Archive

Public Education and Privilege I’ve been trying to follow the debates on all sides of Act 46 and school consolidation and am struck by how complicated the route we’ve chosen… Read More

My private college tuition in 1968 was $2,800, 50 years later it’s $50,000. Meanwhile, state support for public colleges has diminished and educational value has changed both for better and… Read More

I’ve been watching the national effort to politicize Burlington College’s demise and am saddened by the venality of our politics and our dangerous ignorance of non-profit governance. It’s endemic in… Read More

If current political events have taught us anything, it’s how vulnerable we all are to misinformation and innuendo. And if 80% of us don’t trust our own government, we must… Read More

I’m not one to spoil a party but I remain puzzled by Castleton’s decision to become a university. It’s a fine school and President Wolk deserves kudos for making it… Read More

We can’t keep doing things the way we are in education. The costs are unsustainable and results are questionable, especially as connectivity, content distribution, and career options evolve. It’s not… Read More

Sixty years ago, our family drove to Burlington two or three times a year. This was before the interstate, car culture, and paved roads wove Vermont together into a rural… Read More

When I first heard the term “trigger warning,” I imagined Roy Rogers leaning down and whispering something to his horse but I’ve come to understand that the concept is something… Read More

We can’t know the future. We can, however, try to understand how the future will evolve by studying trends. Take college for example. We know tuition costs are rising too… Read More

  Listen 3:23   UVM was kind enough to admit me to its junior class in 1966 after I explained my abysmal record at Kenyon College and the life lessons… Read More

The heart of education is the relationship between a wise and knowledgeable teacher, a willing learner, and the intellectual culture in the student’s home. Next, comes the availability of educational… Read More

Life promises us nothing. The quality of our lives is determined as much by arbitrary circumstance as it is by our individual capacity for learning and enterprise. And if we… Read More