By Anthony Cody. A teacher sees the best and the worst in behavior any given year. And one of the most important jobs we have as teachers is to create a community of learners in our classrooms – teaching students to help one another academically, and also as friends. These two things go together. People learn …
By John Thompson. While I disagree with PBS’s ombudsman, Michael Getler, I believe we should take his statement on John Merrow’s News Hour finale as a learning experience opportunity for education activists. Then we can make it a teachable moment for the non-education press. Merrow closed his illustrious …
By Anthony Cody. The shocking video of an African American high school girl being violently grabbed and slammed to the ground has been seen and shared millions of times over the past few days. Most are sickened by what we see. This incident is sparking a much needed discussion over the use of police to respond to …
By John Thompson. The good news is that graduation rates are improving across the nation (see this announcement from a few days ago.) The best news is that social science points the way to even greater progress. Ironically, corporate school reformers, who have focused obsessively on improving student …
By John Thompson. Before the test-driven, competition-driven school reform movement, educators had plenty of issues to argue over. We didn’t face nearly as many controversies that we had to fight over. Educators might occasionally express our opinions in an intemperate manner, but our disputes were no more …
An excerpt from Horace (Rog) Lucido’s new book, “Restoring Sanity to the Classroom: Eliminating the Testing Mania.” It seems like education is on a never ending quest to be ‘reformed’. The current trend began with the successful USSR’s orbiting of Sputnik on October 4, 1957 and reached a …
By Michelle Gunderson. This is the time of year when teachers start thinking about what the next school year will bring. We wonder what classes we will be given, what our students will be like, what joys and challenges we will face. Teaching is a profession that occupies the mind – teachers think about schooling …
by M. Shannon Hernandez. Call me radical, or just call me plain crazy, or even an idealist, but I believe the missing ingredient in public education reform is love. And compassion. And gratitude. Please, let me explain. Love has many definitions. As a noun, it can mean “deep affection, warmth, adoration” or …
