Is Our Education System Broken?  Maybe Just Its Definitions

  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  In honor of tomorrow, I thought I'd try to tie in my post to the holiday in some way.  It might be ham-handed, but I saw a connection!  More on that later. I have been having...

Reflections from the NYC Innovation Tour

Do we need to change our failing education systems or do we need to transform them?  Do we need to envision and build something new from the ground up or can we work with what we have?  These are just...

The Stirrings of Subversion

It's that time of year again. All of the Christmas decorations are hitting the store shelves way too early; people are propping up trees before the turkey is even killed, let alone cooked; and children are running around after school,...

Real Education is Relevant

Real Education is Relevant  And Relevance Is All About the Context If we are going to talk about school reform designed to create meaningful education, we need to look at education within the context of the individual, her community, history,...

We Are the Present: Why Youth Voices Are Necessary

When we pretend that children are just adults in hatching, waiting to become real participants in the world, we don(tm)t merely take away their agency and lose out on their wisdom; we deny that they are already full participants in...

Evaluating Our Values

Articles are written every year bemoaning the fact that young Americans are woefully ignorant about civics. Here’s a radical theory to consider: Young people don’t know civics because we don’t teach them civics! We made a decision in that moment...

What will happen to education in 2012?

What can we expect in the world of public education in 2012? (For a good review of what happened in 2011, check out this link.) I’ll start by considering three nagging questions. 1. Will this be the year that some...

That’s What We Do in Pre-K

I do know that responsibilities are not things into which one is commanded or shamed, rewarded or punished: that’s called obedience. Responsibility emerges only from the unalienable right to pursue happiness. I am the parent of a teenager now, not...