Verbatim

The idea of citizenship is not the only way we can pursue our commonalities and needs, not the only way to entertain our longings and dreams. But it is a crucial one; and, when linked to the deep insight that we owe a duty of justice to our fellow citizens, the concept of citizenship sheds [...]

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The key to resolving and managing the deep conflicts of pluralistic politics is a willingness on the part of citizens to tolerate imperfect solutions. In order to make a social order of diverse goals tend towards justice, it is necessary for each citizen to internalize the virtues of dialogue, in which the claims of others [...]

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Tomorrow is election day in Canada. If the last Federal election a scant 18 months ago is any indication, some 40 percent of us will not exercise our fundamental right and civic responsibility to vote. It’s a perfect time to reflect on the nature of citizenship and the possible role that learning designers play in [...]

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Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, ‘and what is the use of a book,’ thought Alice, ‘without pictures [...]

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And the Gryphon added ‘Come, let’s hear some of your adventures.’
‘I could tell you my adventures - beginning from this morning,’ said Alice a little timidly: ‘but it’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.’
‘Explain all that,’ said the Mock Turtle.
‘No, no! The adventures first,’ said the [...]

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‘It was much pleasanter at home,’ thought poor Alice, ‘when one wasn’t always growing larger and smaller, and being ordered about by mice and rabbits. I almost wish I hadn’t gone down that rabbit-hole - and yet - and yet - it’s rather curious, you know, this sort of life!’
Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, [...]

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Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end! ‘I wonder how many miles I’ve fallen by this time?’ she said aloud. ‘I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think - ‘ (for, you see, Alice had learnt [...]

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The art of prophecy is very difficult, especially with respect to the future.
Often misattributed to Mark Twain.

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There won’t be schools in the future … I think the computer will blow up the school. That is, the school defined as something where there are classes, teachers running exams, people structured in groups by age, following a curriculum all of that. The whole system is based on a set of structural concepts that [...]

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Young writers often suppose that style is a garnish for the meat of prose, a sauce by which a dull dish is made palatable. Style has no such separate entity; it is nondetachable, unfilterable. The beginner should approach style warily, realizing that it is an expression of self, and should turn resolutely away from all [...]

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A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.
William [...]

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Because one’s acquaintances are less likely linked than one’s close friends, they connect individuals to other social circles, providing a vital resource for such tasks as finding jobs. Cliques are bridged by weak ties, which are therefore crucial for transmission of information and for social cohesion.
Mark Granovetter, The Strength of Weak Ties, American Journal of [...]

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‘Alway speak the truth–think before you speak–and write it down afterwards.’
‘I’m sure I didn’t mean–’Alice was beginning, but the Red Queen interrupted her impatiently.
‘That’s just what I complain of! You should have meant! What do you suppose is the use of child without any meaning? Evean a joke should have some [...]

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‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?’
‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.
‘I don’t much care where–’ said Alice.
‘Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said [...]

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