Month: September 2014

Interesting is Good, but Wonderful is Better

Interesting is Good, but Wonderful is Better

Reading Time: 4 minutes


How often do you think to yourself as you are learning something new, “That was interesting.”?  Do you ever wonder how often students reflect on a completed lesson, “Hmm, that concept just introduced was interesting.”  Or “My homework was pretty interesting today.”

Now consider this statement.   “Interesting is good.  But Wonderful is better.” Continue reading “Interesting is Good, but Wonderful is Better”

Communal Reading

Communal Reading

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Communal Reading (2)Are you picturing several people sitting cross-legged on big floor pillows, drinking herbal tea, and reading poetry aloud between gentle yoga stretches? While that sounds appealing (and before I had kids you might have hit the nail on the head with that image), that is not what I mean.

For the past few days I have spent a chunk of my evenings reading Reyna Grande’s memoir, The Distance Between Us, the story of her family’s emigration from Mexico to the U.S. The story is powerfully relevant as the U.S. attempts to deal with large numbers of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum. When Reyna was 2, her father left her hometown of Iguala, Mexico, to find work in the United States. Her mother left Reyna, age 4, and her two siblings for the U.S. two years later, to return to them a single mother. When she was 9 Reyna and her siblings came to the U.S. and after several years the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act allowed them to become U.S. citizens. Continue reading “Communal Reading”

Do We Understand How Hard It Was to Get Michael Brown to Graduate?

Do We Understand How Hard It Was to Get Michael Brown to Graduate?

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Mike Brown GraduationLesley McSpadden, the mother of Michael Brown, emphatically questioned if we understand the amount of effort required just to see Michael graduate. Unfortunately, the answer to her question would become buried underneath a wealth of information that followed her son’s death and a charged debated about Michael’s character.

At the center of this discussion is whether Michael contributed to his death. The conversation is hard to comprehend because it not only questions if Michael Brown could have prevented the manner in which he was gunned down, but it primes another misguided question: Can behavior modifications in general stop oppressive practices? This line of thinking is problematic because the agents of change are those who experience discrimination, not powerful systems and key players that have a genuine ability to decrease and even stop discrimination. Continue reading “Do We Understand How Hard It Was to Get Michael Brown to Graduate?”

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