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What do you want to be when you grow up……?

  12/19/2020       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

First of all, that assumes you want to grow up.But when I was a kid the teacher went around asking the kids what they wanted (Continue Reading)

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Post-76 year old update

  12/09/2020       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Well over five years ago I read an article in, I believe, the NYT magazine that stated emphatically that after 76 a person’s body mass (Continue Reading)

Health and exercise

Listen To Donny Deutsch!

  12/08/2020       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

On Morning Joe on Dec. 7, 2020, Donny Deutsch made an extremely clear statement. Joe passed over it because I believe he still has trouble (Continue Reading)

Culture, Politics 2016/2020 running blog Corona edition

Let Me Tell You How Brilliant Isabel Wilkerson Is…..

  12/07/2020       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

For years I have been bugged by the way people cast blame for a systemic problem on one individualized person or institution. On the listservs, (Continue Reading)

African Diaspora, Culture

More evidence of the efficacy of repetition in input

  12/06/2020       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

An article on child acquisition of the ergative forms in Basque finds that Basque children receiving bilingual input, i.e. two different languages being used in (Continue Reading)

Foreign language teaching & learning, TPRS, Uncategorized

Symbols are important

  12/02/2020       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Our language sometimes scrunches word meaning down into what is commonly heard. Symbolism is one of those words, as in “It’s only symbolic.” That takes (Continue Reading)

Pat's World View, Politics 2016/2020 running blog Corona edition

Mistakes in teaching French

  12/02/2020       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

I noted in Lesson #51 I wrote il n’a pas des amies when it should be d’amies. I am pretty sure I did not realize (Continue Reading)

Foreign language teaching & learning, TPRS

Nyah’s lesson #1 June 25, 2018

  11/29/2020       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

I am writing this up 8 months after the event and will reference subsequent developments. We went over the principles, incl. signs, comprehension checks via (Continue Reading)

TPRS

oases of reinstatement but our long

  11/23/2020       Pat Barrett      2 Comments

Honor was lacking. Biden will tsk tsk us for saying a lack of honor was the principle in the Trump administration and in the Trump (Continue Reading)

Pat's World View

As the dust settles……..

  11/23/2020       Pat Barrett      3 Comments

As Trump gives up his law suits to overturn the election results, it remains to be seen what he will do next. Some say he (Continue Reading)

Pat's World View

Buried culture

  11/23/2020       Pat Barrett      3 Comments

When I attended a human relations camp (Anytown) in the 70s as an advisor, I found that “culture night” consisted of sorting the various ethnic (Continue Reading)

Culture

Where are the Mozarts?

  11/21/2020       Pat Barrett      1 Comment

Looking at the history of Western music, certain individuals stand out as musical geniuses: Mozart, Bach. We recognize this phenomenon and marvel at it. These (Continue Reading)

Music of the African Diaspora

FDR finesses Pearl Harbor a la Trump

  11/21/2020       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

We are often reminded that the Corona Virus is an assault on America, every bit as serious as 9/11. The death rate is climbing to (Continue Reading)

Complete nonsense

Signs of acquisition

  11/19/2020       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Tracking one student has its advantages. When you are working with a group of students, it’s hard to notice what each one is acquiring. My (Continue Reading)

Foreign language teaching & learning, Uncategorized

Fossilization as supreme

  11/17/2020       Pat Barrett      1 Comment

In FL teaching theory, fossilization became a major issue. The theory went that incorrect forms, once learned, could not be unlearned. That appears to foreshadow (Continue Reading)

Foreign language teaching & learning

How Grammar Instruction Works

  11/14/2020       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Recently I’ve seen some posts on teaching the subjunctive. Most often the requests are for fun ways. That made be wonder what role fun plays (Continue Reading)

Foreign language teaching & learning

Slicing carefullly what commentators say

  11/13/2020       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

A while back, around 2018, I took Tucker Carlson to task (I hear he was devastated on reading my blog) for saying that demographic change (Continue Reading)

Politics 2016/2020 running blog Corona edition

Recent highlights

  11/08/2020       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Pulling books off the shelf at random, the Reading Ladder offers some highlights of why these books are in the ladder. Starting with the most (Continue Reading)

What I'm Reading Now

How can I show you?

  10/31/2020       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Very often, statements of conditions are challenged. For instance, the Atlantic had an article titled How America Outlawed Adolescence. Without finishing the article, my thoughts (Continue Reading)

Culture, What I'm Reading Now

Role Reversal

  10/26/2020       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

With the election upon us, I’ll post this list of reversals, things the conservatives accused liberals of that have proved to be true of them, (Continue Reading)

Politics 2016/2020 running blog Corona edition, View from under the Bus

What’s on YOUR internet?

  10/26/2020       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

I guess browser is the proper word. Anyway, in the face of trolls and internet racists we can find really nice things on the internet. (Continue Reading)

View from under the Bus

What is a conservative?

  10/25/2020       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Someone who wants to conserve things the way they are. Why does he want to do that? Because he is comfortable with that way and (Continue Reading)

Pat's World View, Politics

Many voices make one think

  10/24/2020       Pat Barrett      Add Comment

Back when I worked as a therapist in a mental health center, a psychiatric clinic, we charted our contacts with our patients. The medical model (Continue Reading)

Politics 2016/2020 running blog Corona edition
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