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The Second Principle – Devoted to educational ideas worth sharing 

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Fellow travelers, welcome to my homepage:

I bid you warm greetings from The Second Principle website – where sharing ideas about educational innovations is the focus. I invite you to view my personal cache of informational webpages and blog entries on an array of educational topics. Here are posted updated entries from my original site which was housed at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point from 1997-2013. Many of the pages contained herein are newer, updated versions of concepts and ideas that were used to support my teaching of many varied education courses during my 22+ year career as a university professor.

In The Second Principle web space I have also included a dedicated blog space. These entries allow me to be a little more laid back, as well as personal and political about educational issues on which I have strong opinions. If you are a visitor from my previous site, here you will find that I have culled my old webpages, updated them, and have added an array of new things. I retired in 2009 as a full professor, but continued to teach graduate courses online for UW-SP through 2012. As a number of the webpages I posted had become integral to others’ teaching curricula, and continued to be popular with web users, I have moved the more visited or frequently accessed concepts here to The Second Principle. However, not everything was moved from the UW-SP site. I have also added a blog space where, when so moved, I can rant, rave, or share.

Beyond your own personal use, if you would like to use any of my work, please see the details in my usage policies. If you find materials that are helpful, please pass them on to parents and other educators. I am always happy to dialogue with people about issues in education I hold dear. Please contact me if you need to comment or ask a question about the content. And like most folks who work hard, I always appreciate knowing if posted materials are useful to others.

As a form of  pay-it-forward, if you utilize the information I have provided or find the site useful in any way, I request you commit a simple act of random kindness as cosmic payment. Thanks in advance for honoring the intention of my request! I also have several links to PayPal if you are moved to make a small donation in order to help me defray hosting coasts as I hope to keep the site ad and commercial free. 

This website is divided into six general areas that reflect my previous and continuing interests.

  • Blog (my rants and raves)
  • Creativity (varied topics — levels and types of creativity; how to remain inspired; creative thinking, and more)
  • Optimal Learning (selections from educational psychology, educational neuroscience [brainbased learning], and theories of learning that can help teachers optimize educational experiences)
  • Instructional Design (concepts that should be part of planning and curricular development)
  • Teaching Essentials – (things all teachers should know — in my humble opinion rudimentary elements and selected best practices.)
  • Recommendations  (exceptional web resources, books, and more)
  • Try the Master Site Index for a comprehensive overview of the site’s contents

Why the title the second principle? My title and its related quote comes from The Golden Bough, written in 1922 by Sir James Frazer. The book is a serious treatise on magic, more as an anthropological study rather than a mystical one. The second principle of magic Frazer dubs “contagious magic.” I named my wee bit of cyberspace after his second principle because I do believe that we affect one another through direct and indirect contact, positively or negatively, every day. I also believe evidence of that contact resides with individuals for a long time and therefore we should take our interactions, attitudes, words, and deportment very seriously.

The Internet is a perfect example of how Frazer’s second principle, also designated the Law of Contact or “contagious magic,” works. Some folks post seemingly neutral materials that are either just banter, or may be seemingly harmless data or facts. This information initially may appear to have relatively little effect on others – perhaps they are just FYI kinds of things. But even the most neutral information might be integral to others’ decisions. And then there are those who actively attempt to inspire, elevate, and enlighten others with information that is intentionally positive, reports or examples of wonderful, hopeful new ideas, reinterpretations of old ones, or “how to” information or prototypes. But unfortunately this new genre is also a highway for those who wish to pander the worst of humanity – purveyors of hate, meanness, misery, venom, the nastiest things that poison humanity. For me these are the bottom feeders of cyberspace. My point is rather obvious — anyone entering cyberspace, through the principle of “contagious magic,” can expect to be affected in some way, and they then carry that influence forward as they interact with others.

In case you might be curious, according to Frazer the first law of magic is the Law of Similarity – like produces like.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope I have shared something useful or inspiring.

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The photo I used to create my header comes from Nurzee on Pixabay – I have used it with his permission, and he has my sincere and very public thanks for his kind generosity.

Giving = Continued Sharing

I created The Second Principle to share information about some of the educational ideas at the heart of all good teaching. I am dedicated to the ideal that most of materials on this site remain free to individuals, and free of advertising. If you have found value in the information offered here, please consider becoming a patron through a PayPal donation to help defray hosting and operating costs. Thanks for your consideration, and blessings on your own journey.