A friend sent me this article written by a former colleague. Although its criticisms paint with a broad brush, it nevertheless contains the most concise and cogent survey of the landscape and call for change that I've seen to date. I highly recommend it.
During my junior year in high school, I sat in the back of our auditorium listening to our drama teacher, Ruth Bair, attempt to persuade a large group of students to try out for the school play. With me, at least, she was successful. I auditioned for a part in Archibald MacLeish's "JB," a modern day drama based on the Book of Job. All I garnered that time was a walk-on part; better roles awaited me my senior year. But Mrs. Bair's little speech was enough to get me in the game. And the experience of performing in the school plays was the highlight of my high school years. What she said that I remember is this: "If you don't extend yourself, you haven't lived." Some memory of biology class made me think that this was both literally and figuratively true, though I'm not sure about the literal part, and it's only the figurative that matters to me. But through the years and decades that followed, whenever I was unsure about participatin
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