It is disheartening to hear that leaders are preventing teachers from helping students make sense of what is happening in their country, their democracy, their news, their competing truths and the fuzzy lines between fact and speculation and interpretation. We remember when news was on once a day and it was for 30 minutes. Now news is 24/7 and that amount of time simply can't be filled with repeating the same facts and command an audience. So, we have commentators, not journalists or…

 The news reported students chanting, "Build the wall" in Michigan, and in California.  It has now reported that students on a university campus have done the same adding graffiti including swastikas.  And, the protests against Trump have spread from urban streets to high school walkouts across the country. The election may be over but the forces that were released during the campaign are certainly not.  …

Even when the stakes are low, you still need to know how to handle defeat. It was this driving principle that motivated Laura Pasek, a third and fourth grade general studies teacher, to conclude her simulation of a presidential election at the Hebrew Day School of Ann Arbor with drafting acceptance speeches--and concession speeches.  Since the early days of September, her students had enthusiastically thrown themselves into a simulated election of 1800, incumbent John Adams vs. Vice…

The term "safe school" has become another of those terms that means many things and can be narrowly or widely interpreted. Physically safe school has always meant protecting students from physical danger.  If you were in schools in the 1950's and early 1960's in addition to fire drills, you may remember duck and cover drills.  Getting under a desk or going into the hall and covering your head to protect you from nuclear attack was as regular as leaving the building for a fire drill.…

Some of you may have watched the Country Music Awards last week. It offered a break from the incessant speculation that now serves as news. A new poll every day followed by a myriad of partisan interpretations. If there is one thing that might unite the nation right now, it is the desire for Tuesday to come. It was on the CMA's that we heard a story and a song. The story was of a mom and the prayer she had for her children every day when they left for school. Tim McGraw heard it and it…