A well-rounded education includes engaging students on becoming involved in civic participation. Robert Pondiscio, executive director of Citizenship First says: “Understanding how to pull the levers of government, how to organise and make one’s voice heard to effect change is … Continue reading Social Science Quote: Education and Civic Participation
“All things are subject to interpretation; whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not the truth.” Did Nietzsche really say this? Not quite. Popular culture has slightly misquoted. Instead, the philosopher said:
Demand social justice!
Continue reading Demand social justice!
“If your success is defined as being well adjusted to injustice and well adapted to indifference then we don’t want successful leaders. We want great leaders – who love the people enough and respect the people enough to be unsought, … Continue reading We Want Great Leaders
Re-Building the World
Continue reading Re-Building the World
The Role of Public Dialogue in Conflict Management
Continue reading The Role of Public Dialogue in Conflict Management
Learn to Fail, Teach Trust
Continue reading Learn to Fail, Teach Trust
Inspiration porn is an image of a person with a disability, often a kid, doing something completely ordinary – like playing, or talking, or running, or drawing a picture, or hitting a tennis ball – carrying a caption like “your excuse is invalid” or “before you quit, try”… Let me be clear about the intent of this inspiration porn; it’s there so that non-disabled people can put their worries into perspective. So they can go, “Oh well if that kid who doesn’t have any legs can smile while he’s having an awesome time, I should never, EVER feel bad about … Continue reading Discourses of Disability
Continue reading “Holistic understanding of mental health in Indigenous culture”Indigenous culture has for a long time had a holistic understanding of mental health. Within this are concepts of the cultural importance of the connection between the mind and body as well as the land, ancestors and other spiritual connections…. What I admire most in my family and all the communities is Aboriginal people’s great resilience and generosity of spirit, not only to their own people but to everyone. Despite a terrible history that is still very close for Australia’s Indigenous people, this spirit of generosity and resilience are something to celebrate and acknowledge.
Continue reading “Bob Brown on Australian democracy”In the Howard years Australia became a much meaner and more self-interested country … We are the richest people per capita in the world, if you just look in material terms, and we are the richest people ever to live on the Earth… Yet there’s this air of dissatisfaction and a feeling that we are being cheated, and that is a cultural shift that came out of the Howard years and has been promoted mightily by the Murdoch media — and that flows on through the ABC and all the other radio shock jocks and so on….
People voted for that with their eyes wide open [on the removal of environmental policies]. And I might add to that, that they voted for $4 billion dollars in foreign aid to be not spent.
Social Science Insights 