MO Gov Parson gave a speech to MO education administrators recently, which has me feeling a tad ranty. In it, he spoke glowingly of his friend ‘Margie’, director of DESE (MO Dept of Elementary and Secondary Education), and encouraged MO’s poor public s…
How sure are you that what you know, is actually so? How sure are you that what your child is learning, is worth knowing? Do these questions seem worth answering? Or asking? If not, does this one give you any concern:What if what you think you know, th…
231 years ago today, December 15th, 1791, our states united in ratifying the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America! How weird is it that many of the individual rights protected by these amendments as being essen…
Remember to remember, that while we’re preoccupied with our current concerns of the day, the worst of our yesterdays – such as that of 81 years ago today – can suddenly consume our present, especially when it’s least expected, which is always: Today. R…
For all my friends and family who understand the importance of talking to each other, and discussing all matters about family and friends, and religion and politics and nutrition, and who know how to disagree reasonably without becoming disagreeable – …
I long for the day when we might have a president again who will look upon such a fine bird and say “That’s a fine looking turkey, thank you”, promptly wring its neck, and send it to the kitchen to be cooked. Presidents since JFK, Reagan too, have bee…
Commemorating Veterans Day once again, on the “11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month”, with two earlier memories; one from seven years ago now, which was itself remembering this day from 5 years before that, and doing so recalls what persists a…
Without wasting more time on the yet to be ‘decided’ races, the nature of the candidates, or their supporters, the fact that these supposedly deeply divided elections are coming down to mere percentage points of differences, indicates that the real bat…
If you’re in the Washington MO area this weekend, I’ve been invited by We The People of Franklin County to speak on SEL, Common Core, and how our educational system got to this point.Come on out this Sunday Nov. 6th, from 5:00-7:15 p.m., for a good dis…
Here’s an odd question: Do you think that knowledge is relevant to Education? Odder still, how you answer that question puts you on one side or the other of a wide Grand Canyon-like divide in epistemology. Epistemology being: “…the study or a theo…
As Americans hurried into the opening of the 20th Century, most did not notice that the old ideas which ever fewer Americans were still being educated well enough in to understand, were being left ever further behind with each new reform, and with each…
“…They constantly try to escapeFrom the darkness outside and withinBy dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good.But the man that is will shadowThe man that pretends to be…” T.S. Eliot, The RockWhile walking through the problem…
When you’re not sure whether or not you’re lost, you check your position and visible landmarks against a map. If your educational map doesn’t show an expected landmark of low graduation numbers with graduates who can’t or won’t read, or read only for i…
It’s that time again, to speak truth to the power of the woke folk who fail to give any thought to the discordant noise of their virtue signaling, in prattling on about wanting to change ‘Columbus Day’, to ‘Indigenous Peoples Day’ – time to update and …
“Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, For the straightforward pathway had been lost.Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say What was this forest savage, rough, and stern, Which in the very thought renews the fear.So…
Today is the 235th birthday of the United States Constitution. Peruse it or lose it… and the liberty it was written to preserve. What was signed as completed upon this day, two hundred and thirty-three years ago, September 17th, 1787, by thirty-nin…