Recently (before the federal government shutdown), I was able to visit the Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, which I’d been hoping to do for a long time.

It was a great visit. The grounds were gorgeous, and we had an excellent tour guide who took us through the house where Roosevelt lived in much of her later life. We learned about Eleanor’s childhood, education, marriage and family, other relationships, writings, and community and political activities.

Eleanor hosted all sorts of visitors to her home – royalty, Nehru, Hollywood stars, friends like Pauli Murray, and JFK hoping for an endorsement (which eventually she gave, reluctantly). You can learn more about her life on the cultural landscape page.

The site included a biographical video, small exhibits, and walking trails that she traversed regularly. I especially enjoyed seeing some of her powerful quotations highlighted. Yes, I even bought a t-shirt and magnet featuring two of them.

Our tour began in front of placards about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which she saw as her proudest achievement. Eleanor had chaired the United Nations committee that drafted the declaration, which in the wake of the atrocities of World War II, aimed to find common ground among diverse nations and cultures about individual rights. Getting it passed was extremely difficult. 

I found the visit inspiring in many ways – except for one. It was clear that National Park Historic sites are feeling the chilling effects of the Trump Administration’s desire to control messages about American history. 

Do you hate grading essays as much as I do?

I suspect I’m not alone. In her “Why I Hate Grading” post, Katherine Pickering Antonova describes all sorts of work she’d rather do besides grading, and she concludes, “I would rather lick the bottom of a New York subway car than grade papers.” Yuck. 

Of course, many of our students hate their work being assessed as much as we hate assessing it. 

Many students feel a great deal of performance anxiety – which can get in the way of doing their best work. Some put too much weight on the importance of their grade on a specific task, confusing the grade with their potential or even their self-worth. In addition, some of them don’t know whether they can trust their instructor’s grading process.

What’s Stereotype Threat?

When students find themselves in an environment where they worry that they will be judged or treated negatively because of stereotypes about one or more facets of their identity, they become anxious and vigilant, combing their environment for how they are being viewed and trying to regulate their thoughts and emotional responses (like worry, self-doubt) to the threats.

Assuming we accept the idea that we need to teach more and/or better about race, before we start, we need to consider the fundamental question, WHAT do we want to teach?

I think sometimes busy faculty don’t take enough time considering this question. But as I wrote in chapter one of my book, choosing significant and meaningful goals is a crucial step in the process of designing an effective, well-integrated course in which students learn deeply and retain what they learn.

White police killed an unarmed Black man. Again. The murder of George Floyd – captured on video by 17-year-old Darnella Frazer for all the world to witness in its senseless and brazen cruelty – resulted in persistent protests around the nation. Again. By now everyone knows Floyd’s name, just as we learned the names Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Breonna Taylor, and so many others. (Yet too rarely do we know the names of or facts about police brutality towards Black women, as pointed out in the powerful exposé Say Her Name by the African American Policy Forum.) In 1991, everyone knew the name of Rodney King, and in the mid and late 1960s we watched frequent clashes with police as they resulted in burning cities.