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 […]
The Sad Impact of Corporate School Reform on Students with Emotional/Behavioral Disabilities
We have a lot of troubled kids. As of 2016, approximately 1 in 5 youth aged 13–18 (21.4%) experiences a severe mental disorder at some point during their life. For children aged 8–15, the estimate is 13%. HERE. Schools should be on the front line to assist children and adolescents with mental health difficulties. But […]
Recess Isn’t P.E.: State Legislatures Reframe the Meaning of a Child’s Freedom
”I’d like to sit on the grass,” she confided in a whisper of angelic conspiracy, ” and look for ladybugs.” But there is no time for such lollygagging. The Atlanta public schools, like many districts across the country, have eliminated recess in elementary schools as a waste of time that would be better spent on […]
Are Children Getting Real Recess?
Children have been in school for awhile. How much recess are they getting? Is their school day overly organized? Are they getting pretend recess–physical education, or some canned program from a digital device? How many principals are tricking parents into thinking their children are getting real recess? Even preschool parents need to ask this question. […]
Privatizing Recess: Micromanaging Children’s Play for Profit
You might hear that school recess is returning, but it might not be the recess we have come to know and love, and miss. It is not run by the school, but by a nonprofit called “Playworks: Play and Recess to Support Emotional Learning.” I have written about social and emotional learning before. Many are […]
When P.E. and 12 Other Activities Masquerade as Recess
As state legislatures make mandates claiming to secure recess in schools, it is important to nail down what they mean when they define recess. There are a lot of canned activities and commercialized gimmicks parading as recess. It is important not to be duped into thinking your child is getting recess when they aren’t. Look […]
Missing Socialization in Today’s Public Schools
How do democratic public schools address the socialization of students? How are children brought together to make a kinder world? Does anyone even ask that question today? This past weekend I read “My Pedagogic Creed” by John Dewey (a little light reading on a Sunday afternoon), and I was struck by how far our public […]
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 […]
Hillary Clinton, Zip Codes, and School Equality
The point often made during debates by Sec. Hillary Clinton is that children should not get a poor education based on their zip code. Most of us would agree about poverty and its harmful effects on children in school. But the zip code message was co-opted a long time ago by those who want to […]
Recess v. Online Social-Emotional Learning
Education Week is reporting about technology to be used to teach social-emotional skills. It’s called Social-Emotional Learning–SEL for short. I find it ironic that at the same time, Florida senators just said no to recess. Are they telling us that computers should be used to teach students how to relate to one another? Is this […]