Opinion

Future-Ed

According to Futurist Thomas Frey, a radical shift is occurring in education right now. We are headed for new territories to deal with the exponential growth of information available today. Students are…

First, As Farce…

It was Karl Marx, borrowing a line from Hegel, who observed that if history repeats, it does so first as tragedy, then as farce. In my political experience, Marx got it backwards.…

The Cat in The Hat

They sit in little chairs and listen to the beginning of the story, the old familiar story. The rainy day, the boredom, the absent mother. Just consider the possibilities! Of course, these…

Doomed to Repeat It

A teacher colleague whose job description was similar to my own once lamented that she was burdened with so many responsibilities that she would be unable to teach a designated unit on…

Sky Glow

I once saw the respiration of the Earth. I could see trees breathing, the chest of the forest floor rhythmically heaving. The hues of sunset were all kinds of layered colors. The…

The Ocean Ate My Cell Phone

I like balance. Balance beams, walking on curbs, crossing the thick yellow pipe gate on the Top O’ Topanga fire road. A couple Sundays ago, I park on PCH, just north of…

China Trade Talks: Cyber Foxes in the Henhouse

I really want to have chickens again, but Topanga is a tough place to have them. There are so many clever predators. No matter how careful you are, it seems impossible to…

Writing Our Own Stories

If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales. —Albert Einstein Teaching is a career that…

For Want of a Nail?

As transfixing as the #NeverAgain movement and the Stormy Daniels saga continue to be, I’m more interested in a complicated, unfolding story that’s flying below the radar of the American news media.…

The Times They Are A-Changin’

They were mine for a while. Clouds. Clouds of fluffy white that moved lightly through the spring air like cotton. What a gift to watch them like a child, as they took…