education Archives - Karen Christensen

Speaking out in Great Barrington isn’t so easy

Update 2015-02-20: We did speak at the School Committee meeting (video here:http://wp.me/p5nwq0-2a), but decided to postpone the presentation to the Selectboard, in part because of weather and travel problems, but also because we were not put into the general agenda, as you can see below. The listing in the agenda gave only my name, rather than naming the group GB21, and merely listed "Karen Christensen, School District Issues" under Citizen Speak at the end of the meeting. I can speak at Citizen Speak any time. This was about quite a [...]

January 24th, 2015|Categories: The Search for Community|Tags: Berkshires, education|

Just don’t mention the War!

Imagine Washington DC, a few days after the election in 2014. The Democratic Party has lost control of both houses of Congress. Harry Reid, the most senior Democratic congressman, can't be reached. He has left town for a yoga retreat, no cellphones allowed at the ashram. President Obama won

November 9th, 2014|Categories: The Search for Community|Tags: education|

Speak Out, or Watch Out?

Some say small-town politics are more vicious than the big-city variety because the stakes are so small. They can be vicious, that

January 22nd, 2014|Categories: The Search for Community|Tags: Great Barrington, Berkshires, education, The Good Life|

Six Myths that Lead to Small-town Battles

I drove up Route 7 to Monument Mountain High School on Friday night as the moon rose over East Mountain, milky white and nearly full, luminous in a sky streaked with coral and rose pink from the setting sun. I had forgotten how beautiful that stretch of the Berkshires is in the evening. I hadn

November 24th, 2013|Categories: The Search for Community|Tags: Great Barrington, Berkshires, education|

Taking public education seriously

As Berkshire Publishing focuses more on education, on learning as well as teaching, I found myself reflecting on a passage from a book called The Company of Strangers, by Parker Palmer. I read this book in the course of my research on community, and even though Palmer's worldview is Christian and mine is not, I found that there is much to learn from him. We all need community, after all. I like the way he considers education and the public sphere: ". . . imagine what might happen if we [...]

January 19th, 2012|Categories: Uncategorized|Tags: education, community, reflections|

Marvin Mudrick and his Chickens

I chose UCSB over Yale because of Marvin Mudrick, and there were times I thought I

October 7th, 2010|Categories: Uncategorized|Tags: reflections, publishing, education, two cultures, T S Eliot|