"Oh brother, not again." They were words I would normally expect from a grown man from another era, but here was a four-year-old saying them while slapping his forehead and grinning ear-to-ear, looking around, apparently for some sort of response.I was the only one in the vicinit … | Continue reading
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Economic Forum, and Unicef (and according to the dubious measurement of standardized test scores) Finland has the best schools in the world. They have achieved this status by building their educatio … | Continue reading
Children are rarely surveyed or polled about anything important. Oh sure, you can find plenty of "data" on what they want to be when they grow up and I imagine there is quite a bit of marketing research out there in private hands, but when it comes to what children really want fr … | Continue reading
I used to keep both city and state maps in my car along with a national road atlas, just in case. Whenever I was going to spend more than a day or two in a new place, I'd pull into a gas station for a local map. They were often free with a fill up. Before going anywhere for the f … | Continue reading
I was explaining to some of our school's families how "sharing" works at Woodland Park: if a kid is using something that another kid wants to use, we coach the kids to say, "I want that when you're finished" or, in the true language of childhood, "Next!" We don't compel the first … | Continue reading
Last week, while on one of our regular trips to New York City to visit our daughter, my wife and I went with her to the world premier of our friend Rob Eptein's new documentary about the 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist live performance of Taylor Mac's 24-Decade History of Popular Mu … | Continue reading
During my first year teaching preschool, I was appalled at the amount of glue kids were squirting from our little Nancy bottles. It just seemed so wasteful. Committed to not bossing kids around, I tried using informative statements like, "That's a lot of glue," "It only takes a d … | Continue reading
I must have been four or five when I started playing with my first "best friend" Pheobe. She lived several houses down the street from us, on the other side of the street. Nearly every morning of that summer of 1966 or '67, I would cross the street, then cut across several neigh … | Continue reading
FOMO: the fear of missing out. We didn't have an acronym for it when I was teen, but we felt it. It stood at the icky, insecure core of my high school social life in fact, one that was comprised of going to house parties where we all asked one another if we'd heard about the othe … | Continue reading
A parent pointed out that her son was eating raw kale that he had picked from the playground garden. "He won't touch it at home, but here, he devours it!"This wasn't the first we've heard of this phenomenon at Woodland Park. In fact, we see it almost every day. I once mentioned t … | Continue reading
I've spent my entire classroom career working shoulder-to-shoulder with the parents of the children I taught. As a cooperative school, to enroll children in our classes, an adult, typically a parent, but sometimes a grandparent, nanny, or other caretaker, was required to attend a … | Continue reading
Young parents with a crying infant know that behavior is communication, although it may take weeks or months to figure out exactly what it is their babies are communicating. Does this cry mean I'm hungry? Does that one mean I'm in pain? Frightened? Tired? Coming to understand our … | Continue reading
It wasn't until mid-morning that I noticed the box, there on the table just inside the gate to our playground. Someone had written "Junk (& Debris)" on the side. I figured it was something Teacher Rachel had cooked up for the kindergarten class so left it there. Later when I aske … | Continue reading
Drawing by one of the children (via Columbian army) On Friday, four children, aged 13, 9, 4, and 1, were rescued after surviving for 40 days in the Amazon jungle of southern Columbia. The propellor plane in which they had been traveling with their mother crashed, immediately kill … | Continue reading
A five-year-old girl complained that some boys were being "mean" to her and her friend.I answered, "Oh no, what did you do?""I told them to stop it, but they didn't stop."I looked across the playground at the "mean" boys in question. "It doesn't look like they're being mean right … | Continue reading
Midden (or kitchen midden) is the archeological term for a heap of garbage. One millennia's trash is another's anthropological gold. Studies of middens reveal a great deal about how our ancient ancestors lived.No other species leaves middens for scientists to study. This is becau … | Continue reading
As clean up time approached, I began to survey the two-year-olds, "Is it clean-up time?" Some said, "Yes," while others informed me that they wanted to wait "three minutes" or "five minutes." They all know by now that after we tidy up we go outside. I had never instructed the chi … | Continue reading
Not long ago, my wife an I were introduced to a new couple. They were from Toronto and mentioned that they really didn't know anyone around here, so in the spirit of neighborliness, we invited them to join us for happy hour with some other friends of ours the following evening.Wh … | Continue reading
In 1974, I was a 12-year-old living with my family in the suburbs of Athens, Greece. My father was working on a project for the Greek government, which was at the time on the brink of falling apart. There was a war in Cyprus against the Turks, student protests, and even tanks goi … | Continue reading
Our school was collecting new and gently used books to donate for a fundraiser. Someone brought in a couple of bags of books the day after the deadline and so they've been stashed in our mud room for a few weeks. Recently, a friend of our school asked if we could help her collect … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; It is well known that the attainment of a Paretian optimum requires the simultaneous fulfillment of all the optimum conditions. The general theorem for the second best optimum states that if there is introduced into a gener … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; My wife Jennifer and I spent a chunk of the the 90's living and working in Germany. We were there because Jennifer was an executive with Volkswagen. Every August, the factory closed, giving workers a long, paid, summer holid … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; "Teacher Tom, you always wear the same shirt."It wasn't entirely true, but I understood why a kid might say that. "I wear different shirts.""No, you always wear your purple shirt."Again, not entirely true, but I did always w … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Not long ago, I was asked to observe a two-year-old who was, according to his teachers, disruptive in class. When we were outdoors, I saw a curious, outgoing, physically active preschooler going about his business. When we w … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; I spent recent evening at a Memorial Day weekend barbeque in the company of several people I had never met before. We asked one another "What do you do?" which is our culture's shorthand for "What to you spend your weekdays … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; A few years back, someone donated a box of swimming and waterpolo trophies and medals to the preschool. It's the sort of thing we treasure. For a time, they dominated our playground, finding their way into the every game or … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; In 1983, the Reagan administration released a report entitled A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform. Its focus on the low standardized test scores of (some) American children compared to those of other nati … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Early childhood educators, taken as a group, are among the most compassionate, caring humans I've ever encountered.We love the children even when they cry and yell and tantrum on the floor. We love them even when they hit us … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; I was walking along a neighborhood sidewalk. As I turned a corner, a man fell in behind me, keeping pace with me. I didn't think much of it at first, but then I took note of the sound, thup-thup-thup. I looked to see he was … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Over the past couple decades, I've asked thousands of adults to recall a "beautiful moment" from their childhood, then asked them to describe the moment.Only once did someone's beautiful memory involve being indoors. And in … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; I've experienced it enough times to take it for granted, but whenever kids wrestle at preschool, I always at some point feel as if I'm peering into something very important, and very good, about human beings.We throw down th … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; As the two-year-old boy tried to walk up a short, sand-dusted concrete slope, his feet slipped from beneath him. He fell forward onto the concrete. I saw it happen. He took a moment, still prone, to look around as if decidin … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; On the short list of history's geniuses, most of us would include Leonardo da Vinci. He is perhaps the most famous polymath to ever live -- a painter, sculptor, architect, scientist, engineer, technologist, and mathematician … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Anger is generally viewed as a secondary emotion in that if you dig a little, you find that it is typically fueled by a primary emotion like fear, sadness, rejection, loss, frustration, humiliation, or even physical pain. Ps … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; As a preschool teacher, I always try to keep one thing in mind. My job beyond creating a beautiful, meaningful, safe-enough environment, is creating relationships. I was charged, from day one, with the mission to get childre … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Why are so many of us so afraid to just let children play? Some time ago, we got out our boxes of Magna-Tiles. These are cool, popular building toys. If your classroom doesn't have a set or two, I recommend them. As I watche … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; It takes humans years before they fully comprehend their separateness from their caretakers. At least that's the widely accepted psychological theory. A newborn doesn't know that they are not their mother and vice versa. Thi … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; When I was bored as a child, I would go door-to-door, ringing doorbells at the homes where I knew children lived, asking the adults who answered, "Can Angie play?" "Can Johnny play?" "Can Pheobe play?"This was the 1960's a t … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Growing up, it was rare to have watched any movie more than once, other than The Wizard of Oz, which was annually broadcast on CBS, like a holiday event, throughout my childhood. The exception to that for me was the movie Th … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; A pair of girls in fancy gowns were digging in the sand pit. They were not, as far as I could tell, digging for a purpose other than to dig a hole.Not far away, kids carrying sticks were bickering heatedly over who was the r … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Pedagogy is generally defined as a method of teaching. I've often discussed what I and others like me do in our classrooms as a "play-based pedagogy," although to be honest there's never been a lot of teaching involved. The … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson famously wrote, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that amon … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Becker, 1999I invite you to take a moment to notice your breathing. Inhale, feeling the air inflate your lungs. Notice that brief moment when you've reached the end of your inhalation. Then exhale, feeling the air leave your … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Over the couple decades, I’ve listened to a lot of early childhood experts. More often than not, I find myself nodding along. They say things I think are true about children. Or rather, they say things I want to be true abou … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; The video below is the original, world-famous awareness test designed by researchers Daniel Simons and Christoper Chabris. If you want to play along, I would suggest that you expand the video to full screen or click through … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; I became a preschool teacher at 37-years-old. Prior to that, the profession in which I had the most extensive experience was as a baseball coach. I've only recently realized this, probably because coaching baseball was never … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; I spent ten years reading almost exclusively Dickens and Eliot and Bronte and Hardy. I consider Austen to be the greatest of them all; some say that Emma was the first truely Victorian novel. I find Trollope to be a bit thin … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; I once had a three-year-old in my class who taught himself the Periodic Table of the Elements, including the atomic numbers. I didn't teach it to him. His parents swore they hadn't taught it to him. And his grandfather, who … | Continue reading