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…
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…
There’s a useful and on-point critique of the Maker movement in The Atlantic magazine: Why I am not a Maker by Debbie Chachra. And maker devotees and promoters would do well to read it as they out there talking up the maker culture as a panacea to all the ills of education. But – what is a maker? Just someone…
Thanks to Valerie Strauss’s blog in The Washington Post I’ve been alerted to a website devoted to helping grieving students. Among the many useful resources there is this chart that serves as a simple but important guide for talking with grieving children about trauma and loss. …
The Letter from Birmingham Jail One of the most resounding rebukes in history. And as you read you can hear the cadence of the voice rising and falling with indignation and righteousness. It’s a long letter. Never before have I written so long a letter. I’m afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure…
Some books, some ideas and some thinkers stay with you. They are like wells that you go back to dip into and drink from again and again. Their work sits mostly unopened on the shelf but key ideas bop into the brain as a kind of mental hat stand on which to hang new thinking. Jerome Bruner is such an influence.…