“It is easier to change the course of history than to change a history course”. “Proposals for change in schools are often met with a thousand points of no“ Liz, Julie and I are at the NAIS annual conference in Denver. We were joined by Trace who gave a great presentation yesterday. (On that, more … Read more
Educators are fond of commenting that children are natural scientists. Children, they say, are born investigators. Discovery, speculation, questioning, trying things out, testing their senses, trial and error, and exploration – that’s what small children do all day. It’s how they learn and how they play. Curious then that these natural scientists are so often … Read more
In a recent interview with the PDS media I was asked for my opinion of some of the pressing issues of the day. The journalists arrived well prepared with questions and then posed for my camera.
At the recent Board Strategic Planning session we were encouraged to think forward to the year 2020. Of course, none of us can predict that future world but it seems prudent to consider current trends and think through what we already know about the ways in which our world is changing at an ever increasing … Read more
It’s the end of semester – a time for thesis papers, exams, tests, reports and etc. The demands on high school students are relentless. Clearly it is time for some serious fun: the Annual High School Talent Show aka Poise, Noise and Joys. Some corny jokes, lots of music, and even a Shakespeare sonnet. This … Read more
The Climate for Learning A follow-up to Passionate Learning Part 1 and Part 2 Stained Glass Dr. Robert L. Fried is a leading American educator and teacher of teachers. He is an advocate for passionate learning and passionate teaching. Rob spent the day working with PDS faculty last week. In Rob’s view the climate for … Read more
The impulse toward pleasure can be self-defeating. We fail to attain pleasures if we deliberately seek them. This is the essence of what the moral philosopher Henry Sidgwick in the The Methods of Ethics called the paradox of hedonism. This came to mind as I was considering the necessity for all of us to be resourceful, self-sustaining … Read more
Colleges are still on winter break. Nathan, Luke and Matt dropped by to say hello.
“What have you planned for professional development day?” The starting point was this question from Andrea Archer – head of school at Duchess Day School. The outcome was Robert Fried who came to PDS yesterday and worked with the faculty from the two schools. Am I in a room with Passionate Teachers? That was how … Read more
The Welsh have one word for it: dysgeidliaeth. It means teaching and it means learning. And of course that is what good teaching is: learning. But how to pronounce it? Any speakers of Welsh out there who can help out?
Over on the other side of the world at Leading and Learning in New Zealand, Bruce Hammonds has posted this picture of a starfish on the beach for his end of year post. It refers to the story of the person who made a difference by throwing a single starfish from among many back into … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more