As a follow-up to George’s post on Nan Miller and problems in the teaching of writing, here’s an interview with Rick Hess about the topics and concerns of the American Educational Research Association. Hess is judicious and clear in his diagnosis of the wayward focus of the field, and we can connect what happens at the highest levels of education research with what goes on in the composition classroom. His report on the last AERA convention was at once hilarious and saddening, with all too many sessions devoted to imperialism, homoeroticism, etec. In practice, that translates into a lot less nuts-and-bolts teaching of grammar and punctuation.