Thread by @JoshuaCypess

1/ This book, @TimothyDSnyder's "Bloodlands," is the centerpiece of one of my favorite academia stories.

For my doctoral work at Brandeis, I was a TA for Prof. Antony Polonsky's class on the Shoah during the time when "Bloodlands" was published.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_Po…

https://twitter.com/dynamicsymmetry/status/1383276387029557249

2/ Prof. Polonsky was a skilled lecturer & the first person I'd seen who gave his students a transcript of the class ahead of time. I loved it because it made taking notes incredibly easy: I would just write my comments in the margins when needed.

3/ The transcripts did lead to slacking off by some students - and some former TAs! - who felt they could skip class given that they would use the transcript as a safety net.*

*[See the end of this thread for the bigger lesson I learned from this]

4/ The transcript policy was put to the test, however, after Prof. Polonsky came back from a conference where Prof. Snyder's book was introduced. Polonsky was thrilled by the book & research and departed the prepared transcript to teach us this new material.

5/ In my next TA session, I warned any students who missed the class that the transcript would be inadequate & I shared my notes. But I also used it to illustrate why they're in college & not reading 'textbooks' or depend on a library card (re: the bar scene in Good Will Hunting)

6/ Prof. Polonsky was already a giant in the field yet he was constantly keeping up to date with the latest research and then using it to modify his lectures *in real time.*

The transcripts were a convenience but not a final draft. A true scholar is always creating anew!

7/ A true scholar will create anew because learning never stops, because we are in this profession to expand the boundaries of knowledge & teaching is a small part of that.

A book is a frozen moment of consolidation that is a compromise with societal needs. Truth demands growth.

8/ That episode demonstrated what scholarship was really about (and why the students were lucky to be able to witness & learn from it). Polonsky knew to override his previous conclusions b/c new research was updating it. And he incorporated it & came to intellectual equilibrium.

9/ So "Bloodlands" is special to me b/c of this great lesson about the primacy of living, evolving scholarship. As a rabbi, I also use it to show why writing down the Oral Tradition is a recognized compromise to help students but absolutely not meant to be written in stone (heh)

10/ *As I noted in #3, I also use this episode to support policies from my Polyexclusion Principle which cautions applying rules made for the evil, rude or insane onto the virtuous, polite or sane.

My policy is to make rules that reward good behavior over ones to punish the bad.

11/ In this case, the transcript was used by slackers to skip class. And the "Bloodlands" episode showed the folly of being a free-rider: they lost out in both their education and exams.

OTOH, the transcripts were a great benefit for non-slackers (and the neurodiverse)

12/ Rules designed to punish rule-breakers will often succeed in only hurting rule-followers because the resultant conditions are rigid & uncompassionate. Moreover, the slackers will find some other trick/ruse to scam the system. It's lose-lose.

13/ When I design a class, I make it easier for student who want to learn because I recognize that the slackers will only hurt themselves.

Note: cheating is a different issue b/c that hurts good students, and my goal is to reward virtue. So I'm harsh on cheating.

14/ But so many practices that would help the neurodiverse are abolished b/c they are perceived as making it too easy to slack off. Who cares? Bad students will pay their own price: help the ones who actually want to learn!

15/ I'll try to say more about the Polyexclusion Principle later, but those 2 lessons are important to me as a scholar & teacher.

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