How does a student with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) get grit, when everything about grit is contrary to ADHD? Grit, defined, is perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Grit entails working strenuously toward challenges, maintaining effort and interest over years despite failure, adversity, and plateaus in progress. The gritty individual approaches achievement as a […]
The Summer Reading Rigor Rebellion
If middle school students require summer reading assignments to coax them to read, shouldn’t we be looking at what went wrong with reading instruction in elementary school? By the time a student reaches middle school, shouldn’t they like to read? Yesterday I noticed some of these summer reading assignments posted online. Reading rigor is found […]
4 Reasons Why Charter Schools Should Not Do Special Education
A common complaint about charter schools is that they don’t provide special education. This makes charter schools much different from traditional public schools which provide services to all children. Charter schools should not get district special education funding for services they do not provide. But I don’t think charter schools should provide special education. Here’s […]
Charter Schools 25 Years Later—and What to Expect in the Future
The charter movement has since expanded to include 43 states plus the District of Columbia, and over 2.5 million students—or about 5 percent of the total K-12 public student population. Arianna Prothers, Education Week June 4, 2016 Charter schools are 25 years old. My, how time flies. Yesterday, Education Week printed an interview with Ember […]
The LA Times Editorial—A Distraction
There’s so much bad news about public schools. When one article makes you want to pop the cork and dance in the streets, it is easy to get excited. Don’t. The tables haven’t really been turned. The LA Times Editorial criticizes the Gates Foundation for their poor philanthropic use of billions of dollars spent on […]
The Theft of the Tradition of Music in OUR Public Schools
How do politicians eliminate a school orchestra in this country and still sleep at night? How does a community adjust to such a theft when they tried so hard to keep the music playing? The Loss of the Lafayette Elementary School String Orchestra In 2013, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago politicians put an end to […]
Today’s School Reforms and the Destruction of Invention
Currently, school reformers impact schools in such a way that little is done to assist students to be inventors. To teach young people to invent means looking at them as individuals with interests and uniqueness—hopes and dreams. It means providing experiences that foster those interests–introducing them to new ideas. Schools need to encourage and trust […]
Public Schools With a President Bernie Sanders
What would education be like with a President Bernie Sanders? Would he stand by public schools and public school career teachers? I think between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders would be better to fight against the troubling school reforms that have plagued public schools for years. Most of what can be gathered about […]
Donald Trump’s Education Mirage
Donald Trump’s education agenda is puzzling. Where does he stand and what does he know about public schools, teachers and students? Pam Vogel for Media Matters in America, Eric Robelen in The Atlantic, and Valerie Strauss from the Washington Post questioned Trump’s education agenda. And charter school and No Child Left Behind promoter Nina Rees […]
Education Mirages and Presidential Politics—Hillary Clinton
Presidential politics and education—it’s like crawling through the desert. You see the same old landscape, and then, out in the distance you see real teacher support and quality schooling! And you hear “I will make public schools great again!” We are bombarded with statements that sound supportive of public schools and teachers, parents, and students, […]