The Conversation

  The Viral Candidate – On Hold               I really don’t want to run for office. I’m an idea person, not an implementation person. I have a lot of ideas that I think would do a lot of good. I realized that all the political candidates have done something “noteworthy” in politics or life before trying to run the country. This feels elitist, but also ensures intelligent, capable people are the ones running. Or maybe those are the people who refuse to run because our political landscape has gotten so toxic. With that thought, I want to finish some of my ideas and do something larger than being a high school teacher before I try to imagine a national political campaign. Therefore, I am putting the Viral Candidate project on hold for a year.               I have been trying to find a way to build a platform and have done so with little guidance so far...

Am I actually running for president? Not now. I am reasonable enough to know that an idea borne of frustration at lacking a candidate that represents me and my family is not going to change the world. But an idea can change the world, and these generations are the ones most capable of doing so. I am going to dream of a world where no one is hungry, thirsty, or at the mercy of the elements. If I was running for president, I would need to explain my platform, get feedback, and adapt it to the needs of each community. The problem is most people focus on one or two issues and try to solve them independently. What I have learned as a science teacher and a student of the social sciences is that many issues are intertwined and need to be addressed as a whole, instead of in parts, if they are going to be any good for the average American.               For example, I want to tackle homelessness. That is a doozy and requires so...

  What if a public-school teacher ran for President of the United States? Just to be clear, I am talking about me. What if an average American ran for president?   Twenty years ago, this would have been unthinkable, as there was no inexpensive and effective method to disseminate information to enough voters. The PAC’s will certainly ignore anyone who has no interest in increasing their wealth, so where would the money come from? Now we have social media, the internet, and GoFundMe. I can share information with the largest voting block without spending a dime; merely becoming viral will get me the support and start the discussions to bring voters around to a new (and old) way of campaigning. GoFundMe will allow a person with student loan debt and making less than living wage to go around the country and talk to fellow Americans about what they need. This is the first thing that will separate me from the pack: I want to listen. I want to know what you need. What we are a...

What If… We treated problems holistically instead of individually?               One of the things I realized early on in my adult education was the relationship between seemingly disparate ideas. My bachelor’s degree focused on the relationship between biological equilibrium, environmental factors, and the mental reaction of individuals. From the beginning, I knew that it was folly to think that any of these categories could be studied in a vacuum. It did not take long for me to realize that it was not only in my own specialty that this was true, but in many other aspects of life. Yet, the compartmentalized view of the world is how the general populace perceives its environment, and social problems in particular.               As an educator, I found myself unable to teach only the subject with which I was tasked. I found the need for students t...

The What If… Series               What if we focused on how to truly solve problems, instead of putting band-aids on bullet wounds? What if we restarted discourse so that we focused on how to help each other, instead of complaining about how we are not as happy as we could be? What if we spent more time talking about the good we can do, instead of the evils done by others? These and other fundamental questions will drive my new What If… series of blog posts.               The inspiration for the series comes from my experience as a classroom teacher. I am a fan of discourse and questions in the classroom, and encourage them from my students. Often, I will hear a “What if” question from my students, usually presented as a source of distraction. My answer to this is often, “Your guess is as good as mine. Think about it and let me know what you come up...

              I recently took a trip down an emotional rabbit hole. Between a book I finished, the next one I started, and a new binge-worthy TV series, I came in contact with the three categories of evil that exist in the world. I was overwhelmed by it. Part of me is still. There is too much of it, and it seems the people fighting it are losing the war over the heart of humanity. However, the first step in solving a problem is understanding what it is.               I finished reading The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. This is a book that is profoundly sad, and a book everyone should read. I had considered myself sympathetic to the plight of Black Americans, but I had no idea how much one racist act, unconscious though it may have been, reverberates throughout the community. This book does an excellent job of illustrating the evil in the world that exist...

              “To refuse a hearing to an opinion, because they are sure it is false, is to assume that their certainty is the same thing as absolute certainty. All silencing of discussion is as assumption of infallibility.” - John Stuart Mill, On Liberty               The nineteenth century philosopher, quoted above, discussed the nature of freedom of speech and its impact on society, among other things. One idea that I have wrestled with is the polarizing opinions that seem to dominate discussion. This problem manifests itself on the freedom and censorship of speech on the internet. This conundrum has led to the digital powers that be to censor those whose opinions seem detrimental to society. I will admit that I agree with their opinion, but as I learn more about the nature of liberty, I know that this action is not moral.     ...

Originally, this blog was going to be limited exclusively to those topics that will be featured in my upcoming novel, The Study. The bulk of the conversations in this blog, and those I want to have with real people, are still going to be the main focus. Since I began working on the entries, however, I have decided to broaden the scope of the conversation to anything interesting (to me), as long as it is not the more polarizing issues of today. As someone who wants to fix public education, and gave up on the current system this year, I will focus on many issues surrounding this fundamental institution of modern democracy. As a person who has lived with clinical depression for over 30 years, I feel this is a conversation that needs to be had. I have experienced the fact that a lack of awareness in those who do not regularly experience this condition can produce negative effects in those who survive with this extra weight in their minds. As someone who has struggled to have a healthy rel...