When people begin blogging about how you haven't blogged in a long while, you know something is going on. My apologies to those who've subscribed and gotten nothing for a bit.
So where have I been? Busy, with 60+ speeches this year around the US and the world, and trying to write as much as possble, while finishing up our latest project, a Financial Literacy game for high-schoolers.
But that's not the reason I haven't blogged. It's mainly that I haven't found blogging a comfortable way to express my ideas. When I want to say something, it typically takes 800-6000 words (or even a whole book). Up too now this post is roughly 100 wds.
I could blog longer essays, but I like to have them published in print, (goes to an audience, that is, I think, more in need to be influenced than "the choir" who read blogs in general, and mine in particular.)
However now that not just one, but several bloggers have commented on my absence, (and I have received a couple of emails to boot), I will try to see if there are kinds of information that it would be appropriate and comfortable for me to blog, instead of just storing them up for future articles (I literally have a list of 80 titles waiting to be written!). Any suggestions?
Speaking of which, another big impediment to blogging has been spam - I was so overwhelmed with disgusting automated posts that I shut off comments, thus depriving us all of the real fun of blogging. I will leave comments open on this post and see what happens.
Finally, in terms of substance, here's a story I *did* mean to blog about, but never got to. I was in Western Australia (Perth) in May, and after one session where I had (as usual) a student panel, a middle school girl went back and told her teacher "I went to this meeting and they told us we don't have to be bored anymore." Whereupon the teacher immediately rang up the Western Australia Ministry of Education and told them they were "fomenting anarchy." The Ministry's answer: You're right, we want engaged students, not bored ones!"
So the first shot of the learning revolution may, in fact, have been fired "down under."
Glad to be back.
Best,
Marc