Certainly, there are some among us who are prepared to facilitate those larger conversations in which opposing views can come together with the intention of finding a fundamental value or truth upon which to agree. But, why would they want to? Because a school, an organization, a community or a country cannot, as Lincoln said, survive if divided against itself.  This doesn't mean disagreements are bad; in fact they can be good and they can promote forward movement but only if the…

Leaders Who Are Voracious Learners

In this Harvard Business Review article, consultant/author Erika Anderson says that effective leaders need to constantly scan the horizon for new ideas, resist their natural reluctance to change, and push themselves to acquire radically different capabilities. “That requires a willingness to experiment and become a novice again and again,” she says, “– an extremely…

A Rhode Island School Opens Up an Hour in the Schedule Every Day

In this article in Independent School, Daniel Willingham (University of Virginia) and Vince Watchorn describe how Providence Country Day School in Rhode Island (where Watchorn is school head) decided that its traditional schedule, with 20-minute breaks for clubs, activities, and assemblies scattered through the week, severely…

Reconsidering middle and high school grade configurations

Dive…

3 Tips to Foster a Community of Growth Mindset Learners

Goals are best, to use Jim Collins' term, if they are big, audacious, and hairy!  They should come from the passionate center of those setting them. Teachers spend much of their time establishing the environment in which students can learn optimally. In that environment, they work with students who are present or not, learning or not, engaged or not. In the midst of the interplay among student, teacher, content and environment goals are established and are met or not. Teachers become…

Once upon a time long ago, the whole point of education was something called knowledge. The goal was to transmit this magical thing from the older generation to the new generation. And that was how we sustain civilization.

So if you are a new observer of K-12, the thing that will shock you the most is that knowledge is no longer a magical thing. It is a scorned thing. It is last century's fad and something we need not bother with…

The loss of civility on the campaign trail vacillates between being simply disappointing, to being disgusting, demeaning and frightening. The worse it gets, the more attention it is given and the larger the crowds watching become. Wasn't it just weeks ago that we heard "politically correct" discarded as a ridiculous constraint on expression and kindness take a back seat to the worst things that can be said as a way to enhance readiness for the presidency. And, all of this is inflamed…

Most often unable to change the stressors that the children bear, we design systems to ameliorate the distraction of those stressors and help refocus the children on to their job as learners. But drug use is not always something one can see or uncover when wondering why a student isn't doing well. Meetings can be held, even tutoring or counseling can be put in place, but unless the fact that drugs are in play is uncovered, time is wasting.  …

This debate has been raging in K-12 education for a century. 

 "Meaning from print" is the foundational sophistry supporting Whole Word, sight-words, and all other non-phonetic ways to read, or to teach reading.

 The big lie here is that you can look at print, not actually be able to read, but somehow get the meaning. (This is what we all do in foreign countries when we stare at a menu in a strange language.)

 I've been watching this debate for…