Thu, 30 Jul 2009: People and incidents along the way
Our professional development can be marked by specific items like tests, degrees, hirings and firings, and other boosts and bumps along the road. In my case, I can point to two specific instances marking my development.
Thu, 09 Apr 2009: A child's funeral
The boy had just turned 15 two weeks prior to his death. He was in my first year Latin class at a prep school. One early afternoon last week, I was called out of my class to the office with his other teachers to be told the news. He had killed himself.
What followed was a testimony to the power of small schools and a dedicated staff. That word dedicated is used in flimsy ways, but when you see dedication, it makes an impact on you. This being my first year at this school and not my first student death, I was heartened to see the response on the part of students and staff.
Sun, 11 May 2008: How research can go wrong
"When I began my research, I had no idea that I would come to believe
that obesity is not caused by eating too much, or that exercise is not a means
of prevention. Nor did I believe that diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's
could possibly be caused by the consumption of refined carbohydrates and sugars.
I had no idea that I would find the quality of the research on nutrition,
obesity, and chronic disease to be so inadequate; that so much of the
conventional wisdom would be founded on so little substantial evidence; and
that, once it was, the researchers and the public-health authorities who funded
the research would no longer see any reason to challenge this conventional
wisdom and so to test its validity. "