The raucous primary season brought simmering tensions and disaffection within the GOP to a boiling point. But equally severe divisions also surfaced in the Democratic party, centered around Sen. Bernie Sanders’ upstart populist campaign. Historian Thomas Frank explores the causes and consequences of this schism in his new book “Listen, Liberal,” and joins Judy Woodruff to share what he’s learned.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/new-book-listen-liberal-looks-at-democratic-party-schism/
What is “democracy?”
I’ve said from the beginning — from the very first article that I penned on the subject — that we can have this, if we want it. I stand by it, today. But — for me, at least — this has become something more than a race for the presidential nomination. This is a struggle for the very soul of our country and, by the time July is finished, we will have answered the question — “do we live in a democracy?”
And we will have answered that question — not with words or clever arguments or by cleverly exploiting the establishment’s rules — but we will have answered the question with our actions.
Democracy exists because of our actions or it doesn’t exist at all.
Greetings, my brothers, my sisters, & my others — firstly, my apologies for not having written to you all for a couple of days. At the moment, I am working on some very different math and, although it is a bit more time-consuming, I think that it will be worth the effort & the wait…
In the few minutes that I can steal to be alone, these days — between the number-crunching & the research — I’ve been asking myself some important questions and I hope it’s alright with you all that it is about these important questions — not math — that I write to you, tonight.
What is “democracy?”
Democracy — that’s a word that I’ve heard a lot, having grown up in the United States of America. Like “freedom” or “justice,” it seems to me that democracy is a word that has been used so much & so…
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How ‘twisted’ early childhood education has become — from a child development expert – The Washington Post
Nancy Carlsson-Paige is an early childhood development expert who has been at the forefront of the debate on how best to educate — and not educate — the youngest students. She is a professor emerita of education at Lesley University in Cambridge, Ma., where she taught teachers for more than 30 years and was a founder of the university’s Center for Peaceable Schools. She is also a founding member of a nonprofit called Defending the Early Years, which commissions research about early childhood education and advocates for sane policies for young children.
Carlsson-Paige is author of “Taking Back Childhood.” The mother of two artist sons, Matt and Kyle Damon, she is also the recipient of numerous awards, including the Legacy Award from the Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps for work over several decades on behalf of children and families. She was just given the Deborah Meier award by the nonprofit National Center for Fair and Open Testing.
In her speech accepting the award (named after the renowned educator Deborah Meier), Carlsson-Paige describes what has happened in the world of early childhood education in the current era of high-stakes testing, saying, “Never in my wildest dreams could I have foreseen the situation we find ourselves in today.” Here’s the speech, which I am publishing with permission:
Follow this link!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/11/24/how-twisted-early-childhood-education-has-become-from-a-child-development-expert/
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