Buena Vista

When I stopped waking up early to go fishing, I assumed my days of losing sleep just to do something fun were over. That, however, changed last Saturday. After driving to Wisconsin Rapids Friday evening, four other guys and I spent a short night in a cheap motel only...

Upgrades

Each Monday immediately after I post a new blog entry, I check to see how it appears on the web. Usually there is nothing I need to change, but last week I’d somehow inserted a photograph upside down. The photo was of a bunch of stacked paint cans on my basement...

Spackle and Paint

I generally abide by Mark Twain’s adage that I should never put off till tomorrow what can be put off until the day after tomorrow. I also tend to follow Parkinson’s Law, the truism that states a task takes as long as a person has to get it done. I consider...

Democracy and Education (Part Two)

In last week’s blog, I mentioned John Dewey’s concept of the Lost Individual. All I wrote at the time was that the Lost Individual was someone who sensed a problem with American democracy, but did not know what to do about it. Today I want to offer a bit more detail....

Democracy and Education (Part One)

Fifteen years ago when I started writing a book about the educational philosophy of John Dewey, a few trusted colleagues encouraged me to abandon the project.* They believed that Dewey had already been overanalyzed and I’d be better off directing my efforts in a more...
Steven Simpson