America is not rural Nebraska. America is not suburban California. America is not 1955 and it is most certainly not 1776, 1863, or 1908. America is ALL of America, equal parts past, present, and future. Sen. Ben Sasse knows this…at least some of it. In Part One of this three-part blog series on Sasse’s book [...]
Part One of a three-part series on The Vanishing American Adult, by Sen. Ben Sasse Ben Sasse and I are very different people. Sasse is a conservative Republican who grew up in rural Nebraska, and now represents that deep red state in the United States senate. I am a fiscally pragmatic, social progressive, usually-votes-Democratic, [...]
You likely know the reputations of Oxford University and Eton College. Less familiar might be Queen Anne’s School, in Reading, just 30 miles west of London. What can my four days of visits at these three centers of learning tell us about the state of education innovation in the world today? Queen Anne’s School is [...]
Yesterday I wrote about recent speeches drawing lines in the sand around core American values, by George Bush, Barak Obama, and John McCain. A few hours later, Sen. Jeff Flake, one of the most conservative members of the Senate added his passionate voice in perhaps an historic speech on the Senate floor. I am not [...]
Educators have often been confronted with uncomfortable, and sometimes life-changing questions: When is it acceptable to take a controversial stand? When is it imperative? When should we follow a community consensus and when must we lead in opposition to community norms? On which issues do leaders rise, even when the threat of doing so is [...]
What is the value of a school? What will it be in the future, for your school? Are we anywhere in the ballpark on this discussion? We should always pay attention to ideas at the margins of our own experience; this helps keep confirmation bias in check and brings fresh DNA into the pool of [...]
I teared up watching 3-star Air Force General Jay Silveria speak to the entire Air Force Academy yesterday, praying that we find and elect THIS kind of leader to our political system. But more so, I found myself wondering how powerfully educators could heal the widening divisions in the American and global social fabric if we ALL [...]
I'm pretty good at distilling, summarizing, synthesizing, and then sharing; it is what I do best for my fellow educators. I certainly don't arrive at big ideas by myself. Most are the products of interactions with "others", which stew for some time in my mental crock pot before they are ready for consumption. I am stumped [...]
This week in New Orleans, I once again have the honor of co-presenting with John Gulla, Executive Director of the EE Ford Foundation. Between us we have visited and worked with something like 400+ schools over the last five years. This will be the fourth time that John and I have shared our thoughts about [...]
Looking northeast from Sun Valley, Idaho I visit and work with so many schools that are trying to build a clarity of possibility about the future. School leaders, faculty, students, and parents know that the traditional model of education is not preparing students for their future; they know they want a deeper, richer learning experience [...]
