Shelby Foote, the Mississippian who wrote a very readable history of the Civil War, describes the reaction of Southerners to Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on p (Continue Reading)
Pat’s Polemics
On-going brilliance
Left or Right?
02/15/2023 Pat Barrett Add CommentNo, not my politics; we know where they lie. It’s handedness. I’ve always known my handedness as “mixed dominance,” doing some things only with the (Continue Reading)
Communication up close
09/14/2022 Pat Barrett Add CommentRuby Payne something I have found true in the microcosm of my personal life, that poor families use fewer nouns and more pronouns. After 58 (Continue Reading)
Language hypocrisy
08/31/2022 Pat Barrett Add CommentWhen we speak of contractions in English like ‘we would have’ reduced to ‘we’d’ve’ the language guardians and scolds label that ‘improper’, ‘slang’, ‘sloppy’, and (Continue Reading)
Why SOME sports fans belong in the dregs of humanity category
07/29/2021 Pat Barrett Add CommentFull disclosure: I have never been a sports fan. My wife, my son, so many people in my life are “avid” sports fans (like a (Continue Reading)
Current Health of Me
05/22/2021 Pat Barrett Add CommentSince my last post to this topic I have been on a very steady exercise program, actually two programs, one CORE I do at home (Continue Reading)
Up to here
01/16/2021 Pat Barrett 8 CommentsMaybe we felt bad about Trump supporters and Trump voters being ridiculed by the leading-lights of the major culture, esp for thinking they are the (Continue Reading)
How Mass Media Affects Mass Man
12/26/2020 Pat Barrett Add CommentThis from Meacham’s Soul of America quoting Richard Hofstadter: “…. growth of the mass media of communication and their use in politics have brought politics (Continue Reading)
More evidence of the efficacy of repetition in input
12/06/2020 Pat Barrett Add CommentAn 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)
Signs of acquisition
11/19/2020 Pat Barrett Add CommentTracking 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)
Culture gets passed on, like it or not
07/05/2020 Pat Barrett Add CommentIn these pages I often stress the persistence of African cultural traits in the New World. Those traits came from Africans brought here during the (Continue Reading)
Nyah’s Lesson Dec. 11 #
05/23/2020 Pat Barrett Add CommentVous allez ecrire des notes. Why do I have to take notes?* She picked a gender neutral name for a character who was the object (Continue Reading)
Nyah’s Lesson Dec. 8, 2019
05/18/2020 Pat Barrett Add CommentStarted with more complex grammar and even that I got wrong! Then some cultural stuff.That I got right. Qu’est-ce que vous buvez quand vous avez (Continue Reading)
Nyah’s Lesson Nov. 23, 2019 #
05/16/2020 Pat Barrett Add CommentNyah’s BirthdayShe said something in French and I missed recording it! Here is the story again: Deux personnes marchaient dans la foret. Sur le sentier (Continue Reading)
Nyah’s Lesson Nov. 20, 2019 #
05/14/2020 Pat Barrett Add CommentThis is another story and she asks for clarifications but there is a lot of new vocabulary. She recalled ‘boue’ and she comprehended most but (Continue Reading)
Nyah’s lesson Nov. 15, 2019 #
05/13/2020 Pat Barrett Add CommentEst-ce que une jeune fille est un garcon? No*La jeune fille travaille au Disneyland. Est-ce qu’elle travaille au Disneyworld?No. DisneyLAND* Elle conduit….drive?”Dort….I don’t knowFrere Jacques, (Continue Reading)
Nyah lesson Nov. 7, 2019 Thursday #
05/13/2020 Pat Barrett Add CommentThe packageWhy is there Y there? Y stands for ,….But isn’t there a word y?I didn’t know that was a world wide epidemic (hippies)Why is (Continue Reading)
Nyah’s lesson Nov. 5, 2019 #
05/08/2020 Pat Barrett Add CommentAfter transcribing this I think I would say the “structures” are l’ and avoir peur and Asked for leaving the question words up. Qui est (Continue Reading)
Accountability and Reconciliation
04/15/2020 Pat Barrett Add CommentBishop Desmond Tutu led his country into an era he called Truth and Reconciliation. South Africa had been as bad as the American South; worse, (Continue Reading)
Ups and Downs with TPRS and the Virus
04/14/2020 Pat Barrett Add CommentJust as my granddaughter was getting back into the swing of things with French, the virus hit. She has stayed away for a week or (Continue Reading)
States with no lockdown as of April 4
04/04/2020 Pat Barrett Add CommentFour states, all Republican governors. Arkansas, Nebraska, Iowa, North and South Dakota. Iowa really surprises me.
Take his whistle away
04/02/2020 Pat Barrett Add CommentWhat is the point in finding out the identity of a whistle blower? To punish him, of course. But why punish him what the whistle (Continue Reading)
Why the Right Hates Cultural Relativity
03/29/2020 Pat Barrett Add CommentIt’s really simple: people who gravitate to the right are authoritarians. Cultural relativity undermines that. Cultural relativity states that all societies face the same basic (Continue Reading)