For $1,000, Santa Monica is prepping its children for kindergarten, because some of the parents there think that nothing says prepared better than preparing for the class that is supposed to prepare you for school. Unfortunately, for children of wealthy families, parents think they have to prep their kids to get into the $25,000 prep […]
Where Art Thou Recess? CASEL’s Social-Emotional Omission
The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) is creating behavioral standards for preschool through high school across the country. Social and emotional learning (SEL) is both trendy, and controversial, and is being reported a lot in education news. As I have written before, I am suspect of behavioral standards for children, but some […]
Superintendents Going For Teacher Gold
The 2016 Summer Olympics may be over, but school superintendents in America are still going for the gold. If you are a creative teacher, you need to be careful and know your ideas will become the property of the school district. And they can make money on them. It is called “intellectual property” or IP […]
A Pompous, Demoralizing Letter for Teachers, Students, and Parents
One of the old education reformers is Chester E. Finn, Jr. of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. He referred to himself as aging–not me. But he is old, and my point with this is that the push to destroy public schools, as we know them, started a long time ago. Finn just wrote a letter […]
More Social-Emotional Learning Hype
Helping children with their emotions is something teachers have done for years. Certainly, assisting children and teens with appropriate, caring behavior is an important task. And, yes, there are ways to help children feel good about who they are and what they can contribute to the world. Of course educators should address a child’s feelings […]
New Social-Emotional Standards to Complement Common Core
If you thought Common Core State Standards were bad, look out! Here come the new social-emotional standards to complement Common Core—because nothing says children have feelings more than benchmarks! Today’s Common Core State Standards are aligned to high-stakes testing that closes schools and pushes good teachers out. Of course, many parents have not been happy […]
Laura’s Back and She Still Doesn’t Like Common Core
Summer is ending, and school is starting in some places. I hope parents and teachers will encourage students to read for fun even though the summer is over. Most who I know will do that. I hope students will not be hampered by being made to time how much they read after school. I hope […]
Are Teachers Writing Their Own Epitaph in Favor of Online Instruction?
In places like Louisiana, teachers are being enlisted to help write online curriculum. School officials have determined that Common Core hasn’t worked out well. So isn’t it nice that they asked teachers to supplant Common Core by coming up with their own unit ideas? Shouldn’t that make teachers feel good—that finally school officials, and businesses, […]
Why Do Teachers Stay? What Makes them Leave?
What makes a teacher stay teaching when everything goes wrong? What is the breaking point to make them want to quit? Almost every day there is another sad story of a teacher who says good-bye to their students and closes the classroom door for the last time. This is especially a problem when it comes […]
Who’s Teaching Your Student? Questions to Help You Find Out
It’s hard to believe that it’s time for school to start again. As parents and children visit schools with anticipation, parents might want to ask their student’s teachers about their instructional backgrounds. School districts used to be fairly vigilant about ensuring teachers had the right state credentials. That may no longer be the case. But […]