Satire, the most honest form of writing

In History 351 we read an excerpt from Homo Sovieticus by Zinoviev and a student asked what exactly was satirical about it. In my explanation, I let slip that satires were the most honest genre. I was thinking that satires don't pretend to be anything they're not, that is, they acknolwedge that aren't accurately portraying or relating the ideas contained within them.

moral relativism and amoralism

Give me amoralism every time.

We had an interesting, if too brief, discussion in the capstone course about why historical context is important. As one student put it, "if you take anything out of its context, you aren't gonna understand it right." True, so true.

The question was presented in a chapter, from a book useful for getting such discussions started, in such a way as if there is ever any historical utility in making moral judgment about a historical context. To make a moral judgment indicates to me that the historian is not well enough aware of his/her own context. Amoralism is the more logical approach than moral relativism because moral relativism is simply another moral judgment.

Thinking abstractly

Historians like facts. Students like grand connections across time and space. The meeting point: abstract thought and analysis.

Ever wonder about enrollment?

I sometimes do, especially when administrators want to cancel a class that doesn't have enough students enrolled two weeks before the semester starts. One week before the semester started, my History 351 technically didn't have enough students enrolled, but look at it now: 3 short of the maximum. (History 490 is capped at 15.)

Looking ahead to the fall semester

Here's what I'm thinking for my weekly schedule.

Book reviews

Asking students to write a book review of a book directly related to class but supplemental to the assigned readings for the class, I think, was a very good idea. I can see how students process the books they chose for their reviews in a number of different ways but primarily in terms of how the books "fit into" the course - especially its assigned readings and class discussions. The other main way that students process the books is that they identify and assess the books' argumentation, a skill we've been working on all semester in shorter writing assignments. The result is evident in the grades: consistently students earn higher grades on the book reviews than they were earning on the short assignments. I think this is because they've learned how to home in on the main point quickly in the short assignments, which were two-page analyses of long readings and now, in the longer assignment of the book review, they have the space to develop their analysis of one book but still are practicing the skill of expressing themselves succinctly.

Counting Cranes at dawn

I finally got away for a weekend. I went to my hometown and counted cranes. Yes, the exciting, glamorous, secret life of a professor is revealed here!

Here's a picture of serenity, otherwise known as the beaver pond on my family's bit of farmland in Wisconsin.