Steven Maher
@smaher24.bsky.social
30-year history education veteran & amateur chronographer, still checking footnotes and looking for answers. Thoughts are mine alone and do not reflect those of my employer. Sharing ideas and lessons at https://infinitude.maherpages.net/
There are many families who can tell you about someone they've "lost". Bright, educated and seemingly reasonable people who, in the last ten years, slipped off into an alternative universe, leaving their friends and families unable to understand what happened to them.
December 4, 2025 at 10:13 PM
There are many families who can tell you about someone they've "lost". Bright, educated and seemingly reasonable people who, in the last ten years, slipped off into an alternative universe, leaving their friends and families unable to understand what happened to them.
Not the early Gen X'ers who had Nixon childhoods and Reagan high school and collegehoods
December 4, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Not the early Gen X'ers who had Nixon childhoods and Reagan high school and collegehoods
Sorta like rockin' that vending machine just one more time to make something fall out
December 2, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Sorta like rockin' that vending machine just one more time to make something fall out
The word "curia" could comfortably fit into this chart
December 2, 2025 at 2:21 PM
The word "curia" could comfortably fit into this chart
To the extent one data point counts - I haven't seen or heard of any change in the high school to college rat race. Students and parents still seem to be speaking about their college plans as if nothing is happening. Sorta like a family in the United States planning a vacation to France in 1943
December 1, 2025 at 5:17 PM
To the extent one data point counts - I haven't seen or heard of any change in the high school to college rat race. Students and parents still seem to be speaking about their college plans as if nothing is happening. Sorta like a family in the United States planning a vacation to France in 1943
Information not inference, good stuff
November 30, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Information not inference, good stuff
I share that nostalgia and am waiting for someone like that to return. Yet seeing students attempt to understand a fireside chat in a high school history lesson makes me wonder how long that will be - and about how we teach
November 28, 2025 at 4:35 PM
I share that nostalgia and am waiting for someone like that to return. Yet seeing students attempt to understand a fireside chat in a high school history lesson makes me wonder how long that will be - and about how we teach
Photos of the Thanksgiving Parade of the years is a slam dunk 2nd and 3rd grade history lesson. Works every time
November 28, 2025 at 2:24 AM
Photos of the Thanksgiving Parade of the years is a slam dunk 2nd and 3rd grade history lesson. Works every time
New Jersey requires two years of US History, which many teachers use to do amazing thing with students, making every instructional minute count. Just the same, many other NJ students are ending that second year with a "life in the 80s" project, instead of with units on the 90s, 00s, and 10s
November 24, 2025 at 5:33 PM
New Jersey requires two years of US History, which many teachers use to do amazing thing with students, making every instructional minute count. Just the same, many other NJ students are ending that second year with a "life in the 80s" project, instead of with units on the 90s, 00s, and 10s
Yes! It aligns perfectly with the high school transactional rat-race of GPA pumping and grade obsession to keep students from getting any crazy ideas about actually learning.
November 19, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Yes! It aligns perfectly with the high school transactional rat-race of GPA pumping and grade obsession to keep students from getting any crazy ideas about actually learning.
and only 30% of the US population elects 70% of the Senate
November 18, 2025 at 10:53 PM
and only 30% of the US population elects 70% of the Senate
Amazing hoe public memory and understanding of the past has shifted since the information revolution. The taught narrative-canon (no matter how you define it exactly) can't survive our access to primary sources, no matter how aggressive the forces trying to stuff them back under the mattress.
November 18, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Amazing hoe public memory and understanding of the past has shifted since the information revolution. The taught narrative-canon (no matter how you define it exactly) can't survive our access to primary sources, no matter how aggressive the forces trying to stuff them back under the mattress.
They can't navigate between a singular history and the reality of trying to understand the human experience through the past with plural histories. Even respected, well-read and admirable scholars seem to have trouble making room for other stories.
November 18, 2025 at 1:23 PM
They can't navigate between a singular history and the reality of trying to understand the human experience through the past with plural histories. Even respected, well-read and admirable scholars seem to have trouble making room for other stories.
Right out of the first pages of Bonfire of the Vanities
November 17, 2025 at 4:15 PM
Right out of the first pages of Bonfire of the Vanities
I was disappointed that Christopher Seider didn't make the cut
November 17, 2025 at 2:04 PM
I was disappointed that Christopher Seider didn't make the cut
The Times lives on clicks and attention. The world will be a better place when it gets neither
November 14, 2025 at 6:52 PM
The Times lives on clicks and attention. The world will be a better place when it gets neither
Maybe out of respect for the woodchipper
November 14, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Maybe out of respect for the woodchipper
"Sure, he stole a car. But it was a Honda Civic, it's not like he stole a Ferrari" [-warning - "Objects in analogy are objects, not people"]
November 14, 2025 at 4:33 PM
"Sure, he stole a car. But it was a Honda Civic, it's not like he stole a Ferrari" [-warning - "Objects in analogy are objects, not people"]
Who am I? Why am I here? ~Admiral Stockdale, October 13, 1992
November 13, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Who am I? Why am I here? ~Admiral Stockdale, October 13, 1992