Want to know whether charter schools and education vouchers are good ideas? Don’t look for evidence– at least not at first. I am a science educator. Evidence is at the core of the practice of science. Science educators teach their students that a claim about how the natural world […]
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If Not Now, When?
Without one another we are diminished. The more we have others around us, the stronger we can become. That is the idea of the common good. It’s not a uniquely American idea, but it is one with which many of us identify. Republicans in Congress have a different idea. It applies to guns, health care, […]
What We Value: Democracy and the Common Good
Nothing will get better in America until we elect different people with different values and different commitments to local, state, and federal offices. Outrage may get some people who did not vote in recent elections to come out next time, but that strategy is insufficient. Reason and evidence are vital, but not enough. People need […]
Why We Should Care About The Education Of Other People’s Children
It is time to care about the education of other people’s children. Other people’s children are or will be our neighbors. Other people’s children – from almost anywhere in the United States and beyond – could end up as our coworkers. Other people’s children are tomorrow’s potential voters. How, what, and with whom they learn […]
Trump’s Education Budget: Cruel And Unusual Punishment
President Trump’s budget proposal violates the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The crime it punishes is not being wealthy, healthy and deserving of tax cuts. Budgets are values statements. Trump’s first full education budget proposal is no exception. Its $9.2 Billion or 13.6% cut in the spending level approved by the already spendthrift […]
The Passover Principle
Year-after-year at my family’s secular Seder, we follow the Jewish custom of retelling the ancient story of the exodus from slavery in Egypt. Because we are not religious, our tale is that of the struggles of many different peoples’ for freedom from bondage and oppression at their own hands, rather than by deliverance by God. […]
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