On The Evil Economics Of Judging Teachers
Nice piece, Maria.
As a first-generation immigrant whose parents depended highly on the direction and guidance of public schools, I often feel like I'm a victim of the misplaced teleology of the American public education system that you describe above. I still have to actively quell the achievement-for-the-sake-of-achievement-driven aspect of my mind that was instilled and sharpened by that system.
"They've spent their whole lives proving that they are not "ordinary"—which, if the rest of us had any sense at all, should utterly disqualify them from influencing policy for ordinary people."
I've just started reading The Power Broker, and this seems to sum up precisely what drove Robert Moses to make New York City into the 1%-driven city that it's now become. Bloomberg has achieved success mostly in improving upon Moses's foundations.
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On David Foster Wallace's Self-Help Books Removed From Archive
@barnhouse Fair enough, it was indeed an irreversible screw-up. If they sent a takedown notice to The Awl, I'd feel icky, but instead they just pulled it from the archive, perhaps out of sensitivity to those living persons. For all we know they intend to restore them in the future. The Ransom Center can do what they wish with their documents, and if future participants think this is wrong they can send their archives elsewhere. But I suspect most writers will be pleased that personal commentary about their potentially living parents will be kept out of the public eye while those parents are living.
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On David Foster Wallace's Self-Help Books Removed From Archive
Those self-help books had intimate commentary on living persons. They should not have been publicly released until those persons were no longer living. I believe this was an oversight and they made the right call here. I don't fault Maria for writing the piece, but I think this outcome was predictable after its publication. (Although I'm surprised it took this long.)
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On What Makes A Great Critic?
Maria, sounds like you need to pull a meta-Truffaut and create what you are critiquing. I.e., write a book review and publish it on The Awl!
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On Inside David Foster Wallace's Private Self-Help Library
It's an ugly word.
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On Inside David Foster Wallace's Private Self-Help Library
Re: the list of words at the end. They are all words that precisely do not describe themselves.
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On The Evil Economics Of Judging Teachers
Ack, I'm a first-generation American, not immigrant.