Tag: education

In Memoriam: Lionel & Diana Trilling At Columbia University – With Guest Appearances By Quentin Anderson & Edward W. Said

You were the one who imagined it all, All those years ago.           – George Harrison This essay was originally written for EXPLORATIONS, and is dedicated to its editor, Maurice DuQuesnay: devoted guardian of the flame.                                    …

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Stories For Children

The Problem In this age of science and technology, many people believe children receive wondrous stimulation for their intellect and their imagination. I think this is false. The vast majority of children I see are becoming every day more dependent upon provided stimuli: stimuli that grow ever more coarse, loud, and in many instances violent, …

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Parenting In Our Time – 4: Family-Friendly Entertainment

Family Friendly Entertainment: Let’s Make Our Own An abridged version of this essay originally appeared in Technorati Women. Technorati Women [http://technorati.com/women/] recently convened an important conversation about finding online resources that provide responsibly stimulating programming for progressive families. The Problem We Face We all have learned how difficult it is to locate suitable family sites …

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Parenting In Our Time – 3: The Destination

This article was first published on Technorati as Parenting In Our Time Part 3: The Destination  on Technorati. It is the third essay in a series entitled “Parenting In Our Time.” Henry Kissinger once said the reason academics fight with one another so viciously “is precisely that the stakes are so small.” This is also …

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Parenting In Our Time – 2: Who Is Your Child?

This article was first published on Technorati as Parenting In Our Time Part 2: Who Is Your Child . It is the second essay  in a series entitled “Parenting In Our Time.”   It is impossible to escape the impression that people commonly use false standards of measurement – that they seek power, success and wealth for …

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Parenting In Our Time

This article was first published as Parenting In Our Time on Technorati.   Introduction For more than forty years I’ve taught literature, history, consciousness, and writing as a senior teacher and administrator in major American and Asian universities, and in progressive preschools and schools. In part because of the subjects I teach, in part because …

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Boys in Trouble: An American Epidemic

  Boys in Trouble I WANT a hero: an uncommon want, When every year and month sends forth a new one Till, after cloying the gazettes with cant, The age discovers he is not the true one.                              – Lord Byron, “Don Juan” For many years I have directed one-week immersion workshops in …

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Education Revolution

  Broken hands on broken ploughs, Broken treaties, broken vows, Broken pipes, broken tools, People bending broken rules. Hound dog howling, bull frog croaking, Everything is broken.      – Bob Dylan, “Everything Is Broken” State of Emergency Few of the authorities who write, speak, advocate, and lobby on behalf of ideologies about education or improvements …

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What Children Need – Part 2

You fathers and you mothers Be good to one another Please try to raise your children right Don’t let the darkness take ‘em Don’t make ’em feel forsaken Just lead them safely to the light – Billy Joe Shaver, “Live Forever” In my work with preschools, schools, and universities, young people of all ages tell …

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What Children Need – Part 1

 – I am, a stride at a time.  [James Joyce, Ulysses] For more than forty years, I have taught literature, history, consciousness, and writing as a senior teacher and administrator in schools and universities.  In the context of these profound and elemental fields of learning, students of all ages often have confided in me with …

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