Perspectives of a Lifelong Learner
“The practice of democracy is not passed down through the gene pool. It must be taught and learned anew by each generation of citizens.” Justice Sandra Day O"Connor Nearly four years ago I wrote this article. I was motivated to do so given what I felt to be the appalling level of civic... Continue Reading →
What a week some ten years ago--The Weather Channel might have described it as the confluence of convergent and divergent air flows, in this case probably hot air colliding. Even with the diligent effort of a more than capable Administrative Assistant, my schedule was put to the test. In one week I had to be... Continue Reading →
Back in October 2015, I presented a TED talk at the annual conference of the Municipal Management Association of Southern California (MMASC). The topic was, “The Why of Public Service.” Facing an impressive crowd of some 200 young, up-and-coming local government professionals, I started the session by asking them to contemplate “why public service?” The... Continue Reading →
https://patimes.org/getting-serious-about-practitioners-in-the-classroom/ Fifteen Years an Adjunct To be clear, I was not a day-to-day freeway-flying adjunct lecturer searching for the on ramp to the tenure track. That lane was reserved for those freshly minted Ph.D.’s pursuing membership in the academy. I was another kind of adjunct, one wearing the moniker practitioner instructor. It required wearing a... Continue Reading →
"Beyond the mechanics of teaching, these areas provide substance to the reasons why one should or should not teach. Still as important, these focus areas provide a glimpse, and really just a glimpse, into the culture of the academy and the students of today. If your last contact with higher education was as a student... Continue Reading →
"Labor agreements, archaic management practices and outdated human resource class and comp requirements set the stage for this wave of new, somewhat reluctant, graduate students. Beyond their own job performance, they have to demonstrate more. Even for long term-seasoned professionals, no new credential means no promotion and no pay raise. They’ve hit the career and... Continue Reading →
Regardless of the popular denouncement of public employees, we are in good hands. I know, they are in my classrooms. The up and coming students of public administration are dedicated service providers. At least this is reflective of my own observations with Master of Public Administration (MPA) students in southern California. They are mostly already... Continue Reading →
Well, he's at it again. This time it is only three Californias. Tim Draper, the billionaire Bay Area venture capitalist, announced that his initiative to break California into three separate states had gotten more than 600,000 signatures from registered voters across all 58 counties, surpassing the 365,880 signatures required to get his initiative on the... Continue Reading →
"in the early 1990’s the image of the faceless governmental bureaucrat, top-down, regulatory minded, 'Administrative Man' was hypothetically replaced. Enter the champion of the New Public Management, the market driven “Economic Man. He is Reinventing Government---" "An expanded educational approach to civics and cultural literacy may serve to combat this narrow approach to governance. ... Continue Reading →
This quarter I am teaching a graduate course in Public Management and Leadership. Part of last night's class focused on generational differences. Both Frances Kunreuther's essay: "The Changing of the Guard--What Generational Differences Tell Us About Social-Change Organizations," and a David Brooks video: "Humility in the Time of Me," served to generate an interesting discussion... Continue Reading →
The Scholarly Participant 
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