For all of our conversation about critical thinking and higher level skills, we certainly spend much of our time preparing students for lower level skill assessments. If this is the case, just how low is the bar for those top performers?
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Enriched Kids
The statistics don’t lie: students who come from academically focused and highly educated households will often replicate such success. But why? Experiences? Lifestyle? Money? Parental education?
Read MoreBullying: A Life Skill?
Make no mistake, bullying is a legitimate problem, and many adults are doing their best to counter the culture I describe here, but few reading this will identify themselves as contributors to the problem. Because, roughly 80% of us believe we’re better than average.
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Clueless? I Hope Not…
So, this week, I’ve been thinking about my district as we move ahead with Common Core. I have a feeling some of these questions are being asked around the country. Are they being asked in your district?
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Memo From The System
Welcome to your first day of school; it is obvious you are excited to be here and to learn about the vast world around you. I hope you revel in the wonder of this morning and enjoy meeting your well-intentioned teachers.
I want to take a moment to warn you, however, that such enthusiasm will be short-lived.
Groundhog Day? Try Platoon.
Those same critics will tell us to downsize and run our schools like a business. But businesses recoup their losses to stay viable and profitable. Perhaps we should be allowed to charge baggage fees? One backpack? Free. A backpack and a lunch box? I’ll need your credit card number.
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A Letter to Mr. Barrett and My Mother
Competition can be a wonderful tool to promote success among schools. However, by definition, competition means some will fail in their efforts. How do we protect the students whose schools will collapse in such a model? It will happen, just like there have already been catastrophic failures of schools that are public, private, and charter.
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The Hypocrite and Frankenstein’s Monster
In a recent blog post, Nancy Flanagan stoked the flames of debate by questioning the role of competitive athletics in schools. Beware, sacred cow. However, in the interest of full disclosure, I must confess that I believe the
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Pollen Counts and The Mitchell 20
My original plan was to continue the fiery debate from my last post, but a strange thing happened last week. I shed a tear while watching a movie. No, I wasn’t crying. I’m a guy and you’ve already read about
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Future Shock!
It’s not easy being a parent and now there’s one more reason why. Much like automobile shoppers in the emerging car market of the 1950’s who wandered wide-eyed into attractive dealerships, parents have become consumers, but instead of for cars, they are shopping for the shiniest of schools.
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