By John Thompson. Why do underfunded, high-poverty urban school districts keep diverting the energies of educators to experiments pushed by consultants? For example, Tulsa is led by Broad Academy alumnus, Deborah Gist, who has stuffed the TPS administration with Broadies. Tulsa has a lot of funding advantages …
By Michelle Gunderson. I want to paint a picture of teaching in Chicago for you. Ten years ago I was teaching music in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago. Many of our children were impoverished and over 30 languages were spoken in our school. I had 847 students. I did not round the number to 850 for a purpose – …
By Michelle Strater Gunderson. Last week a group of my first grade girls was taking an unusually long time in the bathroom. When you teach little ones you get a sixth sense for when something is going on. I knocked on the door and said, “Dear ones, whatever can be keeping you?” The ring leader answered me with …
By Daun Kauffman. Trauma during development, or childhood trauma, changes brain architecture and ability to learn and social behavior. It impacts two out of three children at some level, but I didn’t even know what it was… Childhood Trauma, or adverse childhood experiences(ACEs)can be defined as a response …
By Susan DuFresne. This is the third post in a series about childhood trauma. In my first post I tell readers how childhood trauma is personal. In the second post, I tell the stories of many voiceless children I have worked to support in my classroom. I question whether school reformers are “safe …
By Susan DuFresne. In my first post, I tell you why advocacy for children of trauma is personal. Here, while protecting their identities, I tell you their stories and why we must create Compassionate Schools. Childhood trauma has impacted my health across my entire lifetime. This is not uncommon according to …
By Susan DuFresne. Last year around this time of year, I wrote Beyond the Edge: Climbing Mt. Edreform. This time of year is always a time of reflection for me, because not only is it the end of the year, but you see, New Year’s Eve is my birthday and it always brings back memories of childhood trauma. I …
By John Thompson. The Washington Post’s Emma Brown provides an excellent overview of the “the elephant in the room,” which is the real reason why the inequitable distribution of teaching talent helps undermine inner city schools. Brown borrows that phrase from David Sapp, director of education advocacy and …
This is the fourth in a series of blog posts focused on the value of art in our lives, and the role art can play in resisting the test and punish model of education. See the intro and links to other posts in the series here. By Amanda Koonlaba. I believe arts education is the antithesis of the corporate …
By Susan Dufresne and Anthony Cody. In the past 13 years of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top test-driven education policies, art has been pushed to the margins in our schools. Students have lost countless hours for creating art, music and dance that expresses themselves. But artistic expression is like the …
