Several years after she divorced my dad, my mom threw herself into local politics as a Democratic Party precinct co-chair and campaign manager for a couple local candidates. She was motivated initially by, among other things, trying to keep her son (me… still a handful of years from draft age) out of the Vietnam War, and later by the growing movement for women’s rights and particularly the campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment. It took her into a new world of people, passion and polemics… dragging me not so unwillingly along with her… (more…)

After never being dressed in skirts, dresses, bows or other frills, our daughter Emma finally got old enough to request to wear the traditional female gear. I recall she was four when she asked her mom, “Can I wear one of those things that you wear that is open on the bottom?”

Our daughter’s mom and I are hardcore feminists, and we were both very passionate that a person should not be stereotyped based on their gender. The practical applications of this principle, when it came to our kids (male and female), was that we were not going to dress them in any gender-typed clothing. The basic rule of thumb we adopted was that the clothing, to be acceptable, had to be both good for the goose and good for the gander. (more…)

When I was ten my parents got divorced, my mom got involved in politics and the women’s movement, and in the process made new female friends, several of which became close and long-term to the point of becoming a sort of non-genetic extended family. This was particularly important for me, because I was soon plunged into puberty and adolescence, and these women became important role-models and mentors for me – like a preacher, rabbi, guru, teacher, etc. – might be to someone else. (more…)

When my brother and I were young, before my mom and dad divorced and my dad departed the household, my recollection is that just about every night, truly a nightly ritual, he would join Peter and I in our bedroom to sing songs. He taught us the songs he loved the best…college songs. Football fight songs, first the “home team’s”, his beloved University of Michigan…

Hail! to the victors valiant,
Hail! to the conquering heroes,
Hail! Hail! to Michigan the leaders and best. (more…)

Michael Harrah, the prime mover of our Junior Light Opera theater company, had an inner circle of older youth in the company who he bounced ideas off for what shows we would do. I recall one day, he and I returning in his station wagon from the Tobin Lakes Studio outside of Ann Arbor that rented or sold various props, costumes, lights and lighting supplies that we needed for several of our productions. I was telling Michael that I had recently read William Golding’s book “Lord of the Flies” in my British Literature class and fantasized about doing it as a play.

To give you a little background, Michael was always looking for the challenge of an unorthodox theater piece or doing a more traditional theater piece in an unorthodox way. For example… (more…)

Last year my son Eric encouraged me to do a blog. It was nice to have your progeny think well enough about me to think that you have something to say to others. He told me how to get a URL (web address) and gave me space on his company’s web server. He showed me how to pick a free blog template (from the WordPress.com offerings) and deploy it on my blog. I ran into a few initial obstacles which he helped me resolve. (more…)

Just a quick post to suggest that you urge President Obama to add his advisor Linda Darling-Hammond to the top echelon of his Department of Education team lead by Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Darling-Hammond is more of a progressive educator, sympathetic with the kind of educational alternatives that I am advocating for, than Duncan and therefore an important addition to the DoE leadership team.

To send your thoughts to Obama on this issue click on the following link and participate in the Change.org effort on Darling-Hamilton’s behalf. The intro page you are directed to will give you more information about her and a sample letter that you can either send as is or customize to reflect your own words.

The more people that respond on this issue of course the better, so please pass the link on to any like minded friends and family to do so themselves.

My dad never actually said “life, at its best, is an adventure”… but I know he believed it with all his heart. I have had wonderful adventures in my life, including on various trains. And I have always done my best to hold back any anxious misgivings and give my kids the same opportunity. (more…)

This post is dedicated to Pat Farenga, a friend and an intelligent and well-spoken advocate for unschooling. Check out his website at http://www.patfarenga.com. He sent me a nice email based on my “Avalon Hill” post so I decided to kind of reprise it with my continuing obsession with ever bigger, ever more complex simulation board games. After all those hours wrestling with all the rules, logistics, charts, etc… no wonder I ended up as a systems analyst. Anyway… (more…)

FYI… I started my new job today after being unemployed for six months (but fortunately with five months of severance pay). The time off from my work gave me the opportunity to really plunge into my writing and finally, after many false starts over the past 15 years, really get into a writing groove. So with my new job I have much less of my own time but I hope not to abandon my “groove” completely. So some of these upcoming posts may be shorter and not as well developed. Others will be pieces I’ve written previously. So here goes… (more…)