A lot of people think John Dewey invented the Dewey Decimal System. No, that was Melville Dewey.

John Dewey is America's premier educator. He is often called the Father of American Education. He was the guy, about a century ago, who started all the liberal/collectivist/progressive/experiential/socialist/cooperative stuff.

 He wanted children to work together in an harmonious group. He didn't want anybody learning too much, because that would create…

Can we deny that there are those who have bestowed tenure on those who didn't deserve it? Can we deny that there are those who could do a better job of developing their teachers and principals?  These debates bring with them confusion, resentment, and resistance. We have also seen top notch professionals commit daily to getting better and to caring even more. Most of us want a surgeon, if we need one, to have performed an operation multiple times before we come under the laser or the…

Got community service?

How to create a volunteer fair

By Verdel Jones

 …

Whether a school has a majority of its students living in poverty, or only a small percentage of students living in poverty, keeping poverty on our minds is important.  Reading about, talking about, and doing something about those students living in poverty may cause us to do something different from what is happening for those students now   Read more....

Latest 70-463 dump PDF questions

Microsoft Implementing a Data Warehouse with Microsoft SQL Server 2012 provides exciting and valuable certifications for a number of technologies and its astounding credentials help people make the most out of their career in IT. 70-463 by Microsoft is a highly popular IT exam across the globe that thousands of individuals and students pass every year to secure reasonable jobs in the industry.

The…

Leaders, do not mistake an introvert as one without capacity to lead. Whether a superintendent looking at a pool of candidates for other leadership positions in the district, or principals looking for teacher leaders, or teachers considering teacher leadership, all need to pay attention. Create time and spaces for introverts to contribute and increase the number of opportunities for leadership and quiet leaders to emerge.  …

 Suppose you had a $1 billion grant to dumb down the country.

  Would you need to do a lot of fancy research to find the best ways? Not at all. Hang on to your money. According to this article, what they're doing  now in the public schools works perfectly, thank you very much.

 Here are the six essential techniques, boiled down. 1) Make the classroom as fact-free as possible. 2) If there is information left, efficient teaching is not allowed. 3) Nothing…

Exhausted from the changes that have taken place in these last years, no one can accuse schools of not trying.  Before there is little energy left, we offer a solution that is both simple and enormous.  Stop.  Stop adding programs, changing programs, and exchanging programs. Stop responding to external pressures as they arise. Start thinking about the system as a whole. What is the central purpose? It must always begin with the children. If we begin and end with the…

Listen Up, Legislators: People Want Better Sex Education Than What Many States Require

Teacher/administrator communication, or its lack

Administrators and teachers are mostly in agreement about the importance of trying new tools and methods for instruction, yet each identifies the other as an obstacle, writes Jordan Shapiro in The Hechinger Report. Administrators want teachers to adopt new methods, but feel teachers resist change. Teachers yearn to be creative, but feel this is impossible within a rigid bureaucracy. Blame creates a gridlock that…

A home-schooling free-for-all?

Unlike much education in this country, home-schooling is broadly unregulated, writes Motoko Rich in The New York Times. Along with its steady growth has come a debate and lobbying war over how much oversight such education requires. Eleven states do not require home-schooling families to register with district or state agencies, according to the Coalition for Responsible Home Education. Fourteen states do not specify subjects that…

Education: the epicenter of injustice in our society

Low-income children of color are at the epicenter of injustice in our society, writes Mark Warren in The New England Journal of Public Policy. It will take a social movement to break this cycle, but education reformers seldom think in movement terms. Most reformers take a technical or an organizational approach, concentrating on how education is delivered, e.g., improving curricula or better training…

The documentary "Life Itself" about the life of Roger Ebert is a multi-dimensional study of a very interesting man and his work.  He was the first film critic to receive a Pulitzer Prize (1975) for film criticism. His writing was recognized as being insightful and revelatory. As a critic, he was viewed as a true expert of the cinema. One slice of the documentary that is of particular importance to educators is when Martin Scorsese spoke about receiving reviews from Roger Ebert.…