How Will We Read: On Main Street?
Dec13

How Will We Read: On Main Street?

 “Independent book stores create interest by selecting a mix of products that the community is interested in seeing.” — Oren Teicher  Main Street is off to a promising holiday season, with online and in-store results indicating that sales in independent book stores are well up for 2011 over 2010. Nielsen BookScan for Thanksgiving week showed an increase of 15.5% over the same week in 2010, and in-store websites...

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Alice
Dec05

Alice

 Alice Pleasance Liddell, Summer 1858 Courtesy of © National Portrait Gallery, London.  In the year 2143, will we be able to say Harry Potter lives, Harry Potter is global, or even that Harry Potter’s enduring legacy continues to inspire all age groups? None of us really know for sure what will happen to Harry Potter between now and then.  What you should know is that there is one book, which, 146 years after it was first...

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The Global Search for Education: How to Support Your Education System
Sep13

The Global Search for Education: How to Support Your Education System

 “70% of the variation in student achievement is accounted for by factors outside of the control of schools.” —  Charles Ungerleider  Professor Charles Ungerleider tells me he wrote his book, Failing Our Kids — How we are Ruining Our Public Schools (McClelland & Stewart, 2004), after he completed a term as Deputy Minister of Education for British Columbia.  For 40 years he had observed the Canadian...

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The Global Search for Education: What Do We Value Most?
Aug31

The Global Search for Education: What Do We Value Most?

 “We need to focus on the kind of human beings we want to have and the kind of society in which we want to live” — Howard Gardner   photo courtesy of Harvard University.  What do the 81.5 million students in this country believe their families value most? Money? Success? Happiness? Knowledge? Power? Celebrity? Truth? A Healthy Planet? Good Work? Engaged Citizens? A Cultured Society? What should the 81.5 million...

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The Global Search for Education: More Arts Please
Aug23

The Global Search for Education: More Arts Please

 More Arts Please Sir   Photo Courtesy of Beechwood Sacred Heart School UK.  “To lose our culture is to lose our memory.”   More Leonardo da Vincis, more Martha Grahams, more Ludwig Van Beethovens, more Luciano Pavarottis, more Marlon Brandos, more Antoni Gaudis, more Coco Chanels, more Bob Dylans, more Zhang Xiaogangs, more William Shakespeares, more Julia Margaret Camerons, more Gustav Vigelands, more Andrew Lloyd...

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