In the Media
The F.Y.I. Newsletter
Every couple weeks or so, Tom shares updates on his professional and personal projects. He calls it his F.Y.I. newsletter. Sign up below for the easiest way to stay abreast.
From the Blog
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Culture
Coates: Some Words Don’t Belong to Everyone
Asked at a book talk by a white college student if she and her friends have the right to use…
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Arts + Letters
Long Live Print Books
You might think of me as a lover of all things technological or digital. In fact, I read most books…
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Arts + Letters
Not Sure What to Think About this Philosopher’s Rubric
The word rubric was originally used to refer to the annotations medieval church officials made in liturgy books in order…
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History + Politics
Teach Like a Champion, 1950s Version
The term “classroom management” irks many educators. The two-word phrase ignores the heart and soul of teaching: it’s not about…
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History + Politics
In Case There Was Any Doubt that Punctuation Is Political…This.
Watch how an 18th century typo radically impacted the way an entire nation came to understand one of its most…
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Arts + Letters
Robert Frost’s “To a Thinker”
The last step taken found your heft Decidedly upon the left. One more would throw you on the right Another…
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History + Politics
Pencils Are Old, So Is the Need to Sharpen Them (1886)
It makes sense that pencil sharpeners are over a century old. It’s just not something one thinks about.
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STEM
W.E.B. Du Bois’s Inky Visualizations Teaches Us How Powerfully Humanizing Data Can Be
For years now, I have occasionally seen 19th century data visualizations attributed to W.E.B. Du Bois. Always struck by them…
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Computer Science Education
Read Macbeth Like a Computer
For fun, check out this Wolfram Alpha page that breaks down Macbeth in all sorts of computationally fun ways. What…
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Project: States of Education
Unlike any other country to which the United States is compared, we do not define the right to public education at a national level. It’s not in the federal Constitution, nor the Bill of Rights. Instead, public education was a bit of an afterthought, inserted into state constitutions beginning well after the birth of the country. The result? We have 50 different definitions for the purpose of and right to public education. No wonder it’s so challenging to effect change. How does YOUR state define the right to public education? Tom made an interactive map to help you find out.
