Why I love the path I've chosen:):):)...

It is so interesting...listening to Bill Clinton's memoirs...how even a remarkably more thoughtful politician like Bill Clinton...can be too much focussed on political strategy...and not enough on policy ideas...

Bill is a very good man, I think...and a really thoughtful politician...far more thoughtful than most people in politics...

But his memoirs are still too caught up in campaigning and wins and losses...and not enough in ideas and profound wisdom about life, generally...though there is plenty of that, too, in this memoirs:):)...if you get a chance, I definitely recommend them:):)...

And listening to them...reminds me of more idealistic and broad-minded leadership in the country's recent history...and reinforces for me why I'm so glad that I decided to spend my time working on issues like education and poverty, on the ground, and ideas, for the long term...there is just so much more profound good that can be done for people by thinking deeply about the issues we all face...and developing constructive ideas to deal with them more effectively:):)...and how much useful, stupid bullshit stands in for important ideas and directions in too much democratic politics:):):)...

The New York Times writes an interesting article, today, about the most recent Supreme Court ruling on lawsuits by parents of children in special education against school districts...

Special Education's Rule Effects Unclear...

It's a good ruling, I think...there is plenty to improve in public and private education for students in special education or students who might be in special education settings were it not for more successful and effective school and classroom efforts...

But lawsuits will not make things better...period...no way...

The things that need to get done to make things better in schools for kids, generally, and for kids facing the biggest challenges in schools, which kids in special education often are, can only be done with more people from all kinds of backgrounds -- teachers, parents, administrators, students, community members, district personell...everyone -- taking more and more authentic responsibility for their own and for one anothers' success in school...

That is often easier said than done, frankly...but it still must be done...at all schools...that serve all children...

I'm fairly committed to and clear that the best ideas around improving this situation are those who want to offer kids and teachers and administrators and schools more freedom and autonomy -- which better support more responsibility and self-governance, which we want kids, as much as teachers and administrators, to learn -- with reform options like public school choice, charters, vouchers, and a more general and clearer commitment to improving school environments by giving children and others more freedom to learn and grow, which allow people to make more mistakes, more quickly and learn more over time, as a consequence...and, in the course of that...to hold everyone to a higher expecation and allow them to hold themselves to a higher expectation of responsibility than they generally hold themselves to, now...

Melissa and I were just talking, today, about the problem of political propaganda in contemporary democracy...how it distorts and manipulates serious and thoughtful democratic discussions...and what to do about it...

And how, I told her, when I was in grad school, studying radicalism on the right and on the left, reading David Horowitz' journey from radical left to radical right...and seeing how little David had actually learned about his own self-righteous tendencies and the ways that they undermined more thoughtful engagement on important political matters...

I realized that there really wasn't anything you could do...except hold everyone to a higher standard...to expect everyone to think more...to see through the bullshit of campaigns and political discourse that too often dominates because self-righteous political and party activists and polemnicists can't conceive that they may, just possibly, not have all the answers to the various problems the world faces...and my own terribly radical idea that intelligent discussion would be a better way to work through difficult problems in the world...

And the only way to get us there...is to build on the already really great work being done in schools like Eisenhower Middle School where I work in Kansas City, Kansas...to raise the bar for everyone...kids, teachers, administrators, school district personell, law enforcement, advocates, judges, legislators, Presidents and other politicians, business leaders and business employees, artists, writers...you name it...

The only way forward...ever...on a whole host of issues we all face...

Is by raising the bar for everyone...

And that doesn't happen by trying to beat others in submission...or suing them into submission, as the parents in this suit were looking to do...

It is done by leading people to think more deeply, clearly, and profoundly about the very serious issues that we all face...

And...as at my school...and every school...there are some people who are going to do this better than others...guaranteed...

And everyone is still accountable to that highest standard...

The great thing about growing up...is realizing that there is no need to bow down before peoples' selfish expectations...to lower the curve...to make it easier for them...because...you get far enough in education...you realize that this stuff means something...and that the problems that education is meant to address in the world...do not get easier just because the people dealing with them get frustrated doing the work...

For me...or for my students...

The war in Iraq, right now, is a brilliant illustration of this principle, I think:):):)...

Somewhere in the range of 90% of the people I hear talking about the war know dick-squat about what they're talking about...I'm glad they're involved...it's important that they care enough to be involved...though more humility would be a refreshing contribution to that conversation...

And the people who do seem to understand, better, what's going on...are the folks who take thinking about that situation...and its deepest implications...the most seriously...

Same goes for schools...same goes for domestic policy...same goes for business...same goes for military affairs...same goes for criminology and law enforcement...same goes for all kinds of sciences, of course...

Same goes for life...

And there is no politician...no leader...no thinker, even...who will ever change that...

What we can do...is expect everyone to think better...and about the deeper and more profound implications of their choices...and to be as free to do that as possible...

Why we would look to politics...with so many people persistently avoiding responsibility...to demonstrate what it means to be responsible (though, for many people...folks are far more responsible than they, themselves, are)...I will never understand...

The most responsible people in cultures, generally...are the folks who think deepest and most profoundly and innovatively about their most serious problems...and I am honored to be able to do that kind of work...

Today, with Melissa...as I'm feeling more confidently about the implications of my own ideas...specifically least possible necessary aggression...but a lot of other alligned ideas, as well, that promote peoples' freedom to develop a stronger sense of responsibility to tackle their most serious social and other problems...

I'm asking her...

Do you realize the implications of my work, if I'm right...which I feel more confident about the more I work with them?...

Genocide...dictatorships...terrorism...murder...rape...kidnapping...and other violent crimes...political repression...poverty...stronger economies and funding for a whole host of issues...political and financial corruption...drug abuse...gang activity...

There are very few serious social issues that are not, in some way, touched by this work...

It is very exciting, I have to say...

And I'm prouder than pumpkin pie to be able to do this stuff...and to facilitate school and policy development that will both give people more freedom and to contribute more thoughtfully to a process of dealing with these issues, as well:):)...

Have a great day, everyone:):)...

Love,
Ben