Taking a stroll through Fluid Imagination’s statistics for the year, I figured I’d share the Top 10 Posts of 2018 (as determined by page views). They weren’t all written in 2018, but these were the posts that saw the most traffic.
Using Dungeons & Dragons in the Classroom
The overwhelming favorite, this post attracted more than a quarter of all the page views for Fluid Imagination this year, including a reporter who wrote a series of stories on the topic for KQED’s education blog, Mindshift, and a doctoral candidate who was writing a thesis on using games in classrooms. I don’t know if any of my readers tried to implement my method for using a role-playing game in their classroom, but hopefully it inspired at least one or two teachers to give a try.
Teacher Advocates “Students Go On Strike”
Written in the wake of the Parkland shootings, this post does exactly what its headline suggests: it advocates for students across the country to go on strike until Congress takes decisive action on school shootings. “The politicians need to stop running for re-election,” I wrote, “and start doing the job we sent them there to do: use their conscience to do what they think is best.”
Two Types of Stories
Originally written in 2011 (and one of the few posts that made the transition from the old site to the new), this post was inspired by a question that one of my high-school friends asked: “Do you buy that there are only two types of fiction stories: a stranger comes to town and a hero goes on a journey?” I wrote back, “Yes and no. But it will take me longer to explain.” This post was my explanation. Because it is a top-ranking result when you search for “two types of stories” on Google, the post continues to be a perennial favorite, even eight years after I wrote it.
I Am No Longer An Atheist
Published in early March, this post was a bit of a coming-out announcement for me. For the past twenty-five years or so, I’d claimed loudly and repeatedly to be an atheist, and while I tried not to be one of those atheists who look down on the global community of believers, I did not shrink from engaging with anyone interested in my atheism, and I stood my ground as a proud, public-facing atheist. But after a series of mystical experiences, I decided that “atheism” no longer fit my understanding of the universe. This post explains what I arrived at next.
Growing Up
Cross-published on Splimm.com, “the premier media outlet for families whose lives have been enhanced by cannabis,” this post tells the story of a night I got very high on marijuana only to have my five-year-old daughter get out of bed to ask for my help with an extra-sharp toenail. This post is one of my personal favorites.
Jack Straw from Wichita
In the days following the Parkland shooting, a boy from my town (and a former student of my wife’s) was arrested by the Vermont State Police for planning to go on a mass-shooting spree at a high school in the town next door. In this post, I used the case to argue in favor of abolishing prison time for individuals under the age of 25. And while it’s not one of the top posts of 2018, here’s the follow-up post I wrote to this one.
An Argument About Guns
Another post written a few days after the Parkland shooting, this post examines (in a very roundabout way) some of the points related to the highly-debated suggestion from President Trump and others that the best way to stop school shootings is to arm our teachers, administrators, and school resource officers — in other words, to bring more guns into our schools.
Happy Birthday to Me
Written on the occasion of my 41st birthday, this post tells the story of how I came to appreciate (after not doing so at first) the presents that my wife and daughter gave me: a desk-sized fan and a couple of bags of fun-sized Kit Kats.
The Obligation of Privilege
Written by an able-bodied, 41-year-old, cis-het, white man with an advanced degree and a full-time job, this post examines the concept of privilege, and more specifically, white privilege. It also answers the question: Once a white man admits to his privilege, what should he do next?
Free the Genius of Louis C.K.
This post desperately needs an update. Written roughly six months after the stand-up comedian admitted that he had, for over a decade, been exposing himself and masturbating in front of his female colleagues, I argued that, in the era of #metoo and #timesup, white, middle-aged men needed Louie to return to the stage because his comedic genius would force us “to stand and admit and attack our transgressions in a way that cuts to the quick.” Unfortunately, as we all recently discovered, Louie has decided to take his return to the stage in a different direction. Rather than examining his own moral failings (and by extension, the moral failings of middle-aged white men), he seems to have decided that, since people already hate him, he’ll make a career out of being hateful. In all honesty, I couldn’t be more disappointed.