How did you learn about your town, state, country, and the world? What did you learn about the cultures of the people living in those places, the physical characteristics of the land, and all the other skills necessary to understand geography? Are today’s students knowledgeable about their world? Specifically, what happened to geography? While the […]
When All You’ve Got is Idealism: Teach for America v. Real Teachers
Once a teacher, suffering from battle fatigue, reaches the tipping point on the depression scale, and there are few if any administrators able, or willing, to provide them with support, it is especially discouraging to hear about the new crop of Teach for America recruits who are arriving in droves with idealism! To hear the […]
Courses We Once Knew: Home Economics, Family and Jobs!
Sometimes, caught up in fighting high-stakes testing and Common Core, we might forget about other insidious ways our public schools have been changed due to harmful standards. We recognize easily the loss of the arts. And serious classes, important to a democracy, like civics, are given short shrift these days. But what about the great […]
Avoid, Conquer or Adapt to Learning Disabilities in Public Schools and Beyond
When I was in high school I played flute in the band. I did pretty well except when I took the occasional written test. I could play notes but I could not name them. It was a mystery of sorts. But it didn’t keep me from making music and the band director didn’t care. So […]
New Kindergarten Testing: Sorry, It’s Not Really Play
Early childhood officials at the U.S. Department of Education, some who should know better, have apparently concluded (as described in this Ed Week article), that they were making little kids do things too over-the-top to be early childhood ready—like giving four-year-olds basic sight word spelling tests and getting them to count to 20 in their […]
Important Education Research Repeatedly Ignored
Have you noticed we are bombarded by articles and reports about what is right and wrong in education by think tanks and non-educators? In fact, I have heard a variety of education reformers claiming there is little education research. They are wrong. There are many serious studies that these same people continue to ignore. Not […]
Teens, Violent Flash Mobs and the Role of Public Schools
Near where I live, you have to be careful where you go at night. A lot of people think it is best to stay away from shopping centers and gas stations. The Mayor is considering whether they should end nighttime high school football games. The problem? You might get caught up in a violent flash […]
Bill Gates’s and the Ed. Reformers’ China/Special Education Disconnect
Bill Gates and other ed. reformers praise China, Singapore and Korea as having the highest test scores in the world, of course, better than the United States they will tell you. What they fail to say is that in America, public schools teach everyone—students with disabilities too. Students who come to school with learning disabilities […]
Computer Essay Grading v. Student Journals
The beauty of being an English or language arts teacher is helping students develop the skill of writing. Next to learning how to read, learning how to express your ideas through writing is a valuable form of communication. And in today’s world, being able to communicate and relate to others is more critical than ever. […]
Misusing Data in Regard to Public Schools
Data collection could be used positively and privately to lift students and teachers and create great public schools. But the fear is that data is currently misused in many ways. Data has also been used to misrepresent America’s schools. Parents have often been deceived, or data collection has been a waste of time because the […]