The Great Ganesha

When those Japanese get fixated on a fad, they get fixated on a fad even if it’s as mundane as the eleven-times-table. In today’s NYT:
Bookstores are filled with titles like “Extreme Indian Arithmetic Drills” and “The Unknown Secrets of the Indians.” Newspapers carry reports of Indian children memorizing multiplication tables far beyond nine times nine, [...]

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This is not new, but the NYT ran an article on outsourcing tutoring (in math, amongst other subjects) to India. This is part of the “second wave” of outsourcing:
The first wave of slicing up services work and sending it abroad has been all about business operations. Computer programming, call centers, product design and back-office jobs [...]

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From The Onion:
“This just goes to show that if you whine longer and harder than the rest of your classmates, you can achieve your goals.”
Following a lengthy two-hour conversation with Wagner, Principal Ron Schroyer named him Class of 2007 valedictorian. [link]
It may be The Onion, but in my teaching experience, students are ready to say [...]

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September 5th is Teacher’s Day in India. It’s the birthday of an ex-president and teacher Dr. Radhakrishnan. When asked by students to celebrate his birthday, he requested that instead, people should celebrate it as Teacher’s Day.
In addition to my dissonant ramblings (I am a grad student and teacher, after all), plenty of other events have [...]

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Ahhh…the blissful feeling of nothingness inside one’s mind. No, I’m not talking about the Buddha Machine. I’m talking about that blissful sensation that comes with the completion of teaching a course. Of never having to deal with sixty undergraduate, spoilt, American brats. Of never having to be constantly disappointed by their indiscipline. Of never [...]

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It’s been eons since I last posted. Been totally busy catering to the whims of American undergraduate brats. My course is almost over though, so that’s a relief. Begin another one in a few weeks, but will deal with that as it gets closer.
Meanwhile, just wanted to point to Shivaji’s blog. He’s written up a [...]

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Excellent article in today’s NYT about teaching undergrads.
Since I’m currently teaching a class of 60 (count ‘em!) undergraduate brats - and, coincidentally, giving them an exam tomorrow - this could not come at a better time.
Having received emails like:
should i come to class tomorrow?
and
what’s on da exam?
from email addresses ranging from imsosexy2362@… to snoopdawggydawgg@… I [...]

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