In my last note I described our public discussions in terms of but four key aspects: active facilitators; small groups; interactivity; and exploration and development. Together they paint a very broad-brush picture of what we’re aiming to do—and how we do it. To...
At least four interactive aspects are critical to useful public discussion of IF’s Citizens Discussion Reports. 1. Facilitation is critical in public discussions of IF Citizens Staff Work Reports. There is nothing “magical” about IF facilitators. They are,...
I appreciate the feedback I've gotten on my last note ("On Wisconsin"). To move that discussion forward, let me echo something University of Wisconsin-Madison history professor William Cronon said recently in a blog explaining his own dissatisfaction with some of...
At its best, democracy isn't just "rule by the people" or even "rule of, by, and for the people." It's rule by people who listen to each other. Wisconsin's Republican leadership has turned a deaf ear to one house of the state legislature, muzzled the other, and...
As our catalogue of “Perspectives” grows, it’s probably useful to reconsider from time to time some of the basics of the IF process. That’s what I want to do here, all the while recognizing that the process is in some ways quite complex and is under continuous...
One of IF’s central activities is to produce discussion reports. We have since the beginning emphasized that these reports are different from other texts, such as conventional policy reports, on the one hand, and philosophical treatises, on the other. They are...
IF’s approach to classroom discussion is “student-centered” both in the sense that students do the facilitating and in the sense that students shoulder much of the responsibility for shaping the curriculum, as well. As a result, IF-styled classroom discussions...
People are naturally curious about IF’s founder, Jay Stern. They want to know what sort of man he was, and why he started IF. Here’s my own perspective, based on eight years of working increasingly closely with Jay. (The results of my collaboration with Jay on...
Normally I avoid metaphors and even language that might conjure up economic images where I don’t intend them, but I think everyone would admit that there are “values” that aren’t economic, so I’m going to risk it here. What I want to do is provide another kind of...
I grew up in the Upper Midwest. It’s a place where people love to talk about dominant ethnic traits (usually German or Scandinavian). I’d guess that it’s a habit that has to do with the agriculture of the area. In any case, I also grew up half way between...