Chris Sardo

Hi there, I used to be a political theorist who worked on questions of political responsibility in both the history of political thought (esp Kant, Nietzsche, and Arendt) and contemporary questions (especially climate change and global justice). Now I teach high school history and government.

If every senior took that class instead of memorizing quotes from the federalist papers and oversimplifications of Court doctrine, we'd be in a much better place.

God, I just want to take a scythe to AP/College Board domination of advanced curriculum and student choice. Why should we be giving gifted high schoolers 5x as much AP Psychology and AP Economics instead of a diversity of options from local history to intro to philosophy to European literature etc.

I keep teaching the guarantee clause extensively in my APUSH and AP Gov classes hoping that it will stick with some future constitutional lawyer who decides to channel the spirit of Thaddeus Stevens and go to town.

Very few people I know are against including DI in one's pedagogical repertoire. The deskilling doesn't come from learning or using DI. It comes from the policies that would mandate it across all ages, disciplines, contexts, etc. and the companies who would package, sell, & script it to schools.

Lucan Way and I have been writing about competitive authoritarianism for more than 25 years. We never thought we'd write this piece. www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/com...

Iced coffee discourse feels like a psy-op. How is this something that anyone cares about?

"Mama, we made posters about voting at school. Can I make a sign for your office on campus for your students?"

This seems right to me.

My thoughts on the inclusion of Smith's Wealth of Nations as a "Foundational Text" of US Government and Politics in @liberalcurrents.com

Yes, Smith is an interesting and provocative thinker. But does he belong in a high school government course? Is he in any comparable undergraduate syllabi? And importantly - why have we let a private corporation or a couple of state governments decide what is "foundational"?

i am genuinely bewildered by people who say that the rise of white nationalism in the republican party is a response to the "woke left." like, did the woke left cause pat buchanan's 1992 presidential campaign? is the woke left why steve king had a long career in congress?

Has there ever been a more obvious/timely moment for a left/progressive case for publicly-financed, broadly accessible liberal arts ed

Me every time a student cites the "guarantee clause" in my AP Gov class.

I read Tegmark's Life 3.0 years ago, and was struck then at his effusive praise of Musk, which should be as much of an indictment of someone's judgment as you need.

This has always confused me as someone who hasn't had my reading skills rotted by a formal legal education: the clause literally says "take care that the laws are faithfully executed." How could one ever read that as an expansion of executive authority independent of Congress?

Nothing says "masculinity" like your bum smelling like cinnamon and cloves

This: the argument against APs should be that they are robbing students of valuable intellectual and growth experiences by getting to skip actual college classes.

the literal position of the trump administration is that any school that has any more than a smattering of black students is engaged in illegal racial discrimination against whites www.nytimes.com/2026/09/03/b...

Hey at least it's under $20

A whole new type of guy just dropped - someone in his 50s+ with absolutely no familiarity with the basic archetypes of the Trojan War. Maybe those classical learning people have a point... </sarcasm>

Few things reinforce my strong determination to avoid AI generated materials for my students like the disrespected, riled-up feeling I get when those meant to be in charge of or training/teaching me generate slick-but-empty AI slop to do so. I don’t want my students to feel disrespected like that.

This really tracks what I see with high school students (even quite bright ones). Their first instinct is to go to the llm. They've lost the ability to think they can do it themselves.

Please don't give ed-tech any more bad ideas.

Is it still a unitary executive if the EO has to be explained by the White House deputy chief of staff for policy while the president sits there silently gazing off into space?

For those of you following the College Board's decision to include "core principles" from Adam Smith, and were wondering what exactly they decided were "core principles", the updated "Course and Exam Description" mentions Smith a total of 3 times, with no actual guidance:

Hey @clppng.bsky.social are there going to be any tiny robots on stage tonight?

Hey #PoliSky, Does anyone have a good accessible article (for AP high school students) on unitary executive theory, especially in light of *Slaughter*?

Hey #PoliSky, Does anyone have a good accessible article (for AP high school students) on unitary executive theory, especially in light of *Slaughter*?

We actually don't need a film on Scrooge's backstory, it's literally all covered by the Ghost of Christmas Past.

Our children are going to be insufferable