Welcome to My Blog

OK, I'll explore the blogosphere. As a 21st century writing teacher, I owe it to my students to become familiar with new forms of literacy. An occupation I have wondered about is newspaper or magazine columnist, so this may be my only way to do that. I do have ideas about politics (I'm progressive, Green, independent); education (again progressive, constructivist, sometimes radical); religion (skeptical, agnostic); writing and reading. Whether anyone is interested in reading my views or has time to read them remains to be seen. At least I can read them!

So let's start with a few random observations:

• Why are we stuck with this obsolete two-party system in the United States? At least we need new parties. Why don't the Democrats and Republicans split up into at least four new parties so that voters actually have meaningful choices and politicians can choose a party that actually represents their values? That would require politicians to think about values for a change and not just self-preservation.
• Would it be foolish to vote for Cynthia McKinney or Ralph Nader for President? We end up making a devil's bargain every four years. Vote for Al Gore or John Kerrey or Barack Obama as the lesser of two evils. We can't bear another four years of Bush; we can't imagine four years of McCain, even if he shifts a bit with the wind and likes to call himself a maverick. But what are we getting in return? Four years of frustrated hopes, endless compromises, stalemated government, and a deteriorating planet, world, and society.
• Why is it so difficult to change the way schools work? High schools in particular don't work well for students or teachers. They are so obsolete, dysfunctional, boring, and ineffective that if they were a business, they would have gone bankrupt decades ago. And I'm not a fan of business models of education, by the way; that's just a metaphor.
• Why don't we take care of our planet? Why do we choose ugly concrete buildings, ugly concrete highways, destructive cars, weapons, and mounds of useless junk over the amazing beauty and variety of life? Are we like squirrels in cages, unable to see that the cage door is open, and we could walk outside into the forest and live freely--not without danger and risks, true, but why keep living behind wire bars and going nowhere fast?

I'm sure I can be more focused in future posts, but this is my first tentative step into a new way of communicating.