Child Poverty Worse than During the Depression
The article is about the states, but Canada isn’t far behind. Children growing up in poor households are likely to lag in their brain development and thereby perform poorly in…
Marie Snyder
Harpoon 2015
If you haven’t seen it yet, this is a great site full of all the reasons we need to vote Harper out of office. It’s got categories such as democracy,…
Finnish Schools: What Do They Have That We Don’t Have?
Everyone’s a buzz about schools in Finland being awesome, so I read a book and some articles and their curriculum documents to figure out what’s so special. In a nutshell,…
On Guilt and Responsibility
I grew up in a family with a strong work ethic. You couldn’t read the comics until you finished the world news first. Sitting to do anything other than read…
Hedges on Education
Yesterday Hedges wrote on a profound relationship he had with a teacher who passed in December, and he had much of value to say about education: Education is not only…
The Smell of Your Moral Judgment
“If you’re going to tell people the truth, make it funny or people will kill you.” – Billy Wilder I just watched a series of videos (65 minutes if you…
On ASD and Labels and Being Weird
I wrote about this two years ago, and coming across this site on autism stories inspired me to revisit why labels can sometimes be helpful. Sort of. Here’s the relevant…
On the Courage to Care
It’s snowing in Australia and Alaska is on fire, but what really worries me is some police overstepping the bounds of their authority. Just on my facebook feed today, they’ve…
In the Realm of Terrifying
CBC has a brief (7 min.) podcast up about the rise in anxiety in the population being reported by psychologists over the past couple of years due to climate change.…
On Thigh Gap
My daughter is worried about it. She just turned 11. She’s been sick from the heat a couple times because she wears jeans everywhere. It’s a problem. I told a…
Celebrity Impact
So Harry Styles advises us to avoid SeaWorld if we care about dolphins, and everybody’s talking about it. This could just be the needle that broke the camel’s back; many…
On Friendships of Utility not Virtue
It sounds horrible, doesn’t it? Like we’re using people, hanging out with them only because they have a nice car or because they often pick up the bill for lunch.…
So I Went to the March
I went to the Jobs, Justice, Climate march on Sunday. It’s taken me a few days to think about what I think about it. Klein so close at the pre-pre-rally.…
On Being an Ally
I’m not sure how to say this without being blasted, but I’ll try: I might understand a little piece affecting Rachal Dolezal decision to present as black rather than be…
OITNB
I read some review somewhere of the first episode of Orange is the New Black on the weekend before I dove into a marathon session of the entire season. It…
On Measuring Well
In Plato’s Protagoras, Socrates and Protagoras argue over the language Protagoras uses to explain what happens when, as he describes it, pleasure overtakes reason and people make horrible choices. Socrates…
Upset Them at Your Peril
Professor Edward Schlosser wrote an interesting piece in Vox about, in part, the power his students have to call the shots these days. I can attest that it’s at best,…
Revolution, the Film
I saw and wrote about this movie two years ago, but it’s being released to a wider audience now. About ten years ago, Rob Stewart was making the film Sharkwater…
On Sublime Madness
“You don’t fight fascism because you’re going to win. You fight fascism because it is fascist.” – Jean-Paul Sartre, The Age of Reason I previously intended to write about Hedges’…
The Moral Imperative of Revolt
I prefer Hedges’ subtitle to his title, Wages of Rebellion, but this post isn’t about him per se. Morally, we have to revolt against this corrupt system – like when…