JosieHolford 
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery There’s good provocative thinking from Umair Haque on the Harvard Business Review blog: The Builders’ Manifesto: 20th century leadership … Read more
This summer I visited the quite wonderful Hancock Shaker Village. It’s where in craft and design, form meets function with simplicity and beauty. So many interesting things to see and pay attention to. Of course – I had to visit the schoolhouse, now separated from the main buildings by a busy highway. The school room … Read more
What’s changed? Pretty much everything. A question to get going with: Shopping and information then and now: If you want the best dishwasher or digital camera or know how to remove turmeric stains from linen or why there’s a sudden infestation of ladybugs – where would you go to figure it out? And for most … Read more
Enjoy the drawing. But but then read this: Shifting Ground from Chris Lehmann. From the Chicago Tribune 1958. (But only one child distracted by the flying machine outside the classroom?)
When I’m in the car I listen to WAMC, and yesterday I heard Roland Fryer’s Dowmel lecture. His specialty is race-based economic issues, and his research projects seek to answer the question of why African-Americans are harder hit by poverty than other demographic groups in America The focus was education and the data dismal. Fryer … Read more
Is this what we mean by that current refrain “Whatever it takes”? This is from another era – 1991. Anything much changed? More well-intentioned (mostly) but misguided reformy ideas. And it’s always worth remembering the Latin roots of the word “inculcate” meaning to grind in with the heel.
So the debate on the purpose of play in early childhood simmers on. It popped up on my Facebook page yesterday with this from the ASCD: Play is problem solving That then led me to the The Playtime’s the Thing from the Washington Post. The pressure is on to raise achievement scores and this puts … Read more
Interesting post from The Innovative Educator: 21st Century Educators Don’t Say, “Hand It In.” They say, “Publish It! Read the post to hear what happened when she put out the word via Twitter and also to see her suggestions for making it happen in the classroom. Meanwhile – here is one of the slides from … Read more
Good reminder about how not to praise from Stephen Currie in a recent post to the PDS Math Guy Blog. It’s all to do with the effort effect and how to talk to kids about their work. Researcher Carol Dweck’s work has shown that praise for being smart is a great demotivator. Here are the … Read more
“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.) … Read more
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 … Read more
Education is all about change. And fun makes it so much more effective. Here’s a great example from Stockholm – sent to me by a parent.
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
