I urge you to read this poem.
I urge you to share it with your students if you are a teacher.
As machines and digital devices come to dominate our lives, let us not forget our humanity.
It is humanity that keeps us human, not a data point.
Archives for category: Joy
Jerry Taylor used to be paid to dispute people who said that the climate was changing. He was a skeptic. He did battle on television with those who believed in climate change. But he changed his mind.
When I read this interview with Jerry Taylor in The Intercept, I was very struck by the amazing similarity to my own change of view. I was once certain that common standards and tests were necessary to improve education and give everyone equal opportunity to succeed. I changed my mind as I watched the evidence unfold during the implementation of No Child Left Behind.
In this age, it is very difficult for people to admit they were wrong. But it happens.
I think we have to spend more time thinking about how to persuade people who don’t agree with us.
To change education policy to one that recognizes that each child is a unique human being, to change the goal of education to be the cultivation of each person as a citizen who can take charge of his or her own life, we must work to change hearts and minds of policymakers.
How do we change minds? I changed minds, and I can explain why. But I am still groping for answers when it comes to convincing others, especially when they don’t seem to care about evidence.
Michael Hynes is the superintendent of the Patchogue-Medford School District on Long Island in New York. He has a progressive vision of what schools should be, and he is implementing it in the schools of his district, with the support of the elected board.
Take a few minutes and watch his TED talk, where he explains how to transform our schools and make them schools of thoughtfulness, learning, and joy.
Happy Easter!
Here’s a smile for your holidays.
I think you should spend today reading something other than this blog.
If you are Christian, go to church or do whatever you usually do.
If you are Jewish or Muslim or atheist or anything else, read and enjoy the day.
I would say I’m going fishing, but where I live, it’s not the season. Also, I don’t like fishing.
Actually, we are cooking up a big Easter meal for Mary’s family.
So, scour the blog for things you missed. I will be doing clean-up all day.
Get outside and breathe the spring. Winter is over. Be happy.
Enjoy friends and family.
I will be back tomorrow with some fabulous posts!
One million people watched the birth of a baby to April the giraffe as her mate Oliver watched.
It was thrilling to see!
Scroll all the way to the bottom of the story for the full video.
Superintendent David Gamberg leads the schools of two adjoining school districts on Long Island, Greenport and Southold on Long Island. Gamberg has a holistic view of education. He believes in the full development of young children as happy, healthy, well-rounded people. He thinks that the arts are far more important than test scores. He wants the children to explore their talents. His schools have a garden, where the children raise vegetables and share them. Southold schools have an amazing array of musical activities, including an orchestra, a choir, and a jazz band. It also has an award-winning robotics team. And its rate of opting out from state tests is one of the highest in the state.
Superintendent Gamberg invited Mary and me to attend the major school production of the school year: “Les Miserables.”
We had seen it many years ago in both London and New York. It is a big, ambitious production, with a huge cast and demanding musical numbers. I couldn’t imagine how students could pull off this sprawling and complicated musical.
The event was held in the high school auditorium, which holds about 700 people. Lucky we had reserved seats because the house was packed, as were all the other performances. Parents, grandparents, siblings, and local community members from every walk of life.
The music was supplied by the school’s 16-piece orchestra, and it was fabulous. The show was spectacular.
We were blown away by the acting, the singing, and the staging. The student talent was amazing. Some of the kids had acted in school productions for four, five, or six years. There must have been fifty students in the cast, maybe more, and many more working behind the scenes. The story of Jean Val Jean and Inspector Javert was presented with zest, passion, and the energy of youth.
It was really, really funny to see these beautiful children standing on the barricades and singing about the revolution and waving a big red flag in a community that voted by a small margin for Trump.
We loved the show and so did the rest of the audience. The cast and orchestra received a standing ovation and cheers that rocked the room.
We looked at each other and said, “Now we know why we pay taxes, and it is money well spent.”
An event like this performance is what makes a public school a community school. You can bet that the next bond issue will easily pass. Not just because of this production, but because of the vision that produces an education that unifies the community and gives all children a chance to shine.
America has many thousands of communities like this one. The public schools are the cement of the community.
Betsy DeVos doesn’t understand that. She never will. Sad.
Steven Singer notes that standardized testing season is upon us.
While he is at school administering useless standardized tests, his daughter will be home, inventing, playing, using her imagination.
“In school I have to proctor the federally mandated standardized tests. But I’ve opted my own daughter out. She doesn’t take them.
“So at home, I get to see all the imaginative projects she’s created in her class while the other kids had to trudge away at the exam.
“Daddy, daddy, look!” she squeals.
“And I’m bombarded by an entire Picasso blue period.
“Or “Daddy, will you staple these?”
“And I’m besieged by a series of her creative writing.
“My daughter is only in second grade and she loves standardized test time.
“It’s when she gets to engage in whatever self-directed study strikes her fancy.
“Back in kindergarten I missed the boat.
“Even as an educator, myself, I had no idea the district would be subjecting her to standardized tests at an age when she should be doing nothing more strenuous than learning how to share and stack blocks.
“But when I found out she had taken the GRADE Test, a Pearson assessment not mandated by the state but required by my home district in order the receive state grant funding, I hit the roof.
“I know the GRADE test. I’m forced to give a version of it to my own 8th grade students at a nearby district where I work. It stinks.
“Ask any classroom teacher and they’ll tell you how useless it is. Giving it is at best a waste of class time. At worst it demoralizes children and teaches them that the right answer is arbitrary – like trying to guess what the teacher is thinking….
“I have studied standardized testing. It was part of my training to become a teacher. And the evidence is in. The academic world knows all this stuff is bunk, but the huge corporations that profit off of these tests and the associated test-prep material have silenced them.
“I have a masters in my field. I’m a nationally board certified teacher. I have more than a decade of successful experience in the classroom. But I am not trusted enough to decide whether my students should take these tests.
“It’s not like we’re even asking the parents. We start from the assumption that children will take the tests, but if the parents complain about it, we’ll give in to their wishes.
“It’s insanity.
“We should start from the assumption the kids won’t take the test. If parents want their kids to be cogs in the corporate machine, they should have to opt IN.”
Do you feel that you are living in an episode of “The Twilight Zone”?
In a time of despair, we need to laugh. We need to be inspired. Art, love, laughter, joy will save our sanity.
Here is some sunshine. Enjoy!
Here is the back story. It was truly a surprise for the students and teachers. The school leaders were in on the secret.
This is a very beautiful, adorable rendition of “You Raise Me Up” by two children in Hong Kong. I am not sure why I am posting it, other than to share the good vibes with you.
The World Economic Forum is based in Davos, Switzerland. Ten years ago, I had the pleasure of attending. The forum was filled with heads of state and potentates, politicians, business magnates, even Brad and Angelina and Bono. WEF ranks states according to progress on whatever measures it chooses. It just decided that the schools of Finland are the best in the world.
This just-released World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2016-2017 names Finland’s primary schools, health and national institutions as #1 globally (p. 46):
https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-competitiveness-report-2016-2017-1/
What’s their education secret? According to Fulbright Scholar and part-time Finland resident, university lecturer and public school dad William Doyle, it’s not just Finland’s culture, or its size and demographics, which are similar to some two thirds of American states. Says Doyle, “Finland has the most professionalized, the most evidence-based, and the most child-centered primary school system in the world.” Those three foundations, says Doyle, can inspire and be adapted by any school system in the world. He adds, “Until the United States decides to respect and train its teachers like Finland does (a highly selective masters degree program specializing in research and classroom practice, with two years of in-class training and maximum autonomy once they graduate), we have little hope of improving our schools.”
Please note that Finland has no charters, no vouchers, no Teach for Finland, and very low levels of child poverty. Grades K-9 are free of standardized testing. Children have recess after every class. Academic studies do not begin until age 7. Before then, play is the curriculum.
Finnish scholar Pasi Sahlberg often says that Finland got its best ideas by borrowing from the United States.
Pasi Sahlberg will speak at Wellesley College on October 13 at 7 pm in Alumnae Hall. His topic: “The Inconvenient Truth about American Education.” Pasi taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Education as a guest scholar for the past two years. He is the author of the award-winning “Finnish Lessons.” The lecture is second in a series I endowed called the Diane Silvers Ravitch 1960 Lecture. Pasi will be introduced by Howard Gardner. Come one, come all.
If you are not in the area, the event will be videotaped and later made available.
Diane Ravitch's blog 