Inquiries

Teachers

One major reason I make all the content at my site open is as a service to my fellow teachers. If you have questions about this material, don't hesitate to contact me. If you don't have questions but would like to discuss either the Reformation or the pedagogy of online teaching, likewise do not hesitate to contact me.

One particular note to those public school teachers who make "interview" assignments: I probably won't respond. I disagree with the approach and in any case I find most of the questions to be so badly put that they're impossible to answer anyway.

Scholars

Fair warning: I'm not an active researcher, which is why you won't find my name in any bibliographies. I will be glad to discuss any point with you, and I certainly welcome corrections or amendments to anything I've written here as well as suggestions for improvements, but don't expect me to be able to discuss the finer points.

Students and General Public

This site is for my students first, for fellow teachers second, and then for the general public. If you find information here that is useful, I'm glad you found it so.

If you are researching--for a term paper, personal project, or whatever--and you have a question for me, you are welcome to contact me, but only under the following conditions. If you have not met these conditions, don't bother contacting me.

  1. Read what is here at this site. I won't answer questions if the answer to the question can be found by material I've already written and posted on this site.
  2. Tell me what research you have already done. I won't answer a question that is simply a question, because I won't answer a question where the student hasn't bothered doing any research first. Tell me what books you have read (author and title). Tell me what you think the answer to your question might be (this tells me you've at least tried to answer it).
  3. The more precise the question is, the more precise will be my reply.
  4. Don't ask me to do your bibliographic research for you. Don't ask me "what's a good book on X". Do the library research, read some books, and decide for yourself which is best. Or read book reviews on them.

In short, dear student, I want you to do the work yourself. If you have questions, you really ought to be going to your teacher, not to me. I realize there are special circumstances, though, and that's why I don't say no unilaterally but only conditionally.

A note to those of you in the general public who are doing genealogical research: I'm not a genealogist and cannot answer your questions. There are lots of resources out there on this, and lots of other folks who can help, but I cannot.

Contact

I will assume you have read the above. If I don't think you have, then I won't reply. I apologize if that sounds rude, or if it is not in accord with your notion of what a teacher is supposed to be. It is in accord with my idea of what a teacher is supposed to be, so I cannot do otherwise.

My email is sknox@boisestate.edu.