Near the beginning of George Orwell’s 1984 our hero Winston Smith attends a rally at the Ministry of Truth where he works in the Records Department. It’s the daily ritual two-minute hate – a routine emotional release designed to keep everyone full of fear and enraged at the enemies of the state. Before the Hate had proceeded for thirty seconds,…
I: LANDSLIDES AND REALITY WHY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY NEEDS TO DISAPPEAR. Ron Reagan, Jr., recently offered, as clearly and succinctly as anyone, why the Republican Party, as currently constituted, needs to disappear. We have a two-party system in this country. You could argue that maybe we should have a multi-party system, and maybe that’s what will happen in the end…
As we head into Back-To-School season, what are your school’s plans for teaching the 2016 presidential election? Seems to me that the some tried-and-true routines of the past are not going to work in any valuable and instructive way this season. One approach would be to ignore it all together. More peaceful that way for sure. But what a lost…
“You Have Sacrificed Nothing” Grieving father Khizr Khan said four simple words: “You have sacrificed nothing”. It was one of those moments of astonishing clarity. A father grieving over the loss of his son – and speaking without notes or a teleprompter – delivered a resounding rebuke of everything Trump is and stands for. These words sang out in a…
I’ve been asked on occasion to add my two cents on a panel at the NYSAIS conference for assistant heads and division directors in a session they call “So, you want to be a head.” My participation has more to do with the geographical proximity of Poughkeepsie to the conference venue at Mohonk Mountain House than with any presumed super…
Poughkeepsie Day School lost a true friend and champion on June 23rd with the death of trustee Valery Einhorn. Below are the remarks I made at her memorial service at the invitation of the Einhorn family. I spoke on behalf of the school community but also personally. I valued and respected Valery and I will miss her. Our heartfelt condolences…
Those ever-attentive to such details may have noticed that this blog has a new title. Sort of. I started this blog when I became head of school. At that time I rather foolishly assumed that it would have a small but rather captive readership within the school community. But people are really busy and don’t have the discretionary time to…
The first day of my new life as an idle good-for-nothing superannuated coffin-dodger (my brother’s description of retirees) coincides with the centenary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme – a day – and a battle that has long held my interest. Not so much because of the military aspects – fascinating as they are – but…
After forty five years it’s time to re-wire! And the start of my re-wirement coincides with the centenary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Tomorrow – July 1st 1916 at 7.30 am – 100 years ago. When I started teaching in 1970 that day, and that war – that cataclysmic break in human history – were…
The official title was Ten Heads, Ten Years, Ten Lessons: INH Class Members of ’06 Tell Their Tales INH – meaning Institute for New Heads run by NAIS that year in Washington, DC. Fast forward to 2016 and John Huber had the idea for sharing some collective wisdom and insight at the NAIS Annual conference in San Francisco. The conference theme…
Human apathy is the greatest calamity of all. I have heard many extraordinary presentations and speeches at NAIS Annual Conferences over the years. None has had the impact of Bryan Stevenson. I was one of perhaps 6.000 plus educators who heard this remarkable performance by a gifted storyteller last Friday. It moved many to tears and all to their feet…
The summer 2013 issue of Independent School magazine was about technology and schools and posed the question The Great Disruption? Just then retiring NAIS president Pat Bassett article’s The Third Great American Revolution outlined what should by now be the familiar big shifts in education. And he delivered this stirring call to action and imagination. Fast forward two and a half years…
Found this comic rendering of Ken Robinson’s ode to dance on the Internets. The words are from his 2006 TED talk How schools kill creativity – the most viewed TED talk ever. It tells the now familiar and commonplace story of the invention of the school system and its subject discipline hierarchy to support the needs of industrialization. Certain and narrow kinds of…
What does innovation in education look like to you? This question and What does innovation in education look like around the world? were posed to the first cohort of 28 TED-Ed Innovative Educators a global program that connects leaders within TED’s network of over 250,000 teachers. You can read their ideas at the link but perhaps before you do it might be a…
Marlon James is author of the 2015 Man Booker prize-winning novel Brief History of Seven Killings. In this short video via The Guardian he makes the case that being non-racist may allow us a clear conscience about our personal conduct but it’s really not good enough. Letting things that are racist in the world just be – supporting that status quo…