What's this all about?
How to Survive in Your Native Land is the title of James Herndon's wonderful book on teaching, first published in the Spring of 1971, the spring of my Senior year in college. It is a book that continues to influence my life as a teacher to this day and so this website's title is an homage to the late and great James Herndon and his wonderful perspective on the importance of being a teacher --- and not losing your sense of humor.
Audience? My brother (among others) asked, "Who's the audience (for this website)?" Good question. Primarily this will be about education and things educational but given my ADD and my interest in politics, sports, music, and almost anything else that crosses my path, there will be an array of topics presented here. There will be rants, screeds, musings, some "essays" (usually "to be continued . . .), and some borderline "academic" writing, too. There will also be links to other websites, YouTube items, etc. that I think are interesting and might warrant people's attention.
Comments. The "Contact Info" lists two e-mail addresses for me and I encourage anyone who has feedback or wants to take issue with any opinions posted here, or wants to actually encourage me to "keep it up," to feel free and write. There's no blog stuff going on here because I find blogs to be terminally self-indulgent (as if this site isn't, right?) and they seem to just go on and on.
Major Influences and Biases. Anyone entering this site should be made aware of the fact that I am an unrepentant progressive leftist and my views and opinions fall in that direction. I think there's great truth in the adage that one can judge a society's soul by looking at how it takes care of its children (schools), its infirm (health care), its criminals (prisons), and its elderly (assisted care). For the past fifty years I believe the United States, in its insistent belief in the "market" and obsessive consumerism, has slowly but surely abandoned the neediest in this country and managed to say, "It's their own fault" somehow. My major influences (aside from family and teachers) are James Herndon, Hunter S. Thompson, Paolo Freire (and his U.S. disciple Henry Giroux), John Dewey (the most quoted, least-read man in American Education), Ted Sizer, Norman Mailer, a host of musicians and athletes (for their performance, not their personalities necessarily) and countless others whose names will appear throughout this site.
Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride. Most of all, I hope this site will provoke thinking, conversation, discourse, debate, and real democratic interaction!
