Village Green/Town²

  Some things you learn in school. Some things you learn on the job, or from books.  Some things you learn from your kids. I refer to the expression, “commitment to the bit.” As in, “You have to admire their commitment to the bit.” My kid, in turn, very likely learned that term because of the amassed body of work known as the Vlogbrothers . John and Hank Green - - brothers in real life - - began a video blog in 2007 with the intent to pass communications back and forth on a regular basis.  They’re still doing it. Along the way they’ve done silly things, addressed serious issues, built community, and transformed a desire for change by turning it into a zany approach both to learning initiatives and to philanthropic ventures.  I missed all of this but my kid did not. They were watching YouTube at the height of vlogbrothers phenomenon. It’s only in the last year or so that I discovered them and realized the connection to a world that my youngest and their friends had be...

  Did you ever really want to be one of the Cool Kids? I did, once upon a time. Let’s think about that today. What are the qualities that make you “in” with the In Crowd? What would you do to gain that status? What would you do to hold on to it? What makes a group of people feel emboldened to do horrible, demeaning things to a helpless individual? Why are they almost always men? The persistent reporting by student journalists at Cornell has brought those questions to a wider audience over the last week.  As we’ve been trying to process those horrors another story has hit local news which feels eerily similar to me. Howard High School JV football players charged after locker room bullying,   Blair Sabol, WMAR 2 News This quote from the mother of the victim is shattering. “He's been beaten, battered, kidnapped, assaulted, sexually assaulted, false imprisonment, robbed," Bridges said. "I would like charges pressed to the full extent of what occurred to my child." Both ...