“George, can we have a bake sale?” That was Wednesday last week, in the hallway, right at the start of school. And this afternoon we wired a check for $1124 to the Red Cross. It’s over a week now since we first heard the news of the catastrophic consequences of the earthquake in Haiti. That very morning, first thing, students…
Some sanity on data excess from the always interesting Seth Godin: Too much data leads to not enough belief. Business plans with too much detail, books with too much proof, politicians with too much granularity… it seems as though more data is a good thing, because data proves the case He’s not dissing data but rather the over reliance on…
A second grader needed a place to hang out and my office was available. The conversation went somewhat like this: “Make yourself at home. I’ve not got much for you to do but there are a few toys and books if you want.” “Do you have a spare laptop?” “No sorry, I don’t. But what a good idea.” “What sort…
With google now declared the word of the decade, tweet the word of the year and unfriend now officially in the OED, the English language is clearly still on the move. When it comes to brand name eponyms some make it, some don’t. In the UK at least hoover is a familiar verb but here is one that did not…
Could it be that some of the harping on 21st century skills and the need for 21st century schools is partly a political pretext for the ignorant and arrogant to bash and trash teachers and schools? Just a thought in response to Teacher of the Year Anthony Mullen’s Road Diaries in Teacher Magazine. “Teachers should be seen and not heard”.…
Many years ago I wrote an article with the title The Carrot and the Cattleprod. It’s so long ago that although I wrote it on a word processor I no longer have an electronic copy. It’s buried and yellowing deep in a file cabinet somewhere in the basement. So I don’t know where it is but I do remember what…
On the last day of the year, time to show an affirming flame as another low dishonest decade ends. I’ll leave all the best and worst and top ten lists to others, but merely remark – that for all the base mendacity in the real world, life in school remains a place of joy and possibility. The words and phrases…
Turns out that we may be hard wired to co-operate and help out. And this behavior occurs in children before, and in the absence of, specific training and in babies as early as twelve months. Biologists are concluding that even infants are innately sociable and helpful to others. And it’s not a matter of etiquette and social training and it’s…
From the Poughkeepsie New Yorker (Over 78,000 Read-Round-the-Clock 35 Cents Weekly) December 1941 came this news item about Poughkeepsie Day School. It was the annual Christmas Festival “with many of the school’s alumni present, as well as parents and friends.” It was a community event. There were student made decorations including a clay figures and ornaments that were donated to…
In Teaching in a Knowledge Society Andy Hargreaves has a cautionary tale – Education off the Rails – about the effects of applied performance standards that push people all too easily into quick fixes rather than sustainable improvement. His analogy concerns a stay he had in the UK and a railway meltdown. In that case, emphasis on standards turned into…
When a new technology comes along and knocks you off the old one – in this case a motor car and a canary-colored horse-drawn cart – are you more of a Toad, Mole or Rat? ‘Glorious, stirring sight!’ murmured Toad, never offering to move. ‘The poetry of motion! The real way to travel! The only way to travel! Here to-day–in…
What’s the point of school?
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“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery There’s good provocative thinking from Umair Haque on the Harvard Business Review blog: The Builders’ Manifesto: 20th century leadership is what’s stopping 21st century…
“Our children, every day, come to school and spread their dreams at our feet. We should tread softly.” Ken Robinson.