What Should Teachers Do to Prevent Gun Violence?
Lots of us have students who don’t quite fit in and spend all their time alone, friendless. They might have been bullied for being different, and we can’t always solve…
Marie Snyder
A Bit More on Free Speech
You’re free to say the earth is flat and say it all day long on a wide variety of media platforms, and even write a book about it if you’ve…
A Crackpot Posing as a Genius
I’ve been noticing many articles, recently, about the plight of loneliness. It’s now linked to anxiety and depression, and addiction, and a former US Surgeon General calls it the most…
Seeing Jane Goodall
A post in which I gush a bit about it all. Jane came to my city last Wednesday night. I had so much to do this week, but I had…
On Entitlement and Unfettered Rage
One of the benefits or downfalls of the internet is that it allows fringe groups to find each other online. When it comes to feeling like nobody in the world…
Happy Earth Day
It’s the 48th Earth Day, and it’s the 20th anniversary of Mann’s hockey stick graph made famous in Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. So we’ve known, for sure, that climate…
On Peterson, Political Correctness, and Postmodernism
Peterson was on Bill Maher last night. They’re both people that have some clever ideas, but also promote a few questionable notions in a way that’s slick enough to just…
On Progressive Education
I recently watched a film, Most Likely to Succeed, which has inspired a lengthy post about educational reform. FIRST, A BIT ON DEWEY AND SKINNER: (If educational theory isn’t your…
On Extra Time and IEP Designations
We administered the literacy test yesterday with one new twist that most teachers weren’t privy to until the previous evening: There would be no specific accommodations for students with IEPs…
On Masculinity
Pankaj Mishra, author of Age of Anger: A History of the Present, wrote an interesting article in The Guardian last Saturday on the rise of a new idea of masculinity…
On the Necessity for a Public Takedown
When, a couple months back, I read Katie Way’s depiction of a date between “Grace” and Aziz Ansari, at first I felt badly for him to be outed as such…
On UW’s Mental Health Recommendations
After another suicide on the campus of the University of Waterloo, the university compiled 36 recommendations to try to alleviate the mental health crisis and held (and taped) a forum…
On Hari’s Lost Connections
“There’s violence to knowing the world isn’t what you thought. . . . Sometimes the world doesn’t make a lot of sense, but how we get through it is, we…
Swimming Lessons
“As for our bodies, there comes a time when no one wants to come near them.” ~ Mr. Perlman speaking one of the saddest line from the lovely film Call…
On Free Meds and Mental Health Care
Perfect timing. My son just finished telling me about his trip to our family doctor in which he tried but failed to get a form filled out that will enable…
On Conflict
We’re raised to understand conflict from the perspective of good guys and bad guys. But it’s rarely so clear. The battle for land and resources can be utterly nonsensical, particularly…
Monbiot’s Out of the Wreckage
The book cover says the book “provides the hope and clarity required to change the world.” Well, he certainly tries. He’s got a plan of action that’s possible, but I…
On School Holidays
If we can’t move or shorten the “winter break” because, let’s face it. we’re running on a Christian calendar with lengthy holidays around Christmas and Easter and no time off…
The Long Wait – A Bandaid for the Emergency Room Crisis
This is just an off-the-cuff comment, but enduring a long wait in a crowded, infection-ridden emergency room just once should be enough to spur people into action – or at…
Oxygen Depletion in the Oceans
This can’t be good: “The oxygen content of the open ocean and coastal waters has been declining for at least the past half-century, largely because of human activities that have…