“Foundations of Educational Thought” — second meeting The most important thing that happened in class yesterday did not occur in the time/space of the class. About two hours before class I was busy sorting through a reimbursement snafu where I completely lost my composure. I was seething mad. In retrospect I am pretty happy that I didn’t do anything REALLY stupid given how internally angry, how royally pissed off, I was. Prior to that I prepped a pretty good class... Read more
I’ve recently been invited to write a chapter in a book on Slavoj Zizek and Education. I know some of you who visit here are Zizek nerds like me, so I figured I’d share it for that reason. The title is “The Fantastic Emergence of Narrative: Educational Fantasies in Zizek’s Atheistic Theology.” For the rest, I present it as an exercise in self-humiliation. It is a perverse proposal, and will be a perverse chapter, in the sense that it is built... Read more
A day at the fair. (To enlarge photos, click each one individually or see them as a slideshow.) Read more
Greetings from the Minnesota State Fair! Tomas and I went through the “Luminarium,” where I took this picture. It evokes Don Quixote to me. (Taken with Instagram) Read more
I like the idea of keeping this log about my teaching. It will also give the curious souls in my classes ways to get indirect feedback about what we just experienced, from my point of view. Last night my “Historical Foundations of Education” class met from 7 to 10 pm. Amazingly enough, we didn’t take a formal break. But we did take time to read and be quiet. I lectured and did board-work for at least half of the time. As... Read more
The Ohio Valley Philosophy of Education Society puts together a fine peer-reviewed journal each year, featuring the best work from their annual conference. This year’s issue is dedicated to the theme of “immortal conversations,” and it produced some interesting and good work. Eduardo Duarte’s poetic piece — “Retrieving Immortal Questions, Initiating Immortal Conversations” — is fantastic, especially as it trans-forms into poetry. Bryan Warnick, my co-advisor at Ohio State, wrote a splendid overview, with a précis of each contribution. His... Read more
Coming soon: Restless Heart: The Confessions of St. Augustine This had better be good. I am suspicious, as usual. Expect a full review when it comes out. In case you missed it earlier, I gave a talk about a month ago on Augustine’s Confessions: “Sts. Augustine and Monica, the Head and the Heart.” Read more
Funny, reoccuring story: I went to get my ID card today and they gave me a student ID instead of a faculty one. They didn’t let me keep the student card, but here’s the evidence. (Taken with Instagram) Read more
I taught my first class at the University of North Dakota yesterday: “Foundations of Educational Thought.” These graduate courses meet once a week and go just shy of three hours. I tend to scoff at the idea of “running out stuff to talk about,” but I did learn that there is a certain mental fatigue that sets in around hour two. I plan on watching very long movies (like Into Great Silence) to try and condition myself and learn the... Read more
Sam Rocha
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