By Troy Headrick Not long ago, I had a very interesting conversation with someone I’ll call “John.”  The two of us talked about many subjects during our meandering dialogue.  At one point, to my complete surprise, John said, “I don’t need to question things.  Why would I want to do that?  My head already feels... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick At work, as part of our professional development, I (along with several colleagues) have been reading and talking about Make It Stick, a book written by Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, and Mark McDaniel, on the psychology of learning. The other day, I was given the task of leading the discussion on chapter... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick I want to preface this by saying that I’m an American who spent nearly two decades living outside his home country.  I resided for two and a half years in Poland, four years in the United Arab Emirates, four years in Turkey, and seven in Egypt.  During the expat period of my... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick Those of us who write autobiographical pieces have one thing in common.  We are willing to open ourselves up, to expose our inner workings to the public because we understand that doing so is cathartic.  We know, deep in our bones, that this kind of sharing helps, often in the same way... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick It’s funny how my memory works.  I can recall long-ago glimpses of things and fragments of conversations.  I am able to conjure up sounds, smells, and feelings associated with past experiences.  These must have made a strong impression because they got stuck in my memory bank (very much like a kind of... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick Edward de Bono, the creator of the concept “lateral thinking” and author of the highly acclaimed Six Thinking Hats, has written approximately sixty books on all sorts of subjects, making him both prolific and wide-ranging.  Having read several of his works and finding them both profound and incredibly accessible, I recently decided... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick Most thoughtful people would agree that being able to think critically or “outside the box” is something one should aspire to.  I don’t see any sort of controversy associated with such an assertion. One of the things I do as the director of a writing center at a community college in Texas... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick I realize that this blog is not primarily a place for political writing, but bear with me for a paragraph or two.  Though this piece is going to have a political start, it’s going to end up being about culture and human relations and teaching.  In it, I’ll even make a recommendation... Continue Reading →

Troy Headrick's personal blog can be found at Thinker Boy:  Blog & Art. In politics, I’m something of a progressive extremist.  But in my approach to living, I’d say I’m something of a moderate.  I mean, by that, I believe in achieving balance.  Extremism may be good in politics—especially if one advocates extreme liberalism and... Continue Reading →

Troy Headrick’s personal blog can be found at Thinker Boy:  Blog & Art. I’m quite close to someone who recently lost a beloved family member.  The dearly departed was a septuagenarian who had battled a case of metastasized cancer that finally got the best of him.  To respect my friend’s privacy, I don’t want to... Continue Reading →

Troy Headrick's personal blog can be found at Thinker Boy:  Blog & Art. In my last blog, which was about teaching and learning, I asked, down in my conclusion, the following question: Is there anything bigger (or more important) than knowledge when learning, and if so, what might this bigger (and more important) thing be?... Continue Reading →

Troy Headrick’s personal blog can be found at Thinker Boy:  Blog & Art. I’ve been busy in recent days.  As many of you may recall, I manage a writing center at a community college in San Antonio, Texas, USA.  For a number of reasons, recent weeks at work have been especially stressful.  For one, I’ve... Continue Reading →

Troy Headrick's personal blog can be found at Thinker Boy:  Blog & Art. When I was growing up, there was a very common euphemism that was used when referring to those who behaved arrogantly.  Such people were said to be “full of themselves.”  I don’t know if folks still use this phrase or not.  Today,... Continue Reading →

Troy Headrick's personal blog can be found at Thinker Boy:  Blog & Art I’ve spent nearly my entire career working on college and university campuses that were located both inside and outside of America.  I currently direct the Integrated Reading and Writing Learning Center (INRW LC) on a community college campus that’s located in San... Continue Reading →

Troy Headrick's personal blog can be found at Thinker Boy:  Blog & Art. Several days ago I read Allie Diltz’s “How I Try to Not Suck (As Much)” and liked the piece a lot.  In fact, thinking about it prompted the response you are about to read. After finishing her blog, I began to wonder... Continue Reading →

Troy Headrick’s personal blog can be found at Thinker Boy:  Blog & Art My mother has told me stories about how curious I was as a child.  I don’t know if I was born this way or if this curiosity was mostly nurtured.  I guess that’s sort of a what-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg type of question.  I do... Continue Reading →

Troy Headrick's personal blog can be found at Thinker Boy:  Art & Blog I see some people posting blogs (and comments about them) on thinking and the role it plays in human life.  As someone who has expertise in thinking—especially in what some call “critical thinking”—I’ve been feeling more and more like chiming in.  (By... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick of Thinker Boy:  Blog & Art I’ve started reading Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations.  I’m only into chapter four—I bookmarked page twenty-three to be a bit more specific—but I’m already so glad I decided to look at it again.  As I claimed in my last blog, the book is full of wisdom and provides... Continue Reading →

By Troy Headrick of Thinker Boy:  Blog & Art Toward the end of 2018, I started developing some bad habits.  For example, I got sucked into spending too much time sitting in front of my TV.  Having said that, I mostly watched stuff on the political debacle happening in the United States and elsewhere.  I’m... Continue Reading →