MLB 2010
Good morning all: Now for the correct predictions 🙂
First, as a native Baltimorean, a born and bred, livelong Orioles fan and a former longtime resident of Arizona, I am happy for a number of reasons: 1. The NFL season is less than 6 mos away; 2. Brian Matusz; 3. That the D’backs (my 2nd team) sent WR Anquan Boldin to the Ravens (good for Baltimore, a killer for AZ), and 4. That I live in Barbados 🙂
AL East
New Yankees (AL Pennant)
Boston Red Sox (Wild Card)
Tampa Bay Rays
Baltimore Orioles
Toronto Blue Jays
AL Central
Minnesota Twins
Chicago White Sox
Detroit Tigers
Cleveland Indians
Kansas City Royals
AL West
Texas Rangers
L.A. Angels
Seattle Mariners
Oakland A’s
NL East
Philadelphia Phillies (NL Pennant)
Atlanta Braves (Wild Card)
New York Mets
Florida Marlins
Washington Nationals
NL Central
St. Louis Cardinals
Cincinnati Reds
Chicago Cubs
Milwaukee Brewers
Pittsburgh Pirates
Houston Astros
NL West
Colorado Rockies
L.A. Dodgers
Arizona Diamondbacks
San Francisco Giants
San Diego Padres
AL Wild Card: Red Sox AL MVP: Joe Mauer (Twins) AL Cy Young: Felix Hernandez (Mariners) AL ROY: Brian Matusz (Orioles!!!!!!)
NL Wild Card: Braves NL MVP: Albert Pujols (Cardinals) NL Cy Young: Roy Halladay (Phillies)
NL ROY: Jason Hayward (Braves)
WORLD SERIES: Yankees over Phillies
Socializing NASCAR is the best idea I’ve heard! Let’s go racin’ boys….
Call for papers: Feminism and Marxism: Reassessments and Reports
Call for Papers for a Special Theme Issue on Feminism and Marxism: Reassessments and Reports
New Proposals calls for submissions for a special issue that will be dedicated to taking stock of intersections between feminism and marxism. A valuable series of publications on this debate appeared in the 1970s and 1980s.
We are interested in full-length articles (normally 3,500 to 10,000 words) as well as shorter comments and arguments (up to 3,500 words) that reengage with these earlier debates. For this issue, we also welcome short research reports (up to 1,500 words) summarizing the theoretical framework, methodology, and preliminary results of research projects that draw on both feminist and marxist traditions.
Submissions should be made to the journal web site by September 3, 2010. Please indicate that this submission is for this special issue.
Charles R. Menzies
University of British Columbia
New issue of Critical Education: “The Lure of the Animal: The Theoretical Question of the Nonhuman Animal”
With the current issue (Volume 1, Number 2), Critical Education launches a new series of articles titled “The Lure of the Animal: Addressing Nonhuman Animals in Educational Theory and Research.”
The inaugural article is by series editor Abraham P. DeLeon of the University of Texas, San Antonio and titled “The Lure of the Animal: The Theoretical Question of the Nonhuman Animal.”
Call for Proposals: Rouge Forum Conference 2010: Education in the Public Interest: Teaching and Learning for a Democratic Society
ROUGE FORUM CONFERENCE, 2010: CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Education in the Public Interest: Teaching and Learning for a Democratic Society
Rouge Forum 2010 will be hosted at George Williams College on the scenic banks of Geneva Lake. Located in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, the college is nestled between the major metropolitan areas of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Chicago, Illinois. The conference will be held August 2-5.
Bringing together academic presentations and performances (from some of the most prominent voices for democratic, critical, and/or revolutionary pedagogy), panel discussions, community-building, and cultural events, this action-oriented conference will center on questions such as:
- Transforming the notion of “saving public education” to one of creating education in the public interest, what does teaching and learning for a democratic society look like?
- What does education for liberation look like compared to the more socially reproductive/dominating education we see in many of our nation’s schools?
- Are the current crises in the economy as well as educationally in such states as California or cities like Detroit indicative of a turning point in history? Has the rightward shift ebbed or will the economic crisis push the ruling class towards fascism?
- What is a public good? Is education a public good? Why is it treated as a private good?
- Is climate change a matter to be debated by governments and industry leaders? Has the public participated in the debate on climate change? What roles do educators have in making students aware of the implications of that debate?
- Are multi-trillion dollar deficits public ‘bads’?
- What debts will future generations, including the students we may teach, carry because our financial, governmental, and military endeavors have not been concerned with public goods?
- What are the educational implications of the recent Supreme Court decision to endow corporations with the right of free speech?
- How do we learn and teach to get from where we are to where we need to be?
- How do we stand up for the correctness of our ideas?
- How does change happen (individually, within a school, within a district)?
- Can the current system be reformed in order to better serve children, families, and citizens?
- If not, what would a new system look like? How would it be implemented? What past models exist on which to work and build?
To learn more about the conference, please contact any of our conference organizers:
Faith Wilson (fwilson@aurora.edu)
Adam Renner (arenner@bellarmine.edu)
Wayne Ross (wayne.ross@ubc.ca)
Rich Gibson (rgibson@pipeline.com)
Gina Stiens (stiensg@yahoo.com)
Doug Selwyn (dselw001@plattsburgh.edu)
Joe Cronin (jcronin@antioch.edu)
Or visit the conference website at: www.rougeforumconference.org.
Submissions
Proposals for papers, panels, or performances should include title(s), no more than a 500 word description, and names and contact information for presenter(s). Presenters should plan on 45 minute time slots to deliver papers. Panels and performances will be awarded 90 minutes.
Review of Paper and Panel Proposals treating any of the above questions will begin April 15, 2010. Please send your proposals to Faith Wilson (fwilson@aurora.edu). As we expect a number of proposals for a limited number of slots please forward your proposal as soon as possible.
Performance Proposals should also be forwarded to Faith Wilson (fwilson@aurora.edu) by April 15, 2010. Please describe your art/performance and how it may relate to the conference topic/questions.
Critical Education inaugural issue
The Editorial Team of Critical Education is pleased to launch the inaugural issue of the journal.
Click on the current issue link at the top of the home page (or the abstract and article links at the bottom of the page) to read “The Idiocy of Policy: The Anti-Democratic Curriculum of High-stakes Testing” by Wayne Au. Au is assistant professor of education at Cal State University, Fullerton and author of Unequal By Design: High-Stakes Testing and the Standardization of Inequality (Routledge, 2009).
To recieve notification of new content in Critical Education, sign up as a journal user (reader, reviewer, or author).
Look for the initial installments of the special section edited by Abraham DeLeon titled “The Lure of the Animal: Addressing Nonhuman Animals in Educational Theory and Research” in the coming weeks.
Former U of Louisville dean Robert Felner agrees to plead guilty to fraud, tax evasion—Will serve 63 months in prison; pay $2 million restitution; forfeit real property to feds
Believe me he deserves this and more…
Courier-Journal: Former U of L dean agrees to plead guilty to fraud, tax evasion
Former University of Louisville Education Dean Robert Felner agreed Friday to plead guilty to nine federal charges, including income tax evasion, and to serve 63 months in prison in connection with defrauding U of L and another college out of $2.3 million.
He also agreed to pay restitution of $510,000 to U of L and $1.64 million to the University of Rhode Island as well as to the forfeiture to the federal government of real property he owned in Florida and in Illinois as well as bank accounts of undisclosed value.
U.S. District Judge Charles Simpson III said he will review the plea agreement before deciding whether to accept it. He also held out the possibility of imposing additional fines of up to $2.25 million on Felner.
Fair use vs. “libertarian” scholar’s pocketbook
From: E Wayne Ross
Subject: Re: copyright violation
Date: October 4, 2009 2:52:22 PM PDT
To: Joel Spring
Cc: Naomi Silverman, William Pinar
Joel,
I put the first two chapters of your book and the epilogue on my course blog for the students in my doctoral seminar to read in preparation for your visit to campus and meeting with the seminar on Wednesday, Oct 7.
With such a short lead time before your visit—about 3 weeks from when I heard you were going to be on campus and available to meet until next week’s seminar—I felt the most practical approach for students to have a common reading of your work was to post something to the blog.
The course blog is very low traffic (see the attached pdf of Google Analytics for Sept 3-Oct 3, 2009). The blog is for my current students and I take all posts down at the end of each term. My belief was/is that this was a reasonable and educationally justifiable approach considering the circumstances. My actions were motivated by a desire to have students engaged with your most recent scholarship and to be prepared to make the most of the rare opportunity they have to meet with you.
As long time colleague and friendly acquaintance I am disappointed by your legalistic, tattling response. (Why not a share your concern in friendly or even inquisitive way.) I wonder too just how your response to this pedagogical situation jibes your long standing scholarly interests in maximizing individual liberty and social harmony.
So, of course, I’ll take down the link; would have done so at the slightness indication of concern on your part.
Best,
Wayne
On 2009-10-04, at 8:03 AM, Joel Spring wrote:
Dear Wayne, An article in today’s New York Times about illegal sharing of books on the internet led me to do search of my books.
Unhappily your course appeared as a violator of international copyright laws for posting, for anyone in the world to download, 41 pages from my book.
Please remove link from your course website for the copyrighted material.
This is very upsetting.
Naomi will be sending link to Informa.
https://blogs.ubc.ca/ewayne/2009/09/cust-601-globalization-of-education-a-discussion-with-joel-spring/
Joel
Joel Spring
Professor
Graduate Center and Queens College
City University of New York
Series Editor
Routledge Publisher
E. Wayne Ross
Professor
Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy
University of British Columbia
2125 Main Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4
Canada
604-822-2830
wayne.ross@ubc.ca
http://www.ewayneross.net
Critical Education: www.criticaleducation.org
Cultural Logic: www.eserver.org/clogic
Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor: www.workplace-gsc.com
Analytics_blogs.ubc.ca-ewayne-_20090903-20091003_(VisitorsOverviewReport)
Zombie preparedness
Gainesville, FL on a typical Friday (or game day Saturday)
The University of Florida disaster preparedness web site was recently updated to include a “Zombie Attack Disaster Preparedness Simulation Exercise plan, along with the usual threats like hurricanes and H1N1.
As reported by Inside Higher Ed,
“the guide for dealing with a zombie attack includes a helpful list of signs that zombie attacks may be increasing. You should watch, for example, for “increasing numbers of gruesome unexplained deaths and disappearances, especially at night” and listen for “lots of strange moaning.”
“The guide includes an “Infected Co-Worker Dispatch Form” for Florida employees to let superiors know when a colleague exhibits signs of zombie behavior, with a checklist of such behaviors, including “references to wanting to eat brains,” “recently dead but moving again,” “lack of rational thought (this can cause problems confusing zombies with managers)” and “killed and ate another employee.”
“A footnote in the plan suggests the importance of maintaining sensitivity in a time of zombie attack: “While many people refer to ‘undead,’ practitioners in the field of Zombie Studies and zombie advocates such as PETZ: People for the Ethical Treatment of Zombies, and supporters of Florida Zombie Preserve, Inc. insist that the term ‘undead’ clearly connotes deficiency; specifically the absence of both life and death. Hence, we suggest here the term ‘life impaired’ to recognize the difficulties imposed on a former person by zombie behavior spectrum disorder (ZBSD) but without suggesting the former person is somehow ‘deficient’ as a result of the infection.”
According to the Associated Press, university officials have decided that zombies are not a sufficient threat to the university community to be included on their disaster preparedness web site, which is hard to believe if you have ever walked down Gainesville’s University Ave on Friday night (or earlier Saturday morning).
Call for manuscripts: Critical Education
Critical Education is an international peer-reviewed journal, which seeks manuscripts that critically examine contemporary education contexts and practices. Critical Education is interested in theoretical and empirical research as well as articles that advance educational practices that challenge the existing state of affairs in society, schools, and informal education.
Critical Education is an open access journal, launching in early 2010. The journal home is criticaleducation.org
Critical Education is hosted by the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at the University of British Columbia and edited by Sandra Mathison (UBC), E. Wayne Ross (UBC) and Adam Renner (Bellarmine University) along with collective of 30 scholars in education that includes:
Faith Ann Agostinone, Aurora University
Wayne Au, California State University, Fullerton
Marc Bousquet, Santa Clara University
Joe Cronin, Antioch University
Antonia Darder, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
George Dei, OISE/University of Toronto
Stephen C. Fleury, Le Moyne College
Kent den Heyer, University of Alberta
Nirmala Erevelles, University of Alabama
Michelle Fine, City University of New York
Gustavo Fischman, Arizona State University
Melissa Freeman, University of Georgia
David Gabbard, East Carolina University
Rich Gibson, San Diego State University
Dave Hill, University of Northampton
Nathalia E. Jaramillo, Purdue University
Saville Kushner, University of West England
Zeus Leonardo, University of California, Berkeley
Pauline Lipman, University of Illinois, Chicago
Lisa Loutzenheiser, University of British Columbia
Marvin Lynn, University of Illinois, Chicago
Sheila Macrine, Montclair State University
Perry M. Marker, Sonoma State University
Rebecca Martusewicz, Eastern Michigan University
Peter McLaren, University of California, Los Angeles
Stephen Petrina, University of British Columbia
Stuart R. Poyntz, Simon Fraser University
Patrick Shannon, Penn State University
Kevin D. Vinson, University of the West Indies
John F. Welsh, Louisville, KY
Online submission and author guidelines can be found here.