Libraries allow children to ask questions about the world and find the answers. And the wonderful thing is that once a child learns to use a library, the doors to learning are always open. ~Laura Bush What choice and charter advocates don’t advertise is that most charter schools don’t invest in school libraries with qualified […]
Bill & Melinda Gates Don’t Discuss Their Takeover of America’s Public Schools
Bill and Melinda Gates’s 2019 letter “We Didn’t See This Coming,” is filled with their concerns and optimism about everything from commodes to climate change. Always eager to discuss their global initiatives to help the poor, and a variety of other endeavors, they say little about the aggressive ways they are remaking public education to their […]
Social-Emotional Learning and Teachers Students Love? Teachers in Los Angeles!
Social-emotional learning (SEL) in schools makes many parents and teachers nervous. We worry there’s an ulterior motive to collect behavioral data on how children think and act, and that the ultimate goal is to privatize public schools and track students. Talk about transforming our public schools away from cognitive learning to SEL is everywhere! Those […]
Nineteen For 2019: Choose This, NOT That, to Save Public Education in the New Year!
1. Kindergarten NOT The New First Grade Kindergartners should be treated like the four and five-year-old students that they are and not pushed to be first graders. The activities and instruction for this age group are well established. Real educators should take charge and ensure that there’s much free play and age appropriate activities. 2. […]
Maker Movements Should NOT Endanger School Libraries, Librarians, and Reading
To call yourself a librarian, you need to have that training and to be certified. If you replace a certified librarian with someone who’s just an expert in technology, you’re losing half of the role that school libraries are supposed to be serving. You still need someone who is a champion of reading. ~Leslie Preddy, […]
Can Students Have Teachers, Tech, and Librarians Too?
Is it possible in this fast-paced world, to see a future with technology and professionally credentialed librarians and teachers working alongside one another? Can we be one big happy family? My last post about the loss of librarians and libraries brought a comment from a Follett representative. Follett is a for-profit company that has been […]
Poverty & Reading: The Sad and Troubling Loss of School Libraries and Real Librarians
My last post listed reasons why many children don’t learn to read. Poverty was behind many of the items. Poor students attend poor schools where they miss out on the arts, a whole curriculum, even qualified, well prepared teachers. Students might end up in “no excuses” charter schools with only digital learning. But, next to […]
Worries about Tech and the Chan/Zuckerberg $30 Million Support of “Reach Every Reader”
Reading is essential for learning, yet students across the U.S. are completing elementary school with inadequate reading abilities. So begins the announcement in The Harvard Gazette telling us about the new $30 million grant Chan/Zuckerberg will hand over to Harvard’s School of Education and MIT’s Integrative Learning Initiative (MITili). Learning to read, all of us […]
Teacher Appreciation: It’s More than a Free Burrito
The official Teacher Appreciation Week starts tomorrow. If you celebrated it last week—celebrate again. In fact, celebrate every day! Teacher appreciation can’t be captured in one week. Here is my 2015 list and my 2016 list of why we should appreciate teachers. If you think of something I left out let me know. Chipotle gave […]
The Dangers of Eliminating Teacher Preparation
Wisconsin is thinking about letting anyone teach. No degree will be required to enter the classroom and work with students. Isn’t it bizarre to encourage young people to go to college but claim their teachers don’t need a college degree? Surely this is quackery. But I thought it would be a good time to do […]