Education/Parenting: Achievement Rat Race a Race to Nowhere
Race to the Top is the name given to President Obama’s education-reform program that is supposed to change the education system in America. But what it should be called is Race to Nowhere, which happens to be the name of a powerful new documentary by Vicki Abeles that explores, as the film’s subtitle states, the […]
Read MoreBusiness: 3 Words I Wish Big Finance Would Learn
It has been shocking and bewildering to watch the behavior of some of the top banking CEOs in recent months, punctuated by the appearance of four of these executives before Congress last month. Some questions immediately pop into my mind. Do they follow the news? Have they no conscience? Do they not have public-relations people […]
Read MoreSports/Ski Racing: Bode Miller’s Road to Redemption
I don’t know Bode Miller personally, though I know athletes and coaches who know him well. I do know alpine ski racing. I competed internationally in my youth and have worked with ski racers, ranging from juniors to Olympians, on the mental side of the sport for 25 years. And I have followed Bode’s career […]
Read MoreEducation: Public Education Gone (Absurdly) Wrong
As I described in my recent Race to the Top? series, the need for significant reform of America’s public school system is great (Part II), yet the institutional obstacles preventing reform seem even greater (Part III). The challenges of changing a system that is so entrenched came to absurd light from a reader of my […]
Read MorePolitics/Technology: The (Mis) Information Age
We have just concluded what was one of the most tumultuous and divisive decades in our nation’s history. I’ve been thinking about what made this period so difficult. Unexpected and, in some cases, uncontrollable events certainly played a role. The 2000 Presidential election, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, […]
Read MoreTechnology: In Praise of the Blog “Commentariat”
A few months ago, I wrote a post titled The Blogosphere Jungle in which I described the truly uncivil nature of the blogosphere in which respect for opposing views and dispassionate discourse were out and ad hominem attacks and demonization were in. Yet, as I have followed and responded to many comments to my own […]
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