Moving captures the reality of modern capitalism in some fascinating ways that help to illuminate aspects of our system of capitalism that are not always visible in day-to-day life. I took the previous week off of writing as I moved from Chicago to St. Louis, and as I dealt with the stresses of moving, I…
Category: Ideas
Artificial Intelligence in Social Studies
Alongside climate change, artificial intelligence seems likely to have one of the most substantial impacts on human life over the next 20-30 years. However, outside of computer science classes, artificial intelligence is rarely addressed at the secondary school level. There are obvious benefits to teaching programming and algorithm thinking to high school students, but it…
Light, Darkness, and Slavery
A couple of years ago, I read Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad and was struck by its use of magical realism to portray the darkness of slavery and, as Whitehead articulated, “the truth of things, not the facts.” To be honest, I do think there’s some danger in fictional interpretation being understood as fact. At…
Critical Race Theory Panic
As a teacher of history and politics, I’ve been following the news about conservative objections to the teaching about race and racism in history, as well as the ensuing critical race theory panic closely. What is not so clear from the coverage about this topic is what exactly conservative forces mean by critical race theory….
On a Pale Blue Dot
Many people profess to be aware of their smallness in the scheme of existence, but when it comes down it – on a day-to-day basis – people, myself included, get caught up in the details, passions, and conflicts of their everyday lives. In doing so, they embody what Carl Sagan, imagining looking down from space…
Power and Dams
Dams generate power by altering the natural environment and the natural flow of water, creating structures to generate power. The state generates power by altering ‘natural’ relations of people, creating structures to generate power. Of course, the state is also responsible for creating dams. I wish I could claim this thoughtful parallelism as my own,…