School Makes Me…
Will you do a quick experiment with me? I want you to see something. Go to google.com and type “school makes me” and see what suggestions (the most commonly searched terms) drop down. Do those predictions break your heart? They break mine. If you weren’t able to follow along, here’s what you missed: School makes […]
To Tech or Not to Tech?
Every now and then I get asked questions about parenting. It makes sense since I write kids books and I feature my own kids in our ads, but I generally stay away from talking too much about how to raise kids. In case you couldn’t tell, I’m a pretty big believer in the individual—and that […]
Let’s Stop Asking Presidential Hopefuls to Create Jobs
“Beginning with you, Secretary Clinton, why are you a better choice than your opponent to create the kinds of jobs that will put more money into the pockets of American workers?” This question, asked in one of the 2016 presidential debates, has been asked in various forms and posed to various candidates for as long […]
Lessons on Selfishness from a Calliope Player and an Albanian Immigrant
“But the clowns don’t understand supply and demand,” Atlas added. “They demand rewards without supplying hard work. That’s selfish!” This line from The Tuttle Twins and the Search for Atlas comes just moments before Ethan and Emily have their big “ah ha!” moment and come to a realization that’s been evading them since the beginning […]
The Family That Plays Together
Have you heard about the recent studies on children and mental health? It’s pretty disheartening stuff, but unfortunately it isn’t really a surprise. Ten years ago, Dr Peter Gray began writing about the decline in the mental health of children and teens and its correlation to an increase in hours spent in school and a […]
Be Vigilant In Looking For The Good
Happy Tuesday! It seems like the last few weeks have been pretty heavy on the bad, sad, and otherwise depressing news—impeachment drama, unrest in the Middle East, celebrity deaths, a rapidly spreading Chinese virus, the Grammys—so I thought maybe a little recap of the good was in order: Did you hear that a recent poll […]
Why Are So Many Teens Keen On Socialism?
Every now and then I get a chance to visit with groups of young people. Sometimes I get invited to classrooms to share my books, sometimes I get to speak with groups of teens who are interested in entrepreneurship, and sometimes I get emails or messages in response to podcasts they’ve heard me on or […]
The Patriotism Of Peace
A couple of days ago we shared this image on our social media pages. It was “liked” and “shared” by more people than had negative responses to it, but I think some of those negative responses deserve to be shared and their messages discussed. Brandon W. “Yeah, nothing says ‘I’m a doormat and little b***h’ […]
The Fate Of The Future
Happy New Year! I kicked off my new year working on a bill in my home state of Utah that will help protect people’s DNA from mass searches by law enforcement. It got me reflecting on the serious and sometimes heavy nature of most of the work that I do. But then I got to […]
Shrimp Falafel And The American Dream
A food truck as a nightclub? Could this be the American Dream? There’s a lot of bad (and just plain weird) news that comes out of California, so I was pleasantly surprised when I clicked on this article last week and found an inspiring story coming out of Oakland. Elsayed Elhamak, an Egyptian immigrant, opened […]