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…
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…
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…
Schools dominate our systems of education. But schools are not an essential system. In the absence of schools, education would still go on but it would be very different from we now, almost universally conceive to be “education.” It is imperative that society take a step back from schools and schooling to explore alternatives and…
STEM is not STEaM or STEaMie. STEM is reserved for corporate workforce development. There is no room at the top for Art in STEAM or Including Everyone in STEAMIE. STEM is first and always elite. Pass a year or two of college calculus if you want admission to anything beyond third grade. Of course that…
I’m not talking here about the wall across the US-Mexican border. What I will talk about is the barrier that has long existed in the US regarding the use of public funds for private schools. My inclination is to argue that the maintenance of this funding wall is essential for education’s future reform. I hold…
The following paragraphs may provide an explanation for dialogue. In conversation I frequently make a reference to dialogue and make a distinction between dialogue and discussion. Dialogue is a learning conversation between two or more people. Learning conversations are based on each party seeking information and a new level of understanding. This is greatly facilitated…
“We are told over and over again these days that the economy is the bottom line. But as a biologist this never made any sense to me. It is the biosphere that is the source of everything that matters because it is the health of the biosphere,including the water, soil and air we all breath,…
There may be no more magnificent photographs than those of Earth from outer space. Humans had to travel to space to see Earth in all of its awesome majesty and its delicate vulnerability. The venture in space for a few was an education for all. We were changed by the image of the little blue…
Is it possible that the only reason anyone has ever listened to Betsy DeVos is that she is a billionaire? I can’t imagine and certainly don’t know of any solid reason to listen to her about education. Her qualifications as Secretary of Education are almost wholly a function of her political activity in giving money…
