Monthly Archives: December 2017

holiday blogging break

Posted on December 21, 2017 by Peter

We are heading overseas; back to the US and online on January 2. Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Recommend on Facebook share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Tweet about it Subscribe to the comments on this post Tell a … Continue reading →

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sorting out human welfare, equity and mobility

Posted on December 20, 2017 by Peter

Here are three distinct goals that you might pursue if you see education as a means to improve a society. All three are plausible, but they can conflict, and I think we should sort out where we stand on them. … Continue reading →

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Generation Justice wins the Everyday Democracy Paul and Joyce Aicher Leadership in Democracy Award

Posted on December 19, 2017 by Peter

(Hartford, CT) I’m in Hartford for a board meeting of the Paul J. Aicher Foundation, whose project is Everyday Democracy. This is a good moment to highlight the first Paul and Joyce Aicher Leadership in Democracy Award, which Everyday Democracy … Continue reading →

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why study social justice?

Posted on December 15, 2017 by Peter

I just finished teaching a philosophy course in which the primary question was “How should I live?” We spent some time reading and thinking about personal and internal questions, such as what constitutes happiness and truthfulness and whether those are … Continue reading →

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youth in the Alabama Senate race

Posted on December 13, 2017 by Peter

CIRCLE estimates that 23% of young Alabamians voted in yesterday’s special election. Just for a rough turnout comparison, 21.5% of youth in the United States as a whole voted in the 2014 election. We would normally expect turnout to be … Continue reading →

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100Kin10 as a model of education reform

Posted on December 12, 2017 by Peter

The Clinton Foundation recently hosted a small roundtable discussion led by Chelsea Clinton and made up of funders and civic education organizations. The purpose was to learn about the 100Kin10 model. Although 100Kin10 is concerned with STEM education, it is also a … Continue reading →

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Civic Studies video introduction

Posted on December 11, 2017 by Peter

This is a 16-minute talk in which I offer my own summary of “Civic Studies,” the nascent field that emerged with “The New Civic Politics: Civic Theory and Practice for the Future,” a 2007 manifesto, and has since developed during … Continue reading →

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Has Tolstoy been refuted by sabermetrics?

Posted on December 8, 2017 by Peter

(New York City) In War & Peace, Tolstoy rejects the “great man theory of history.” Napoleon caused nothing, Tolstoy says; events just swept the emperor along with them. An example is the decisive battle of Borodino. Each foot soldier made … Continue reading →

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Billy Collins, The Night House

Posted on December 7, 2017 by Peter

Thanks to my friend Sterling Speirn, here is a wise poem about the relationship between the private life and the public life (“the grass of civics, the grass of money”). It’s by Billy Collins. Collins interprets civic and economic life … Continue reading →

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why the deliberative democracy framework doesn’t quite work for me

Posted on December 5, 2017 by Peter

In some ways, I came of age in the field of deliberative democracy. I had an internship at the Kettering Foundation when I was a college sophomore (when the foundation defined itself more purely in deliberative terms than it does … Continue reading →

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