teacherken at Daily Kos This Week
Teaching as a relationship of trust
Parker Palmer has been my guide in many things, especialy in the importance of relationship in teaching. In his seminal work, The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life, he describes teaching as a series of overlapping relationships - between teacher and students, among the students, everyone with the subject being studied. With that in mind, one key responsibility fo
YESTERDAY
Charles M. Blow on Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson
is a column well worth reading, in part because Blow, a black man, grew up about 50 miles from where Robertson is based. He knows the Louisiana white culture, the history of the state with respect to segregation and discrimination (remember, Plessy v Ferguson is a case from Louisiana). The column is titled "Duck Dynasty" and Quackery, and I highly recommend it. Blow notes that Robertson
DEC 18
.. and now it is ten years
If you go to my Daily Kos user page you will discover .. my user ID is 4334 (slinkerwink came immediately after me) .. I joined on Dec. 19, 2003 .. with this diary I have now posted 3233 diaries (I did delete two) .. I have, with the automatic tip jar posted 53334 comments I first glanced at Daily Kos on Saturday, November 29. I had gone to New Hampshire to volunteer for Howard Dean, and in the
Breaking story - Va Gov McDonnell & wife facing criminal charges
In a just out Washington Post story, we learn In probe of Va. Gov. McDonnell, prosecutors agreed to delay decision on charges. First two paragraphs: Federal prosecutors told Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell last week that he and his wife would be charged in connection with a gift scandal, but senior Justice Department officials delayed the decision after the McDonnells’ attorneys made a face-to-f
Obama to Putin on Sochi - look at our delegation
No, the President did not exactly say "in your face" on the anti-gay law. But consider 1. for the first time ever US delegations for opening and closing ceremonies will not include the President, First Lady, or Vice-President 2. The head of the US delegation, Janet Napolitano, has never married and is widely considered in political circles in DC to be gay, although here I must note car
DEC 17
Update on recount in VA Attorney General Race
just issued by the Herring (Dem) campaign: STATEMENT OF HERRING LEGAL TEAM ON RECOUNT STATUS Marc Elias, the lead counsel for Attorney General-elect Mark Herring, released the following statement tonight: “As of 6:30 p.m., Attorney General-elect Mark Herring is now up 866 votes overall, with 73% of the votes recounted statewide. “Today, as recounting began statewide, and continued in Alexandria, C
It’s simple: Either we demand our privacy — loudly — or we kiss it goodbye.
That is the concluding line of Demand your privacy, Eugene Robinson's Tuesday Washington Post column, written in response to the ruling yesterday by Judge Richard J. Leon that the NSA's gathering of metadata data on our phone calls is likely unconstitutional. There is a great deal crammed into this column, the heart of which is these three paragraphs: The theory is supposed to be that only by asse
DEC 16
Family values hypocrisy
is the title of this terrific Washington Post op ed by E. J. Dionne. He begins : Politicians talk about family values but do almost nothing to help families. They talk about parental responsibility but do almost nothing to help parents. They talk about self-sufficiency but do precious little to make self-sufficiency a reality for those who must struggle hardest to achieve it. And the occasion of h
DEC 15
Krugman: Why Inequality Matters
is the title of this Monday op ed in the New York Times. It is a well-reasoned and thorough piece, full of relevant links. Krugman reminds us that inequality is not a new issue, starting with a reference to Oliver Stone's 1987 movie Wall Street with the famous Gordon Gekko quote "Greed is Good." While politicians may have shied away from addressing inequality, Krugman believes the ele
Ann Seltzer has done a 2016 Des Moines Register Iowa Poll
and the results, which you can read here, might surprise people. Republican Favorable Unfavorable Candidate Paul Ryan 73 10 Mike Huckabee 68 17 Rick Santorum 58 21 Rick Perry 55 19 Chris Christie 51 30 Jeb Bush 51 26 Rand Paul 51
DEC 14
222 years ago today
the Bill of Rights was ratified and went into effect. We do not honor this day as we do Constitution Day, the day the Convention accepted the document that established our system of government. We should. George Mason would not sign the original because it lacked a Bill of Rights, and after all, he was the author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights in 1776. Virginia might well not have ratified
I am going to ask, no insist, that you read something
Bill Moyers recently gave a speech at the Brennan Institute. If you go to his website, you can read an edited version of that speech, titled The Great American Class War: Plutocracy Versus Democracy. Simply put, Moyers provides context - from a variety of sources, to what we currently confront, and how it fits in our history. He quotes Justice Brennan, and his experience of why he was a liberal.
Random? thoughts on a Saturday morning
Today, like most Saturday mornings, I sit in my Starbucks beginning shortly after it opens at 6 AM - after all, I get up during the week at 4, and it is hard to sleep late even if I wanted to. Regular readers know I am wont to peruse various publications to see if there is writing I believe worth calling to the attention of others, or to which I wish to offer my reactions. I also might comment on