Learning is all about making meaning; seeking and making meaning are what human beings do. Schools have the opportunity to enhance, enrich and accelerate that process, or merely get in the way of it with meaningless busy work, endless testing and relationships that go sour. All the target-setting and achievement measures and all the fancy technology will achieve little if…
You see, there are all those early memories; one cannot get another set; one has but those. Willa Cather, Shadows on the Rock I sometimes think of Cather’s words when I visit the classrooms or the playground or attend the performances and events at PDS. It is there that our teachers are helping students build their storehouse of memories. And…
First there was an intensive and interdisciplinary study of Ghana and West Africa including geography, science, history, literature and art. Then there was the division-wide theater presentation based on folktales. The trip to the Bronx Zoo was the end point of a close animal and ecology study where each student became an expert. And then there was the African drumming…
King Kong meets Mosca Humana – the human fly. Well – they don’t quite meet as they are in different plays. It was the 7th and 8th grade Scene night: Eight new student plays. King Kong on trial, pirates in love, the Human Fly seeks fame, life in the kindergarten, intravenous chocolate pudding – the miracle cure, family arguments, love…
This picture has a dollop of peanut butter on one edge, a smear of grape jelly on the other, and an X across the whole thing. I cut it out of a magazine for homework when I was six years old. ‘Look for words that begin with W,’ my teacher, Mrs. Evans, had said. She was the one who marked…
Friday evening was Greek Fest time for the fifth and sixth grades – the full costume culmination of an intensive humanities study that encompassed history, literature, and art. Η Παρασκευή βράδυ ήταν ελληνικός χρόνος Fest για τις πέμπτες και έκτες τάξεις – το πλήρες αποκορύφωμα κοστουμιών μιας εντατικής μελέτης ανθρωποτήτων που κάλυψε την ιστορία, τη λογοτεχνία, και την τέχνη. The…
Within the past 50 years, we’ve seen our country move from an industrial economy to an information-based economy. Now, early in the 21st century, it appears we are shifting to an innovation-based economy, one that requires what the psychologist Robert J. Sternberg calls “successful intelligence,” a three-point foundation of analytical, practical, and creative skills. In other words, the measure of…
Inspired by the Lower School Take One Picture project the Kindergarten made hats. Their hat parade was a great hit at Kenyon House. For more information about the Breugel painting and the origins of this project see Spring.
If there was a villain in the Animal Tails of African Tales Lower School show it was perhaps the mosquito. Here, to provide some balance on behalf of the world of insects and their all-important place in our biospere, is biologist E.O. Wilson. His plea on behalf of his constituency – the insect world – is his acceptance speech for…
A few pictures from the wonderful Lower School performance. Most of these were taken at the Friday’s Grandparents and Special Friends Day showing. Click to enlarge.
Some came from New York City and much further – including Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Denmark. Other came from closer to school but all were welcome at the annual Grandparents and Special Friends Day. We gathered in the dining room for breakfast and after brief remarks of welcome our visitors went to classes and then to a command performance…
Over one hundred lower school children having a wonderful time – bursting with joy and pride of accomplishment. More coming soon on this wonderful performance.
There’s an interesting story over at Learning is messy It’s about the truth behind one of those email send arounds that are so easy to forward without thinking. Sometimes they are about dying children or bogus health alerts or product malfunctions. Snopes.com is dedicated to checking urban legends, internet rumors and the validity of such stories but helping students develop…
Technology is always disruptive. Think of the introduction of the printing press, or the combine harvester, or the mechanical looms that destroyed a way of life for cottage industry weavers. Some of them took to frame breaking and gave us the unfairly derisive term of “Luddite” for those who resist technological change. Technology as disruption came to me early in…