Affirmative action is not the problem

John D. Martin III
August 2, 2017

The US Department of Justice, under directive from the Trump administration, is going to pursue an investigation of affirmative action as a form of race-based discrimination.Savage, Charlie. 1 August 2017. "Justice Dept. to Take On Affirmative Action in College Admissions." The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/01/us/politics/trump-affirmative-action-universities.html This raised a few questions for me, as it should have for many people in higher ed. This can be settled with a straw poll: ⊕This blog post was inspired by some tweets I made on this topic. Given the importance of the topic, I thought it deserved longer, more coherent treatment.

If you teach or have taught a class at a university, raise your hand if you've taught a class with only white students.
— John D. Martin III (@jdmar3) August 2, 2017

Onion

John D. Martin III
March 20, 2017

If you are wondering why the little onion icon doesn't link you anywhere, look no further.

The reason is that this link is not like other links: http://evpoyeb3anapeyrt.onion

GalliumOS on Chromebook

John D. Martin III
February 5, 2017

I have had a Chromebook for a few years and have always wanted to put a real Linux distribution on it. This weekend my friend Elliott Hauser showed me GalliumOS, which is being developed as a full but lightweight GNU/Linux distribution for Chromebooks.

Teaching soft skills

John D. Martin III
February 1, 2017

Lisa Hinchliffe (@lisalibrarian) tweeted this morning about training and hiring for all skills rather than just technical skills.

Training and hiring for all the skills not just technical ones. https://t.co/4SEJGL4eMx
— Lisa Hinchliffe (@lisalibrarian) February 1, 2017

From the linked article by Seth Godin:

Along the way, we’ve confirmed that vocational skills can be taught (you’re not born knowing engineering or copywriting or even graphic design, therefore they must be something we can teach), while we let ourselves off the hook when it comes to decision making, eager participation, dancing with fear, speaking with authority, working in teams, seeing the truth, speaking the truth, inspiring others, doing more than we’re asked, caring and being willing to change things.

This brought back some thoughts I've had recently about students' expectations in some of the courses that I've taught.