Barbara Stengel

Thanks for the shout out, friend... it's an observation we both take seriously

"Learning to listen, to attend carefully and
relentlessly, to unexpected others […] is the single disposition that renders education what it can and must be: the interaction quite literally constituting (ethical) community."

-- my colleague, philosopher of education @barbstengel.bsky.social

Authoritarian rulers aren’t new – here’s what Herodotus, an early Greek historian, wrote about them Herodotus showed how human beliefs and choices affected the fate of nations. His insights are still relevant.

Thanks to Debbie Felton for digging Herodotus out of mothballs, showing how today's debate about authoritarianism, democracy, oligarchy, is NOT new. And for offering (unintentionally) some hope for Ukraine, a well-led country who can prevail just as the Greeks beat the Persians millennia ago.

Peace, Protest, and Patriotism Hootenanny · Mobilize This a local Indivisible event! Independence Day is about the fight for freedom. The American Revolution was a stand against tyranny and kings. That same spirit has lived on—from the Boston Tea Party...

I'm attending Indivisible's event, “Peace, Protest, and Patriotism Hootenanny” here in Lancaster on Saturday. Great way to build community and have fun :-) - sign up now to join me! www.mobilize.us/mobilize/eve...

Reading the entrails and the tea leaves is a profession and vocation for a lot of people who can't say stupid about a president.

It’s happening ...

AFT sues Education Department over student loan system interference - UPI.com The American Federation of Teachers labor union filed suit Tuesday and named both the U.S. Department of Education and Education Secretary Linda McMahon as defendants.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness is a critical lifeline for teachers, nurses, first responders, & millions of public service workers across the country. Trump's decision to eliminate income-driven repayment plans leaves borrowers unable to access PSLF. www.upi.com/Top_News/US/...

Opinion | What Autocrats Want From Academics: Servility In 1931, Italian scholars were made to take loyalty oaths. Will that happen to us?

"On October 8, 1931, a law went into effect requiring every Italian university professor to sign an oath pledging their loyalty to the government of Benito Mussolini. Out of over 1,200 professors in the country, only 12 refused. All of them were immediately fired." www.chronicle.com/article/what...

Share this widely if you want to encourage understanding of the attack on P-16 (and beyond) education currently underway. Thank you, @ansleyerickson.bsky.social , and colleagues for bringing light to what’s happening at Columbia and elsewhere.

McMahon goes on record saying private schools funded by taxpayer vouchers—including a federal voucher scheme—do and should have the right to turn children away if those children don’t fit those private schools’ needs.

It’s not parent choice. It’s the school’s choice.

WI Sen @senatorbaldwinwi.bsky.social just entered these 4 studies into the record for McMahon’s hearing 👊

You can read more about those horrific voucher impacts and the decades-long push to invent vouchers in my book The Privateers @harvard-ed-press.bsky.social

hep.gse.harvard.edu/978168253910...

Your oligarchy, ladies and gentlemen

It was great to chat with Cara, Derek, and Kathleen about localism, legitimacy, and schools as public spaces!

Opinion | Trump Wants to Destroy All Academia, Not Just the Woke Parts (Gift Article) The administration’s war on universities defies rational self-interest.

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/14/o...

Senate votes to confirm Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence | CNN Politics The Senate voted Wednesday, to confirm former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence.

Tulsi Gabbard confirmed as Director of National Intelligence. My team 1st encountered her while studying conspiracy theories denying chemical weapons attacks and other war crimes in Syria (~2017). She repeatly spread those false claims, echoing Russian disinfo. www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

I worked on a few REL projects while at RAND & the connection btwn our research and the needs of local policy makers was clear, tangible & acute, and the impact was direct

This isn’t about cutting government waste, this is about finding more ways to undermine efforts to strengthen public schools

Click on the magnifying glass icon in your browser bar, then select "DuckDuckGo" as your default search engine.

CFPB - closed
USAID - closed
Medicaid - under attack
NIH cancer funding - frozen
Department of Education - under attack

But do you know who just got a NEW government contract for $38,858,978 literally today?

SpaceX — owned by Elon Musk

This also lets you comment, vigorously and at length, on the accuracy of, and motivations behind, Google's choices.

Around 35% of SpaceX’s revenue comes directly from the federal govt.

Less than 1% of NPR’s budget comes from the federal govt.

The media's circular logic and destructive obsession with Biden's age Yes, it's fast becoming the 2024 version of the media's obsession with Hillary's emails

My latest — please read and let me know what you think https://margaretsullivan.substack.com/p/the-medias-circular-logic-and-destructive

Parallel with Hilary's emails is apt, sadly. Not sure whether there is consistent motivation here, but it sure seems that reportorial and editorial judgment have gone out the window.

What do parents REALLY want? Episode 2-4 of Chasing Bailey is available now -- featuring educator-parents who remind us how schools help grow the young folks we care about. Find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and all those other pod sites. #Edusky

My book on Responsibility in education (Stengel, Bloomsbury, 2023) is the focus of a "bonus episode" of the Chasing Bailey podcast -- since Bailey figures prominently in the argument. So now you don't have to read the book, you can just listen to several very smart folks talk about it!! #EduSky

Inviting #EduSky friends and all others to give the Chasing Bailey podcast a listen... www.chasingbaileypod.com. Or wherever you get your podcasts. Listening to teachers (and students) drives this show!

Please include me, retired educator and teacher education, currently host of education blog called Chasing Bailey that features voices/wisdom/experience of teachers.

@BarbStengel