By Lucas J. Mather, From the Archives I received an email from the Philosophy Dept at LMU that amounts to institutional pressure to inflate grades and lower academic standards or lose future teaching contracts . Timed right before finals . Here’s the text of my reply email: “Dear xxxx, I very much appreciate your candor.… Read more »
Dear TRP guests, readers, listeners, friends and family, In Season 1 of the hit 1970’s show “Mary Tyler Moore,” there is a Christmas episode. I lost count of the number of times that they said or displayed the words “Merry Christmas.” I didn’t once hear the words “Happy Holidays.” It’s a snap shot into the… Read more »
By Lucas J. Mather / Strange story in my office hours: (*”office hours” , if you don’t know, are what professors call time with students outside the class, ideally in an office –this is in my office at LMU, a liberal Jesuit university in a liberal, rich area of Los Angeles). Ok, the brief, strange… Read more »
by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D. A predictable self made trap of stiff gun control advocates when I discuss the issue in person. They’ll ask: Why do you need to be armed ? They pretend incredulity. It absolutely is pretend . I’m not sure if it’s purposeful or not . Maybe. Doesn’t really matter. They… Read more »
A Short Story at Barnes & Noble, By Lucas J. Mather If the story is untold , why would I buy the book? I said to the clerk. [Me at Barnes & Noble] This looks like the story *is* told . As I flip through it. But , if I was in a hurry ,… Read more »
Happy Advent, by Prof. Lucas J. Mather, APU Political Science Department And why do you think this group of philosophers are called The Pre-Socratics, the professor asked, holding up an Oxford University Press book by the same title. A girl raised her hand straight up, and said, because they came before Socrates. Okay, the professor… Read more »
By Lucas Mather After quizzes, at the beginning of class, I say, “I’ll probably just let you guys go after this. I mean, after the quiz. You’ll have done enough by then.” Really? Well, yeah. Look, there’s three options. I could let you go before this, in which case you’d be gone already. I could… Read more »
A Socratic Dialogue on Break Time, by Professor Mather Professor, Trump is a *nationalist*. Hitler was a *nationalist.* Lincoln was a nationalist, the professor said, as he sat back, picking apple fragments from his teeth, taking a sip of coffee. —[It was quiet a long time]— But Trump is a white nationalist, another student finally… Read more »
A Dialogue From 2013, by Lucas J. Mather Student: “But then, who are you to judge?” Prof [um, that would be me in this scenario]: “By asking who I am, do you mean, what is my name? You already forgot?” Student: “No, I mean … who are you to judge. You know.” Me: “Who am… Read more »
By Lucas J. Mather Someone said to me they were so encouraged that Georgia seems to be going blue, which she thought was impossible since it was “historically Republican.” I had to hold back laughing out loud. Or even smirking because clearly she was processing some feelings and I think it’s important to let people… Read more »