When I was, perhaps, nine-years-old or so, I was required to sculpt an art project out of clay. Others in my class created the clay expected: Animals, their Initials, flowers, and cars. I, for some reason, decided to create a life-sized Winston cigarette pack — flush with a few cigs sticking up out of the top.
When I used to take a bus to school, I remember it being a rowdy ride most of the time. The kids were always bouncing up and down in the seats, despite the bus driver always going out of his way to show us the importance of putting on a seat belt. Some kids used to play a politically incorrect game called the “Chinese Fire Drill” in which they would jump into the seat directly in front of theirs. There was, naturally, plenty of horseplay on the bus.
Continue reading → Banning Sign Language on a New Jersey School Bus
When I was working on the Broadway production of — “The Will Rogers Follies” — I was contacted by a friend of mine who was teaching at a major East Coast university.
Continue reading → The Lie of the Lie: Faking the Will Rogers Follies
I wasn’t too different than most children who grow up in the United States and take lessons in history — specifically, the history of the United States, and how it came to be. We learned about the pilgrims and the Native Americans, and how wonderfully everything went when the pilgrims settled the colonies in an effort to escape religious persecution. We learned about the first Thanksgiving meal and how the Pilgrims learned so much about growing new crops and making homes.
When you think of the word apprentice, what comes to mind? For me, sadly, the first thing that comes is the image of Donald Trump telling some celebrity that they are fired in an obnoxious tone. The term goes a bit further back than that, however — many centuries before the ridiculous ‘reality’ show came to be. Teenagers were sent to learn a particular trade — they could spend a good number of years learning how to be a proper blacksmith, or a shoemaker, for example.
Continue reading → 21st Century Guilds: Companies Pay For Your Education
Should we be prevented from speaking our minds on the internet? Can we say whatever we wish without fear of prosecution or persecution?
Teenagers easily get bored. To fill that idle time they can study, play or work. Sometimes that idle time turns into crime in the streets and the best way to use teen energy is to put it to work in the marketplace so they become vested and productive movers in the community. There’s no better cure for teen angst than working for your daily bread.
We fully support the douchebags! You can’t insult people online and expect to escape unpunished. A “douchebag” — is never a compliment — for it is the empty container of fluid used to flush clean a woman’s vagina. There’s no mistaking the insult of being a limp, used up, ‘gina bag.
Attention spans are in a growing deficit. That means we listen to each other less. We read less. We pay less attention in social learning circles like schools, business meetings and church sermons.
Continue reading → Biologically Hardwired to Wander: The Eighteen Minute Attention Span
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