RattleBag and Rhubarb, WW2

“We wish all children could be glad and safe.”

“War is not here” “No sirens are warning us of air raids” and the last line “We wish all children could be glad and safe.” In all-school activity groups on Tuesday students wrote what they are thankful for on strips of colored paper – now displayed in the lobby. (Family, friends and pets feature strongly.) As reported by the Poughkeepsie…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Testing Madness on the Race to Nowhere

A colleague at a nearby school sent me this link to the NYTimes – just the latest bulletin from a world gone mad with narrow definitions of achievement and success. Test prep for pre-school no less. And a real moneymaker for the lucrative (and unregulated) test prep industry. Tips for the Admissions test – to Kindergarten “Kayla Rosenblum sat upright…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

That was then: Are we “betraying most of our children”?

From: We are the people movie people This landmark independent documentary … explores the education system … and asks whether the current system provides young people with the opportunity to develop their talents. High-profile figures sharing their personal experiences and views include Sir Richard Branson, Germaine Greer, Henry Winkler, Bill Bryson, Sir Ken Robinson and a wide range of education…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

The new literacy ladder. What rung are you on?

The world is moving at a tremendous rate. Going no one knows where. We must prepare our children, not for the world of the past. Not for our world. But for their world. The world of the future.  – John Dewey PDS graduates students who… possess a rich academic knowledge base and know how to think as creative, flexible, independent,…

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Art, Film, Photography, Politics, RattleBag and Rhubarb, WW1

With the Guns

With school closed for the day there was time for a walk. Buttercup Farm Sanctuary off Route 82 just north of Stanfordville has one path that tracks along Wappingers Creek as it runs down from the head waters at Thompson Pond south toward the Hudson. It was quiet except for the rustle of squirrels, a few birds – juncos, jays…

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RattleBag and Rhubarb

Objects of desire

Objectified – a film about the creative process of influential product designers – those people who create the “must have” gadgets and those design upgrades to toilet brushes and other quotidian items that Daniel Pink spoke of in A Whole New Mind. The film explores our complex relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them. It’s…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

“I deserve it, you don’t”: Marshmallows and crime

Deferred gratification – that ability to work for something now at the expense of immediate reward in order to receive a greater reward later – has long been a social staple of the middle class. Work hard in school,earn a place in college and get a better paying job. Save for a deposit and buy a house. It is a…

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Books, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Seven Suggestions for Messy Times

This morning’s presenter at NYSAIS – Mark Hurst – author of Bit Literacy And here they are: the techniques to liberate ourselves from enslaving technologies: 1. Empty your inbox every day. And he promises this is doable and easy. Delete, delete, delete, store, move to action list. 2. Use a single to-do list. 3. Do one thing at a time.…

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Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns

Listen to this podcast interview with Clayton Christensen – one of the authors of Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns – A crash course in the business of learning-from the bestselling author of The Innovator’s Dilemma and The Innovator’s Solution. Photo: Jake Hills

RattleBag and Rhubarb

Student Conflict Resolution: The 30 second solution

“I want the bike,” “No. You can’t have it.” A problem negotiated and solved. Friendship maintained, feelings expressed and managed, resources shared, a compromise reached, peace maintained, fairness asserted, inequality addressed and crisis averted. All in less than thirty seconds. I saw all this happen yesterday in a thirty-second exchange on the playground. It’s the kind of experience that happens…

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RattleBag and Rhubarb

Go PDS …? The Search for a Name for our Teams

In September we announced that we would be seeking a name for the PDS Sports teams (as well as for groups that compete in other challenges on behalf of the school).  We asked for names and received well over 100 different name ideas from students, teachers, alumni, trustees and parents. We posted it on the PDS Facebook page and gathered some…

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RattleBag and Rhubarb

From the archive: PDS finds a home 1934

  The Poughkeepsie Eagle-News Saturday Morning July 14th 1934 NRA – We Do Our Part  3 cents a copy Here it is:  July 14th 1934: the first media mention I can find of the beginning of PDS. Headline: Old Spaulding Home sought by New School. The new school was PDS and the Spaulding House was at Hooker and Grand Avenues. It’s below…

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