The Fora: A Higher Education Community

Quote from: marshwiggle on April 25, 2024, 08:04:13 AM

Quote from: Langue_doc on April 25, 2024, 06:03:52 AMThe latest, from the NYT.

QuoteChaos and Oppression
The central question for universities responding to protests is whether to prioritize the preservation of order or the desire of students to denounce oppression.

It's fine for students to "denounce" oppression; what they need to be made to understand that history is a long game. Whatever they do right now is unlikely to have any visible impact, but the concerted actions of people with influence and authority, over time, will change things for the better.

It's not about denouncing oppression. They can denounce all they want. It's about interfering with other students' and citizens' lives. This has already gone so far as to close USC and put Columbia on-line. U Austin, on the other hand, shut down the interference right away.

Private universities can do whatever they please, for all I care. The most efficient will win.

Not really a vent, more an observation.

Giving exams in for classes, I can be confident that some students will finish the exam and leave before other students even turn up to take the exam.

It generally means that the classes are not well prepared for the exams.

Quote from: marshwiggle on April 25, 2024, 08:04:13 AMIt's fine for students to "denounce" oppression; what they need to be made to understand that history is a long game. Whatever they do right now is unlikely to have any visible impact, but the concerted actions of people with influence and authority, over time, will change things for the better.

So is the idea that they should just wait until they have influence and authority, and then they should work for incremental change?

They have very little power right now, but they're hoping to influence some of the people with more power to start changing things for the better. What's wrong with trying to exert some influence, even if they're not successful? Is that not part of long-term incremental change for the better?

I'll start writing my second referee report today, then work on T1.

Quote from: ciao_yall on April 24, 2024, 07:23:19 PM

Quote from: dismalist on April 24, 2024, 11:12:48 AM

QuoteI can't think of any example where a superior military power was actually able to dislodge a rag tag militia that can hide among the populace, take a few pot shots, and disappear back into the crowd.

It is forgotten that the French military won the Battle of Algiers and, indeed, controlled Algeria. Algeria gained independence because of support from outside. This was called "the internationalization of the conflict". This strategy has been imitated by the PLO, and now Hamas. Placing armed fighters among the civilian population is intended to cause lots of civilian casualties, which are then thought to stimulate outside support.

I don't think it will be successful because the Battle for Gaza is being fought by a neighboring, independent country with an existential interest in complete victory, something that metropolitan France never had -- French soil was not seriously threatened by the NLF.

Less dramatic historical memory surrounds the Malayan Emergency [1948 - 1960] because the British defeated the insurgents.

^ This.

Viet Nam is a great example.

The US Civil War was a classic example. On paper, the North should have won in 20 minutes. They had all the industry, weapons, wealth. What did they have to do to the South, and how long did it take, for them to finally get the South to surrender?

It is also overlooked that the Viet Cong were destroyed upon their Tet offensive. But the war didn't end because North Vietnamese regulars got involved. What Hamas has learned from the Vietnam War is that to defeat the United States, or affect its policy, one has to get at the US home front propagandistically. This is what is unfolding now. But there is so little at stake for US voters, I doubt it will make any difference.

The US Civil War was a conventional war. It is an example of something else: The attempt to internationalize the conflict, as the NLF did successfully. The South initially embargoed cotton, hoping to starve British factories of inputs and thus getting Britain to declare war on the North. This failed miserably. It did what the North could not do the first year of the war -- blockade the South.

Quote from: Langue_doc on April 25, 2024, 06:03:52 AMThe latest, from the NYT.

QuoteChaos and Oppression
The central question for universities responding to protests is whether to prioritize the preservation of order or the desire of students to denounce oppression.

It's fine for students to "denounce" oppression; what they need to be made to understand that history is a long game. Whatever they do right now is unlikely to have any visible impact, but the concerted actions of people with influence and authority, over time, will change things for the better.

Agree with ap168 about the awkwardness. A lot of this is learning to "perform" social conventions convincingly.

Also, with over-explaining, we also inadvertently raise the question of if we have to leave right away, why are we spending so much time explaining?

Quote from: smallcleanrat on April 25, 2024, 07:02:47 AM

Quote from: spork on April 25, 2024, 03:16:38 AM

Quote from: smallcleanrat on April 24, 2024, 06:47:32 PM[. . .]

Why is the short version rude?

[. . .]

Where do all these rules and protocols come from anyway?

[. . .]

Don't know how much science is in the book, but the answer to your questions: culture. The dominant norm in the USA and Canada is to utter a couple of short sentences in this situation, rather than only "I'm leaving now." Are there exceptions? Yes. But usually something like "I've got to get to class now. See you later" is sufficient.

It gets even more fun when interacting with people who have different cultural norms.

Does a longer explanation really sound fake?

It can be perceived as fake.  Mainly it just sounds awkward.  I sometimes catch myself trying to over-explain things, and realize afterward that I should have kept it simple.  I hear others do it too.  So it's not a disastrous thing to do.  Just something to be aware of and to try compensating for if you have a strong tendency in that direction.

I've always been, and to some extent still am, very socially awkward.  The main thing I've found that helps is simply to practice and pay attention until I get better over time.  Some of us--and I do mean that "us"--are not as fast to learn these things as others. 

Think of it as learning a language.  Social interactions are governed by a sort of "language" of commonly understood practices.  Reading up about it can be helpful, but the only way to really learn it is to do it. 

There is also a saying that "Anything worth doing is worth doing badly."  In other words, get over the fear of mistakes, make them, and learn from them as part of the process of eventually gaining competency.  This is a principle of things that really can't be learned well without real-world practices, such as language learning. 

Though I inherited much of my mother's aptitude for language learning, I was never able to overcome my inhibitions about making mistakes to put in the necessary practice of speaking other languages to develop real fluency in them.  I let these inhibitions stifle my own learning and potential in that area.  When it came to developing day-to-day social skills, I simply had no choice but to keep practicing until I got better.  It was a painful process at times, but it had to be done.  It was well worth doing.

Quote from: Hibush on April 23, 2024, 05:28:14 AMThat scholarship should have a lot of value, and deserves to be known.

That's very kind, thanks for your encouragement. I'll consider your suggestion regarding podcasters.

Quote from: apl68 on April 24, 2024, 10:35:36 AMYou mean...stuff actually happens in the first 10 minutes of class each day?  Who knew?

We've had staff members who were the same way about the first 10 minutes of the work day.  Or at least they tried to be that way....

Well, nothing really gets going at the office until mid-morning anyway. Why bother showing up before then?

/snarkoff

;)