University of Georgia professor Peter Smagorinsky is a frequent contributor to the Get Schooled blog. This is a long and provocative piece on Common Core State Standards, which Smagorinsky argues is a manufactured solution to a manufactured crisis.
By Peter Smagorinsky
In “The Languages of Edison’s Light,” rhetorician Charles Bazerman studies how iconic American inventor Thomas Edison represented himself to the public as a uniquely talented technician in the post-Civil War world. He did so in spite of skepticism from the scientific community and a lengthy and problematic process in developing a viable prototype for his major achievement, the electric light bulb. To understand Edison’s place in the late 19th century world, think of Steve Jobs and the ways in which he rode the currents of technology, commerce, self-promotion, and rhetoric to project himself into the pantheon of America’s historical entrepreneurial
