Tom Little’s lifelong passion for progressive education emerged directly from his experience with its antithesis. I was six years old, and the youngest of six children, when I lost my father to cancer. On the day after his funeral, I raised my hand in class. I held my hand in the air for what seemed like a very long time…
By chance I discovered this wonderful document Growing Up in Ireland with its photographs of a lush green landscape and quick words. It led me to the website for the national longitudinal study of children. Started in 2007 it is following the progress of almost 20,000 children across Ireland.They appear to asking all the right questions. The idea is to collect a host…
The Hungry Mind The Origins of Curiosity in Childhood That’s the title of Susan Engel’s new book and it’s about the recent standardized testing mania and how it misses the point about what really matters. The key thing is the desire to learn. We are born curious – born with a hunger to learn. The book is an exploration of…
Not content with sweeping the international testing stakes Finland is setting about radical school design and reform – again. And given some rather gloomy economic outlooks maybe not a moment too soon. Maybe they know that topping the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) test pile is not the holy grail and that these scores don’t tell us anything very useful …
I’m not sure when PDS became a member of NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools) but it was a long time ago. A few years back they published their short and quite excellent wonderful online A Guide to Becoming a School of the Future. The first section makes the case for schools of the future and if there’s anyone out…
The first day of alleged spring and another day disrupted by the rituals and routines of early dismissal. By mid afternoon the buses had come and gone and all after-school activities and athletic practices cancelled. Students and faculty had wisely left ahead of the icy roads. Luz – our wonderful cleaner – was vacuuming the Kenyon staircase and apart from…
It’s been a cold winter here in the Hudson Valley. Poughkeepsie records only go back to 1949 but this February was the coldest with a whopping 12.7 degrees below average temperature. And then March came in like the proverbial lion breaking another record with -2 degrees F in the first week. And then there was the above average snowfall. With…
Dropped by the prek-k last week and found them deep in a pattern block exercise (well it actually felt like a game) with the help of their teachers Amy and Judy plus the PDS math guy Stephen Currie. And then – when that was done and dusted – it was time to find a book. This one is Families Around the…
There’s solid evidence that American students do well when they are encouraged to think for themselves and expected to collaborate with one another. There’s a great Opinion piece by David L. Kirp* in the NY Times today: Make School a Democracy The story begins in a one-room schoolhouse in Armenia, Columbia with a mixed-age (5-13) group of students grouped at…
John Maeda is the keynote speaker at #naisac this week and I’m looking forward to hearing him. He just shared this leadership chart and Linked-In article via Twitter and he “hopes it’s useful.” I think it is. And interesting. Interesting because thinking how this applies to business-as-usual (or not) in independent schools will take some intriguing untangling and working through.…
The NAIS Annual Conference – #naisac15 – is coming right up. This year schools were invited to contribute to an interactive Makerspace where attendees can explore aspects of this new movement in education. Chris Bigenho has been organizing the online NAIS community for the past several years – thank-you Chris @bigenhoc – and this year he is assembling what he…
“Once upon a time there was a mindless little girl named Little Red Riding Hood “ So begins Ellen Langer’s introduction to her delightful The Power of Mindful Learning. Long before the word was the trend du jour in education there was Ellen Langer’s Mindfulness (1990) and then The Power of Mindful Learning (1997). Her initial example – the tale of Little…
I’m looking forward to the NAIS Annual Conference- #naisac15 – this year – assuming of course that Boston can dig its way out of all the snow. The theme is appealing: “Design the Revolution”. It’s a slogan that manages to evoke the design thinking and maker movements while also embracing the ineluctable truth that the world is speeding along rather…
In his The Schools our Children Deserve Alfie Kohn has a quick and easy chart for what to look for in the classroom. It includes this chart about the walls. Give it a try next time you are in Gilkeson. In the last couple of weeks I have captured a fraction of the learning as reflected on the walls . Sometimes…
This is the Night Mail crossing the border, Bringing the cheque and the postal order, Letters for the rich, letters for the poor, The shop at the corner and the girl next door. Just watch this clip from “Night Mail” – the documentary film from 1936 – and be transported to another time, another place. It’s the London, Midland, and…