Blog 74. Common Ground on Hostile Turf

In her book, Common Ground on Hostile Turf, Lucy Moore shows that resolution of conflict depends more on the sharing of personal stories than on the facts, legal arguments, or moral claims of the parties. Continue reading

Blog 68. Ball, the Crazy Prospector

It’s time for a lighthearted story—but one with a purpose, of course.

Back in the 1940’s, when I was growing up in a San Luis Valley in southern Colorado, a retired forest ranger named Darley occasionally took me into some of his favorite haunts, Continue reading

Blog 65. Ambiguities of Experience

My neighbor, James G. March, wrote a little book entitled The Ambiguities of Experience*.  March is emeritus professor in the departments of business, political science, and sociology at Stanford University. Continue reading

Blog 64. New rigor in education?

New research in education actually looks not only at test scores, but uses technologies of videos and eyeball-detection hardware to compile data on when kids pay attention and how learning takes place. But there are also other, more political, movements to reform public education. Continue reading

Blog 62. Conspiracy theories—making politics crazy.

As reported in  Scientific American (Dec. 2014) two political scientists* at the University of Miami find that about one-third of Americans believe Obama is a foreigner, and about as many believe that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an “inside job” by the Bush administration.  Continue reading