Category Archives: Education

On Student Loan Forgiveness

Posted on February 27, 2023 by Thomas Mets

I’m not a fan of the idea of student loan forgiveness. If people got screwed over, we should look into reforming the immoral institutions that did it, and protect future college students. In most cases, adults chose to make an … Continue reading →

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One Reason The Last Decade Has Been So Uniquely Stupid

Posted on May 2, 2022 by Thomas Mets

Jonathan Haidt had a piece on the Alantic on social media’s effects on culture called “Why the Past Ten Years of American Life Have Been So Uniquely Stupid.” It got a lot of attention, although one portion of it is … Continue reading →

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The Courageous Conversations Compass

Posted on September 30, 2021 by Thomas Mets

I came across something interesting in a Professional Development event a while back: the Courageous Conversations Compass. It was used as a method of talking about race. Something I’ve recognized before is how people can talk past one another, and … Continue reading →

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This Should Be a Movie

Posted on August 19, 2021 by Thomas Mets

Once upon a time it was controversial to suggest that doctors should wash their hands. The Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis was the first to advocate for the need for this. It did not end well. So Semmelweis hypothesized that there were … Continue reading →

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Critical Race Theory

Posted on May 30, 2021 by Thomas Mets

In a recent episode of the New York Times podcast The Argument, there was a discussion about the use of critical race theory in schools, with linguist John McWhorter taking the anti-CRT position, and Michelle Goldberg suggesting that the real … Continue reading →

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When Late Assignments Aren’t Penalized

Posted on October 18, 2020 by Thomas Mets

San Diego is overhauling their system of grading in order to fight racism. Among the changes, students will no longer be penalized for handing in late work. “This is part of our honest reckoning as a school district,” says SDUSD … Continue reading →

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Incentives and Education

Posted on July 23, 2019 by Thomas Mets

I’ve always had an interest in politics and education, and I’ve noticed the ways policies affect the classroom, especially in performance and funding, in ways officials might not have considered. For example… Basing teacher ratings on an additional test for … Continue reading →

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Tableaux from In The Crosswind

Posted on January 21, 2018 by Thomas Mets

For a lesson for my Social Studies class, there’s a portion where the students are to perform tableaux: a group of models or motionless figures representing a scene from a story or from history. There is a slight problem with providing … Continue reading →

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Disagreeing without believing the other person is crazy

Posted on October 28, 2017 by Thomas Mets

In political discussions, I’ve sometimes observed a conflation between views someone disagrees with and views they think no reasonable person can hold, when there should be space for views you disagree with but understand can be held by people you … Continue reading →

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Reforming Middle School

Posted on July 13, 2017 by Thomas Mets

This was an item I wrote a few years back for a class in my Education Masters program. It was a response to an article suggesting a reform in how middle school classes work, so that teacher teams would work … Continue reading →

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