“The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we’ve created are destroying how society works,” he said, referring to online interactions driven by “hearts, likes, thumbs-up.” “No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation,…
"The near-universal opposition to Trump’s decision by much of the military, intelligence, and foreign policy establishment is not out of concern for the fate of the Palestinians or international…
"A nuclear weapon can be placed in a shipping container or on a small cabin cruiser, transported by sea, and set off remotely by cellular phone." -- from "Haywire"…
"In Arab mythology, the al-Sada bird, or death owl, emerges from the body of a murdered man and shrieks until someone takes revenge." -- Lindsey Hilsum "I'm good at…
"What do they talk about these days at Parent Teacher Association meetings?" -- Question asked by one of the author's home schooled youngsters. Cobalt is such a health hazard that…
Not all the water in the rough rude sea Can wash the balm from an anointed king. (King Richard, Act 3 Scene 2) The ability of scientists to not…
“Was I sleeping, while the others suffered? Am I sleeping now? Tomorrow, when I wake, or think I do, what shall I say of today?" -- Samuel Beckett, Waiting for…
Gonna raise me an army, some tough sons of bitches I'll recruit my army from the orphanages -- Bob Dylan, Thunder on the Mountain The Southeast corridor of the U.S. --…
"What's the shock about how men are sexually harassing women in the context of our horrid societal and environmental momentum?" -- question asked by one of the author's home…
"All those sociological ingredients, the endless articles and insightful interviews, the official reports and incessant pontificating tomes don't warm the body, let alone the soul. Privileged people aren't just…
"Stockton was named an All-America City four times in the last eighteen years. I think it has the potential to become an All-World City next year." -- one of the author's…
by Richard Martin Oxman "What's the difference between our enabling the Saudis to blockade Yemen and making it possible for Stalin, Mao and Hitler to commit their atrocities?" -- Question…
"Oh no, you don't call people from Niger and Nigeria by the same name!" -- the author's home schooled youngest in 2006 I have reservations about Democracy Now!, but…
"As water seeks its own level, corruption creeps into the body politic to metastasize throughout society and its institutions." --from Geoff Dutton's NPR, the CIA and Corporatism While our mainstream media…
"It should be instructive to think about why so many writers on alternative sites go on and on." -- Rachel Olivia O'Connor When I first started teaching college students…
"Eventually, religion and business merged as they did nowhere else." -- Barry Spector Benjamin Franklin wasn't so cool. He had upsides, but he had utterly unconscionable downsides. The former…
The missive below was sent to my colleagues at Point Arena Community Charter School in Calfiornia, U.S.A. They are preparing to blend their theme for the year (Mythology, Magic…
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, and it's very important to know who's running the show." -- Arthur C. Clarke In 1942, when I was born, Walt Disney…
First of all, Nepal is a great point of departure for motivating students to become engaged with Climate Change issues. For some age levels the World Resources Report on…
"History has not ended, and the need to understand its main features is as great as ever. Certainly, academics must stop teaching the Trivial Pursuit version of History." --…
“We should be alarmed today, yesterday and every day, because every day on average 16 American youth are taking their lives.” -- Dr. Christine Moutier of the American Foundation…
"The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons." -- from Dostoyevsky's The House of the Dead as translated by Constance Garnett What…
"One airplane program, the F-35, could be canceled and the funds used to convert every home in the United States to clean energy." -- David Swanson The above, a line from…
"Mohammed frequently went to a cave in the desert three miles from Mecca, where he would spend months in prayer and meditation." -- Swami Sivananda's introductory sentence to The…
"A People's History of the World is an indispensable volume on my reference bookshelf." -- Howard Zinn Over the course of several months this year, I surveyed four-year college and university…
"...so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible." -- from the Down the Rabbit-Hole section of Alice's…
"There is no intelligence in Washington. Only arrogance and hubris. The quarter century I spent there was with the most utterly stupid people on the face of the earth."…
"Western indifference has been a problem. It continues to be a problem." -- Iris Chang to the author, 2004 On Craig's List I came across an ad which called for an Elementary…
Some of the questions below are, unquestionably, not appropriate for all grade levels. But -- certainly -- some should be addressed by the time a student secures entrance to,…
"Life is just a short walk from the cradle to the grave -- and it sure behooves us to be kind to one another, and keep our word along the…
Hodgkin's lymphoma — formerly known as Hodgkin's disease — is a cancer of the lymphatic system, which is part of your immune system. In Hodgkin's lymphoma, cells in the…
so much depends upon a red wheel barrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens
“The past is never dead. It's not even past.” -- William Faulkner Patrick Cockburn concludes his article Britain Refuses to Accept How Terrorists Really Work with, Contrary to conventional and governmental…
A review of a documentary on John Coltrane reminded me that the iconic jazz musician died on the same day that the Newark Riots officially ended. I trust that the reader knows why…
"We are documenting, discussing, debating, demonstrating, diverting and delaying ourselves to death in lieu of doing something new in solidarity that stands to make a big enough difference in time."…
The extraordinary achievement of Claire Simon's latest film, The Graduation, relies on its ability to capture power at work. The film documents the entire selection process that hundreds of young…
In the months of April and May we conducted a random survey of 100 U.S. educators nationwide* -- on all levels, in public and private institutions -- and discovered that…
Schools are still shills for our collective addiction to belief in technological fixes as a decent approach to addressing climate change issues. That's one reason to home school, among…
The thing is, a core group of citizens are -- first -- going to have to get off of the Untruthful Treadmill that they're on. Talk about the toxicity of…
"Frequently the cock combines the lifting of his tail with the raising of his voice. He appears to receive through his feet some shock from the center of the earth,…
“The essential thing is to WANT to sing." -- Henry Miller "Education in this country just boxes you in." -- Emil White Just prior to Emil White dying, I…
In the early days of hip hop, most of the artists either lived in or were born in New York City's South Bronx. That area was devastated in 1929…
"...there neither is, nor has ever been, an educational practice in zero space-time—neutral in the sense of being committed only to preponderantly abstract, intangible ideas." -- Freire, Paolo (2014) Pedagogy of…
Fifty years ago Dr. King risked his life to tell us that 'the world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve," that…
Henry Hampton's work -- like his groundbreaking Eyes on the Prize (1987-1990) -- should be applauded. His grand efforts and accomplishments -- along with those of his many hardworking, talented colleagues,…
"We live on a beautiful and a delightful planet, which is so awesome and so perfect that we wonder at its creation." -- The opening to Prithiraj Dullay's Humanity…
The world stands out on either side No wider than the heart is wide; Above the world is stretched the sky,— 205 No higher than the soul is high. The…
"This may well be the most important US History book you will read in your lifetime." -- Dr. Robin D.G. Kelley providing a testimonial for the work of Roxanne…
Dedicated to Edna St. Vincent Millay's Fight for Sacco and Vanzetti "With his hand on my mouth He shall drag me forth, Shrieking to the south And clutching at the…
The Claims Commission was essentially a mopping-up operation, established to clarify ambiguities about land ownership that still remained after a century of white assault. It simply asserted that the Indians…
"A political system devoted to decline instinctively does much to speed up that process." -- Jean-Paul Sartre One does not have to be a supporter of Donald Trump to…
"Ah! ás the heart grows older It will come to such sights colder By and by, nor spare a sigh Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie" --from Gerard Manley…
Our enigmatic Ocean Mother has always fascinated poets. Rachel Carson is a singular writer, who -- as an eminent scientist who absolutely loved and spiritually respected the sea --…
"Habit is the great deadener." -- Samuel Beckett An intrepid investigative journalist recently produced six minutes and seventeen seconds of footage that underscores how attachment to high tech gadgetry is causing…
"No one ever really sees a flower anymore." -- Georgia O'Keeffe A rose doesn't decide to provide its fragrance only for good people, nor deny its beauty to even…
"But I just had no intention of living this way" -- from the Counting Crows' Raining in Baltimore The actions being taken by concerned citizens respecting our collective crises are…
The denial of clemency for Leonard Peltier -- courtesy of Obama -- inspired me to write this piece, along with the denial of Climate Change on the part of the…
Britain's nuclear safety regulator has been accused of turning a blind eye to dozens of serious mistakes at power plants and military bases. I initially came across the information given…
"One out of ten Americans live within ten miles of a Super Fund site." -- E.G. Vallianatos I gave a speech to educators a little over two years ago at a…
The degree of resignation spotlighted below is something that activists must pay attention to; there's a clear need to change gears in reaching out to citizens. The Yale Program on…
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