Start your day with a great book. Read ‘Hamilton’s Choice’ by Jack Casey and embrace the path of a hero

Treachery, 

political intrigue, 

and gut-wrenching drama….

"A vivid portrayal 

of Hamilton 

and those who lived in his 

influential sphere." --Kirkus Reviews

An American hero is torn between love for his family and his commitment to his country.

Born into poverty, this bastard orphan from the Caribbean, Alexander Hamilton, rises to become one of the foremost leaders of our fledgling nation. Marrying for love into one of American's most powerful families, he fathers a family whom he adores.

But with politics, nothing changes. It was then as it is now: turbulent, violent, and often deadly.

When Hamilton's eldest child is murdered in a duel, his world and his family are torn asunder. This foul crime sets Alexander on a tragic course that will shock the nation. Will it also destroy his beloved family?

Set against the tumultuous backdrop of the founding of a nation, Hamilton's Choice chronicles the tragic final years of Alexander Hamilton.

If you love sweeping historical sagas, if you reveled in Ron Chernow's Biographies, were swept away by Jon Meacham's insightful histories, or adored Stephanie Dray's epic historical novels, you will be thrilled with this compelling and breathtaking new novel. Read Hamilton's Choice today!

Jack Casey

JACK CASEY is an author

 and songwriter who draw 

from his careers in politics 

and law, and from history, 

to tell stories about people

 caught in conflict.  

WEBSITE

Hamilton’s Choice is available on Amazon

COVID-19 Shows Wholly Online Education Has No Future

By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.

Twitter: @farooqkperogi

Before COVID-19, we were told that traditional brick-and-mortar institutions and face-to-face instructional methods were museum-bound. That compelled me to enroll for online teaching certification 5 years ago.

But the COVID-19-inspired transition to online-only pedagogy across the world this year has shown that the reports of the death of traditional ways of knowledge dissemination are greatly exaggerated, to paraphrase Mark Twain.

The data that has emerged, at least in the US, shows that wholly online learning environments are too inadequate and too socially impoverished to stand in for the full "college experience." Students detest it, parents resent it, and teachers chafe at it.

There're many reasons for this. I'll share only one personal example to make my point. A few years ago, a student I taught in an entirely online class and whom I'd never physically met requested me to write a recommendation letter for her for a job.

Sadly, I couldn't say anything about the student other than that she took and passed a class I taught her. I couldn't speak to her character, her personality, her social skills, her discursive abilities, or other non-academic attributes that are central to constructing her full portrait. I politely told her I couldn't write a recommendation letter that would be helpful to her. I've heard similar experiences from my colleagues.

If there's any positive thing that COVID-19 has done to education, it is that it has dramatized the irreplaceability, at least for the foreseeable future, of face-to-face instructional methods.