Episodes

As you know, many of my classes deal with politics or political change. So, a couple of weeks ago, I started out a few of them with a brief discussion of the retirement of Stephen Breyer. Not surprisingly, most of my students had never heard of him, and only a few had any idea that there was any news concerning the Supreme Court. Students at my school aren’t particularly politically plugged-in and don’t tend to pay much attention to the news. [Read More]

ou may have heard in the news recently about Mitch McConnell’s unfortunate gaffe about voting rates. In case you missed it, Bruce Schreiner writes,

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is drawing criticism for comments he made shortly before the GOP blocked a federal elections bill, when he said that “African American” voters cast ballots at similar rates to “Americans.” [Read More]

School has started for many higher education professionals, and if it hasn’t it will in the next few days. But this semester is different from previous semesters, and I want to acknowledge that on behalf of educators.

In the last year or two we have been hearing a lot about the mental health of students. We’ve been hearing about how we need to be patient with our students and do everything we can to be helpful and compassionate to them. They are struggling. They need our understanding. They need our support. They need us to be there for them and to be stable for them. Most of all, they need us to understand that this is hard for them. [Read More]

There is a drama playing out in Indiana that is a microcosm of tragedies occurring all over the US right now. Indiana is currently in a fight over public education, much like many states in America. But today the spotlight happens to be on Indiana and Senate Bill 167. [Read More]

We have come to a point in time where there doesn’t seem to be any such thing as a “fact” anymore. The public can’t seem to agree on what is factual and arguments rage on everything from what counts as news to what counts as science. [Read More]