Thomas Education

In God's Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire, by Robert Hoyland. (2015)   This book brings some objectivity to the typical sweeping claims about the explosive Islamic expansion in the 7th and 8th centuries.  Ironically, in demystifying the implied claims that the Qur'an was the primary driver of the conquest, the author removes the rationale for the title of his book.  According to the preponderance of the various contemporary sources, and the latest historical evidence, the conquests were mostly Islamic, and mostly Arab; but a substantial proportion was neither Islamic nor Arab.  The original conquerors from Arabia were not innocent shepherds suddenly motivated by the will of Allah; rather, they were nomads with a long fighting tradition, and had long served (and trained) in other armies. His more radical conclusions are couched in careful language: for example, the Qur'an itself makes little mention of iconography, and mostly ...

One of my two phones today reflected a timezone change, as it is set to West European Summer Time, which falls back one hour on Sunday the 27th.    However, we are in Morocco, not Western Europe.  Reportedly, last year Morocco decided to spring ahead one hour in the summer, and stay that way (except for the Holy Month of Ramadan, but that's a different story!).  So, during summertime we follow West European Summer Time; but in the fall, we are on West African Time ?  or is it Central European Time?  Which name would our tourism & marketing department prefer to use?   There were rumors that Morocco would suddenly decide to fall back again, as had happened a few years ago -- but evidently not.  Son Excellence Le Roi is apparently opting for stability.  I agree, stability is better, where clocks are concerned.  The E.U. has declared that every member nation should decide on its single timezone by next year.  I'm sure that'...

Today, October 22nd, is the first day of serious rainfall in Rabat since May.  It stifles our outdoor activity a bit, but is a welcome cleaner of streets and sidewalks.  Americans do not realize the important cleaning function of regular rainfall.   While I was working in the Fulbright Commission’s library last week, they brought in a book recently published by one of their alumni, about ceramics in Morocco.  Then separately I get an invitation to attend his book talk at the American Legation in Tangier. We attend the book talk on Thursday evening (yes, we bought his expensive book), in the stunningly beautiful rambling old Legation building, and I urge Barbara to walk to the other side of the Medina to a notable café -- googlemaps can lead us through the Medina, surely. Narrower and narrower alleys, with stray cats and young men standing warily, then a group of young men in the alley ahead arguing loudly...we beat a hasty retreat to our hotel by the t...

During my years teaching English literature and composition in high school, I focused on showing students the impact of stories, of literature, of words well-crafted.  Frankly I was trying to stimulate their interest in a subject often seen as boring or difficult, particularly when compared to the social and personal changes they are navigating as adolescents.  Some literature, some writing, has a strong effect on us all. So this teacher enjoyed reading the recent op-ed piece by the head of the Wri ting Center at Harvard. " learning to write matters because some day they may have something to say that really matters"

As we prepare for teaching classes and seminars, and for conversations with local representatives, we are mindful of our somewhat liminal position: though we are supervised by the embassy, we are not direct employees.  Though strict security constraints may not apply, we are still clearly representatives of the U.S.  Though we may express our personal views, in our professional realm we encourage conversation and discussion, not conflict.  As invited guests in Morocco, we honor our hosts' sensitivities while bringing our ideas to the table.  In our orientation sessions we reviewed a few topics that are particularly delicate in Morocco though they may be regular fuel for classroom discussion in the U.S.:  the position of the King and the royal family; the role of Islam as the established religion of the state; the role of the police and the F.A.R. (royal armed forces), and local laws, particularly those regarding social mores such as reproductive rights and gende...

23 September 2019 we attended the USAID congratulatory closing ceremony for the Career Center program:  JT & Barbara, along with Fellows Turner and Mishra.   We arrived at the Sofitel soon after 9am, mingled with guests:  I had a long chat with Monica Carlson, Director Program Management Office USAID.   I also briefly met with the Technical Director of the Career Center (en francais), but again I did not catch his name.   The event proper started at 9:30, with the arrival of Education Minister Amzazi and DCM Green. It was well-run, almost completely in French, with a chipper Frenchwoman MC and her male Moroccan sidekick (the woman spoke very quickly, while his speech was more intelligible).   Minister Amzazi spoke about 10 minutes, completely from prepared notes, very polished and sincere and intelligible French.  He made particular note of the importance of teaching English (he named no other language), and of course a...

​An important technique of my classrooms has been cold-calling, using random selection of students.  Here's a progressive politics rationale for that! https://chroniclevitae.com/news/2244-what-elizabeth-warren-can-teach-us-about-teaching Actually, they don't fully describe her classroom process, as it sounds like she's only  random with a subset.  But the general idea is there! At least she's not simply calling on those with their hands raised--that's patently unfair, in my book. What methods have I used?  The best I've found, for K-12 students anyway, is the popsicle stick method, with a can that contains one stick with each student's name on it.  I publicly display the can, ask a question, then publicly select a stick.  Everyone pays attention.  Nobody's left out.  (I admit to occasionally cheating, in unusual cases, to avoid calling on someone.  But even then, I go through the motions so that the process seems fair.) ...

(Naive) Jimmy Stewart says to (questioning) Doris Day, eleven minutes into the film "The Man Who Knew Too Much"   I know this is mysterious Morocco, but let's not lose our heads. Film: The Man Who Knew Too Much (1955), Alfred Hitchcock's remake of his 1934 film: the first half of the movie takes place in Marrakech, in "French Morocco", and contains a bit of Arabic and quite a bit of French dialogue.  The Hotel La Mamounia is there, as well as some scenes in the famous quaint old marketplace of Marrakesh. The only direct cultural reference: a key (French) character declares that a Moroccan wife will never allow her face to be unveiled in public.  Otherwise there is little specific reference to Morocco -- though Jimmy Stewart wryly agrees when his little son says that the name "Marrakesh sounds like a drink" ! Book: In God's Path: The Arab Conquests and the Creation of an Islamic Empire, by Robert Hoyland. (2015)   This book brin...

Abortion is illegal in Morocco -- both the doctor and the woman can be arrested and sentenced up to several years in prison.  Extramarital sexual relations are also illegal, though only worth one month in prison.    Morocco has been gradually, ever so gradually, relaxing its patriarchal hold on women's lives; the current king seems to want to be an exemplar of enlightened (and enlightening) religious monarchy, granting more and more rights to women.  And yet... Yesterday a newspaper reporter was arrested, along with her fiancé and her doctor, as she left a clinic.  She claims that 1-she had a muslim marriage ceremony last week; and 2-she was suffering a miscarriage.  This has stirred up the capital's social media scene, and likely will remain a hot topic when we arrive in Rabat in a couple of weeks. To further stir the pot, a pro-government site published a medical report indicating that it was an abortion at the 7th week of pregnancy, contradicting...

Morocco has long been multilingual, since the Romans and then the Arabs conquered the coastlines and brought their languages with them, while the indomitable mountain tribes maintained their unique dialects (the Roman's designation of barbarian became our modern term "Berber").  When we plan a public school system, how do we decide which language to treat as primary -- or which two languages?  How many can we fit?  What is the medium of instruction at higher levels, for science and math and literature? Morocco has been a solid francophone country for over a hundred years, with a firmly-established francophone educational and governmental system.  The Arabic language has gained prominence since the development of the Arab League -- but Morocco's dialect of Arabic has diverged greatly from the classical Arabic of the Qur'an, Modern Standard Arabic, and the Egyptian or Levantine Arabic of mass media. So there is an honest debate about the selected language of instr...

As an incoming English Language Fellow who happened to be in the neighborhood, I observed the first couple days of the Institute.  I was impressed by the facilities, the organization, and the professionalism of both the presenters and the local teachers.   The local teacher group was a wonderful mix of genders and ages, all obviously intent on learning and participating.  Some were more active, clearly networking with the presenters and with other teachers.   The presenters took their job seriously, obviously used to the inevitable technical and schedule glitches, while fully engaging the class.  I particularly noted -- and I trust the "students" also noted -- the different teaching styles used throughout: no lockstep recitations here!  What a great model to demonstrate both the <<free American spirit>> and the value of differing approaches to the classroom. 

Yikes!  As we see in my previous post, I just finished reading Feed , by M.T.Anderson.  That young-adult novel posits a future America dominated by the computerized brain-interface purchased at birth.  Dystopia, indeed. I now read of Waze's newest integration with Google, wherein advertisers can purchase a notification to automatically appear on a Waze user's screen when the driver stops near a particular property ( Dunkin Donuts is only 1 minute away! Aren't you hungry for a super-glazed special? ).   The term is a "Zero-speed Takeover" banner ad.  Now, this could benefit small businesses, encouraging drivers to stop at a place they might not usually consider.   However, it is Much More Likely to be manipulated by larger corporations that have the brilliant staff and the marketing budget to devise devilish schemes to stimulate our dopamine-receptors and loosen our credit cards.  My elder son has expressed a great distaste for Waze, tha...

Feed by M.T. Anderson My rating: 4 of 5 stars Feed is a quick read, and a great Young Adult dystopian novel that presents some images that will stay with you. I have long predicted some sort of advertising-sponsored biohack, starting with earbuds progressing to implants -- the author takes it to a logical conclusion. The main protagonist/narrator is frustratingly adolescent: we keep yelling at him to "just say something!" but he is tongue-tied, and defaults to inaction whenever possible. Let's here refer to Sherry Turkle's "Alone Together" for further confirmation of this generation's increased inability to hold a full conversation, even more than the typical adolescent inarticulateness. Yet these characters do not rage against the machine. They are witting participants in this brave new world. What great fodder for discussion in a tenth-grade classroom, or with the adolescent in your household. Although the plot devolves into the stereotype YA i...

I just now find that Turnitin is being acquired by Advance (the parent company of CondeNast, parent of The New Yorker)! Here's a link to the article.  The article includes some analysis of Turnitin both as a product, and as a business, so it is a good overview of the issues.  https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-03-06-turnitin-to-be-acquired-by-advance-publications-for-1-75b Yes, as a teacher and parent I bemoan the need for something like Turnitin (i.e. plagiarism detection), but recognize its helpfulness in the classroom.  To their credit, Turnitin long tried to disavow the term "plagiarism detection" and instead focus on its quasi-LMS functions surrounding the "similarity analysis".   They had started to add grammar-checking as well, which would I think further legitimize the whole tool, and speed students' development of writing ability.  Yes, of course every student's every sentence should be read and commented-upon carefully by...