var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. ~John DeweyPeople tend to have one of two responses when I tell them I'm a teacher. Either they say something like, "Good for you . . . Such important work," or … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; 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. The … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; I sometimes forget how radical our ideas are about young children. I forget that not everyone trusts children even if most people say they do. I forget that most adults are convinced that children must be guided, coerced, tric … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; I started this blog in 2009 simply because I'd written a couple articles for Seattle's Child magazine that I thought were pretty good and felt they deserved a life beyond the recycling bin. That was the entirety of my ambition … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; "Children do not like being incompetent any more than they like being ignorant. They want to learn how to do, and do well, the things they see being done by bigger people around them. This is why they soon find school such a d … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; As a child, my family moved around a lot. I'd called four places home before my first day of kindergarten. I attended three different elementary schools and three different middle schools. My parents, themselves, had grown up … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Two freshly-minted three-year-olds were playing on the floor, not together, but near one another. I was lying amidst them, fiddling with whatever came to hand. The boy picked up a toy that was meant to be a tiny version of the … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; I feel that it's important for us, as early childhood educators, to stay abreast of the latest research in our profession (all of which supports a play-based approach) as well as some of the other areas of cognitive and neuros … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Judging by their behavior, we can say that plants are intelligent. They turn toward the sun because they need the light. They absorb necessary nutrients from the soil. They communicate with one another, share resources, and ca … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; "I'm gonna try this.""You're gonna get hurt.""I can't get on. Everybody hold it.""Was that funny?""My turn.""I want a turn.""You can go after me.""I'm next.""Okay, so guys, after me it's you, then it's you.""Then I'm after you … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; I'm currently reading neuroscientist Antonio Damasio's book Self Come to Mind and came across this fascinating observation: "(S)mart brains are . . . extremely lazy. Anytime they can do less instead of more, they will, a minim … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; One can argue that humans are among the most evolutionarily successful larger species on the planet.I have to qualify that controversial assertion with the term "larger" because, frankly, the last couple years have underlined … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; When parents complain, "He doesn't listen to me" what they really mean is that their kid doesn't do what they want them to do when they want them to do it. Believe me: they are listening to you. They are almost always listenin … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; The two-year-old said to me, "If you eat this food you can have some ice cream." She placed a plate in front of me on which she had positioned a glob of purple play dough. I said, "What is it?""It's healthy food.""What kind of … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; We are sometimes said to live in a post-mythology society. No longer does a pantheon gods, spirits, and demons control, create, and explain our world. We now have science, philosophy, and religion, but as surly as we continue … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; He said, "Teacher Tom, you should teach us things. You never teach us anything . . . just silly things."I answered, "What do you mean? I teach you stuff all the time.""No, you don't. You just teach us silly things.""Okay, so … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; I was recently talking with the person responsible for hiring educators for a large regional chain of preschools. Altogether they employ some 300 teachers. With the school year on the verge of starting they still had 45 vacant … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; Several of the kids were taking turns boasting about how strong they were."I can pick up this whole table!""I can pick up this whole school!""I can pick up this whole world!"As their claims escalated ludicrously, some of their … | Continue reading
var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true}; The boy was sinking his fingers into the freshly-made play dough in a slow, controlled manner, forming them into fists as it oozed between them. When they were finally firmly clenched, he paused for a moment, then ripped both … | Continue reading
I'm weary of hearing about "STEM," the popular acronym for "science, technology, engineering, and math." I'd be shocked... | Continue reading