Science, Religion & Politics

Religion and politics are often proscribed topics wherever accord is valued. A result is that we don’t grapple well with the deep challenges of either, remaining comfortable with superficiality. A solid conversation on either is fraught by deficiencies of skill and knowledge and warped by unhealthy attitudes. Science has become like politics and religion in…



EDC

Every essay or blog—or conversation—begins with a Blank Page that is trying to talk to me and you about an important topic at the intersection of our interests. Mine for this blog is generally ecology, economics and education. T.G.I.F. Any Day will only get to Take a Great Idea Forward when it evokes thinking and…



Tina Stavredes, PhD

A long and valued acquaintance died January 3rd, 2024. Dr. Stavredes was a preeminent advocate for quality online teaching and I am proud to say that my role in her many career choices was important. Tina met biology at Normandale Community College attending an introductory course for non majors, which I always enjoyed teaching in…




Happy New Year (?)*

Politics will likely dominate 2024 and hardly be happy. We should all hope that by this time a year from now we will have seen a renewal of our commitment to democracy. Donald Trump must be decisively defeated in his attempt to regain the presidency. He has proved beyond a shadow of doubt tht he…



Cradle to Cradle

Education is lifelong … Remaking the way we make things should apply to education and the multitude of environments in which education exists and functions.




Cost of a Car

I have applications on my iPhone for Lyft and Uber but find myself reluctant to use either service; using instead a rather lame excuse that they are too expensive. Then the other day an old friend commented about his “new” car. Not new, but nevertheless a luxury vehicle with around 7,000 miles. The negotiated price…




Mining Responsibly

I just finished reading this article from Business North, and immediately thought you would appreciate seeing this recent development following our LSBF efforts so many years ago. The mention of “responsible” mining in the second paragraph should be enough to encourage reading what follows. MiningMinnesota, a trade advocacy group based in the arrowhead region of…



Accidental Education

Education’s Ecology demands new thinking. Thinking must be outside the boxes we too casually call school, classroom, curriculum, psychology and childhood. These boxes are accidental habits of mind. As long as you keep thinking in terms of schools, there will never be adequate space for reform of education. That is because schools impose a way…




Top Down

The Minnesota Education Amendment is troubling and unlikely to achieve its objective of closing the so-called GAPs.




Community Education

The foundation for community education is the neighborhoods of connected communities. The power of a neighborhood is its compact and relatively small size of less than ~250 people. Within a neighborhood there exists the power of many small groups that are much like X-Teams and share externally oriented knowledge through distributed leadership. Everyone feels and…