Civility on the Web (or, If you talk, be polite)
The New York Times explores calls for a Code of Conduct (like this from Jimmy Wales, or this from Tim O’Riley) on the web, as well as the motivations and secret lives of the Trolls Among Us; and Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, explains why A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy.
Learn MoreMale and Female: Equal After All
Cecilia Ford’s investigations into the power of conversation for her new book, Women Speaking Up: Getting and Using Turns in Workplace Meetings, are reviewed here: Researcher finds that women are speaking up; and Janet Hyde, author of Half the Human Experience, has published research that finds no gender differences in math performance.
Learn MoreEverything to Gain
What if you could right a wrong from your parents generation, and pass on a blessing to your children? What if you could build businesses in the community, cut crime, pollution, and disease, and make a profit doing it?
Learn MoreMadame President, Our Teacher
The primary role of parents applies also to teachers and world leaders: Dear Madame President [though of course, you may turn out to be a man]: Teaching and teacher education have traditionally been viewed as women’s work and practiced by women. Like nursing, teaching has never been taken seriously among the more august professions…. I […]
Learn MoreShe Could Be President of the United States of America
Review of Catherine Thimmesh and Douglas B. Jones’s Madam President: The Extraordinary, True (and Evolving) Story of Women in Politics.
Learn MoreIndependence Day
O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Black History in June
Celebrating Juneteenth and Loving Day: freedom marches on.
Learn MoreA Modest Proposal
It held the title of “most e-mailed story” at the New York Times for most of the day on Tuesday, but is that really how you would want to recommend these books to your spouse?
Learn MoreHomeschool Moments: Dishing Out BOF, Dealing with Prejudice
Overcoming prejudice and distrust is not a one-time attitude adjustment, but a continuing journey in the company of people who are not like us, but who may become our civic friends. Such a strategy might go a long way toward more important goals: building a supportive environment for homeschoolers, and reinvigorating the varied practices of education & learning in America today.
Learn MoreOn Manifestoes
So here are some manifestos of the present day on books, education, faith, and civic life. Though their weight for good or ill, for much or little, is as yet unknown, these are some of the words that will shepherd us into our shared future.
Learn MoreTotal Recall
Wired magazine has published a profile of Piotr Wozniak, developer of Super Memo, who has figured out how to remember everything you’ll ever learn. Ironically enough, the author refers to an article I remember reading when it came out in American Psychologist: “The Spacing Effect: A Case Study in the Failure to Apply the Results […]
Learn MoreWordPress 2.5 Widgets: Taking the Load Off Your Mind
WordPress, the free and open-source software that runs this site, has recently been the victim of a major upgrade. We can draw on educational psychology to help us understand where the redesign fails, and how we might do better.
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