I recently returned from a week in Shanghai, China, where I had been invited to speak at a conference and serve as a consultant to a group of Chinese music educators who are developing a music assessment system for use in their schools. While I was there I kept a running log of reflections on what I noticed, and the […]

In case of emergency break glass “These are the times that try our souls. The social media soldier and the part-time patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country. But those who stand for freedom and justice now, deserve the love and thanks of the past and future.” –Thomas Paine, basically When I started telling myself […]

By now you have likely seen or at least heard about a newly released video showing a young Bill Schuette acting totally inappropriately with a photo journalist. The video quickly went viral and has generated headlines like “Schuette tells woman in video: ‘I will do anything you want’” and “Schuette regrets ‘embarrassing’ exchange from 1989” and “‘I Think I Need […]

As classes began this week in the Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD), teachers learned they are beginning the year with the sort of austerity and inadequate supplies that has become the tragic hallmark of this neglected school system. A teacher at one of the high schools in the DPSCD sent me an email received by all of the teachers […]

Michigan Republicans are terrified of the impending blue/pink wave that is about to run them over in our state and across the country. Starting with the Women’s March in January of 2017 and continuing with the March for Science, the March for Our Lives, and the rise of the Indivisible and #Resist movements, millions of people who had never paid […]

Earlier this week, the Democratic candidate for Michigan’s 8th Congressional District, Elissa Slotkin, released a powerful television ad titled “Service”. In it, Slotkin emphasizes her service to the country while serving her overseas tours in Iraq. “I joined after 9/11, did three tours in Iraq, and took the safety of our troops and our homeland personally,” Slotkin says in the […]

This weekend, Michigan Republicans dutifully nominated U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ choice for Secretary of State, Mary Treder Lang. The billionaire DeVos family has already padded Lang’s campaign account with more than $40,000 so far. Republican pundit Bill Ballenger, best known for declaring the Flint water crisis to be “overblown,”* gave us some insight into another reason for Lang’s nomination […]

We know at least two criminal schemes helped elect Trump, but that’s just the beginning of the crimes Here’s a statement from WIRED‘s Garrett M. Graff that sobered me up after Orange Tuesday, when Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer directly implicated him in a crime within hours of Trump’s former campaign manager being convicted of eight felonies: At least two […]

Segregationist Strom Thurmond didn’t become a Republican on accident Listen to Kevin M. Kruse explain how Democrats, after more than a century of being the party of slavery then segregation, embraced civil rights.   There is only one group of Americans that deserves credit for the advancement of civil rights in this country — and that’s people of color. The […]

Now Texas Governor Greg Abbott wants to pay “good” teachers $100+K. With workers’ wages stagnating, and teachers being historically underpaid, how is this not great news? Don’t teachers deserve bigger paychecks? Who would turn down a 6-figure salary?!? Well, as always, the devil is in the details… For instance, who will determine who the “good” teachers are? Their principals? School […]

If you were looking for a more reprehensible proponent of the worst of Republican ideology than Michigan Attorney General and Republican nominee for governor Bill Schuette, you’d have to work pretty hard. But Bill Schuette, who seems to spend more time off the job than on, apparently used that free time to come up with someone who is a perfect […]