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Articles by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson

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By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonNov 27, 20071 topic

Tantra: The Science Of Self-Exploration

What Is Tantra? The word Tantra is becoming increasingly familiar, as a practice embraced by celebrities such as Sting, Woody Harrelson and Scarlett Johanssen, to name a few, and as an exotic, somewhat laughable approach to sex, as depicted in movies and on television - from ''American Pie'' to ''Meet the Fokkers'' to ''Sex and the City.'' Sting's famous assertion that he and his wife, Trudy, make love for seven hours at a stretch created a stir, but his subsequent explanatio

Primary topic: Tantra

2,117 views5/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonNov 12, 20091 topic

Understand the Smoking-Diabetes Link

Carole Willi, M.D., of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and colleagues conducted a systematic review and analysis of studies describing the association between smoking and the incidence of diabetes or other glucose metabolism irregularities that covered thirty years. The data was published in the Journal of the American Medical Associationâs December 12, 2007 issue. The data indicated that active smokers have a 44 percent increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes

Primary topic: Smoking - How to Quit Smoking or Stop Smoking

Smoking - How to Quit Smoking or Stop Smoking

1,836 views3.5/5 (4)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonMay 20, 20081 topic

Multitasking Virus In Our Classrooms

A few weeks ago, I returned to the classroom of Dennis Dalton, the most important college professor of my life. From the back of an amphitheater seating several hundred students, I realized how much things had evolved at Columbia and Barnard. The lecture hall was now equipped with a wireless sound system, webcams, video projectors, wireless internet. Students were using computers to record the lecture and to take notes. Heads were buried in screens, the tap tap of hundreds of

Primary topic: Listening Skills

Listening Skills

1,816 views4/5 (2)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonMar 18, 20081 topic

Desire as an Evolutionary Tool

Many traditions treat desire of all kinds, but sexual desire in particular, as negative, as something that must be suppressed. Desire is certainly complex. It can overwhelm us and interfere with our better judgment. In this society, we are conditioned to be ruled by our desires: desires that are replaced by new ones just as soon as they are fulfilled. And yet desire is a powerful force, a force that can motivate and inspire us. Suppressing desire entails suppressing our funda

Primary topic: Tantra

1,333 views5/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonSep 3, 20081 topic

How To Talk Like A Pirate, Me Hearty -- A Tutorial

So you wants to parley like a pirate, do yee? Thar be certain matters to attend to afore yee can tack about and talk like a proper tar. Some landlubbers ain't suited for the seafaring life. If yee play golf on Sundays, unless yee cheat most grievously, yee will never speak like a salt. If yee got yee a tattoo, such as be rubbed on and water soluble, yee ain't fit for any fourmaster. If yee plucks daisies rather than daggers, yee best stay in your cottage and away from the cle

Primary topic: Writing Tools

3,024 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonJan 25, 20091 topic

The Great American Heart Hoax: Economic and Political Implications

Cardiovascular care in America is spiraling out of control. We are now spending more than one hundred billion dollars a year for treatment and management of cardiovascular catastrophes (heart attack, stroke and diseases of the vascular system). This extraordinary amount of money is spent on victims of a disease that is largely preventable.nnIn The Great American Heart Hoax I have outlined the problems of cardiovascular care in America that is draining our healthcare dollars a

Primary topic: Heart Disease

1,295 views4/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonMar 29, 20091 topic

The Energy of the Financial Meltdown

We are in a time of financial crisis. People are anxious. People are seeking solutions. People are scared. With all of this activity, tremendous bursts of energy are being expended, some positive but mostly negative.nnBut the energy that we project into the cosmos is not an isolated event. Your energy and my energy either merge or conflict. All of the negative energy that is coming from you and from me and from everyone else from our anxiety, only increases the negative energ

Primary topic: Anxiety

1,149 views4/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonJun 10, 20081 topic

The World's Biggest Pollution Factory

The coal that has powered China's economic growth . . . is also choking its people. nn-- Elizabeth C. Economy nnnAt the root of many of China's air-quality problems is its heavy dependence on relatively high-sulfur, low-quality coal for everything from electricity generation and industrial production to cooking and space heating in the home. China relies on coal for almost 75% of its energy needs. In fact, each year, China consumes more coal than Japan, the United Kingdom, an

Primary topic: Travel

866 views4/5 (2)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonNov 21, 20081 topic

Confessions of a Former Mistress

For 16 years I was the mistress of a married man. I was single, he was rich. I wanted to be someone. He was a doctor. I was a single mom. He had three kids and a Nanny. I wanted romance and passion. He was horny. His wife was the turkey. I was the gravy. I was, "The Other Woman."nnBeing a mistress is exciting . . . at first. Romantic trysts in clandestine restaurants. Lunch quickies. Having sex on the operating table (not that comfortable) or on the exam room floor (oh my ach

Primary topic: Women's Issues

8,986 views

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonJun 26, 20081 topic

The No Complaining Rule

One Simple Rule is Having a Big Impact.nnI didn't invent the rule. I discovered it -- at a small, fast growing, highly successful company that implements simple practices with extraordinary results.nnOne day I was having lunch with Dwight Cooper, a tall, thin, mild-mannered former basketball player and coach who had spent the last 10 years building and growing a company he co-founded into one of the leading nurse staffing companies in the world. Dwight's company, PPR, was nam

Primary topic: Leadership

2,213 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonDec 22, 20081 topic

The Dangers of Radiation

The most serious problem with the widespread use of CAT scans is the radiation these devices leave in our bodies. CAT scans are not simple chest X-rays, which deliver only a small amount of radiation. Instead, they expose the patient to a significant amount of radiation, and radiation in significant doses has been shown to increase the risk of cancer.nnWe are all exposed to "natural background radiation" -- that is, radiation from the sun, radon gas, rocks in the ground, cosm

Primary topic: Heart Disease

836 views4/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonJul 17, 20081 topic

How Do Pirates Dress For Halloween (And What Do They Do?)

How do pirates dress for Halloween? They can't strap on a peg leg, prop a plastic parrot on their shoulders, apply an eye patch and wrap a red bandana around their scurvy heads. That's no fun at all -- not for a pirate on Halloween. That would be like we landlubbers wearing a suit to a Halloween bash -- the same suit and "business casual" clothing that we wear to work each day.n nI happen to know how pirates dress for Halloween. I know it because I am on intimate terms with p

Primary topic: Humor, Fun and Games

Humor, Fun and Games

1,257 views3/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonNov 3, 20081 topic

Education Accountability Version 2.0: A Letter To The Next President

Dear Mr. President:nnYour education platform was filled with noble generalities. I suppose you thought you couldn't get more specific because the No Child Left Behind Law is increasingly unpopular and unworkable, and there is no agreement about how to fix it. It is an issue that doesn't lend itself to sound bites. To fix NCLB, you must first understand the skills that matter most in the 21st century and the ways in which the NCLB law is actually getting in the way of more mea

Primary topic: Assessment Tools

Assessment Tools

1,224 views3/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonJul 30, 20081 topic

Boone Pickens' Energy Crusade: Prophet Or Con Man?

T. Boone Pickens has broadcast his way right into the middle of a presidential election debate about United States energy policy. Americans are upset about $4 a gallon gasoline, and the iconoclastic oilman has bought a lot of air time to tell us what he thinks about the situation.n nPickens' views have injected some fresh air into the public dialogue, and most of his ideas stand up pretty well to the scrutiny of serious energy analysis. But we must be careful not to replace o

Primary topic: Future Trends

1,076 views3/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonMay 12, 20091 topic

The Ten Commandments of Parenting Teenagers

As we all know and regret deeply, kids aren't born with instruction manuals informing us of the intricacies of how they work. As parents, our only option is to learn as we go. When our kids were babies, we learned to nap when they napped, to put valuables up on the high shelves, and that m&ms make excellent bribing tools when potty training. But now that your baby is no longer a baby (although he still may act that way from time to time), there is a whole new set of instructi

Primary topic: Parenting

1,529 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonMar 9, 20101 topic

7 Ways to Inspire Innovation

The recently introduced Apple iPad is the latest wowing of the world by the pioneering computer company. Taken in totality, with its iPhone, iPod, MacBook laptops, and the original Macintosh computer itself, Apple's ability to hit innovation home runs has changed technology -- and the way people relate to electronic devices, and thus, each other. What was the inspiration behind these products? How does a man -- CEO Steve Jobs, who co-founded Apple with Steve Wozniak -- foster

Primary topic: Leadership

1,488 views

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonSep 24, 20081 topic

Debunking The Myth Of The Oil Crisis

The opening years of the 21st century are marked by milestones in the world of oil: the war in Iraq, the Shell reserves downgrade, Hurricane Katrina, and the breaking of the once unthinkable $100 per barrel barrier. Many have seized on these events as evidence that we are crossing the threshold of 'peak oil'. Behind us, a century and a half of abundant, cheap oil that fuelled industrial civilization and brought unparalleled prosperity to a fortunate global minority. Ahead of

Primary topic: Writing Tools

1,443 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonFeb 22, 20091 topic

Discover Your Children's Strengths

Parent-Teacher Conferences, A Time to Celebrate StrengthsnnIt is parent-teacher conference time and you arranged your schedule three months in advance to attend. If you are like most parents, you feel a certain amount of anxiety around this event. You attend hoping there won't be any surprises and that you won't discover that your child is experiencing any difficulties. Unfortunately, most parent-teacher conferences focus on grades rather than children, with the primary goal

Primary topic: Child Development

Child Development

5,154 views

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonApr 28, 20091 topic

Daughters in Danger

As you may recall from your own teenage years, separating from one's parents is a vital, and healthy, part of growing up. All well and good. But the question is this: as your daughters move away from YOU, who exactly are they moving TOWARDS? And more importantly, are those people taking them someplace you want them to go?nnFor various societal and biological reasons, teenage girls run a higher risk of achieving victim status than teenage boys. They are often conflict-avoiding

Primary topic: Parenting

1,338 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonOct 15, 20081 topic

Which Candidate Would Make The Better Pirate?

America, in a ritual that it undertakes every four years, is about to elect a president. Our choices for the highest office in the land are a man who has done absolutely nothing in two years in the U.S. Senate, Barack Obama, and a man that has done too much for too long in the U.S. Senate, John McCain.nnHow are we to judge a candidate that has not enacted any legislation and must find it bothersome to roll out of bed and vote, since he does so little of it? How can we assess

Primary topic: Humor, Fun and Games

Humor, Fun and Games

794 views3/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonApr 26, 20091 topic

Rejection is Just an Invitation to Resubmit - Always RSVP

I started writing songs when I was seventeen. This was in the Sixties when life seemed like one opportunity after another, waiting to be fulfilled. I played in a band, and we did original songs, inspired by Dylan, The Beatles, etc. I wanted to record, found a studio through an ad at the back of the Village Voice. I had $600 saved from caddying that bought me twelve hours of studio time. I was off to the races.nnDemo complete, I read the credits on album jackets of the bands I

Primary topic: Writing Tools

1,194 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonFeb 11, 20091 topic

The Obama Effect

During a recent segment on an ESPN sports show, Andre Iguodala of the Philadelphia 76ers was being interviewed by one of the show's reporters. As the hour wound down, the in-studio host asked Mr. Iguodala, "Why did you do the interview outside? It's so cold, and you're not even wearing a hat." Iguodala replied, "Hey that's how President Obama did it -- in the cold with no hat. I have to step it up."n nIguodala then went on to mention how excited he was about President Obama,

Primary topic: Transformation

1,148 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonApr 12, 20091 topic

Writing with Four Hands

When shooting a movie, every faculty is humming at its highest frequency. You don't sleep. It's intoxicating. You're operating on the edge of delirium and grandiose promises of immortality. You think that if you do everything right the gift of the gods is attainable. And then it ends. And there you are each morning. Alone again.nnWe were left with an emotional hangover after we finished directing "Touching Home," a movie about us and our father. Less than a year earlier our f

Primary topic: Writing Tools

1,143 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonJul 28, 20081 topic

American Presidents And Energy: A Challenge Of Leadership

Every American president has wrestled with the question of how best to fuel the country's transportation and other energy needs. Even Abraham Lincoln chose to reject an offer from the King of Siam (the same one of Broadway musical lore) to send over Asian elephants who could propagate here and create a national transportation infrastructure. Lincoln explained to the King that America planned to rely on steamboats and steam-engine railroads, both fueled by burning wood. Modern

Primary topic: Writing Tools

1,138 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonMay 7, 20081 topic

The Cast: The Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian book excerpt

Family ReunionnnMaking a full-scale motion picture like Prince Caspian is a journey unto itself -- not only a physical one that took hundreds of filmmakers thousands of miles across two hemispheres, but also a spiritual and emotional voyage for the film's family members.nnWith mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters, and husbands and wives away from home for close to a full year, the film company's 600-plus members bonded closely, sharing in both work an

Primary topic: Writing Tools

1,125 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonMay 12, 20091 topic

Genealogy for the Rest Of Us: A Writer's Guide to Diving into Family History

I am not a genealogist. I am a storyteller.nnThe difference? Well, Iâll tell you a story.nnIn the spring of 2006, I was racing against a loudly-ticking generational clock, trying to find as many living relatives as I possibly could before their advancing age caught up with them. I was hoping that they could shed light on a long-ago family secret, one that my mother had created in the early 1940s and kept throughout her life. She had hidden the existence of a disabled sister

Primary topic: Family

1,119 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonApr 12, 20091 topic

Seven Thoughts on Our First Hell-Ride Through Filmmaking

What follows was written from the IGNORANCE of having only produced and directed one film, and the ARROGANCE of having only produced and directed one film.nn1. Every day is the Cuban Missile Crisis: Your world could blow up.nnShooting an independent film is a radioactive adventure more volatile than a drunken dictator scratching his back with the nuclear joystick. At any moment the entire project could get really TOASTY. Why? Because making a movie is an interdependent relati

Primary topic: Writing Tools

1,117 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonApr 26, 20091 topic

The Story is in the Details

I am often asked, "What sort of research went into your story to bring it to life so vividly?"nnThe truth is months or even years of research. If I do not acquaint myself with the ins and outs of the periods I write about, how will I take readers back in time with me?nnSo where does an author start the research? What sort of research goes into a novel?nnGustave Flaubert (1821-80), the author of Madame Bovary, wrote, "Le bon Dieu est dans le detail." God is in the details. I f

Primary topic: Writing Tools

1,096 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonJun 18, 20081 topic

Is It Intelligent To Outsource Intelligence?

Another reality in the post-9/11 growth of intelligence analysis capability is outsourcing. We have outsourced the management of billlion-dollar technical collection programs, and we have contracted intelligence analysts. nnThe National Reconnaissance Office is a lot more than an office; may have the largest budget of all the U.S. intelligence agencies. It may also be the best example of how U.S. government contractors, i.e., private industry, are taking over the government a

Primary topic: Writing Tools

1,086 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonFeb 22, 20091 topic

What's up Wittgenstein?

Wherever I go in the English speaking world someone will say something in words that are completely familiar but leave me scratching my head wondering "What the hell is he talking about?"n nTake the expression "What's up?"n nThe traditional answers are often one of several that have been easy to wrap my head around? There's the old ubiquitous NY evasive favorite, answer a question with a question, "Ey! What's up?" Which I always feel is an invitation to ask no further. Also i

Primary topic: Writing Tools

1,034 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonSep 30, 20081 topic

Do We Have To Talk About The Lapel Pins Again?

When it comes to international issues, a lot of Americans aren't on top of the details. In 2007 only 36 percent of Americans could name Vladimir Putin as the leader of Russia, although maybe he's raised his profile here recently by pummeling Georgia into the ground. Let's not even speculate about the number of Americans who initially thought there were Russian armies headed to Macon. Presumably that's been cleared up by now.nnBut since so much of the voting public is so hazy

Primary topic: Writing Tools

1,004 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonAug 13, 20081 topic

Their License To Do Ill

Since the founding of the Moral Majority Coalition by Jerry Falwell in 1979, members of the American conservative movement and what has become its electoral vehicle, the Republican Party, have presented themselves as proponents of what they like to call "family values" and as leaders in the cultural wars they have unilaterally declared on liberalism and its (in their view) hedonistic, '60s-like ethos. They have railed against premarital and extramarital sex, championed the vi

Primary topic: Writing Tools

946 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonSep 1, 20091 topic

Moving Through Grief on Foot

After my 16-year-old son Justin died, I learned that some journeys can only be made on foot, and grieving is one of them. You can't fly across it to avoid touching down in the pain. You can't cruise through it by car and watch the landscape through a half-open window. You can't swim through the stormy tide of emotions because you'll most surely drown if you don't keep yourself grounded in practical reality. Grieving is a step-by-step journey. Some stretches of the road are ro

Primary topic: Death and Dying

Death and Dying

1,429 views1/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonJul 24, 20081 topic

Prologue (Pharmakon Book Excerpt)

I was born because a man came to kill my father. If he hadn't showed up with a gun in his pocket and bad thoughts in his head, I wouldn't exist, much less have a story to tell. This tragic footnote to my conception left me feeling as if I had three parents: a father, a mother, and a murderer.nnMy father suffered from strange and temporarily paralyzing attacks of catatonia that my family, with characteristic discretion, referred to as Dad's "Sock Moments." You would walk past

Primary topic: Writing Tools

937 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonNov 3, 20081 topic

Satan's Utensil, Or "My Palm Is My Pilot . . . "

Charles Saatchi, Donny Deutsch: name any flog-master you care to. In my opinion they're second best, though, compared to the holy ones, those who bedeck Williamsburg's streets with the word of G-d. Suddenly last summer, out for a bike jaunt, my mind did a double take as I stopped to answer a cell-phone call. Plastered on a wall of one of the many Satmar institutions in Williamsburg, the fires of hell jumped out, licking at my heels. Was I in Brooklyn? Not.nnOn a Yiddish broad

Primary topic: Writing Tools

924 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonJul 21, 20081 topic

Lawyers And Pirates

I have been surprised since writing my novel, "SILVER -- My Own Tale As Told By Me With A Goodly Amount Of Murder", by a particular question that readers have asked and the frequency with which it has been asked. The question assumes different forms, but it is chronic: "What is the difference between pirates and lawyers?"n nThe question is always asked with a smile and the audience consistently responds with a laugh. I don't resent the question or the person asking it. I do r

Primary topic: Writing Tools

921 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonJun 10, 20081 topic

A New Job Requirement For Authors

Who knew that one needed to be so thoroughly tech-savvy to be an author?nnIâm not just talking about knowing how to create chapter headers in Word (I donât but I fake it well enough) or being able to change your printer cartridge. Nowadays, you have to know how to blog-vlog-flickr-twitter-facebook-wordpress-upload-youtube-blip.tv in order to be an author, that is, if you have some hopes of being a successful commercial author. It helps if you have nice friends who know ho

Primary topic: Writing Tools

903 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonDec 5, 20081 topic

Why Mnemonics Are So Effective

Where would we be without mnemonics? We use them all the time, probably without realizing. Doctors and dentists invent funny phrases for vital workings of the body. Taxi drivers have signposts all over town to remind them how to get from A to B. Actors learn their lines with the rhymes and rhythms of Shakespeare. Chefs need to know the difference between desert and dessert. (A dessert has two ss or two sugars, so it's sweet, not dry and sandy).nnQuite simply mnemonics are ins

Primary topic: Learning

3,248 views

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonNov 9, 20081 topic

A New Dialogue for Our Children's Future

We are not going to transform education by simply replacing one administration with another or even by passing new laws. Instituting better assessments is the one most important change we could make tomorrow that would have the greatest impact, but before we can consider a host of other policy recommendations, we first must have a long-overdue dialogues-a discussion that might well start with a simple admission and a question: I thought I knew what students needed to learn an

Primary topic: Writing Tools

882 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonOct 14, 20081 topic

John McCain, Postmodern Candidate

One night after the presidential election of 2000 in November and before the ultimate resolution of that election by the United Stages Supreme Court in mid-December, as I lay in bed listening to Nightline, I heard James A. Baker III explaining to Ted Koppel why it would be wrong to supercede the mechanical counting of votes in Florida, which had favored Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush over Democratic opponent Al Gore, with manual recounts: Because, Baker argu

Primary topic: Writing Tools

850 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonOct 15, 20071 topic

The Body Mandala -- Or, Maps, Maps, Everywhere

If you were asked, "Does your hand belong to you?" you would naturally say, "Of course."nnBut ask neuroscientists the same question and they will turn the question back on you: How do you know it's your own hand? In fact, how do you know that you have a body? What makes you think you own it? How do you know where your body begins and ends? How do you keep track of its position in space?nnTry this little exercise: Imagine there is a straight line running down the middle of you

Primary topic: Mind Power

3,100 views

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonSep 27, 20081 topic

Tee-Time And Me-Time

Mothers live in a permanent state of guilt. How come men don't? Mothers are guilty not just about whether they work and how much they work and should they work and where they work. But they are also guilty about what they do with the few moments they can call their own. A classic example of the difference between men and women is spare time, quality time, what is known in the parenting business as "me-time". As a mother you don't get a lot of it. What do you do with it? Maybe

Primary topic: Writing Tools

841 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonJul 15, 20081 topic

Comrade Lenin: Alive and Well

The New Russia may have finally embraced free-market capitalism, but Vladimir Lenin, founder of Soviet communism and one of the great murderers of the twentieth century, still casts a long shadow across the Russian landscape. Indeed, when I journeyed to Russia with my family last summer to research my forthcoming novel, Moscow Rules, it seemed Lenin was our constant companion. His statue still looms over the gates of the city that once bore his name, with its arm heroically e

Primary topic: Writing Tools

837 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonDec 15, 20081 topic

My Father, the Witch Doctor

One day, back in the early 70s, my father suddenly discovered that he had the astonishing ability to talk to the dead and heal the sick (for real!).nnBy day, he was a successful interior decorator with clients ranging from the Presidents of Cuba and Haiti to assorted mobsters and the illicit rich. Mom was a brilliant, glamour-rama whose style lit up any room including when she was shaking the dice in some Havana casino.nnOvernight, our Miami home became like Lourdes as people

Primary topic: Writing Tools

836 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonOct 24, 20081 topic

A Tricky Treat . . .

"Cemetery." Not a great way to start a conversation with a stranger, is it? Today all things deathly are impolite. But it wasn't that way in years gone by. Passing was something to be embraced. For two hundred years, urban American Christians were buried in churchyards. Then things got crowded and large cemeteries were born. Boston's Mount Auburn, Philadelphia's Laurel Hill, and Brooklyn's Green-Wood were all founded in the first half of the 19th century on rolling expanses o

Primary topic: Writing Tools

829 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonNov 9, 20081 topic

A New Context for Schooling

Economic survival is not the only factor that we must consider as we rethink education goals for the twenty-first century. To better understand how all of our schools must adapt to new realities, we need to explore three fundamental transformations that have taken place in a very short period of time:nn * the rapid evolution of the new global "knowledge economy," with profound effects on the world of work -- all work.nn * the sudden and dramatic shift from information that is

Primary topic: Writing Tools

822 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonOct 7, 20081 topic

The Apostles Of Clean Fighting: Who Put The Rifle Into The National Rifle Association?

Why is the National Rifle Association called the National Rifle Association? It seems an odd choice considering the organization's commitment to the Second Amendment, which refers broadly to "arms," not rifles, that require keeping and bearing. Wouldn't it make more sense for the NRA to call itself the National Firearms Association or the National Gun Association? Rifle comes across as a little . . . exclusionary. I mean, what about all those millions of pistol and shotgun ow

Primary topic: Writing Tools

814 views2/5 (1)

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonJun 19, 20071 topic

The Power of Quitting

As humans, we again and again find ourselves dumping resources into lost causes: be they pointless wars, failed public policies, hopeless dating prospects, annoying friends, or dandelion-free lawns. I say take a stand (or actually, a seat in this case), and just quit.nnDespite proclamations to the contrary from lame duck presidents, failure is an option, and often the most expedient one.nnTenth grade was the year that I learned the most important lesson of my life. I had some

Primary topic: Stress Management

Stress Management

2,922 views

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonFeb 22, 20091 topic

Balancing the Strengths-Weakness Equation

For too long, we have focused on weaknesses at school. We believe that children will get ahead when we spent most time on the areas where they are most challenged. The problem with this notion is that it is a one-sided or half-baked approach to education. In the long run, children don't make their biggest contribution in their areas of weakness. Children overcome weakness, but they rarely excel in them or end up building their lives work around activities that make them feel

Primary topic: Child Development

Child Development

2,870 views

By Carol Tavris and Elliot AronsonDec 5, 20081 topic

Why I Wrote Hurry Down Sunshine

It was with a feeling of trepidation that I first sat down to write Hurry Down Sunshine. I don't think of myself as a memoirist in the usual sense of the word, and Hurry Down Sunshine is not about my childhood or my "awakening" or the "turning points" in my life. It's about a dramatic event that took place in the time-span of a single summer, when my daughter Sally, at the age of fifteen, had a manic breakdown.nnAfter writing about sixty pages, I decided not to go on. The sub

Primary topic: Writing Tools

774 views2/5 (1)

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