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How I Started in Education

I recently rediscovered a piece I wrote about why I entered my profession… “It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain, but, once conceived, it haunted me day and night.” Those words begin the second paragraph of Edgar A. Poe’s short story “The Tell Tale Heart,” in which the narrator attempts Read More

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“Why are we doing this?”

Educators are very familiar with the question that gives the title of the post. We hear students ask it… frequently. We speculate at their motivation: “Are they trying to distract me?” “Are they trying to get out of doing work?” “Are they challenging my authority?” are all reasonable interpretations of the question. Leaders are familiar Read More

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Thoughts on “Education for Misinformation”

I’ve been kicking around the concept of “red herrings” for a few years, at least since I started to recognize them. I attribute this skill to the habits I developed while a doctoral student, but we all know how “reliable” such stories are about ourselves. For me, red herrings always appeared in our school structures, Read More

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School: A Privileged Place

Have you ever had a a book on your “to read” list for a long (really long) time, and when you finally read it, you stop several times, close the book, then your eyes, and just think about the implications of what you read? I had such an experience in reading Jean Lave and Etienne Read More

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Business and Politics are Not Teaching and Learning

Business and politics are human endeavors that are easily measured; the results of business and politics are generally objective and unequivocal. Business measures success by profits, if the profits are sufficient for the owner or shareholders, then the business is judged a success. In politics, success is measured in votes. The individual who receives more Read More

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School “Improvement”

Schools are also organizations that are always seeking to improve. “Quality” is a difficult concept to define, but there is a large industry that is dedicated to helping organizations improve the quality of their work and “continuous improvement” is a goal that articulated in the mission and vision statements of many schools and educational organizations. Read More