Thinking About Education

I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think. ~Socrates

This Calls for an Investigation…or Does It?

  Principals are trained in all kinds of legal matters including how to conduct investigations. I left one such training asking about how this would be applicable or appropriate for elementary schoolchildren. I didn’t get an answer. But I guess if we are going to conduct investigations, we should know how to do it well. And, as I think about it, students can get into serious fist-fights and that sort of thing, requiring.. Read More

“Elementary, My Dear Watson”

  Sherlock Holmes was definitely in his element when he was solving crimes: passionate, engaged, using his natural ability and skills to the maximum. That is why we so enjoy Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories. Ken Robinson has talked and written a good deal about the “element,” that place where a person thrives as a creative individual (see for example, his book The Element). Not everyone finds his or her element, but it.. Read More

Collaboration Does Not Mean Conformity

Teachers are being told that their PLC (professional learning community) is not functioning properly if an administrator “walks through” their classrooms on any given day and s/he doesn’t see the same things going on in all classrooms. Teachers are also being told that disagreeing with initiatives/ideas handed down from somewhere above is a sign of “not being a team player.” These are disturbing signs as they indicate a confusion of collaboration with conformity… Read More

Communion of Subjects

There has been some sad news in the papers lately in our community. Teachers who had a passion for a particular subject and had built a curriculum over the years, becoming expert in their content and methods, are involuntarily being moved to different schools and assigned to teaching new subjects. This is unfortunate on many levels. It is unfortunate for the students who will no longer benefit from the expertise and passion of.. Read More

“Texts” vs. “Books”

One of the interesting things you notice if you’ve been in education a long time is how the language we use shows how we have shifted our thinking. I couldn’t help noticing a few years back when I was having a discussion with colleagues about literature that I was the only one referring to “books” instead of “texts.”  There was something definitely too clinical to me about calling a book a “text.” “Text” reminded.. Read More

Bursting the Balloons of Grade Inflation

Many school districts—I wonder if this is true across the country?—are encouraging and even requiring teachers to inflate their grades. I was told I should give no grade lower than a 60 to my students, even if they earned a 0. I was also encouraged to give easier tests to students who did not perform above a certain standard and to reduce the amount of work I gave them (I am disregarding students.. Read More

Subjects OR Students?

We overuse dichotomies in education. We taught “subjects” for years and then someone cried, “I teach students, not subjects!” There was a major shift in education after that. The student became the touchstone for everything. Don’t we teach subjects to students? Parker Palmer has a compelling argument on this issue in his book The Courage to Teach. He describes a paradigm where the subject sits in the middle of the classroom so students and teachers.. Read More

“We Murder to Dissect”

  Rest of the world take note: The language ARTS are dead Each year they are valued less and less They want us to teach social studies instead   It doesn’t matter that literature is life Or that it teaches character or enriches our souls Nonfiction is the curricula rife Twenty-first century automata the goal   They will keep the reading and writing But excise the content of art The skills are all.. Read More

EOGs (End-of-Grade Tests)

  I always know when they are coming Discipline referrals soar Teachers’ complaints and voices are louder Some even break down, yelling or crying   The tests begin Tension is still high But it lowers all week Until emotions are back to normal   But the scores are so important That the rest of the year we re-teach And re-test So students have ample chance to do their best, Again, And then Summer.. Read More

The Freedom to Fail

I was complaining recently to my best friend from 7th grade who now (40 years later) lives across the continent. I said I failed to get the job I wanted and felt I had earned. She reminded me that failure was nothing new to me, so what was I moaning about?  And then I remembered so many failures…and all the wonderful things I learned from them: Choosing to ride the Tower of Terror.. Read More

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