Kenny Felder's Essays and Commentaries

"Is it pride to believe I have something to say, that is worth your time to hear?"

Think of this as a sort of blog, except that the content is not tied to a particular date. ("This is what I'm thinking about in September of 2004.") But like a blog, it has two different audiences: people who know and love me, and people who might find the contents interesting in their own right.

The best compliment you could pay me is to forward one of my essays to someone who might fall into that second category.

Spiritual  •  Political  •  Educational  •  Miscellaneous


Spiritual / Philosophical

Humility and the Nature of God, or The Parable of the Dog
    Possibly my most poetic essay, and the most directly theological.

Are You a Robot?
    This is the only link here that does not go to an essay I wrote; it goes to a Facebook page where you can see me giving an hour-long talk called "Are You a Robot?" It's not about robots or AI, really. It's about what makes us human.

What do you Know for Sure?
    A (real-life) dialogue between me and a student, in which I try to articulate the basis for my religious path.

What is Consciousness?
    For me, this has always been the key meeting place between the spiritual and the intellectual.

A Conversation on Consciousness
    A long, abstract, highly intellectual email conversation sparked by the above two essays, and inspired by Susan Black Blackmore's book.

The Waiting Place
    My attempt to communicate some of the wisdom I have learned from Eckhart Tolle about the power of Now

Why I Don't Believe Your Religion
    Given how many of my essays adamantly defend religion (especially Christianity) from its critics, I felt the need to explain how I differ from the true believers.

Happiness is Not the Purpose of Life
    So why does everyone talk as if it were?

Immortality and the Soul
    Heaven/hell, or reincarnation? As usual, I argue that everyone has it all wrong, just to be difficult.

Feeding the Ego
    My own insatiable desire for fame.

The Path of the Mystic
    My own spiritual path, and why

Proving the Existence of God
    A fantasy conversation between me now, and me in college

Teachers and Students
    Teaching and learning as essential components of the spiritual path. Warning: this is the only essay here that is on the long side.

"Only the Eternal Matters"
    Why I used to believe that, and why I no longer do.

Science is Not Superior to Religion
    A rant whose name really says it all.

Time
    Rambly reflections on the nature of time.

What happened to me at Inward Bound
    My surprising experience as a facilitator at a spiritual conference.


Political

Child Safety
    Safety is the political issue that I feel most strongly about. I'm against it.

The Abortion Debate
    This was my first attempt to describe how I feel about politics in general.

Health Care and the "Single-Payer" System
    A more developed attempt to describe how I feel about politics in general.

Missionaries in Iraq
    A diatribe against turning religious tolerance into a new religion.

Poverty
    The most important political issue.

Welcome to the Rainforest
    Actually, this has nothing to do with the rainforest or the environment: it's about politically correct language revision.

Feminism and Sexism
    Both what I like, and what I don't like, about feminism.

Of Strip Searches and Students
    The Supreme Court hears the case of Savana Redding, and I rant about children's rights again.

Oom Paul, What's the Difference Between Liberals and Conservatives?
    We all talk about the difference all the time; I try to actually articulate it, and then say where I stand.

Who Gets to Vote?
    I don't want to have an age restriction on voting. Instead, I want a test.

The Liberal Who Didn't Like Liberals
    I agree with the liberals on almost all major political issues. So why do I wince every time they talk?

September 11, 2001
    My reaction (at the time) to the events of 9/11.

Riots in Baltimore, MLK, and (most importantly) Facebook
    My reaction (at the time) to other people's reactions to the April, 2015 riots in Baltimore.

Graduated Licensing
    A specific example of the general way I feel we treat minors all wrong.


Educational

These are not really "educational" essays—they are philosophical rants about education. I have actually-educational papers on math and Physics at http://www.felderbooks.com/papers.

Mr. Stamford
    My most definitive statement of what I think is wrong with our educational system and how to fix it.

The Kenny Fantasy School System
    Radical changes I would like to see, or at least experiment with, in the fundamental assumptions underlying our school system.

What is a Waldorf School (and why do we love it so much?)
    A blatant plug, but also the white paper I kept wishing someone would show me when I was first learning about these schools.

Intelligent Design, or Creationism, or whatever
    As so often happens, I take a controversial issue and argue vehemently against both sides.

Math Anxiety
    What I always want to tell the parents of my students.

The Pronoun "I"
    I encounter all kinds of resistance when I argue that education should have something to do with your life.

Math and the Obvious
    The very different way that I try to get my students to think about what math is.

A Bunch of Random Thoughts about Teaching
    Just what it sounds like

Gifted Education
    Two different essays, written ten years apart, both defending the idea of gifted education.

Charter Schools
    I teach at a charter school, and I get defensive about them sometimes.


Miscellaneous

Philosophy McNuggets I
    A random collection of intriguing thoughts too short to be their own essays.

Philosophy McNuggets II
    More intriguing thoughts too short to be their own essays.

Philosophy McNuggets III
    Even more, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Philosophy McNuggets IV
    Boy, I hope somebody other than me ever reads all these.

The Unforgotten Door
    The Disney Prince Caspian movie, and the importance of fantasy in my childhood.

Star Trek and Me
    Lots of other people love Star Trek. But I feel like they love a completely different show from mine.

Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful?
    In which I think perhaps way too seriously about the issue of female beauty.

Larry's Hospital Room
    Watching the death of a friend.


See Gary and Kenny's page of papers on math and Physics
Contact Kenny at KenFe@HotMail.com