Curriculum & Classroom

Having Better Conversations

We live in a time of continual conversation…constant talking…perpetual noise. The same news stories are repeated several times an hour by multiple news sources, each telling their own versions of everything from celebrity gossip and political drama to trade embargoes and tips for holiday shopping. The lines between fact and opinion are getting as blurry…

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What’s Your Bias?

What’s Your Bias?   Is it possible to have a view of the world – and of education in America – that’s shaped by something bigger than the world around us? Are any of us unbiased in our perspectives on what the right path forward should be?   The obvious answer is “No.” Nobody is unbiased….

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Patriotism: What it is, what it isn’t, and whether it’s still a good thing

You’ve probably heard the phrase, “American Exceptionalism.” It used to be said much more, and its meaning used to be much more understood. It does not mean “American Superiority.” In other words, it’s not saying America is intrinsically supreme over all other nations — in the eyes of God or even in our own eyes…

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Education in America: Declining or Hopeful?

There’s a quote that is attributed most often to William Butler Yeats that says, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” Education, in its purest form, isn’t about to-do lists or “getting it done with” but about the freeing of a mind. It’s not requirements and deadlines but igniting within…

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