Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Connecting the Dots: Innovation in the Knowledge Age

Connecting the Dots: Becoming a Knowledge Age Innovator Interesting 2009 short article by Deborah Westphal of Toffler Associates Key points include: Innovation is essential to the long-term success of every organization. But innovation isn’t what it used to be. Discovery doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Innovators have always relied on ideas that have come before or are emerging in parallel. The Knowledge Age provides…

Continue Reading

Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Confronting Stereotypes

“Messy, raucous, democratic India is growing fast, and now may partner up with the world’s richest democracy—America.” – Fareed Zakaria  Newsweek (March 6, 2006) I have never been to India but I have an active imagination and a mental map fueled by literature, film, personal friendships, and an appreciation of Indian food and music. However narrow  this perspective these connections…

Continue Reading

Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

“We are not teaching our children … what they need to know.”

The world is moving at a tremendous rate; 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 I met Grant Lichtman when he was on his education journey – a road trip with an itinerary that took him…

Continue Reading

Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb, WW1

An Age of Marvels

If there’s any doubt that we are living in an age of marvels just read these accounts of what happened when school was closed last Friday:  Snow Day  and Teaching Is Never Boring and Snow Day . With the forecasters predicting apocalyptic snowfalls, school was closed but the learning did not stop. Online tools available to teachers are astonishing and…

Continue Reading

Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Why School? Why PDS?

We are at the beginning of a period of focused strategic thinking at school and the Board of Trustees has convened a planning group to lead the process. One of the ways I have been preparing for this has been to compile resources that I think might be helpful in framing the discussion and a shortlist of thought leaders who…

Continue Reading

Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Beneath the Surface: The Hokey-Pokey and Jump Jim Joe

Most Wednesday mornings the lower school assembles in the Chapman Room and parents are welcome.  It’s usually a showcase for the work of the classroom and often includes the opportunity to sing. First the Hokey-Pokey On a recent Wednesday a seventh grader led children, parents and teachers in singing and dancing the hokey–pokey.  It was music, movement and a great…

Continue Reading

Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Child Education Magazine – a window on the past

On my recent visit to England I came across a small trove of Child Education magazines (published by Evans Brothers Ltd. of Russell Square, London) from the early 1960’s. They had belonged to my mother – a regular subscriber – who looked forward to reading each edition. Although she was by then near the end of a long career as…

Continue Reading

Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Change hits Welcome Back to School

This cartoon is making the rounds this morning:  Reminds me of those words often claimed to be either a Chinese and Hebrew proverb: Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time. And this from John Dewey: The world is moving at a tremendous rate. Going no one knows where. We must prepare…

Continue Reading

Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

The One Cool Thing

I had the privilege last week of working with a great bunch of educators at the NYSAIS Think Tank at the Carey Conference Center in Rensselaerville, NY. The location was perfect, the company inspiring and the work energizing. And facilitator Ann Mellow provided leadership and kept us all moving forward. It was at this event last year that we re-branded…

Continue Reading

Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

The Farm that Kindergarten Built

An early morning visit to the kindergarten on Friday was a chance for a guided tour of the farm. It’s a magnificent project now complete – a capstone to a year of exploration, research, discovery and creation. And the children are proud to show their work and point out their individual contributions. And a grand farm it is too with…

Continue Reading

Books, Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

World Class Learners Do More Than Bubble It In

Looking forward to reading Yong Zhao’s new book due out soon:  World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students The focus is preparing global, creative, and entrepreneurial talents. “College and career readiness” is the mantra in the global education reform circle. Uniform curriculum, common standards and assessments, globally benchmarked practices, data-driven instruction, and high-stakes testing-based accountability are touted as the…

Continue Reading

Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Learning to Live (then going home for tea)

“So the children of a democracy learn to take their place in the world of tomorrow.” The British Council has made its film collection public. What a wonderful gift. Take for example Learning to Live.  Made in 1941 it presents: A typical school day for the three children of the Brown family at Nursery, Junior, and Senior Schools, and the…

Continue Reading

MSLC Floor Plan
Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Learning and Design: “The classroom is obsolete”

The classroom is obsolete: it’s time for something new – said Prakash Nair in Education Week. last July. And that’s not just his opinion he says.  “It’s established science.” The classroom is a relic, left over from the Industrial Revolution, which required a large workforce with very basic skills. …As the primary place for student learning, the classroom does not…

Continue Reading

Art, Film, Photography, Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

“Not where the light is”: Schools and Creativity

There’s a really useful article in  Education Week that reviews, summarizes and connects the basic thinking and research out there on what helps promote creativity and helps children incubate the curiosity that leads to innovation, discovery and invention. There’s little here that is new and indeed I have written on all of these topics many times but it is encouraging…

Continue Reading