Category: Nonfiction
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By Defunding the Humanities, Colleges Risk Zombification
In fall 2019, to demonstrate our community college’s commitment to the humanities, a high-level administrator in academic affairs convened a Halloween-themed panel about monsters in literature. What better way to demonstrate devotion to the humanities than through an investigation of the inhuman? A fellow English professor, tasked with chairing the panel, begged me to give…
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The End of Ramadan in Queens
It is 9 p.m. in northeastern Queens, a cool evening in late July, at the end of Ramadan. Three little girls skip down the street. Their relatives, arrayed in long cotton tunics, trail behind.
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Common Core Standards
“Nothing’s wrong,” the school social worker says, which is the first lie. She wants to talk to me about my oldest daughter. Desi reverses her letters, transposes words, neglects punctuation, and writes sentences that, with their randomized use of capitals, look like ransom notes.