Archive

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

We are in a six-passenger compartment on the eight-hour train ride from Marrakesh to Fez. It is like a small ensemble theater company that will change characters as we move… Read More

When I was first married 40 some years ago, there was little spare money for Christmas toys. We relied on well heeled relatives to fill the empty white area under… Read More

A number of things… As a community, we have lost respect for our schools. We speak disparagingly of our schools in front of our children. We no longer instill in… Read More

You can feel it within minutes of entering a school: the demeanor of the students, the bearing of the teachers, the care for the physical plant, the artifacts of discovery,… Read More