“Writers Want Justice” January 9, 2015 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do A lesson from literary agent, Betsy Lerner, for writers — helpful for any of us with a drive to make our contribution… more » Read More
What are you doing? January 9, 2015 / Marjorie Larner / Classroom Practice, What We Can Do The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Edmund Burke See the “What… more » Read More
Time & 55 words January 7, 2015 / Marjorie Larner / Classroom Practice, What We Can Do Trapped (by a 7th grader) Jail is cramped and boring. I am so tired of it. I can barely keep… more » Read More
Surrender Dorothy January 6, 2015 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do Remember the last scene in Oz in the 1939 movie, “The Wizard of Oz,” when Dorothy learns she has the… more » Read More
Teacher as community organizer January 5, 2015 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do Today, upon re-entry to work after the holidays. I was reminded of a moment in 2008, immersed in the Obama… more » Read More
Who gets to tell the story of education in 2015? January 4, 2015 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do Who gets to tell the new year story? Those of us who will live it or those selected by NPR Ed? “In… more » Read More
Hallelujah for today January 3, 2015 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do I’ve been noticing that while I’ve searched for words to write in this blog each day, I have started to hear… more » Read More
Why I’m still writing January 2, 2015 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do Today a friend asked “Are you writing these days?” I told her about this daily posting on my blog and… more » Read More
2015: One good thing & a wish January 1, 2015 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do “What is the thing that is going to carry you through the day?” Gerardo Munoz finds an answer to this question… more » Read More
Sunset December 31, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do The sun is starting to set on this last day of 2014–poised at a point looking back on a year that… more » Read More
Spelling in a Community December 30, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / Classroom Practice, What We Can Do When 4th grader, K, read her personal narrative to the class for feedback, her classmate suggested, “Don’t say ‘nothing,’ say… more » Read More
5 Reasons to Love Math December 29, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / Classroom Practice, What We Can Do Bob Moses, a veteran of the Civil Rights movement, identified Algebra as the gateway to equitable success in education for… more » Read More
Butterfly soup December 28, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do In the life cycle of a butterfly, there is a stage when the caterpillar sheds its skin inside the cocoon… more » Read More
Pictures for imagining December 27, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do Just a suggestion in the middle of winter break when we don’t have to think about work and may want… more » Read More
Magic is Real December 26, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand. Kurt Vonnegut In the depths of winter break, I keep having one thought… more » Read More
How sweet to help a child December 26, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do We went for a walk in the snowstorm last night with two little girls whose hands got cold throwing snowballs… more » Read More
Peace on Earth December 25, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do “There’s a sorrow and pain in everyone’s life, but every now and then there’s a ray of light that melts… more » Read More
Whoever is around December 24, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do “A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.”… more » Read More
Pause December 22, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do Definition of Pause: A break, stop, or rest, often for a calculated purpose or effect In the days before winter… more » Read More
For those who talk too much December 21, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do Next time I’m sitting in a meeting listening to people who don’t work in school buildings talk about what people… more » Read More
Keep Talking December 21, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do Muddy Waters said the only failed musician is a musician who quit. How would you know when it was time… more » Read More
Another good thing about Linda December 19, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do My youngest son didn’t love school or his teachers a lot of the time. I don’t think his teachers realized… more » Read More
If I ran the zoo… December 19, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do My friend, Jeff Gitt, says that someday he is going to write a book called, “I just want to tell you…”… more » Read More
Learning for something real December 17, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do “Kids deserve the right to think that they can change the world.” Lois Lowry Today I heard about high school students… more » Read More
Sturdy December 16, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do In early winter, two girls at the same school died within 5 days of each other. I was on the… more » Read More
Won’t get fooled December 15, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy… more » Read More
“Trim Tab Lab” December 14, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do “… I saw, as the tail-end event of one of my own private catastrophes, that the seemingly adverse events of… more » Read More
We All Shine On December 13, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do One day when I led teacher interns on a walk through classrooms, we stopped in a room where the students… more » Read More
The strength of teachers December 12, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do “Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.” Lily Tomlin I think tonight discipline is called for instead of… more » Read More
Surviving the fire swamp December 11, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do Buttercup: That’s the *fire swamp! We’ll never survive. Wesley: Nonsense! You’re only saying that because no one ever has.” From “The… more » Read More
Face the Fire December 10, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.” Vince Lombardi “Do not give into discouragement or fear for more than one hour.”… more » Read More
Persistence December 9, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do Always I have persisted, regardless of reception or results. On…the only thing that counts is the work itself and the… more » Read More
Blackbird singing: anniversary of a shooting December 8, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do “….All your life you were only waiting for this moment to arise….” On the anniversary of the day John Lennon… more » Read More
‘…Love your life…” Tecumseh December 7, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do Reading this over and over–thinking about what it means for how I live my life and how to make it visible… more » Read More
85 Acts of Kindness December 6, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do ” The initiative asks students in each homeroom class to perform a combined 85 acts of kindness by May, and… more » Read More
The Students’ Moment December 5, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do “The paradox of education is precisely this–that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in… more » Read More
Dear Parents December 4, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” Voltaire A dark quote that points to a… more » Read More
Urgency December 3, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do When I started this blog, I was compelled by a feeling of urgency to catalog ways to keep doing work… more » Read More
Focus and Discipline December 3, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do History teaches us that negative forces will always try to smear and distort those on the side of justice, that… more » Read More
Strategically aimed December 1, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do In Why David Sometimes Wins: Leadership, Organization, and Strategy in the California Farm Worker Movement (Oxford, 2009), Marshall Ganz tells… more » Read More
Full Day in Court November 30, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do My part has been to tell the story of the slave. The story of the master never wanted for narrators…. more » Read More
Planning the day November 29, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world…. more » Read More
Cats and Stereotyping November 29, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do The cat, having sat upon a hot stove lid, will not sit upon a hot stove lid again. But he… more » Read More
Lives of Actual People (Coates) November 28, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do “…thought it was important to always remember that compromise, whatever its virtue, isn’t an abstract concept. It’s the compromising of… more » Read More
“When this ultimate crisis comes…” November 27, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do “When this ultimate crisis comes… when there is no way out – that is the very moment when we explode… more » Read More
Freedom Riders: The Music November 25, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do Only thing I can think of today is music from the Civil Rights Movement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuZQkl09Jho https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkepImblcSw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66_kqSG6aHI Southern Sons 1940’s… more » Read More
“…all I want to say.” MLK November 24, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Martin Luther King I stood in… more » Read More
Coming Out About Love November 23, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do “I took the Dalai Lama to a Ski Resort and He Told Me the Meaning of Life” The author tells… more » Read More
Keep Moving Forward November 23, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do “It is not up to you to finish the work, but neither are you free not to take it up.”-The… more » Read More
Just a serious joke today November 21, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do It was the final examination for an introductory Biology course at the local university. Like many such freshman courses, it… more » Read More
Thinking can save a life November 20, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do I worried over S, the student who sat in the back of his math class day after day, lost in his… more » Read More
“A Message to America’s Teachers from James Meredith” November 19, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do “The destiny of America is in your hands. We are in a Dark Age of American education, but you will… more » Read More
True North (Parker Palmer) November 18, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do “I am what I am. Take it or leave me alone.” Rosario Morales In times when I have been closest to… more » Read More
Dedicated to a Cause or Countdown to Thanksgiving Break? November 17, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do Is it our fate as dedicated educators, activists, writers, to always be making a choice between our work and other supports… more » Read More
“Why else would you be a teacher?” David Cohen November 16, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do “For these are all our children, We will all profit by, or pay for, Whatever they become.” James Baldwin While… more » Read More
Boys and Girls Club of Denver November 15, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do While many human beings are causing suffering in this world, I wish I could figure out a way to count… more » Read More
Thich Nhat Hanh: when the phone rings…. November 15, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do My sister gave me a Thich Nhat Hanh video in the 90’s that was so comforting, I always fell asleep… more » Read More
“The Low Road” by Marge Piercy November 13, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do This poem by one of my favorite writers helps me remember what we can do together. Marge Piercy is so… more » Read More
The Belly of the Beast November 12, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do “Better to lick your wounds and be battle scarred than kiss ass and compromise your values. Fight the good fight.”… more » Read More
Service November 11, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” ― Mahatma Gandhi On Veterans… more » Read More
What is your story? November 10, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do “There are 3 kinds of story of action– those we live, those we tell, and those which help our souls… more » Read More
The Ghost Dance: Message of Hope (Lakota) November 9, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do If you can talk you can sing, if you can walk you can dance. Zimbabwe proverb Listening to a… more » Read More
The Elephant and the Flea November 8, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do e In A Mythic Life (1996), Jean Houston recalls what she learned from Margaret Mead: “…it was important to challenge… more » Read More
Not in My Minute November 7, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do My sister told me about a conference where indigenous Californians discussed efforts to keep their languages alive. Many of the… more » Read More
We are on a Hero’s Journey November 7, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do ‘The difference between a hero and a victim is in stance, relationship to the situation. The victim is passive, the… more » Read More
Tiny Trimtab Turns the Ship November 5, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do “Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Mary—the whole… more » Read More
365 Days: What is Possible November 4, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do Showing up every day “If you write one short story every day, at the end of the year you will… more » Read More
Standing up against bullies June 4, 2014 / Marjorie Larner / What We Can Do The root of the word courage is cor—the Latin word for heart. In one of its earliest forms, the word… more » Read More
