Nostr notes by Alfie Kohn

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2026-10-10T14:04:01Z

Ad in The Onion ...

2026-08-10T15:03:46Z

Ad in The Onion

Disheartening but not surprising to find one school district (and ...

2026-03-26T11:17:54Z

Disheartening but not surprising to find one school district (and college) after another adopting AI policies that accept Big Tech's framing of the technology as unstoppable so all that's left is to tweak how it's used.
Reposting my link-laden take on the topic - "The Chatbot in the Classroom, the Forklift at the Gym": https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/ai/

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2026-03-22T14:28:37Z

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2026-03-07T17:35:26Z

"Teacher shortage" (e.g., in AK, AZ, FL MI) is shorthand ...

2026-03-03T12:51:43Z

"Teacher shortage" (e.g., in AK, AZ, FL MI) is shorthand for "shortage of teachers willing to work under crappy conditions and/or for insufficient pay."

More generally, as author Garret Keizer reminds us, "Our entire economic system rests on the principle of paying people less than their labor is worth."

If you need me, I'll be in the library, moving Margaret ...

2026-02-23T13:53:16Z

If you need me, I'll be in the library, moving Margaret Atwood's books to the nonfiction section

https://www.throughline.news/p/the-trump-administration-is-trafficking

In case you worried that far-right politicians were just banning ...

2026-02-20T13:07:36Z

In case you worried that far-right politicians were just banning instructors from teaching disfavored content (e.g., slavery was bad; LGBTQ folks are human beings), it turns out they're also mandating curriculum content. So it's not just "Here's what you can't teach" but also "Here's what you must teach."

One of the best pieces I've seen about Epstein - how he, like ...

2026-02-19T17:56:26Z

One of the best pieces I've seen about Epstein - how he, like Trump was a depraved con man whom the elite (in academia, business, and politics) not only lacked the courage to denounce but actively cozied up to and whose evil they thereby encouraged: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-anand-giridharadas.html?unlocked_article_code=1.NVA.M7Ba.LRi6Yx-xpe0k&smid=url-share

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2026-02-13T17:49:15Z

"If you identify conservatism with any principle, you ...

2026-01-25T18:22:05Z

"If you identify conservatism with any principle, you inevitably end up finding hypocrisy. But if you conceive of conservatism as efforts by dominant groups to maintain their dominance, with principles occasionally deployed instrumentally, the contradictions/hypocrisy fade away." -David Roberts

There's no irony when the right justifies killing a nurse b/c he had a gun. Or brutalizing Capitol cops on J6. They never meant for "gun rights" or "law & order" (or "free speech") to apply universally.

Adam Serwer on what it means in concrete terms that Trump has ...

2026-01-22T17:38:30Z

Adam Serwer on what it means in concrete terms that Trump has essentially destroyed the independence of the Dept. of Justice: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/01/trump-justice/685684/

"If OpenAI embraces advertising and pivots to...surveillance ...

2026-01-22T13:08:53Z

"If OpenAI embraces advertising and pivots to...surveillance capitalism," said Roger McNamee, a former mentor to Mark Zuckerberg, "it would constitute a 'five-alarm fire.'" (A chatbot that continuously monitors users’ thoughts and feelings can steer them in directions meant to benefit advertisers.)

HOW IT STARTED .... HOW IT'S GOING

Real men commit war crimes and also sneer at efforts to deal with ...

2025-12-02T16:24:30Z

Real men commit war crimes and also sneer at efforts to deal with climate change (since, as we all know, it's a sign of confidence in one's masculinity to find solar energy emasculating): https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/30/climate/climate-change-disinformation.html

Much has been said about Musk's appalling social media posts. ...

2025-11-09T15:09:43Z

Much has been said about Musk's appalling social media posts. Joyce Carol Oates takes a moment to notice what he *doesn't* post.

Killing usually requires dehumanizing one's victims. Thus, ...

2025-11-08T12:10:21Z

Killing usually requires dehumanizing one's victims. Thus, one of the most important services the press can perform is to rehumanize them. Profiles of some of the Venezuelan villagers recently murdered by the U.S. military at Trump & Hegseth's direction (and the loved ones left behind): https://apnews.com/article/trump-venezuela-boat-strikes-drugs-cocaine-trafficking-95b54a3a5efec74f12f82396a79617ea

"When this is over, do not forget what ICE did, and what ICE ...

2025-10-12T01:19:57Z

"When this is over, do not forget what ICE did, and what ICE is. And do not make room for them in society. Make sure they know that they are, and will continue to be, reviled and beneath contempt."
- Ari Cohn, 1st Amendment lawyer

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2025-10-07T11:18:23Z

A new survey finds that about 1/3 of respondents - representing ...

2025-10-03T11:42:45Z

A new survey finds that about 1/3 of respondents - representing some 90 million adults in the U.S. - endorsed the view that “having a strong leader for America is more important than having a democracy” (https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/pxfnk_v1).
Can schools address this crisis? Listen to my conversation with Joel Westheimer on the latest episode of Kohn's Zone: https://www.alfiekohn.org/podcasts/

AI opt-out deal ...

2025-10-02T15:28:27Z

AI opt-out deal

"ICE goes masked for a single reason - to terrorize Americans ...

2025-09-30T17:45:04Z

"ICE goes masked for a single reason - to terrorize Americans into quiescence."

- from a decision issued today by a federal judge (appointed by Reagan)

Adam Serwer put it best: For the right, free speech means they ...

2025-09-13T10:39:39Z

Adam Serwer put it best: For the right, free speech means they can say whatever they want and you, too, can say whatever they want: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/09/12/workers-fired-charlie-kirk-reaction-online/

Before he was a scumbag, Alan Dershowitz was a scumbag ...

2025-09-09T01:48:59Z

Before he was a scumbag, Alan Dershowitz was a scumbag

Three characteristically incisive paragraphs from Jamelle Bouie ...

2025-08-24T22:21:30Z

Three characteristically incisive paragraphs from Jamelle Bouie about how the Trump regime's military occupation of D.C. (and, likely to come, other Democratic-led cities) can be performative while also being ominous as hell: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/20/opinion/trump-washington-national-guard.html

Continuous reports of AI's harmful impact serve as reminder ...

2025-08-19T15:48:49Z

Continuous reports of AI's harmful impact serve as reminder that we need to continue using AI, but more responsibly

Political philosopher Ben Barber: “Public schools are not ...

2025-08-19T11:18:42Z

Political philosopher Ben Barber: “Public schools are not merely schools for the public, but schools of publicness: institutions where we learn what it means to be a public and start down the road toward common national & civic identity.” Which is why MAGA types try so hard to undermine them.

A Jewish Israeli citizen studying at Columbia is bemused by ...

2025-08-11T21:26:38Z

A Jewish Israeli citizen studying at Columbia is bemused by having more freedom to criticize his country at home (despite Israel's descent into autocracy) than he has on this U.S. campus which has been bent to Trump's will - and also can criticize any country other than Israel: https://www.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2025/08/08/in-israel-i-protest-my-government-can-i-do-the-same-at-columbia/

How do you say "Lebensraum" in Hebrew? ...

2025-08-08T11:07:31Z

How do you say "Lebensraum" in Hebrew?

Parents say they're pro-integration, but "in districts ...

2025-08-05T12:07:22Z

Parents say they're pro-integration, but "in districts where [they have more opportunity] to choose schools, [the] schools appear to become more segregated." Affluent white parents seem to judge school quality just based on the number of other affluent whites who attend: https://mcc.gse.harvard.edu/reports/do-parents-really-want-school-integration

(Also, the novelist Lorrie Moore once observed that school integration is used to give whites an experience of race rather than blacks an experience of algebra.)

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2025-08-04T13:00:40Z

Nostalgia (which, as Adrienne Rich pointed out, is adjacent to ...

2025-07-26T11:28:25Z

Nostalgia (which, as Adrienne Rich pointed out, is adjacent to amnesia) doesn't always signify fascism, but fascism always depends on nostalgia.

I don't think it's worth trying to learn about this ...

2025-07-23T15:59:40Z

I don't think it's worth trying to learn about this subject unless you can read all the books ever written about it.

It's not just a protester's slogan: A Jewish Holocaust ...

2025-07-22T11:53:20Z

It's not just a protester's slogan: A Jewish Holocaust scholar (who served in the Israeli army) explains that "Israel is literally trying to wipe out Palestinian existence in Gaza." It's not a war or even just ethnic cleansing: It is indeed genocide, and it's important to acknowledge that. Israel is "beyond the pale of humanity": https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/opinion/israel-gaza-holocaust-genocide-palestinians.html?unlocked_article_code=1.YU8.9bmt.Soz0JUUMwH0e&smid=url-share

So far, more than 650 educators have signed an open letter ...

2025-07-19T12:12:18Z

So far, more than 650 educators have signed an open letter resisting the push for AI, rejecting "the narrative of its inevitability" and warning that ChatGPT, etc. are "corrosive to the agency of students, educators, and professionals."
Want to add your signature and spread the word? https://openletter.earth/an-open-letter-from-educators-who-refuse-the-call-to-adopt-genai-in-education-cb4aee75

Misplaced hope #1: Most court rulings halting Trump's ...

2025-07-18T14:22:28Z

Misplaced hope #1: Most court rulings halting Trump's authoritarianism are based on his having usurped Congressional authority. But a MAGA Supreme Court is reversing those rulings, approving his power grab. And a MAGA Congress is happy to hand over their power to him anyway.

Misplaced hope #2: MAGA's declining popularity means voters will rein them in? That assumes they'll allow free elections. To doubt this is no longer absurdly alarmist or just a matter for grim jokes: https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-coup-attempt-2028-ice

One underlying theme of all rewards and punishments is power: ...

2025-07-17T11:20:54Z

One underlying theme of all rewards and punishments is power: They're used by those who have it to control those who don't. But a less obvious premise is mistrust: To rely on bribes or threats is to assume the recipients will respond only to extrinsic inducements.

Defenders of behavior control in schools also tend to demand direct, explicit instruction - maybe b/c that, too, is rooted in distrust - in this case, of kids as learners. This sour cynicism is then rationalized as being "realistic."

This is now a minority viewpoint in all three branches of our ...

2025-07-15T22:57:02Z

This is now a minority viewpoint in all three branches of our government.

Don't you people get it by now? We're going to give ...

2025-07-15T12:31:13Z

Don't you people get it by now? We're going to give Donald essentially unlimited authority to do whatever the hell he wants, regardless of precedent, constitutionality, or the effects on democracy. And we don't owe you an explanation!
Now stop bothering us. Some of us have expensive complimentary vacations to take.

Sincerely,
John, Sam, Clarence, Neil, Brett, & Amy

Eleanor Duckworth: The more intensely interested a teacher is in ...

2025-07-14T11:35:25Z

Eleanor Duckworth: The more intensely interested a teacher is in a student’s thinking, the more interested the student becomes in his or her own thinking.
Corollary: The more a teacher just wants to see right answers, the less interested students become in their (or any) thinking.

For more, read Duckworth's marvelous essay collection "The Having of Wonderful Ideas & Other Essays" (https://www.tcpress.com/the-having-of-wonderful-ideas-and-other-essays-on-teaching-and-learning-3rd-edition-9780807747308) and, for a teaser, watch this 18-minute talk of hers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sfgenKusQk

Oklahoma's Dept of Ed will use right-wing propaganda outlet ...

2025-07-10T18:04:40Z

Oklahoma's Dept of Ed will use right-wing propaganda outlet PragerU to create a test for determining eligibility to teach, measuring applicants' belief in "American exceptionalism" & acceptance of transphobic gender ideology: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/exclusive-red-state-begin-requiring-new-teachers-pass-prageru-america-first-assessment-keep-licensure
Surely other GOP states & Trump's DOE (using funding as leverage) will follow, making acceptance of far-right beliefs a requirement for teaching, just as it's become for hiring federal workers & allowing people from other countries to visit the US.

A recent series of worldwide studies finds that ugly ...

2025-07-08T12:01:23Z

A recent series of worldwide studies finds that ugly anti-immigrant prejudice isn't inevitable just because
immigration increases. "Inclusive legal and socioeconomic integration policies that render immigrants more equal to natives...reduce xenophobia among natives": https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358004508_Policies_and_prejudice_Integration_policies_moderate_the_link_between_immigrant_presence_and_anti-immigrant_prejudice

BTW, I found those studies in my review of social science research offering possible solutions to tribalism: "Heterogenius: Why and How to Stop Dividing People into Us and Them" - https://www.alfiekohn.org/blogs/diversity/

"Dachau was the first step on the road to atrocity. Will ...

2025-07-06T11:38:50Z

"Dachau was the first step on the road to atrocity. Will America go there? Eight months ago, I would have said never. At that point, America was still a nation under the rule of law. Now, we have politicians cheering the image of people being fed to alligators" and "selling swag celebrating the construction of an American concentration camp."

https://charlieangus.substack.com/p/american-dachau-trump-takes-the-next

Los desaparecidos. In the U.S. Jesus. ...

2025-07-05T11:25:50Z

Los desaparecidos. In the U.S. Jesus.

Researchers used various prompts to get three different AI ...

2025-07-03T13:17:29Z

Researchers used various prompts to get three different AI programs to generate hundreds of lesson plans & thousands of activities for 8th-grade social studies. The result: Most resembled old-fashioned textbook teaching and were focused on getting students just to memorize facts rather than analyze: https://www.edweek.org/technology/why-ai-may-not-be-ready-to-write-your-lesson-plans/2025/06

Someone told me that what the world needs most right now is ...

2025-07-02T12:34:04Z

Someone told me that what the world needs most right now is another podcast, and by the time I figured out that person was being facetious, it was too late.

Announcing the launch of "KOHN'S ZONE: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom About Education and Kids." (Two episodes are available, and new ones will drop every 2 weeks.)
I invite you to listen and to spread the word!

https://www.alfiekohn.org/podcasts/

I don't think these people could be any clearer about who ...

2025-07-01T15:32:01Z

I don't think these people could be any clearer about who they are

Teach children to be kind? Sure...unless that lesson is treated ...

2025-06-30T13:22:42Z

Teach children to be kind? Sure...unless that lesson is treated as though it were sufficient. The question is: Who benefits when kids are taught that being "considerate, nice, and friendly" precludes the need to consider systemic inequity and injustice as well? Worth a read: https://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/fall-2019/teaching-kindness-isnt-enough

Haven't checked the archives, but I wouldn't be surprised ...

2025-06-29T23:14:25Z

Haven't checked the archives, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that the NY Times headline after the Tulsa Race Massacre referred to a "white-black clash"

“The difference between a journalist and a historian is that ...

2025-06-27T01:22:11Z

“The difference between a journalist and a historian is that the historian knows the difference.”

-Bill Moyers (1934-2025)

A NYT article about evaluating ChapGPT says in passing: "But ...

2025-06-25T12:10:10Z

A NYT article about evaluating ChapGPT says in passing: "But standardized tests are not always a good judge of how technologies will perform in real-world situations."

Yikes! What if journalists figure out that this is also true of students? Would they then have to rethink decades of reporting about education policy?

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2025-06-24T15:43:13Z

Mahmoud Khalil: "All the 'Know Your Rights' ...

2025-06-23T22:57:51Z

Mahmoud Khalil:

"All the 'Know Your Rights' information and fliers I read were useless. There are no rights in such situations."

"Those who made me go through hell are still free outside and actually emboldened."

"How many bodies did you guys grab today?" one ICE agent ...

2025-06-21T13:35:08Z

"How many bodies did you guys grab today?" one ICE agent asks another. The answer is 31, and the two high-five.

Concentration camps and totalitarianism are possible only because of people like this who willingly follow any orders they're given.

... by people like Miller, Noem, and Homan.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-06-20/border-patrol-agents-brag-in-front-of-detained

Beyond its continuing slaughter of civilians in Gaza and ...

2025-06-13T01:11:22Z

Beyond its continuing slaughter of civilians in Gaza and ever-more-brutal occupation of the West Bank, Israel has lately attacked Lebanon, Syria, Yemen...and now Iran. Imagine the brainwashing required to convince someone that, no matter how much evil it instigates, this nuclear-armed theocracy is always - indeed, by definition - just defending itself.

When PISA classified kids around the world by how they approached ...

2025-06-10T13:03:54Z

When PISA classified kids around the world by how they approached math, it turned out that those who relied on memorization (vs. deeper understanding or relations among concepts) were the lowest achievers in every country.
And rote learning of math facts predominated in the US: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-math-education-in-the-u-s-doesn-t-add-up/

Given carte blanche by Trump: a white nationalist who applies the ...

2025-06-08T13:01:16Z

Given carte blanche by Trump: a white nationalist who applies the term "invaders" to immigrants who work and live peacefully in our communities rather than to the heavily armed masked thugs who swoop in to ambush and kidnap them.

Pictures from America's two coasts today ...

2025-06-07T20:12:52Z

Pictures from America's two coasts today

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2025-06-04T18:24:30Z

If you use, expect to use, or have an opinion about using AI, you ...

2025-06-03T21:11:04Z

If you use, expect to use, or have an opinion about using AI, you definitely need to read this. Jaw-dropping stuff.

https://amandaguinzburg.substack.com/p/diabolus-ex-machina

New study: The children of parents who endorse social hierarchies ...

2025-06-03T13:45:04Z

New study: The children of parents who endorse social hierarchies ("we" are superior to "them") and authoritarianism may be less capable of imagining how the world looks from another person's perspective, even holding constant the kids' language ability and the parent's level of education: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/01650254241289319

When the official cover story about protecting us from criminals ...

2025-06-02T16:03:11Z

When the official cover story about protecting us from criminals is punctured by the white supremacist who's actually running the government

What implicit lessons does AI teach? A short thread imploring ...

2025-06-02T11:51:37Z

What implicit lessons does AI teach? A short thread imploring parents not to let kids use ChatGPT or its equivalent without supervision lest they "start seeing speech as performance...[and] start believing fluency equals wisdom": https://mastoreader.io/?url=threadhttps%3A%2F%2Fmastodon.social%2F%40Daojoan%2F114612369770680024

This story appeared on p. 17 of today's print edition and ...

2025-06-01T12:31:54Z

This story appeared on p. 17 of today's print edition and featured typical NYT weasel phrasing ("The deportations deepened the questions surrounding the Trump administration's legal tactics and administrative errors...").
It should have been on the front page with a huge all-caps headline: TRUMP BRAZENLY FLOUTS COURT ORDER, IMPERILING DEMOCRACY

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/us/politics/trump-deportation-el-salvador.html

A 7th grader of my acquaintance described the standard pedagogy ...

2025-05-27T11:46:05Z

A 7th grader of my acquaintance described the standard pedagogy of his teachers as follows: “Here are a bunch of facts. Tell them back to me next week and you’ll get a good grade.”

A history lesson to accompany the daily headlines about American ...

2025-05-26T12:28:54Z

A history lesson to accompany the daily headlines about American corporations indulging, enabling, or ignoring the Trump regime's dismantling of our democracy.

In Unconditional Parenting, I challenged the belief that parents ...

2025-05-21T11:45:35Z

In Unconditional Parenting, I challenged the belief that parents must punish their kids to protect them in dangerous neighborhoods (https://www.alfiekohn.org/article/discipline-and-race/). A recent study confirms that punitive parenting is damaging even (or especially) in such places: https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/2021_LevittEtAl_MaternalControl.pdf

Children who face racism & other perils may need more structure or closer monitoring, but not authoritarian parenting. In fact, the chance to participate in making decisions may be most important in tough neighborhoods.

Angry, sexist young men have turned to far-right influencers ...

2025-05-19T12:11:11Z

Angry, sexist young men have turned to far-right influencers "who tell them that God wants them to be in charge of everything and for women to get back in the kitchen....It’s a lot easier to say abhorrent things if you think God is standing behind you, giving you a big thumbs up": https://www.wonkette.com/p/hey-how-come-young-men-are-getting

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2025-05-18T17:30:51Z

Is a plan to remake it backfiring, or is a plan to destroy it ...

2025-05-17T21:14:40Z

Is a plan to remake it backfiring, or is a plan to destroy it proceeding exactly as intended?

1/3 It's possible to predict people's ...

2025-05-17T12:15:20Z

1/3
It's possible to predict people's authoritarian/racist attitudes just by knowing what they value most in children: obedience, respect for elders, and good manners...as opposed to curiosity, independence, and considerateness.

Now before you indignantly insist that the two constellations aren't mutually exclusive, political scientist Karen Stenner's research found that these values do in fact cluster in two distinct sets that are negatively correlated and predictive of opposed worldviews.

Even terms like "war crimes" don't fully capture the ...

2025-05-10T10:48:55Z

Even terms like "war crimes" don't fully capture the historical level of evil that Israel represents in deliberately starving a civilian population. Those who respond with rationalization, deflection, or indifference - or who label as "pro-Hamas" anyone who bears witness to Israel's crimes against humanity - have utterly lost their moral compass: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/opinion/gaza-israel-aid-starvation.html?unlocked_article_code=1.GE8.Itxq.DNSHijXf6pyK&smid=url-share

“'Religious freedom' has come to mean privilege for ...

2025-05-08T12:23:27Z

“'Religious freedom' has come to mean privilege for conservative Christians alone, including the freedom to harass or discriminate....Its real goal is to amplify the persecution complex of the Trump administration's Christian nationalist allies and base - and then to use groundless claims of religious discrimination as the basis for the suppression of dissent": https://newrepublic.com/article/194834/trump-anti-christian-bias-task-force

U.S. to rest of world: Please don't hold our fine country ...

2025-05-02T12:37:10Z

U.S. to rest of world: Please don't hold our fine country responsible for the admittedly despicable actions of Donald Trump! He's a psychologically unstable grifter who doesn't know what he's doing and he doesn't represent America.

Rest of world: So how did he get to be your president (twice)?

U.S.:

The Trump regime's assault on universities is about many ...

2025-04-20T13:06:49Z

The Trump regime's assault on universities is about many things: anti-intellectualism, suppression of free speech (including criticism of Israel), racism (which is a fair way to characterize an attack on the very ideas of diversity and inclusion).
But in wiping out federal funding of research, it's also part of a larger privatization campaign - an effort to shift power away from democratically accountable institutions and to for-profit entities.

Can't get enough of this meme ...

2025-04-20T11:52:38Z

Can't get enough of this meme

Unsettling but useful advice on the risks of bringing your phone ...

2025-04-18T13:34:17Z

Unsettling but useful advice on the risks of bringing your phone with you, or posting on social media, if you'd like to exercise your right to protest governmental abuses in an unfree society - such as [checks notes] the United States: https://www.wired.com/story/uncanny-valley-podcast-how-americans-are-surveilled-during-protests/

Two adjoining NYT headlines today. Seems like the first one goes ...

2025-04-16T17:31:16Z

Two adjoining NYT headlines today.
Seems like the first one goes a long way toward answering the question posed by the second.

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2025-04-12T19:40:21Z

In reply to nevent1q…wgyf
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2025-04-12T14:18:18Z

BAD: running a government like a business CATASTROPHIC: running a ...

2025-04-07T17:08:38Z

BAD: running a government like a business

CATASTROPHIC: running a government like Trump ran his businesses

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2025-04-05T21:35:31Z

Even people who don't regard themselves as conservative may ...

2025-04-05T13:01:50Z

Even people who don't regard themselves as conservative may be inadvertently training their children (or students) not to question the status quo. From the archives: "How to Prevent Social Change: A Handy Guide for Educators and Parents": https://www.alfiekohn.org/blogs/prevent/

Fox News stumbles onto something important by referring to ...

2025-04-02T15:44:33Z

Fox News stumbles onto something important by referring to anti-fascist graffiti as "anti-Trump"

The Evil Empire is coming after Harvard now, as usual because of ...

2025-03-31T20:42:46Z

The Evil Empire is coming after Harvard now, as usual because of "antisemitism" (read: allowing students to protest Israel's war crimes...or maybe just for employing and educating liberals). Will the financial pressure cause VeritasVille to cave? I mean, their endowment is down to its last $53 billion....

Notable that the truly fascistic abductions of lawful immigrants ...

2025-03-28T14:05:05Z

Notable that the truly fascistic abductions of lawful immigrants purely b/c Trumpists dislike their views have all focused on criticism of Israel. The overlap between MAGA authoritarianism & a pro-Israel stance is striking.

I knew a shadowy group (Canary Mission) was feeding students' names to the gov't for abduction, but I didn't realize it's directed from Israel, funded by American Jews, and has been spying on and harassing students for years: https://tinyurl.com/5y57d9k4
[https://www.thenation.com/article/world/canary-mission-israel-covert-operations/

Protest the Republican assault on America (which, if it were up ...

2025-03-27T18:52:51Z

Protest the Republican assault on America (which, if it were up to me, would be the slogan of the resistance)* a week from Saturday. Please boost this post and send the word to everyone in your address book: Rallies are scheduled in every state: https://www.fiftyfifty.one/
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* The point being to emphasize that the entire party is actively enabling these horrors. Trump & Musk wouldn't get very far without the support of Republicans at every level of government.

A thoughtful essay by two Israeli scholars on how the Trump ...

2025-03-23T14:45:13Z

A thoughtful essay by two Israeli scholars on how the Trump regime and others on the right have weaponized charges of antisemitism to silence criticism of Israel & suppress progressive values more generally. "The increasingly aggressive use of 'antisemitism' as a political instrument was never about Jewish safety. It has always been about power: consolidating a political order that merges religion, nationalism and authoritarianism under the veneer of minority protection":
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/mar/23/antisemitism-redefinition-jewish-safety-christian-nationalism-democracy

Can't understand why the NYT hasn't reached out to me by ...

2025-03-23T01:06:39Z

Can't understand why the NYT hasn't reached out to me by now to offer me a job as a headline copy editor

So when we look at these two posts together, we learn that those ...

2025-03-17T17:38:08Z

So when we look at these two posts together, we learn that those on the right believe that people have no responsibility for doing immoral things if they're either (a) following orders or (b) giving orders.

McSweeney's weighs in ...

2025-03-16T15:21:23Z

McSweeney's weighs in

Something I'd like to see in writing a lot more often: ...

2025-03-12T16:49:55Z

Something I'd like to see in writing a lot more often:
"More than 1,600 American children have died of Covid - nearly 80% of them after in-person learning resumed in 2021 - but we talk about their experience of Covid now primarily in terms of school closings and learning loss."

- David Wallace-Wells

1/2 Free marketeer John Chubb once said, “The problem with ...

2025-03-12T12:29:58Z

1/2
Free marketeer John Chubb once said, “The problem with public schools is that they must take whoever walks in the door.”
The key word here is "problem." Debbie Meier, by contrast, argued that the problem with *private* schools is that they *don't* have to do this. Thus, they "cannot serve as general models; their value and advantages depend on their scarcity." They "can get rid of unwanted kids…and toss aside the losers," thereby avoiding "the democratic arts of compromise and tolerance."

Serwer puts Trump's abduction of Khalil in context ...

2025-03-12T01:10:55Z

Serwer puts Trump's abduction of Khalil in context

Well, for starters, much of the society I live in is being ...

2025-03-09T12:30:59Z

Well, for starters, much of the society I live in is being systematically demolished by a narcissistic convicted criminal and a Nazi-sympathizing, emotionally stunted plutocrat. Why, what's new with you?

Before having students read about a topic, Peter Elbow ...

2025-03-04T13:30:00Z

Before having students read about a topic, Peter Elbow (1935-2025) urged teachers to let them write down their own hunches. This makes them "more attentive to what the author wrote," curious about "how well their ideas match the material" & "braver about questioning an alleged authority.”

Apart from being impressed by how his work made writing sound so inviting, I found Elbow (in my limited interaction with him) to be genuinely curious and refreshingly undefensive. We've lost another good one.

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2025-03-02T14:29:56Z

I've never been able to improve on the management theorist ...

2025-02-27T13:10:16Z

I've never been able to improve on the management theorist Frederick Herzberg's timeless 10-word maxim: "Idleness, indifference, and irresponsibility are healthy responses to absurd work."

(Teachers/parents: Feel free to substitute "worksheets" for "absurd work.")

One reason that many kids seem to have trouble thinking for ...

2025-02-17T13:13:33Z

One reason that many kids seem to have trouble thinking for themselves is that they've learned the adults in their lives have mixed feelings about their doing so.

Anyone who's reasonably psychologically minded and has ...

2025-02-15T13:28:02Z

Anyone who's reasonably psychologically minded and has watched macho MAGA males like Hegseth has figured this out already, but research confirms that "extreme demonstrations of masculinity" are driven by a need to overcompensate: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/668417. We're all suffering for their insecurity.

Other studies have shown that fragile masculinity correlates with voting for Trump (& for other Reps in '18) (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/social-justice-pacifists/202107/why-do-some-men-support-aggressive-policies-and-politicians), and w/ the # of evangelicals in a state (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jssr.12717).

Lily Zheng, author of "Reconstructing DEI," observes that ...

2025-02-12T23:31:00Z

Lily Zheng, author of "Reconstructing DEI," observes that if a company is able to eliminate its DEI initiatives overnight (in deference to the Trump-Musk regime), that raises serious questions about the depth and sincerity of those initiatives.