Knowing what doesn’t work in the classroom may help keep a mediocre school from becoming a worse one, but only knowing what does work in the classroom can turn a mediocre school into a good one. There are a hundred prescriptions for fixing the schools out there, and while most cost a great deal of […]
James Krohe Jr.
Posted inOpinion
Still alternative after all these years
I don’t often look at calendars – so often they remind me that there is an editor somewhere, impatiently drumming his fingers on his desk because the article draft I’d promised him is late. But look at a calendar one must do occasionally, and last week it reminded me that it has been 35 years […]
Posted inOpinion
Putting your name above the door
On Sept. 11 a grateful Springfield learned that Tony Kerasotes, head of that family’s movie house chain, had made a gift of $2 million to the YMCA building fund. It is a generous gift, graciously given as a “thank you” to the city that had helped his family’s rise. Every town of any size […]
Posted inOpinion
Greener than thou
The world continues to surprise me, and never more than the day in 2008 I read that Springfield had been named one of the top 50 greenest cities in America by Popular Science magazine. Surprise gave way to dumbfoundedness in August, when the National Resources Defense Council recognized Springfield as one of its 22 “Smarter […]
Posted inOpinion
Trusting to miracles
It’s back-to-school time again – the hopeful buzz of the first few weeks when the backward and the indifferent say to themselves, “This year I’m going to get it right,” followed by the chastening failures, and the gradual realization that there are some disciplines that are just too difficult to master. I am talking of […]
Posted inOpinion
Faithful to the period
When your daughter pauses from her texting to ask, “Mommy, what did Voltaire mean when he wrote that the perfect is the enemy of the good?” – she might – simply drive her down to Eighth and Jackson and let her see for herself. The National Park Service is preparing a new General Management Plan […]
Posted inOpinion
Daring to imagine the future
Mayor Tim Davlin early this month announced his appointments to the City of Springfield’s new Citizens Infrastructure Review Board, intended to obtain citizen input and guidance in prioritizing needed streets and sidewalks improvements. Priorities must be set when one has more needs than one has money, which is the case in the capital city. At […]
Posted inOpinion
Living in three dimensions
Dave Bakke, who usually observes the world from the upper slopes of the State Journal-Register, the other day looked at it from an even higher vantage point – the cenotaph that stands on the edge of the bluff above Chandlerville. The view down the Sangamon valley from that spot, he wrote, is the most beautiful […]
Posted inOpinion
Taking the Christian out of the YMCA
The American public tends to be ignorant of any history that hasn’t been the subject of a TV series, and so it was no surprise when market detectives hired by the national YMCA found members of that public to be “confused” about what it is, exactly, that a Young Men’s Christian Association is. That is […]
Posted inOpinion
Slower than a speeding bullet
Illinoisans often feel like a space traveler who, having intercepted the TV signals that escaped from Earth a generation ago, sees the past when it was still the present. On July 20, authorities announced a further step in the development of Illinois’ slightly faster passenger rail corridor. Some 90 miles of tracks from roughly Alton […]
Posted inOpinion
It’s not the heat but the stupidity
“Springfield,” wrote the St. Louis Republican 120 years ago, “offers a pleasant retreat during the hot summer months to those living in the cities of the South.” This is perhaps the single most astonishing assertion about Springfield that I have encountered in 40 years of reading about the city. “Sultry,” my Beardstown grandmother used to […]
Posted inOpinion
Careless with heroes
We can all be grateful that when a heavy bomber visits our city, it is an occasion for a family outing. In June the “Sentimental Journey,” a restored B-17 Flying Fortress, spent a couple of days at Capital Airport. Crowds gather whenever one of these old beauties from World War II comes to town. Children […]
