There can be no peace on earth until we are at peace with the earth. Please join in singing this song with your students, your neighbors, your friends, your relatives, and your children. Then take action. Save the Whales Save the Rainforest Save the Polar Bears Save the Elephants Plastic in our Oceans Ban Fracking […]
How Diversity Works
If we wanted to build a flying car, we would look for people with a diversity of experience – engineers, designers, technicians, mechanics, cost analysts, etc. But would we also look for social diversity? Would having people from different ethnic backgrounds, races, religions, genders, and sexual orientations help us build a better flying car? So […]
Cooperation is Tricky
Working cooperatively has been shown to be a highly effective teaching strategy in the classroom. Results from numerous research studies have shown improvement in academic performance, behavior, motivation, attendance, thinking skills, and peer relationships with those who are different from them. According to Roger and David Johnson of the Cooperative Learning Center, an effective cooperative […]
A Resolution for Peace
It’s a new year. Following in the tradition of the ancient Babylonians and Romans, it is time to make those pesky resolutions. What will you resolve to improve this coming year? Research by Richard Weisman on Quirkology has shown that the failure rate is 88%. However, when men set small goals such as losing 10 […]
Syria Retaliation: What are we teaching our children?
The new school year has started. Teachers are busy educating their new students about how to behave in the classroom – How to make friends. How to help others. How to deal with bullies. In some school districts and states teachers are implementing new and tougher policies against bullying. These policies are very strict. Here, […]
How to be an Ally
What does it mean to be an effective ally in a social movement? To be an ally means to be someone from outside an oppressed group who comes to help those who are discriminated against. The following ideas are summarized from a roundtable discussion broadcast on the radio program Making Contact and reprinted this week […]
What if they gave a war and nobody came?
What does it take to have a war? Soldiers – men and women willing to kill. A cause – any will do. Hatred – You can’t kill someone you love. Some times a children’s picture book can be more profound than the greatest philosopher. A children’s book puts into pictures and words concepts that are […]
Can you detach your child from the screen?
The Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood, is sponsoring Screen Free Week for April 29-May 5. Young children now spend 32 hours a week in front of screens – TVs, computers, iPads, and cell phones. Recent research on the effect of the overuse of computers and hours spent indoors on the vision of children strongly suggests that screen exposure […]
3 Poetry Books for April
April is National Poetry Month. What books are you reading to your children? Are they full of hippity hoppity bunnies and spring flowers? Nothing wrong with that. But how about trying one or more of these. Here are three poetic books to share with your children. Each one is completely different from the other, but […]
Albany says, “Cut Back.” We say, “Fight Back!”
By Tim Wolcott Weather was on our side as blue skies and mild temperatures bathed the crowd of stomping, chanting Elmira Heights School District families, staff and friends on March 9, 2013. The stadium P.A. system beat out familiar rhythms between questions from an announcer that asked why some school districts must be forced to […]
Let’s teach empathy
Last weeks’ post was a harsh one. It is so hard to believe that any American would condone torture of any kind. Tom Engelhardt in his post “What if Iranians Waterboarded an American” turns the issue on its head. What if it were an American being tortured he asks. What if it were someone we knew? Would […]
Do you love torture?
Do you love torture? Do you watch TV shows and movies where characters are subjected to intense physical pain? Do you play video games where you stomp on characters and mutilate them? Do you read books where evil minds and law enforcement design new ways to extract that important bit of information from the hero or the criminal? Seems […]
