User Profile

nerd teacher [books]

whatanerd@bookwyrm.social

Joined 4 years, 1 month ago

Exhausted anarchist and school abolitionist who can be found at nerdteacher.com where I muse about school and education-related things, and all my links are here. My non-book posts are mostly at @whatanerd@treehouse.systems, occasionally I hide on @whatanerd@eldritch.cafe, or you can email me at n@nerdteacher.com. [they/them]

I was a secondary literature and humanities teacher who has swapped to being a tutor, so it's best to expect a ridiculously huge range of books.

And yes, I do spend a lot of time making sure book entries are as complete as I can make them. Please send help.

This link opens in a pop-up window

nerd teacher [books]'s books

Currently Reading (View all 25)

Poetry

View all books

User Activity

The better angels of our nature (2011) No rating

From Goodreads: Selected by The New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of …

I don't actually remember what percent we're at, but I do remember that the book finishes at 68%. So we have to be halfway through this mess.

Things I need to remember:

  1. This book has aged miserably, especially with regards to Israel-Palestine (and I need to find a fake speech he wrote to point that out).
  2. He doesn't know the difference between fiction and reality.
  3. PREDICT THE PAST?
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (Paperback, 2016, Ballantine Books) 3 stars

Folksy and fresh, endearing and affecting, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is …

Incredibly Enjoyable, Even If Problematic

3 stars

This book is really well-written, and the structure employed in it really has the feel of both talking to a grandparent (whether or not they're actually your own) and/or the local town gossip. I love this about this book because it makes it just so easy to read through.

I also love that one of the core elements of the story (one that, if people know about Fried Green Tomatoes, is the most well-known) is just kind of... tossed out there a couple times and in ways that make a person go "Wait, did she just say what I think she said?"

But I do find it incredibly difficult to recommend. Part of it is because I know people can find its use of racist and ableist slurs frustrating and bothersome (which I also can completely understand). While it's understandable that sometimes the perspectives match with the characterisation, there are …

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (Paperback, 2016, Ballantine Books) 3 stars

Folksy and fresh, endearing and affecting, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is …

Incredibly Enjoyable, Even If Problematic

4 stars

This book is really well-written, and the structure employed in it really has the feel of both talking to a grandparent (whether or not they're actually your own) and/or the local town gossip. I love this about this book because it makes it just so easy to read through.

I also love that one of the core elements of the story (one that, if people know about Fried Green Tomatoes, is the most well-known) is just kind of... tossed out there a couple times and in ways that make a person go "Wait, did she just say what I think she said?"

But I do find it incredibly difficult to recommend. Part of it is because I know people can find its use of racist and ableist slurs frustrating and bothersome (which I also can completely understand). While it's understandable that sometimes the perspectives match with the characterisation, there …

This book addresses the tensions of existing theories and practices of inclusive education from an …

By implementing global disability rights work through a CDS [Critical Disability Studies] lens we are able to frame such issues as social justice initiatives and encourage teachers and disability rights activists to think about inclusive education and fighting for disability rights as a series of decolonizing actions and as a form of activism.

The Future of Inclusive Education by ,

... This is a weird way of actually engaging in self-reinforcement of a field of study. CDS is entirely unnecessary to frame issues of disability as "issues of social justice" because they... already were. And also, why do you think that CDS is going to "encourage disability rights activists to think about inclusive education?" Do you think they're not thinking about this already, without CDS?

This really annoys me because they're basically trying to reframe activist work as being within academia, which it cannot and never should be. You cannot decolonise something by institutionalising it within a colonial institution.

She Is a Haunting (2023, Bloomsbury) 3 stars

Jade Nguyen has always lied to fit in. She's straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough …

"The savage ruined it," says Florence, repeating the translated phrase from the family portrait.

"One of those," I say. Of course we would find a racist's cache here. Hardly anything else is ever preserved in history. Even this single photograph of my great-grandmother as a child hiding in the curtains was branded.

She Is a Haunting by 

She Is a Haunting (2023, Bloomsbury) 3 stars

Jade Nguyen has always lied to fit in. She's straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough …

What is it like to open your eyes and see your world completely gone wrong? The invaders emerging from the mist like pale ghosts, taking and building, and taking. Latching on and draining you dry. Then calling you a savage. It doesn't take a genius to parse that word form the handwriting on the photograph. Bà Cố and Cam are incidental relics. The racism is not subtle once you start to look.

She Is a Haunting by 

She Is a Haunting (2023, Bloomsbury) 3 stars

Jade Nguyen has always lied to fit in. She's straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough …

The woman from the window sits at the center of this photograph, surrounded by her family. Her eyes are sharp and deep-set, the angle of her nose narrow. Her family blends into the background drapes. They'd taken it in our dining room, the hint of wooded wallpaper scratching at the edges.

Her dress is a beautiful lace and buttoned at the front with a wide sash. Her hat is even nicer, with a variety of flowers. A girl stands to her right, and the husband towers on the left, hand on their son. The kids are obviously twins, both wearing their mother's dark line for mouths and deep eyes.

My gut tells me she's the Lady of Many Tongues. Marion Dumont and her husband, Roger. The ones Alma told us about. Loopy handwriting stains the back—1925, le sauvage l'a ruineé. A visceral dislike rips through me.

She Is a Haunting by 

She Is a Haunting (2023, Bloomsbury) 3 stars

Jade Nguyen has always lied to fit in. She's straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough …

What is it like to open your eyes and see your world completely gone wrong? The invaders emerging from the mist like pale ghosts, taking and building, and taking. Latching on and draining you dry. Then calling you a savage. It doesn't take a genius to parse that word form the handwriting on the photograph. Bà Cố and Cam are incidental relics. The racism is not subtle once you start to look.

She Is a Haunting by 

This book addresses the tensions of existing theories and practices of inclusive education from an …

What is it like to open your eyes and see your world completely gone wrong? The invaders emerging from the mist like pale ghosts, taking and building, and taking. Latching on and draining you dry. Then calling you a savage. It doesn't take a genius to parse that word form the handwriting on the photograph. Bà Cố and Cam are incidental relics. The racism is not subtle once you start to look.

The Future of Inclusive Education by ,

This book addresses the tensions of existing theories and practices of inclusive education from an …

The woman from the window sits at the center of this photograph, surrounded by her family. Her eyes are sharp and deep-set, the angle of her nose narrow. Her family blends into the background drapes. They'd taken it in our dining room, the hint of wooded wallpaper scratching at the edges.

Her dress is a beautiful lace and buttoned at the front with a wide sash. Her hat is even nicer, with a variety of flowers. A girl stands to her right, and the husband towers on the left, hand on their son. The kids are obviously twins, both wearing their mother's dark line for mouths and deep eyes.

My gut tells me she's the Lady of Many Tongues. Marion Dumont and her husband, Roger. The ones Alma told us about. Loopy handwriting stains the back—1925, le sauvage l'a ruineé. A visceral dislike rips through me.

The Future of Inclusive Education by ,

She Is a Haunting (2023, Bloomsbury) 3 stars

Jade Nguyen has always lied to fit in. She's straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough …

In rising excitement and volume, Alma says, "Roger Dumont was key in establishing order in this region, but his wife, Marion, was a very accomplished linguist in her time. Latin, German, et cetera, all the great languages, and then of course she had to come here with her husband. She became quite good at Vietnamese too. It's a bit unusual for spouses to come along, but she was an absolute asset to her husband. She was known as the Lady of Many Tongues."

Here's my treasure trove of highly specific and obscure information. Ba's fist closes tightly around his chopsticks, ready to snap. Right, Roger and Marion employed our family. We were here first, and yet where are we in history books?

Alma can't be stopped now, judging by the animated look in her eyes. "Marion held many parties and meetings in this house," she says. "Entertaining officers on leave, translating documents where needed, of course. Geniuses hardly have their equals, so she never had any reason or want to actually associate outside of this house. Unfortunate though. She could've been a great teacher to the locals."

Because I need to know for myself how no one cared for the way my family tended the hydrangeas that live until this day, I ask, "Did someone else live here?"

"No, not really," she says slowly. "Roger and Marion had children, and personal attendants—a house as big as this needs care—but they were very much distinguished pioneers and masters of their hearth."

The woman has her PhD in colonization, but that doesn't mean I'm happy she knows more than me—however fractured that knowledge.

She Is a Haunting by 

This book addresses the tensions of existing theories and practices of inclusive education from an …

We have used CDS as one way to connect segregated education practices to larger systems of oppression like capitalism, globalization, neo/post/colonialism, and neoliberalism.

The Future of Inclusive Education by ,

Except the thing that this book will not and does not do is question the position of schooling within any of these systems.

If you can't do this, you're going to continuously fail to understand what schools actually are doing and what they're for.

This book addresses the tensions of existing theories and practices of inclusive education from an …

Thus, by exploring the affordances of DisCrit for inclusive policies and practices in different contexts, we attempt to recognize the humanity of historically marginalized communities in the United States and globally in a more nuanced and accurate sense.

The Future of Inclusive Education by ,

Thanks, academics. I'm so glad that you're attempting to recognise the humanity of marginalised peoples. It's not like you can actually do that or anything (read: heavy sarcasm).