In sports, it’s possible to have the best, most experienced, perfect (on paper) team and lose.  As Cubs fans know, this is a common occurrence. But winning against a well-prepared, well-funded opponent who seems to get all the breaks, is fairly rare. IEA members could be forgiven if, a month or so ago, they thought [...]

Sometimes it’s important to deliberately file in your memory bank a moment or event to be summoned up at a later date and used to shape future thinking and actions. This election is one of those times. The 2010 race for governor of Illinois is one for the memory banks because it contains important lessons [...]

Virginia Hinchliff in 2009 (Galesburg Register-Mail) Virginia Hinchliff just turned 100, which almost certainly makes her the oldest living ex IEA local president. According to the Galesburg Register-Mail, Hinchliff became a teacher in 1932 and had a stellar career, which included serving as the first president of Alpha Rho Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma Society, [...]

You’ve probably heard the expression,“ A boy’s best friend is his mother.” I first heard it from Norman Bates.  More recently it has been repeated, incessantly, by my mother. It came to mind this week, when Nancy Brady, Sen. Bill Brady’s mom, entered the campaign to say her son is no puppy killer. She called [...]

We finally got to see Waiting for Superman (W4S).  Since we’ve talked about the sensation that Oprah and others have made of the film here and here, we probably owe you our take of this “film of the moment.” There is a good chance W4S will make you cry.  The filmmaker has chosen attractive children [...]

Waiting for Superman (W4S), which has been a major topic of discussion for weeks goes into wide release in October. As we’ve written previously (here and here), the initial discussion about the film (see the trailer) came mostly from those who had just seen special screenings and wrote emotionally about the powerful images they saw. [...]

Less than half of the electorate, perhaps a lot less, will vote in the November 2 election. A low turnout election is an opportunity for those who show up and there’s plenty of reason for IEA members to turn out; the next governor will have a lot to say about issues that will impact every [...]