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EricMacKnight.com

Garden Project photos

On Flickr.

Author Eric MacKnightPosted on March 24, 2006Categories School Gardening

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Most of us are doing the best we can, but our best is often not very good, or not good enough, so we need to be kind and forgiving of each other, and of ourselves.

Nero may have fiddled while Rome burned. We’re fiddling while the entire planet burns.

Lasting values

The arts, ideas, natural beauty, and good conversation provide lasting pleasure.

Goethe on Beethoven

He “may not be wrong to find the world detestable, but in doing so certainly does not make it more enjoyable either for himself or for others.”

Featured Posts

  • Nothing like us
  • The Circle of Modern Political Ideologies
  • Reluctant readers: how to help a child who does not enjoy reading
  • Louis Barthas: the old lady and her garden
  • Help for marking essays and giving feedback to students
  • Plato on old age
  • The Story of the Taoist Farmer
  • 一团和气 (yi tuan he qi)
  • Binary thinking, again
  • The government is not concerned with your health, or mine
  • On sickness and health: the wisdom of the ages and the COVID-19 anti-vax upsurge
  • Robinson Crusoe’s father on the advantages of being middle-class
  • Practice, practice, practice!
  • The Vertigo Plan for diet and fitness
  • Ode to the Inner Ear
  • Who indeed knows the secret of the earthly pilgrimage?
  • Thackeray Knew Trump
  • Krishnamurti: separation is violence
  • Election disputes, voter fraud, violence, and my great-great-uncle, the Senator
  • The Five-Year Marriage: My Brilliant Idea
  • Nuclear power: safe and economical
  • The argument for nuclear power
  • Wise words from George Monbiot
  • America
  • Why is learning to write well so slow, so difficult, and so frustrating?
  • Socialize pro sports!
  • John Adams: “Remember, democracy never lasts long”
  • My Old Friend
  • Why Democracy Is Breaking
  • Why do a GAP year?
  • Zhuangzi mourns his wife
  • George Kennan: “the sowing of bitterness, suspicion, and intolerance”
  • 4 (now 5) Reasons the U.S. Is Doomed
  • St. John’s College, the Great Books school
  • Is it possible for a nation to eat junk food and watch TV for half a century without consequences?
  • Welcome to Human Rights Camp
  • La Mère Bourgeois
  • Terrorism, Racism, and Healing the Body Politic
  • Research: what are ‘credible sources’?
  • Never Give Up: An Inspiring Story
  • Dear Google: an opportunity I hope you can’t refuse
  • Dear Maury
  • The Intentional Fallacy: it doesn’t matter what the author intended
  • ‘Hamlet: The Happy Ending’
  • Rebirth
  • Turn your school into Paris
  • 3 Reasons I Love Class Blogs
  • How to improve your English
  • Sending the Right Message About Literature
  • Not an Option, Not a Frill: Literature at the Core of Learning

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The world will be a better place if everyone, all the time, respects human rights and the rule of law—especially when our emotions pull us most strongly in the opposite direction.

About

I have been teaching secondary school English since 1980 in the United States, Morocco, Switzerland, Austria, Canada, the Netherlands, and China in public, private, and international schools. I am also the author of Good Habits, Good Students: A Complete Guide for Students Who Want to Succeed.

After living and teaching in Suzhou, China from 2004 - 2015, I spent three years in Salem, Oregon, where my teaching career began. Currently I am living in Victoria, BC, and working at Brookes Westshore School.

我是四海游龙.

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Good Habits, Good Students

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Click here for info. Available now from most online booksellers or by special order from your local bookshop.

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