var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; One of the great "lies" in all of literature is William Golding's novel Lord of the Flies. For those unfamiliar with it (and I can hardly believe there are many over the age of about 35) it's the story of a group of British sc … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; "You're going to be okay," her mother cooed, but the girl wasn't so sure. She clung to mommy's knees, watching the room uncertainly.This wasn't her first time at school. This three-year-old had been coming for a couple months, … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Currently, a higher education bill is being considered in the state of Florida that would prescribe that "Natural science courses must afford students the ability to critically examine and evaluate the principles of the scient … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; The teacher . . . is not a machine which follows a certain syllabus, which has certain lessons to recite to the child, and too make him recite them back. She is a sensitive human being who works with her intellect, and loves h … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; A while back, I was passing a table at which four boys were eating snack. They were discussing a classmate, a boy with sensory challenges that often manifested in ways that disturbed and even hurt his classmates. One of them s … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Based on my informal and unscientific surveys of early childhood educators, one of the biggest hurdles to fully realizing play-based education is "the parents." Not all the parents, of course, but there are apparently a lot wh … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Everybody's had to fight to be free. ~Tom PettyThe American labor organizer, folk singer, storyteller and poet Utah Phillips once said, "The state can't give you free speech, and the state can't take it away. You're born with … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them. ~James BaldwinI don't claim to be a parenting expert. I'm just a guy who has spent a lot of time playing with child … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; "I would prefer not to." ~Bartleby the Scrivner: A Story of Wall Street by Herman MelvilleIt's important to me as an educator, to reject or defuse or diffuse any power over others that comes my way. Classrooms can too easily b … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; "Some day, I will live in that hotel," the girl said, pointing to a luxury tower. She was walking with her family -- mom, dad, a couple of older brothers. "I'll let you live there with me, but I get the whole top floor to myse … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Ian was a three-year-old with an older sister named Eleanor who he adored. One day he arrived at school wearing one of his sister's dresses.Even as young as that, he stepped through the door self-consciously. Maybe someone at … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; She stopped right inside the gate. In fact, her mother had to nudge her through and there she stood looking at our junkyard playground for the first time. She was only two-years-old and her mother had brought her to the Woodla … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Calder said, "Teacher Tom, I want to show you. Come with me." I was in the middle of something, so answered, "I can't come right now. I'll come when I'm finished."He went away, but came back to remind me of my promise. "I want … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; The first smartphone was introduced in 1994, two years before our daughter was born, but they really didn't come of age until Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007. Now, 16 years later, they're everywhere. Writes Rebecca Solnit … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; I don't always watch the Super Bowl, but I did watch it on Sunday. During the fourth quarter, I decided I was rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs. They won. So now, for the rest of the year I can say, "We won." At this time las … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; As an enthusiastic, new parent, I once made myself vomit from rolling down a grassy hill one too many times. It had likely been a couple decades since my last grassy hill and I'd remembered it as joyful, but the actual experie … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Peace Child, Sadako SasakiThere are plenty of reasons to be dubious about the double-edged sword of punishments and rewards, but I've been living with Natalia Ginzburg's words for some time now and as much as I objected at fir … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; In yesterday's post I quoted neuroscientist Patrick House's assertion that "the entire purpose of the brain is to make efficient movement from experience."Another prominent neuroscientist, Antonio Damasio claims that the thing … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; "Let's pretend we're dinosaurs."Any sentence that begins with "Let's . . ." and especially those that begin with "Let's pretend . . ." are music to this preschool teacher's ears."Let's be princesses.""Let's make a bad guy trap … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Sunday was a gorgeous day so I used it the way I most enjoy using gorgeous days, which is to walk. I considered a nature walk, then an urban one, but wound up choosing what authors Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts call … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Field trips have always been a fundamental part of what we do at the Woodland Park Cooperative School. We believe in getting out into the world together at least once a month, often more. I especially like the sorts of excursi … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person, they are almost indistinguishable. ~David W. AugsburgerI've been having a lot of conversations with business people lately about teaching. I've been a prescho … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; We awake up each morning into the unknown. Oh sure, there are things we already know — my spouse takes cream in her coffee, my kids won't eat cold oatmeal, E=mc² — but when it comes to applying our brains to thinking it is upo … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; It wasn't that long ago that I got my news, sports, and weather from the newspaper that was delivered to my front door. I would work my way through the paper each morning, starting with the front page stories, then slowly go t … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; "I know!""I've got an idea!""Teacher Tom, look at this!"The soundtrack of a play-based preschool is punctuated by expressions of these "eureka moments." Sometimes the children would run up to me in groups, grab my arms to pull … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; The opposite of play is not work, it's rote. ~Dr. Edward HallowellThe outdoor classroom is one big slope and within that slope there are many ups and downs, reflecting our city which is built on hills. We're forever experiment … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; "Wait a minute! I know how to play this game."The children were standing around a table upon which were the tokens, dice and other parts and pieces from the board games Monopoly and The Game of Life. The night before, I had di … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; We didn't have a huge set of big wooden blocks, which was okay because we didn't really have enough space for more and besides, if the kids are going to play with them, they generally needed to find a way to play with them tog … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; A group of four and five-year-olds once planted radish seeds in egg carton cups which we put on a sunny window sill. We had discussed how, if we were patient, if we remembered to give them just the right amount of water them e … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; "Be yourself," writes Oscar Wilde, "everyone else is already taken."Lao Tzu, the seminal Chinese philosopher, is quoted as saying, "When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everyone will respect … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; The only time during our school day that we expect all the children to convene together is at circle time: 15-30 minutes during which we come together and practice being in a group, raising our voices together, engaging in dis … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; We have a fantastic outdoor space, one that I consider state-of-the-art. That said, it doesn't lend itself well to all modes of play. Wheeled vehicles, for instance, are troublesome given that our terrain is largely sand, mud, … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; It was cold out, but Maya didn't want to put on her coat. An adult tried to compel her, bringing her the puffy pink parka she had worn to school that morning, holding it out to her coaxingly, urging her, "You'll be too cold ou … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; There was no reason for me to be close, so I kept my distance. There was no reason for me to be a part of their game, so I remained invisible.It probably began days, if not weeks, before I understood it was a game, but it came … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Sometimes when I was clowning around with the kids, I'd say, "I was born an old man, then every year I get younger until one day I'll be a baby and go back into my mommy's belly."This was an obvious joke to most of the kids, w … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; And one day we must ask the question, "Why are there forty million poor people in America?" And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth. … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Even a casual survey of human history gives us an understanding why there are always those eager to predict that these are the end times. Savagery and stupidity appear to be hallmarks of every epoch. Our fondest memories can a … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Earlier this month an NPR's podcast Money Planet was in an Ohio third grade classroom doing a story about how economics is taught in elementary school through the reading of popular children's picture books like Pancakes, Panc … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; The kids had anchored a plank of wood under the gate so that it protruded over and beyond the four steps that lead down to the playground, creating a "diving board." It was one of those games that survived from year to year in … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; The story, in a nutshell, is that a 6-year-old took their mother's gun to school and shot their teacher. The teacher-hero is in critical condition.There are people calling for throwing the book at the parent(s). The child, who … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; I've never written about the day I became a father. I think about that day and often tell parts of the story, but so far I've not found all of the words to do so, if words are even adequate. What I need to say is too complex t … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; There is a 660 ton fungus, a honey mushroom, in the state of Oregon that covers some 2000 acres making it the planet's largest known living organism. It grows at a rate of one to three feet per year, killing every tree in its … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; If people are laughing, they are learning. True learning is a joy because it is an act of creation. ~Tyson YunkaportaMost of the actual work I did as a classroom teacher was preparing for the arrival of the kids. And by "work" … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; The nucleus basalis is a collection of large neurons located in our forebrains. Neuroscientists believe that this part of our brain is essential to our ability to form sharp memories. Studies on non-human brains indicate that … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Victorian novelist George Eliot insisted, against the "science" of her era, that if science could see freedom, it would be evident in the mind's ability to alter itself. The mind "is not cut in marble -- it is not something so … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; When our daughter was little and frightening news of the world got to her, I would try to put things in perspective: "Most people, most of the time are having a fine day." That this has been true throughout all of history, eve … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; There was a time when I kept a collection of styrofoam around the place, but over the years I disposed of it and not just because it takes up a lot of storage space. Sure it's engaging to stick or hammer things into it, like g … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; If there is one lesson I have always wanted the children in my life to learn it is to question those in authority, like their teachers and even their parents. This is not the same as saying defying authority, but rather the in … | Continue reading