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Joel Gingery

Plymouth, MN
Commenter for
3 years 47 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 07/23/11 at 08:08 am in response to Admission Possible: Closing a disturbing divide in Minnesota's educational landscape

Admission Possible is obviously a significant achievement. Mr. McKorkle and his associates have my admiration and thanks. As related in the proverbial story about the little girl saving one of manny star fish stranded on the beach, one student at a time, Admission Possible has made a difference in their lives as well as in the lives of their families and communities.

The situation Admission Possible and this story highlights, however, is the tacit acceptance by the people of...

Posted on 07/08/11 at 01:52 pm in response to Grover Norquist looms over Minnesota's budget impasse

According to George Lakoff - "The Political Mind" - "Cognitive policy is a framing campaign that precedes specific material policies. It introduces the deep frames, the moral frames that come first. All material policies are based, explicitly or implicitly, on prior morally-based frames. The first justification of any policy, often unconscious and implicit, is its moral correctness...It operates in a circle: framing precedes policy. And because of this, a material policy can create a...

Posted on 07/08/11 at 02:12 pm in response to Should we charge our doctors for wasting our time in their office waiting rooms?

In some respect I think this post is really about getting our medical needs met. The current system is not organized around providing the care we as patients need and want. Instead it is to a large degree organized to make money while providing services at the discretion of the medical provider. This is not to say doctors and nurses and other providers don't want to provide the service patients want. Its simply that the system - the reimbursement system, the way doctors are paid, the way...

Posted on 07/05/11 at 12:26 pm in response to The real reasons Obama is vilified

This essay supports one of the main themes in H.W. Brand's recent book "American Dreams," that our unique American Dream attracts immigrants - indeed we ALL are immigrants - to take advantage of the unique opportunity to pursue our happiness as we see fit. Each new person, each wave of people, refreshes and nourishes the land while at the same time absorbing the essence of what has gone before, gradually changing our country, gradually reinventing, reinterpreting what it means to be...

Posted on 06/28/11 at 02:58 pm in response to How some of nation's 'top schools' can end up on state's 'failing' list

In his recent book, "Drive - The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us," http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Surprising-Truth-About-Motivates/dp/1594488843
Daniel Pink describes the three requirements for internal motivation: "...the secret to high performance isn't our biological drive or our reward-and-punishment drive...

Posted on 06/23/11 at 12:27 pm in response to Poverty and other social factors lead to more U.S. deaths than heart disease, stroke and cancer, study finds

Thank you very much for bringing this article to my attention. It confirms the central message of the recent book "THE SPIRIT LEVEL - Why greater equality makes societies stronger," by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. This book correlates the income difference between citizens of the worlds industrialized countries, the 'haves' vs the 'have nots,' with the incidence of indicators of social failure:

1) Mental health and drug use;
2) Physical health and life expectancy;...

Posted on 05/24/11 at 11:25 am in response to Many health professionals unwilling to pay for unbiased medical education

Even though you may not recognize the similarities at first, medical professionals could learn a lot from teachers in how to integrate new information and practices to everyone throughout the practice setting; as well as helping each clinician share expertise and approach the same level of practice.

Posted on 05/12/11 at 12:14 pm in response to U of M dispute over research ethics morphs into academic freedom flap

Another step in the corporatization of higher ed; MN's profit center indeed.

Would this have happened if we funded higher education appropriately? If we actually believed in the value of higher ed?

Posted on 05/11/11 at 01:20 pm in response to First and ten -- or long? -- for the Vikings as Arden Hills becomes team's dream home

Discussion about a billion-dollar stadium for a team that would use it only 10 times a year is ridiculous. Need I say more?

Posted on 04/27/11 at 07:09 am in response to Jeb Bush touts Florida school reforms to Capitol's supportive GOP, skeptical DFL

What Jeb Bush and the Republicans are serious about is dismanteling MN's public school system and turning it over to private schools - charters - and FL is the poster child for how to do it.

Mr. Bush's proposals are meant to fail public education. Now President Obama's endorsment is bringing Gov. Bush's education ideas to national attention. Gov. Bush, Arne Duncan, NCLB, makes me wonder about President Obama's motivations.

Two articles for consideration regarding the above...