Earlier this month I saw a remarkable production staged in the James Earl Jones Theater at PDS: the Shakespeare Central Study Elective performance of Macbeth. The players from grades 7-12 had chosen this from a variety of electives and spent a part of each week in the fall delving into the text and preparing their production. This is an annual…
Why do I stand here? I stand on my desk to remind myself that we must constantly force ourselves to look at things differently The world looks different from up here. If you don’t believe it, stand up here and try it! All of you. Take turns. – Dead Poets Society It’s everywhere – the cliché – the admonition –…
Packages and parcels get delivered, learning does not. Consider the two Time magazine covers in the previous post. The one from 1965 shows a funnel through which all manner of things are being poured into the school. Much like the notion of the education that sees the child as the empty vessel into which must be poured the knowledge. Learning…
The one thing about which all educators are in agreement is that yesterday’s education no longer suffices for today. The rate of technological change and the development of new information is so great that educators scarcely know what to make of it all, let alone how to get it taught; next week’s scientific discovery can make last week’s textbook obsolete.…
Who is the leader? Is it the driver in the car held up by the flock? The shepherd with his stick? The border collies with their sharp teeth? Somewhere, just out of sight, are the lead sheep – heading for higher ground and pastures new. I took this on vacation in the Yorkshire Dales. I like to show it when…
Last weekend I visited the Guggenheim for the exhibit Spanish Painting from El Greco to Picasso: Time, Truth, and History. As the paintings were arranged thematically, rather than chronologically, is was possible to see connections and influences in a more direct way. It was in front of the juxtaposition of these two paintings by Goya and Picasso that I heard a guide,…
They say that a rising tide gathers no moss. Or is that the rolling stone? Anyway – if that rising tide keeps rising, what happens to boats firmly moored and anchored to the harbor bed?
Several recent news stories have bemoaned what every email user already knows – spam is on the march and filling up the inbox. There is a spam arms race going on and the spammers are currently winning. “It will only end when people stop buying diet pills, herbal highs and sexual performance enhancers,” said Dave Rand, of Internet security firm…
I am old enough to remain in awe of the connectivity of the internet. It reminds me of the excitement I felt as a child – tuning into the world on the family wireless shortwave band – music from North Africa, news from Radio Moscow, and pop, rock and the novelty of radio commercials from Radio Luxembourg. I can still…
I learnt to use paint, calculator, see various places through the Internet, solve puzzles, play games, listen interesting sounds and songs. (T.R. Ravi, age 12, Kalludevanahalli kiosk, Karnataka, India) Back at the dawn of time (well, 1993) Seymour Papert* named the computer the “children’s machine”. India’s “hole in the wall” experiment goes a long way toward showing just how easily…
A child was working diligently on a drawing in art class. The teacher asked what the drawing was. The girl replied, “I’m drawing God.” The teacher paused and said, “But no one knows what God looks like.” Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, “They will in a minute.” This is just one of…
Creative Societies need Creative People. If the thinkers and business people like Daniel Pink and Tom Peters have it right then the key attributes for success in the future are the ability to learn and relearn, and the ability to be inventive. Pink even goes so far as to say: “The last few decades have belonged to a certain kind…
Listen in to the life of the school. Subscribe to the PDS Podcast series. In this episode: The first All-School Activity School photos Re-cycling in the 3/4’s class Halloween The PDS Podcast
The kindergarten made decorations and the lower school brought fruit and snacks. The Middle School brought dessert and did the cleaning up. The Upper School brought the sandwich makings, served and led the way. The weather was brisk. Sydereal sang. Alums appeared. And the Pre-K were in the middle of it all. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
Would you rather have supper in a castle, breakfast in a balloon, or tea on the river? John Burningham We do best, and engage most readily in, that which we experience as freely chosen. Margaret Donalson At PDS we build in options for students wherever we can. Making constructive choices and managing timewell are important skills for learning and life,…