Friday, October 22, 2004
An embarassment of riches
The Volokh Conspiracy has several posts on Prof. Snider's assignment (scroll all the way down for his list of "Topics on which there is, in my opinion, no other side apart from chauvinistic, religious, or bigoted opinions and pseudo-science").
Even for someone teaching English 101, Prof. Snider has an unpracticed ear for the delightful nuance of the language. For instance, he uses the phrase "It is no secret" in place of the more accurate "my friends and I agree that." He poses "What can be done about the overpopulation of the earth[sic]?" as a topic without recognizing that the [human] population of the Earth can reasonably be described as insignificant (with respect to actual capacity of the planet) or as likely to begin a natural decline in about 45 years.
More obvious - from an English 100 point of view - is the ready answer to his proposed topic "What can be done about the apparent increase in abandoned babies?" One must first determine whether the 'apparent increase' is a real increase. But then, of course, one runs the risk of violating the tenet of academic freedom by the wanton introduction of actual fact into an argument.
The professor also taps into one of my pet peeves with his link to the "bipartisan web site: The Constitution Project ." The implication that 'bipartisan' covers all bases gets my hackles up - particularly when it is endorsed by someone who is supposed to be helping students learn how to think. There are more than two ways to skin a cat.
¶ 16:25
Even for someone teaching English 101, Prof. Snider has an unpracticed ear for the delightful nuance of the language. For instance, he uses the phrase "It is no secret" in place of the more accurate "my friends and I agree that." He poses "What can be done about the overpopulation of the earth[sic]?" as a topic without recognizing that the [human] population of the Earth can reasonably be described as insignificant (with respect to actual capacity of the planet) or as likely to begin a natural decline in about 45 years.
More obvious - from an English 100 point of view - is the ready answer to his proposed topic "What can be done about the apparent increase in abandoned babies?" One must first determine whether the 'apparent increase' is a real increase. But then, of course, one runs the risk of violating the tenet of academic freedom by the wanton introduction of actual fact into an argument.
The professor also taps into one of my pet peeves with his link to the "bipartisan web site: The Constitution Project ." The implication that 'bipartisan' covers all bases gets my hackles up - particularly when it is endorsed by someone who is supposed to be helping students learn how to think. There are more than two ways to skin a cat.
¶ 16:25
