How can and will educators in any setting work with young people of all ages to enable them to develop the ability to interrogate--without denigrating--the claims of candidates, the newsmaking of media, the needs of their neighbors, and the fears of their family members? The answer I offer and defend here involves two dispositions--creative…

David Bordelon identifies himself as one of the majority of Americans who voted to keep Trump out of office. In this article he discusses his confusion by the Tea Party's fixation on welfare fraud, and inability to recognize it in President Trump's behavior. The author says that he can only hope that his confusion will be shared, and progress to…

What the election result highlighted for the author is that we definitely need to create broader senses of coalition among many different peoples, whether they be Native American people at Standing Rock, or the Black Lives Matter Movement or our Dreamers--anyone who has been disenfranchised. These are the folks who we need to start building…

In this essay, we specifically focus our attention on Donald Trump's perspective of the conditions of schools that Black children attend. The fact remains that as a presidential candidate, he verbalized stereotypical notions that many people hold about the conditions of schools that Black children attend. Thus, the purpose of this essay is to…

The recent midterm elections brought New England two new governors. Rhode Island elected its first woman chief executive in Gina Raimondo (D). Massachusetts elected Charlie Baker (R), a former Harvard Pilgrim CEO and official in the Weld and Cellucci administrations. Otherwise, the New England corner offices cautiously welcomed back incumbents:…

Two months before his 2008 election, Barack Obama addressed a roomful of Ohio public school teachers, praising their long hours and talking about his daughters' starting 2nd and 5th grade. Then Obama departed from the usual feel-good talking points. He touted competition, charter schools, and school choice. Two and a half years later, Republicans…

Sean Wilentz is a Princeton historian of great vigor and ability. He has published a number of scholarly books on American history. He is a liberal activist, and a friend of the Clintons. For some Obama champions, his recent enthusiasm for Hillary Clinton passed from acceptable to treacherous: He did not simply back Clinton, he stabbed Barack…

The nation's next President will face a host of challenges, among them the economy, health care, an aging population, energy, the environment, and security at home and aboard. In this open letter, the leaders of higher education coordinating and governing boards across the country urge the 2012 presidential candidates to make improving the…

Every two years congressional elections bring a new class of legislators to Washington, DC. The 112th Congress convenes this January and with it, more than 100 new Senators and Representatives, a new majority party in the House and with it new leaders, and in both the House and Senate many new Committee Chairs and legislative staff. The November…

When Barack Obama announced his run for the presidency, he seemed an unlikely candidate. Against all odds, he was able to defeat an apparently overwhelming opposition by relating to the electorate in a more horizontal, collaborative manner. What Obama did differently was to empower the new, digitally active, younger political class by involving…

In this article, the author shares his thoughts when he saw the controversial "New Yorker" cover of July 21, 2008 showing the Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama, as a Muslim jihadist and his wife, Michelle, as a gun-toting, Afro-wearing black militant. The cover told the story of a rite of African-American passage that occurred at a…

In this article, the author provides the contentions of intellectual historian John Patrick Diggins on the November 2008 elections and the presidential leadership. Diggins observed that "all people spoke about was winning the elections, and no one seemed to be concerned with the problems of the future." Diggins also expressed how he was skeptical…

Forty years ago--on May 9, 1968--the local school board in Brooklyn's black ghetto of Ocean Hill-Brownsville sent telegrams to 19 unionized educators, informing them that their employment in the district was terminated. Eighteen were white. One black teacher was mistakenly included on the list, but reinstated almost immediately after the error was…

Even though Sarah Palin doesn't have the author's vote, she has her support. As a female assistant professor, the author appreciates the difficulty with which women wield authority in society. Political junkies dissect her every word as though she were the vanguard of conservatism, but the popular discourse about Palin is vulgar and crass. As the…

This article presents speeches describing John McCain's position on education posted on the McCain campaign's official web site, www.johnmccain.com. These include McCain's speech to LaRaza convention, July 14; McCain's speech to the NAACP, July 16; McCain's speech at the Greater Columbus (Ohio) Convention Center, May 15; and McCain's speech at…