Thread by @RadioFreeTom

There’s not much point in responding the piece about me by Regina George over at @NRO. (There are no surprises in it: my facial hair and insufferability are well-documented problems.) But the author takes a bafflling and mean swipe at @HarvardExt and the people who go there. /1

In a piece decrying snobby elitism, it’s a weirdly elitist flex by a guy who went to Yale, and who is, at least lately, a film critic. So, on that, I will indeed comment. Note: I don’t speak for @HarvardExt, or any other institution. /2

I’ve taught at Extension for almost 15 years, and it’s been one of the most gratifying parts of a career that has included teaching and lecturing lots of great places. My students run from high school kids to grad students to older people who just want to learn stuff./3

I’m not sure why an @NRO writer thinks it’s bad that I, like so many other Boston-area faculty, would teach for one of the oldest extension programs in the world – one founded to extend the benefits of education to people outside of day colleges. (Affordably, too.) /4

The writer, to his credit, did some crackerjack fact-checking by consulting Wikipedia – no, really – but still, I’m here to help. We have degree programs, but many folks just register for classes.
We also have some certificate programs. Let me tell you about one. /5

A while back, I was approached by the U.S. Air Force to create an Extension certificate. The military needs more education on nuclear stuff - this was a blue-ribbon USG panel recommendation back in 2008 - and USAF chose Extension along with a few other places to do that. /6

I wrote a book on nukes and am also faculty in the new USAF School of Strategic Force studies, so it was a good fit. We created a program in less than a year for a Certificate in Nuclear Deterrence studies. We recruited more faculty to broaden its offerings, too. /7

We have a lot of folks from the military in it, but like other Extension programs, it's open to anyone who can pass the courses. (It’s unrelated to my day job with the Navy, oddly enough.) You can find more here, rather than Wikipedia:
extension.harvard.edu/academics/prof…
/8

I also teach courses (including at @HarvardSummer) on the future of war and Cold War pop culture. We might even return to doing a real-time nuclear crisis simulation in the future. That one, with a guest shot from one of my military friends, was...something. /9

Anyway, if you'd like to know what else I teach, you can go to the @HarvardExt website and search my name. (Courses are on campus, or distance, or by combined delivery. Lots of options.)
This fall, I'll be doing a course on nuclear weapons. extension.harvard.edu/course-catalog…
/10

I get that the new @NRO is...well, what it is. But I'm mystified why an article on me included a strange swipe at people who work all day and then bust their asses to come meet me in class.
But speculating on that gets us into the realm both of psychology and bad editing. /11x