New school years always bring new challenges for children, parents and teachers. This school year, though, promises to be much trickier, because we are now debating United States History. Remember history? That’s the class that isn’t tested at the end…
If you care deeply about social and racial justice, value equal opportunity, detest discrimination and believe that this country needs to focus on its core values of tolerance, compromise, equality and democracy, then fear not. America’s educators have got your…
Fresh off her controversial nomination, controversial nomination process and eventual confirmation, the most inexperience Education Secretary in this country’s history, Betsy DeVos, was greeted by a not-so-welcoming group of protesters as she tried entering a school in Washington. Parents holding signs…
There’s a certain perverse pride public educators should feel due to the fact that Betsy DeVos, the nominee for Secretary of Education, is, of all the Trump cabinet picks, the object of the most phone calls and other communications objecting…
Just remember: Most voters rejected Donald Trump’s vision of the United States. They rejected his rhetoric, his vile comments about women and minorities, and they don’t want large tax cuts to the wealthy, a trade war with China or a…
The great divide in American public attitudes is most evident during Presidential election years, and this year is no different. Republicans and Democrats seem to be living in two different countries when it comes to their views on how much…
I sort of forgot that Chris Christie was still the Governor of New Jersey and an active politician until this week, so quiet was he on policy and bombast. But now he’s back. His first foray was to emerge with…
The end result is in reach for those conservatives who have worked so hard to destroy public sector unions and along with them, the rest of the middle class. The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Monday in the case…
Seeing as how I’m an education dinosaur, having taught for the past 32 years, I’ve seen many a fad, meme, phase and reform come and go during my career. Each of these aforesaid events was billed as the new reality…
I’ve been in the education business for 31 years and I’ve seen many a fad come and go, from Teacher-proof curricula to shared decision-making to Differentiation to Cooperative Learning, Curriculum Mapping, Goals 2000 and various reading programs that focus on…
OK, let’s go back to the halcyon days of the 1969-70 school year when I was in fourth grade. My teacher was one of those cool, hip, young people who knew how to reach children, to excite them to learn,…
The week began with the president saying that there was too much emphasis on testing in schools. In the middle of the week, the New York Times published a story about Success Academy Charter Schools that, among other things, noted…
