In 1961, at age 19, I began teaching first grade in western North Dakota. My students consisted of Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara children, descendants of the native tribes who’d lived there for centuries, with equal numbers of ranch kids and those whose dads worked the oil fields. Only fourteen years earlier I had been a […]
Brando the Wonder Dog died peacefully in my arms at 10:35 PM (PST) on November 25th, 2011. He was 12-years old. The last words he heard were, “I love you, Brando.” Brando died from an overdose of barbiturates administered by a critical care veterinarian after he was diagnosed with cancer in his shoulder that had spread
A funny thing happened on the way to Hillary Clinton’s presumptive nomination as the Democrat candidate for president: most Democrats don’t seem to care that her likely nomination was obtained by highly questionable means. During the primaries, there were many well-documented instances of voter suppression and fraud on the part if the DNC, under the
The Problem with Hillary Clinton and the DNC Read More »
News pundits, politicians, teachers, and parents all report that the upcoming generation will grow into a world where the Internet and social media have fractured and divided communities into mass groups of isolated individuals. The likely truth is that we have reached a point that surpasses all others in recent memory in terms of community,
A New Definition of “Community” Read More »
If anything qualifies me for fish-out-of-water status in academia, it’s confessing to being a Donald Trump supporter. You see, I am an academic redneck, that one person in the group of college instructors at the upscale Japanese restaurant silently wondering if the sashimi would be better if it were fried and served with French fries,
An Academic Redneck for Trump Read More »
Corporal punishment in the public schools is becoming a thing of the past. As an elementary teacher for 35 years, I’m glad to see it go. The following is my only personal experience with spanking that resulted in a positive outcome. (Names have been changed to protect privacy.) Inner City School, Colorado Springs, 1971 Tricia
Corporal Punishment: A Vignette Read More »