Successful Strategies for Teaching Undergraduate Research

The authors of this book, Marta Deyrup and Beth Bloom, are college librarians. Who else could be an expert at dealing with research? These women see hordes of college kids wandering into a library, trying to find information on “gun control,” and having no idea where to go. Do they go for the internet? For the stacks perhaps, trying to find an old book? Will the newspaper records be of any use?

    In chapter 2, the authors talk about “good research,” which seems to me like perfectly normal history work. The talk about primary and secondary sources, the importance of both, while stressing the differences. It is important, even for a high school student, to understand the difference; if the source is secondary, then the authenticity could be challenged. We are shown four points to ponder when considering the source, consisting of the origin, the reason it was created, the time period, and the significance. One example I can recall is the classic movie 55 Days at Peking, starring Charleton Heston. It has the typical “good old American boys won the war all by themselves” attitude, and shows all the foreign troops to be incompetent. However, a recent article in a military history magazine shows the opposite; most of the troops at Peking were Japanese, and they did a remarkable job at defending the embassy compound. 55 Days at Peking is a secondary source, made to stoke American ideals. The magazine article, on the other hand, while also a secondary source, was written to get the story straight.

    The authors cover research with media, archives, texts, and any other source that the average college student will need. In my day we started learning research in first grade, by going to the Encyclopedia. By fourth grade, we were at the public library, looking for books on the human. As the years went by, I learned to research not only the books, but also old periodicals. We had to look into the New York Times, old National Geographics, Time Magazine, and whatever publications we could get our hands on.

    We can blame the internet for students’ weaknesses today but blame alone will not cure the problem. Research may have to be taught to the student, and that is where this book comes in.

Strategic Diversity Leadership by Damon A. Williams

There’s a funny line in this book, in the chapter titled Towards a Twenty First Century Definition of Diversity. The author suggests that with ethnic and economic diversity, we must also deal with a diversity of ideas. You’re going to have many opinions on how to define the concept of diversity. Will it be ethnic? Religious? Social? Racial perhaps? A table is included where you have diversity on social levels and institutional levels, each one unique to the group. The difference is simple; identity drives the formation of groups, while the institution sets goals. Not surprising, when you look at how cliques form in an elementary school. A group of kids who live within a few blocks of each other and go to the same place of worship will likely exclude anyone who doesn’t. Athletic kids who are on the school teams will probably stick together as well. The average high school clique won’t set a goal of what it wants to accomplish.

Goal-oriented approaches appear to be a major part of Mr. Williams’ thinking. He uses the analogy of the wolf versus the cheetah to show why diversity efforts often fails. Cheetahs are small and light, and they rely on surprise, acting alone. Wolves, on the other hand, are pack animals, and they will spend days stalking their prey or tiring it out. Diversity plans do not work, according to the author, if they rely on one-time actions. He uses the 2005 protests at Harvard as an example of how college administrators must learn from sudden conflicts, rather than simply addressing them when they happen.

Gender diversity has been in the news lately, regarding the lack of women in college science faculties. Some blame it on sexism, others blame it on hostility from a mostly male industry, others blame the lack of encouragement women may face in pursuing careers in science. Diversity is discussed in this book not as a problem, but as an end result. The question is not the need for diversity, but how the school intends to encourage it in the long run.

Andrew Savulich: The City

    A bike messenger bleeds form the mouth after being punched by a cab driver. In another photo, a building doorman tackles a pickpocket on the hood of a cab. A subway passenger sits on the floor of the car, tended to by transit police after being stabbed. The other riders pay no attention. Andrew Savulich photographed the city for the Daily News since the 1980’s, mostly as a freelancer. Most of this photos from the time never got printed. The photos in this book display the sleazy, dangerous, and dirty side of New York life, most of which have never been seen before.

    One of the most controversial photos in this book from Steidl is of a woman, sitting in a crushed car, smiling. She looks like she’s nuts, given the destruction all around her. Is she drunk? On drugs? Knocked silly from the impact? Whatever the reason for her out of place levity, it’s the perfect example of the insanity of the city at the time. When I see these photos from the city’s bad old days, I can remember the combination of danger and excitement. It wasn’t a place for the dainty.

    Savulich isn’t much of a self-promoter, which is why I’d never heard of him until I saw this book. He was a Rutgers-trained architect, worked in Boston, then came to NYC to pursue a career in photography. He worked in construction while going to grad school for art, then began getting freelance assignments from tabloid papers. Nowadays the tabloids are on their way out thanks to the internet and the inability to shock people. As for Savulich’s photos, a whole lot of them had to be kept off the press because they were considered too edgy. But thanks to Steidl, we can see them in all their (dirty) glory.

    Seeing these photos takes me back 30 years, to a time when New York City was dangerous, dark, and filthy. However, under all the grime, people still went to work, ate out, came home, got their kids to school, and didn’t die. People lived here, some enjoyed the city, some hated it. The 80’s and early 90’s in New York are remembered with nostalgia, even though the city wasn’t as much fun as it is now. Then again, even in the most dangerous times, it was much more exciting than the Long Island suburbs. Perhaps that’s why I loved coming here so much? Perhaps that’s why I was dying to go to school in the city? Some people just love crowds, honking horns, shouting drivers, and the short walk to the grocery store. Those are the people you’re going to see in this book.

HERE by Richard McGuire

Richard McGuire’s book, aptly titled HERE, is classed as a comic, but it isn’t. No, it’s far more than a comic, this is a piece of artwork we’re talking about. It’s the kind of artwork that should be displayed in a museum, because it’s a great work of modern art. The first few pages are small panels of a family in a living room, floating on the backdrop of the ancient forest that was once their neighborhood. As the book progresses, the living room remembers every family that lived there, from the beginning of our nation to 2040.

The entire book takes place in the living room. Every 25 years a new family moves in, and the drawings show the good times, bad times, disappointments, hopes, and shattered dreams. In a way it reminds me of the Loretta Lynn song “If This Old House Could Talk.” Perhaps it’s a testament to the way Americans change addresses so often? Every time a new family moves into a home, they redecorate according to their needs and liking, and it will clearly reflect their personalities. As a construction worker I could always tell what kind of people lived in the home by the period décor, the elephants painted on the wall (a child’s bedroom, obviously) and the lines marked on the wall, month by month, every time the child grows another inch. In one apartment the last mark was at 2 feet, one year before they moved out. I later learned that the child had died.

I call Richard McGuire’s work modern art because I’m sensing a concept here. The same way Paul Delvaux’s work was all about Jules Verne, and DiChrico’s work was about a stagnant Italy, McGuire’s work follows a conceptual dynamic. The artwork always takes pace around a central theme, and every ten pictures should be grouped together because they follow non-linear time. While the family is showing home movies on a projector, another family is watching them on a flat screen TV 40 years later.

I’ve known McGuire’s work for years, and some of his work (included in this book) was included in the Graphic Fiction anthology. His work appeared 30 years ago in RAW magazine, and I expect to see more of his work in the New Yorker, and other magazines hopefully. Maybe he’ll be asked to direct the third installment of If These Walls Could Talk?

Unstoppable Learning by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey

Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey remind the readers that learning has to be goal oriented. Too often, the teacher’s curriculum doesn’t have a clear destination in mind, and that will obviously demoralize the students. When you teach children (or adults) there has to be a place where you want them to end up. What are the conclusions going to be? What will they come away with? Unstoppable Learning, another great book from Solution Tree Press, is a multi-chapter guide to teaching students with their abilities (or lack of them) in mind at all times.

Let’s start with the chapters called “managing Learning.” This one focuses on the teacher-student dynamic, and I stress the importance, because classroom management is the kiss of life or death. The chapter opens up with the famous “don’t smile until December” advice, which the authors make clear is not the best thing. They stress getting to know the students, finding out what’s going on in their lives, making time to speak to them one-on-one. That builds a sense of trust, and it prepares the students for the workplace.

Behavior in the classroom is discussed in the chapter as well. The authors break down the diagnosis into four categories; harmful, distracting, contagious, and testing the system. Dealing with the behavior does not need to be immediate, because the teacher can’t be expected to figure out the cure immediately. Afterward is where the teacher deals with it using the four categories. If the behavior is distracting, then who is distracted, the teacher or the students? Is the misbehaving student looking for attention? The authors give strict (and humorous) criteria for dealing with the behavior. One thing that is stressed throughout is that the teacher should not call out the student in front of others. It can make them defensive.

The book ends with sets of questions for the teachers and students. They include whether or not the students are ready to learn, whether the teacher is ready to teach, and if the students are using academic language. The best thing about this book, from beginning to end, is that it puts the accountability on the educator as a facilitator and manager, more than just a “boss.” Discipline is defined here as providing a safe classroom, not “getting the kids to follow instructions.” It’s certainly not classed as “making little children behave.”

After all, is the teacher’s job to punish, or to teach?

The Arab of the Future by Riad Sattouf

 Little boys are defecating in the street, throwing rocks at donkeys, and pitchforking stray dogs. Women sit by passively as their sons beat up their cousins. Psychotic children follow a family through the streets with sticks. Then another little boy sees men hanged in the street, their bodies swinging in the rain while shoppers nonchalantly walk by. As for the boy’s refined French mother, she puts up with it. It’s no wonder that the kids in Syria are all evil.

Riad Sattouf, a French-Syrian cartoonist, has drawn more than a graphic autobiography. It’s a crazy adventure through a bizarre land, leaving the travelers awed and bewildered. Throughout the story, his family treks through a land where education is neglected, animals are abused, and the people are accustomed to being abused by dictators. His French-educated parents are clearly a cut above the rest, in terms of the (rather saintly) way they treat others, but they’re powerless to make anything good happen. They each, according to their upbringing, have reasons for not criticizing it. Perhaps that’s part of the problem.

Before I go further, let me say that Riad Sattouf’s The Arab of the Future is the opposite of a voyage of discovery. His life in Libya and Syria is all about the “new world” exploring the “old world,” and finding nothing. For starters, his Arab father and French mother, both educated at the Sorbonne, are opposites in their ideals. His father, Syrian-born, is a Pan-Arabist with a liking for the Ba’ath philosophy. He thinks that by aligning the nation with the Soviets and casting aside religion, the nation can become powerful. Riad’s French mother goes along, and she’s disgusted, but she doesn’t really protest much. I get the feeling that she’s been taught not to judge or criticize foreign ways. Racist? Maybe it is.

As for Riad, he’s a cute blonde kid who, like a typical French child, talks politely and behaves himself. That makes him a sitting duck for the nasty kids that he encounters in Syria. He clearly illustrates the contrast between two nations; French children are allowed to actually be children, while the Syrian kids are taught to be violent. Even the toys are violent; they have action figures of Israeli soldiers hiding knives behind their backs.

After reading The Arab of the Future, I realized why democracy, human rights, gender equality, and universal suffrage can never work in the Middle East. The ideals of democracy and human rights are based on Judeo-Christian ethics, where disputes are settled in court, and the husband can’t own the wife. In a place like Syria or Libya, that would clash with Sharia, or even the habits that predate Islam. Let’s face it, the Middle East is hopeless. If a country is collectively hostile to animals, and forces its anger on the children, why would they care about anyone’s rights?

Photograhers' Sketchbooks, Edited by Stephen McLaren and Bryan Formhals

The difference between the average photographer and fine art painter is that less space is needed to take photos. On the other hand, the photographer doesn’t “create” the way the painter and sculptor do, as he or she has to gain the trust of the subject before pointing the camera. Photographers’ Sketchbooks, another great book from Thames & Hudson, displays the works, and more importantly, the philosophies, or the photographer as an artist. The artist’s words are treated as the studio.

Let’s start with Kiana Hayeri of Iran. She documents women in her country, focusing on how the veil dominates (or benefits) their lives. Her series titled “Your Veil is a Battleground” follows the lives of young women at home, in the car, at parties, all with the subjects’ consent. One of her four-photo pieces shows a woman with and without her head covering, with different makeup and hairstyle, while another set (from the same series) shows the woman in recreation, like parties, movies, dates, museums. It’s interesting to see how Iran’s young people are accustomed to wearing black, perhaps as a result of colors attracting the religious police’s attention?

John Chervinsky, on the other hand, works around props and still life setups, particularly dull black backdrops. He admits he has a fascination with the old black chalkboards of Harvard’s lecture halls, and photographs black-painted apples and pears with white chalk patterns. While he doesn’t require the massive mess-and-clean setup of the average painter, his exploding fluorescent tubes required a bit more setup time!

Most of the photographers in this book, especially the ones who document people, discuss the issue of trust. Most photojournalists are more interested in the “other half” who are rarely seen, rather than the wealthy classes, but this requires greater effort. While the upper classes will probably be concerned with flattering imagery, the impoverished areas are wary of any outsider. However, as with Susan Meiselas, the subjects aren’t finicky about looking attractive. She gained the trust of locals in a poor neighborhood of Lisbon, where the people and buildings resemble the West Indies, and took photos of them going about their lives. They resemble Black Americans, only the clothing is not as colorful and the people are much slimmer. It reminded me of Ash Thayer’s book Kill City, where she photographs NYC squatters, or the book A Period of Juvenile Prosperity, about young hobos. The subjects clearly weren’t concerned about being “dolled up.”