Carolyn Vellenga Berman
@cvberman
Author of Dickens & Democracy in the Age of Paper (Oxford), Creole Crossings (Cornell), Professor @TheNewSchool, writing on politics and print culture
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love this gift from my family: a stylized version of my book cover from Ideal Bookshelf!
Long must read (worth it): "Education at its best sparks curiosity and critical thought. 'Bullshit education' does the opposite: it trains people to tolerate meaninglessness, to accept automation of their own thinking, to value credentials over competence" currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-des…
As I said last week, virtually every problem we have is the result of people collectively abandoning reading. Far from being a “waste of time,” literacy was the load-bearing pillar upholding democracy, reason and sanity. Without it, we are adrift in the vast night.
Former NSSR Dean and historian of The New School, Judith Friedlander has written to Joel Towers and TNS trustees. She minces no words. “The underlying strategy, as I understand it, for restructuring these programs, is to produce PhD’s primarily with an adjunct faculty.”
An important note about plagiarism in the writing community: Almost every day, I hear about someone stealing a piece of someone else's writing, or reposting it without attribution. Recently, a young writer took one of my poems, butchered it, and (astonishingly)…
This essay by Johanna Winant is beautiful on what can happen in the classroom; and on the importance of *argument* to literary studies. I especially like how she writes about helping students to "believe in their own significance" bostonreview.net/articles/the-c…
Locations of "America First" accounts
Amazing story of an editor fact-checking a young writer to find that she had completely made up sources and quotes in articles in some of the biggest news outlets in the world. One by one, those outlets took down her faked stories. The editor's exasperation with AI stands out…
Let it never be said that only white men read great books. As a destitute person of color growing up in rural Texas, I saw myself in David Copperfield. Dickens understood me like no one else; his portrayal of abuse, isolation, poverty is universal. The classics are for everyone.
Handwriting is not a motor skill. It is a reading skill. We treat them as separate subjects, but neuroscience says they are the same circuit. Last week I discussed Orthographic Mapping (OM). Many focus on the "sound" part, but miss the "motor" bridge. Here is why the hand…
Learning to read and spell is a complex process. Orthographic mapping is the brain’s way of linking sounds, letters, and meaning. I didn’t know this concept when I was a kid learning English, but it perfectly explains why certain methods clicked for me.
More reports of this lovely side effect seen in newly phone-free schools: Big increases in students coming into the library and ... checking out books! A report from Oklahoma: nationalreview.com/corner/anecdat… and one from Kentucky: washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2025…
washingtonpost.com
A school in Kentucky banned phones. Remarkable things started happening.
After Ballard High School banned phones, they saw a 67% increase in students checking out library books.
This is the NYC village Parade and it’s definitely one of a kind and fantastic as they’re dancing to Thriller by the late great Michael Jackson! 👇👇👇👇
Why Even Basic A.I. Use Is So Bad for Students nytimes.com/2025/10/29/opi…
Huge news for US literature. A new Mellon-led, $50 million fund for nonprofit literary orgs and publishers. Closest thing we've ever had to it was Mellon and Wallace in 1991, which, in today's dollars, was still less than half this. Open call begins Nov 10 literaryartsfund.org/about/
C.S. Lewis responding to a letter from an American schoolgirl asking him for some writing advice. (Worth reading? ✅️)
"AI is the 'biggest driver' of electricity use in North America.... And that might be showing up in your power bill, with AI datacenters cropping up all over the US, raising the electric bills of households nearby". Particularly the last bit is insane. cnet.com/tech/services-…
“In 2015, researchers at the University of Sussex in England asked a group of 20 English teachers in Year 8, the U.S. equivalent of 7th grade, to change their practice for 12 weeks. During that period, they would read two novels back to back, with all of the reading done in…
The data story in our new issue reveals stunning facts about America's gun reality. 350-450 million guns. $557 billion annual cost. A nation in a category of its own. The numbers tell the story.
New from me: Books are going missing from school curriculum, and the issue is worse than you imagine. The culprits might surprise you, too. Link follows.
Staggering numbers by the Lancet. Vaccinations have: - Averted 154 million deaths - For every death averted, 66 years of full health were gained on average = 10.2 billion years total - Accounted for 40% of the observed decline in global infant mortality
Ironic that the print version of this article in the @nytimes is scrambled. Do they think we’re all reading on our phones? Took me a minute to figure out that column 2 should be column 3
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