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Quahogs, Darwin, and grace


12 February 12 09:26 AM
Today is Darwin Day , honoring a complex man with a stunningly simpleidea that replaced the need for magical thinking. Folks may hold on to their magic, I know I do, but they can no longer use rational thinking to hold on to the idea that the Hand of Read More...
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"Eyn chaya kazo"


08 October 11 09:35 AM
"There can be no such creature." Daniel Shechtman, 2011 Chemistry Nobel Prize I am attempting to teach my lambs the concept of atoms. Their concept of the atom is much like the adults around them--nucleus of protons and neutrons in the middle, scattered Read More...
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Obvious, but not intuitive


12 June 11 08:43 PM
Frank Noschese and Rhett Allain have a good on-going discussion on the Khan Academy's work with physics. Some excerpts: Science is obvious, but it's not intuitive. Obvious in the sense that we can observe what we observe, even as our brains refuse to Read More...
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On spreading myths


13 April 11 09:33 AM
"The lenses o' his eyes, wi' so much divin' intae the water, get hardened, an' he loses his sight" said John Turner MacCrindle. from The Gannet (Bryan Nelson), via Bookworm on the Net I spent yesterday's gray afternoon with an old and a new friend, both Read More...
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On balance


05 November 10 07:08 AM
Theology alert--f eel free to jump in.... This was inspired by Father Sean and Brother John and the Reverend Scott. Balance. We need balance in our lives. Overwhelmed? Seek balance. An innocuous philosophy--who could possibly be against balance? A madman Read More...
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DNA idolatry


02 November 10 05:56 AM
We practice state religion in my classroom. Here is the Central Dogma of Biology: DNA --> RNA --> Protein We worship a double helix mindlessly, memorizing details that mean nothing to its idolizers. I let an icon spin on the board, in marvelous colors, Read More...
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Lammas again


01 August 10 07:34 AM
Yep, same as last year--I like the rhythm of the year. The sunlight diminishes perceptibly now. The plants know. The past week we've eaten deep purple eggplants and bright pink brandywine tomatoes, yellow summer squash and green-and-red striped beans. Read More...
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Holy water


22 April 10 05:39 PM
O chestnut-tree, great-rooted blossomer, Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole? O body swayed to music, O brightening glance, How can we know the dancer from the dance? W. B. Yeats from "Among School Children" Earth Day. Again. For a few generations, Read More...
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Eating in science class


20 February 10 09:15 AM
Religion is about origins, stories about why we're here, great mythologies to explain greater mysteries. I teach in a public school. While religion is not shunned as much as professional haters would love you to believe (it is perfectly legal for kids Read More...
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Bloomfield's sidewalk astronomers catch a galaxy


22 November 09 05:33 AM
I advise the Bloomfield High School Astronomy Club--we are sidewalk warriors, fighting the glare of streetlights, security beacons, and gaudy church steeples. A few times each night flashing emergency lights roar past us a few feet away. We live under Read More...
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Trumpets descended from trombones


31 August 09 03:54 PM
Some parents in Sedalia, Missouri, are upset at a band t-shirt designed to promote the Smith-Cotton High School marching band's show, "Brass Evolutions 2009." The school administrators decided to pull the shirts off the backs of their students, leading Read More...
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Clay Burell, Quaker meetings, and knowledge


31 January 09 10:32 AM
I am a huge fan of Clay Burell, now over at Change.org ; he also has a wonderful blog Beyond School where he attacks schooliness and ragged thinking while bringing to life classics such as Gilgamesh . He recently posted a (justified) attack against a Read More...
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Industrialism and clams


01 January 09 10:59 PM
15 degrees Fahrenheit today--a bit too nippy to clam. The water temperature is down to 39 degrees --the clams are, well, clammed up now, waiting like the rest of us for this nonsense to pass. Nothing new to write about on this first day of this new year. Read More...
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Mitochondrion


31 December 08 02:32 PM
Part 2 of the last post. I may have posted this already. In 6th grade, you labeled your cell diagram, not quite understanding what you were doing, but enjoying picking the colors from your box of crayons, coloring the pill-shaped organelle a Crayola cadet Read More...
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