Columnist and public speaker
File this under not being able to leave the job at the office: The kid slouched up to me at the Tohono Transit Center, all baggy basketball pants, spiked hair and pensive teenager face, asking to borrow my phone. I had already done my good deed for the day - giving $1 extra to the …
Continue reading "Standing up for education at a Sun Tran Transit Center"
Heather Ravenstein is now unemployed, all because she thought she was doing her job. Ravenstein stopped a man who was trying to steal a $600 computer from the Kansas Walmart where she works Friday night and Saturday she was fired for breaking the store's black and white rule about which employees can stop shoplifters. Yes, …
Continue reading "Example of black-and-white framework being wrong"
Asking what teachers want is sort of like asking the age-old What Do Women (or Men) Want? The answer varies according to the prevailing wind, but Primary Sources: America's Teachers on America's School probably gets closer to the heart of the matter than the anecdotal comments normally batted around in discussions of the U.S. school …
That's Nicholas Kristof's argument today over at the New York Times. He thinks it is no coincidence that Costa Rica has the top ranking in the World Database of Happiness and is also one of very few countries to get by without a military force. Instead of spending money on bombs, the country wisely invests …
It’s Christmas, and I have a request for fathers out there: Buy your sons some boy-friendly books and then read with them. If you’re rubbing your head thinking, “What the heck’s a boy-friendly book,” chances are you’ve let Mom handle the literacy efforts in your household. Time to change, because in spite of No Child …
Continue reading "Why our boys are failing – and what you can do about it"
Zachary Christie is now a free boy - sort of. The 6-year-old won't have to spend 45 days in an alternative school for troublemakers, but he'll still be suspended from first grade for 3 to 5 days for his "crime" of bringing his Cub Scout camping utensil to school. Zachary - who you can see …
Continue reading ""Zero tolerance" school practices vs. "critical thinking""
