Reimagining Physical Education

To the Curriculum Committee, and (again) in particular, The Fundamental Skills sub-committee, The phrase “P.E.” evokes memories that vary wildly depending on whom you ask. Responses range from reminiscences of time spent playing with friends, away from the doldrums of the classroom, to shudders at the recollection of the gym’s sickly smell which was made far worse by the desire to be almost anywhere else. As conflicting as these sentiments are, they are in part rooted in some form of the followi

On Mathematical Intuition

To the Curriculum Committee, and in particular, the Fundamental Skills sub-committee, I am writing this letter, the first in a series, in response to the solicitation of feedback by the committee. Mathematics has had an unfortunate history, particularly in the United States, of being literature’s unloved sibling, not just among students but also often among those who educate them. It starts early. When a 14-year-old impetuously questions the necessity of Shakespeare, she will probably be told

On Suffering Silently

Inspired by Nora Gayer’s excellent piece. We are all daily liars. Well, most of us are anyway, and some rather worse than others. It’s not quite our fault. At some point, we agreed (in that pesky social contract no one really remembers signing) that pain is personal. It’s unbecoming to admit your own pain and it’s rude to ask about another’s. This is rather inconvenient given life’s propensity to be quite painful a lot of the time. We are left in the dodgy business of the half-truth; in our d

Weary, Not Afraid: A Response to Judith Shulevitz

In her latest op-ed in the New York Times, [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/opinion/sunday/judith-shulevitz-hiding-from-scary-ideas.html] Judith Shulevitz identifies a recent trend in colleges towards sanitizing intellectual spaces (or as she more bluntly puts it, “hiding from scary ideas”). Shulevitz is one in a rising number of voices fighting back against what they perceive to be the excessive political correctness that has the university and, more broadly, spaces for thought. The pushback

The Mystery of Missing Dreams

Amherst College is a place of abundance. We have a plethora of intellectual thought, an admirably high degree of social and economic diversity, a formidable endowment and a surprising number of vegan dessert options. The contrarian in me was thus tempted to look for that which we are missing. The thing that struck me was disconcerting and fascinating — we have a dearth of dreams. The lack of dreams at the college is not an immediately apparent fact, largely because of the lack of dreams in the

Peter Crane, an Endorsement

Elections are one of my least favorite times of the year. They are a time when beliefs are asserted with nonchalant indifference to present and past behavior, people are uncomfortably lumped into “voting blocks” and everyone involved leaves feeling vaguely defiled. As a senator, I’ve definitely had to cope with my share of elections, so when one occurs in which I’m not a candidate, and therefore obliged to participate, I am more than happy to keep my distance. However, on the occasion of the upc

On Speaking English

One of the most difficult questions I’ve been asked during my time at the College is how I learned English and why I speak it “so well.” My instinct is to feel exasperation and indignation, which are immediately followed by guilt at my lack of generosity towards the well-intentioned asker, who was, after all, “just curious.” The residue of this amalgamation of feelings tends to stay with me, constituting a vague bother, and this is why it was of interest to me to examine this scenario and my own

Imagining Responsible Victim Responsibility

Residential counselors received an email last week with information that they could then pass on to their residents regarding the upcoming Homecoming weekend. The following portion of this email, which was posted on the Facebook group Fixing Amherst College’s Sexual Violence Problem and then later quoted in a Newsweek article, sparked much controversy and discussion. “Keep an eye out for unwanted sexual advances. A lot of alums come back for Homecoming pretty jaded with the bar scene and blind