The boy had shed his jacket onto the floor, leaving it in a heap right in the middle of the room. Under normal circumstances I would have said something like, "Your coat is on the floor; it belongs on a hook," then waited for him to think things through. But this was his first da … | Continue reading
Like a younger sibling, our school has always run on hand-me-downs. I've long believed that one of the functions of preschools in our society is to be a pitstop for things -- almost anything -- along its journey to the landfill or recycling center. Much of what populates the play … | Continue reading
I recently ate a tomato salad that transported me back to my childhood, several years of which were spent in living with my family in a suburb of Athens, Greece. I was once again in the dappled shade of the dining area of a taverna set in a park. Children were racing around on th … | Continue reading
We call our's the Age of Information, but it would more accurately be called the Age of Attention because when information becomes abundant, attention becomes the scarce resource. But the truth is that human's have long felt that they lived in a time of information overload. The … | Continue reading
Even before they can walk, many, if not most, babies dance, bouncing their bodies to a rhythm. It's not the tango, but it's where the tango got its start. Even before they can read or write, many, if not most, children create poetry. I still remember a poem my brother "wrote" whe … | Continue reading
The countries of France, New Zealand, Switzerland, Slovakia, Austria, Egypt, and the municipalities of Brussels and Quebec have defined animals as "sentient beings." This means that in those places animals are not property, but rather "legal persons." This designation allows huma … | Continue reading
Awhile back I read the disgusting story of a police officer and his wife who were arrested for handcuffing and jailing his own three-year-old overnight, for two nights in a row, for the "crime" of soiling himself. Their defense is that it was their parental right. Thankfully, Flo … | Continue reading
I've asked thousands of parents the question, "What are your goals for your child?" It's something a lot of us ask at the beginning of a school years or when we are first getting to know a family. Far and away, the top answers are some version of, "I just want my child to be happ … | Continue reading
The teacher . . . is not a machine which follows a certain syllabus, which has certain lessons to recite to the child, and too make him recite them back. She is a sensitive human being who works with her intellect, and loves her work. She is not helpless. She has faith in human n … | Continue reading
"We still had a blacksmith in our town in those days, if you can believe it." I was talking to the great grandfather of one of my students. Most of the time, the grandparents aren't much older than me, but here was a man 30 years my senior. I make a habit of talking to older peop … | Continue reading
By nature, I consider myself an introvert, so when our daughter was born, I happily stepped into the role of stay-at-home parent. Of course, I looked forward to the "parenting" part, but I equally, and a bit secretly, embraced the "stay-at-home" aspect of the job title. As I held … | Continue reading
It's Election Day here in the US. It should be a national holiday, although not necessarily to give every working person the time and space to go to the polling place to cast their ballot. Early and mail in voting has given most of us the flexibility to vote from home on our own … | Continue reading
Polar bear cubs stay with their mothers until they're two and half years old. Dolphin calves need maternal care for 2-3 years. Orangutan infants continue nursing for six years, the longest period of dependence of any species other than humans. For us, this period during which our … | Continue reading
One of the big ideas behind play-based learning is that humans, and young children in particular, are learning all the time. When an infant lies in its crib watching shadows on a wall, for instance, we assume they are learning. We see their gaze, we witness changes in the movemen … | Continue reading
Many hands make light work. ~John Heywood This how the Woodland Park Cooperative School does Halloween, the highest of our high holidays, the others, in calendrical order being MLK Day, Chinese New Year, and Valentine's Day. Our morning school becomes a night (okay, early evening … | Continue reading
Based on my informal and unscientific surveys of early childhood educators, one of the biggest hurdles to fully realizing play-based education is "the parents." Not all the parents, of course, but there are apparently a lot who might like the idea of their children playing, but w … | Continue reading
"We need to talk." It's a message from the parent of one of your students -- an email, text, voice mail, or quick word at pickup time. Your heart rises into your throat. "We need to talk" almost always means that something has gone wrong, and it's going to get worse before it get … | Continue reading
My wife and I have recently remodeled and are in the process of redecorating our home. We impulsively bought a couple of very cool chairs from a consignment shop. We didn't know we wanted them until we saw them. In fact, even after they were in our living room, it took us both a … | Continue reading
I've always enjoyed tackling home improvement projects, but have generally shied away from electrical work because of the whole risk of electrocution thing. A couple weeks ago, however, I tackled the job of trading out a half dozen regular light switches for dimmers. As DIY proje … | Continue reading
It took her awhile to get going. For the longest time she stood against her mother's knee, watching the other children as they made their way around the space. At one point a fellow toddler took an interest in her. It seemed as if he had forgotten that he clutched small, wooden v … | Continue reading
Charlotte said, "I'm going to build a ship," and got to work arranging the blocks. Ships have always been a popular way for the kids to use our large wooden blocks. It's a simple build which normally involves arranging the blocks into a deck, flat on the floor. Each time Charlott … | Continue reading
In her book Monsters Claire Dederer considers the question of what to do about artists who have created beloved works of art, but who have also been revealed to be, well, monsters. Woody Allen is one of her prime examples. At one point she uses the metaphor of a beautiful piece o … | Continue reading
People keep trying to tell me that the book, as a way to deliver information, edification, and entertainment, is doomed to extinction. The radio, then television, and now the internet were all going to supplant books. Not only were these more technologically advance media going t … | Continue reading
Max is sent to his room for making mischief. His walls become the word all around and Max, a young boy, steps out into it, boarding a boat that sails on an ocean that tumbles by, sailing night and day, in and out of weeks, and almost over a year to where the wild things are. We d … | Continue reading
Why do we call all our generous ideas illusions, and the mean ones truth? ~Edith Wharton I love the show Ted Lasso. I find peace in The Great British Bakeoff. Of Dostoyevsky's Brothers Karamazov, it's Alyosha, the one who looks for the best of everyone, with whom I most identify, … | Continue reading
More than twenty years ago, while touring kindergartens for our preschool-aged daughter, the head of one private school told the assembled parents, "Our community doesn't reflect how the world is, but rather how it ought to be." Specifically, he was referring to the racial and so … | Continue reading
"Teacher Tom, grandma and grandpa slept in my house last night!" She'd raised her hand the moment we sat down for circle time. I knew she had something exciting and important to say even if I had no idea what it was going to be. "They're going to be here a whole week!" Her enthus … | Continue reading
Our three year old was complaining that something hadn't gone exactly as she'd hoped. At some point I said, "At least it's better than a sharp stick in the eye." She paused in thought for a moment, then replied, "Everything is better than a sharp stick in the eye!" My wife and I, … | Continue reading
"This was a happy and satisfactory marriage," writes Doris Lessing in her novel The Summer Before the Dark, "because both she and Michael had understood, and very early on, the core of discontent, or of hunger, if you like, which is unfailingly part of every modern marriage -- of … | Continue reading
Both hands were occupied, one with a piece from a Fisher Price play set while the other clutched a shiny silver baoding ball. His attention, however, was on neither as a small stuffed skunk on the floor caught his eye. He stood over the skunk for a moment, then without a second t … | Continue reading
I help children when they need my help, but most of the time when they ask, it isn't my help they need, but rather help in general, help that could be just as easily provided by other children. When a kid asks me, for instance, to push them on the swing, I call out, factually, "A … | Continue reading
One of the reasons I'm inspired by working with young people is that they lack a deep sense of "pastness," largely because they have so little individualized past to sense. As older humans, our birthday evokes and includes every birthday we've ever experienced, but for a two-year … | Continue reading
There is at least one major US party candidate running for a statewide office who believes that women should not have the right to vote. The fact that at least 40 percent of the electorate will nevertheless vote for him is staggering, although ultimately it's this attitude about … | Continue reading
"It's the people we love the most who can make us feel the gladdest . . . and the maddest! Love and anger are such a puzzle! It's hard for us, as adults, to understand and manage our angry feelings toward parents, spouses, and children, or to keep their anger toward us in perspec … | Continue reading
Our daughter played on a middle school soccer team in a league that didn't believe in keeping score. The kids, of course, simply kept score themselves, always knowing in the end who had won and who had lost. They knew that not keeping score wasn't part of the real world and they … | Continue reading
Classic jigsaw puzzles hold a special place in our classroom. They stand out as uniquely directive in that there is, in the end, only one right way assemble them. Yes, of course, a child might have other ideas. Someone might, say, build a tower with the pieces. Once a group of ch … | Continue reading
There was no reason for me to be close, so I kept my distance. There was no reason for me to be a part of their game, so I remained invisible. It probably began days, if not weeks, before I understood it was a game, but it came to my attention in the form of a girl filling a plas … | Continue reading
Being a preschool teacher (or the parent of young children for that matter) is exhausting, largely because at any given moment, someone is experiencing a big emotion and letting the rest of us know about it. I doubt there is any less anger, sadness, fear, or frustration in a typi … | Continue reading
I recently heard a researcher interviewed on the radio about her team's amazing discovery regarding a certain species of animal. At one point, she qualified her enthusiasm by saying that, of course, humans are much more "complex" than this particular animal, but that her team's d … | Continue reading
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 premiere of our friend Rob Epstein's new documentary about the 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist live performance of Taylor Mac's 24-Decade History of Popular Music. The … | Continue reading
Back in 2015, I came across a collection of Bloomberg graphs showing how America has changed its collective mind on social issues like interracial marriage, prohibition, women's suffrage, abortion, same-sex marriage, and the legalization of cannabis for recreational use. In most … | Continue reading
For the past week, I've been promoting the Fall 2024 cohort of my 6-week foundational course, Teacher Tom's Play-Based Learning. Well, that's coming to an end. You have until midnight tonight to register (see below) . . . My greatest wish for every child who has ever come my way … | Continue reading
One of the most powerful aspects of my Teacher Tom's Play-Based Learning course is that it supports entire "teams" of educators and caregivers to get on the same page when it comes to offering the kind of play-based learning young children need. (See below) The long-term effects … | Continue reading
You'd think that people would've had enough of silly love songs But I look around me and I see it isn't so Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs And what's wrong with that? I'd like to know 'Cause here I go again. ~Wings (Paul McCartney) On her album Cowboy Car … | Continue reading
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. This blog would provide an online home for these two … | Continue reading
As we open enrollment for the Fall 2024 cohort of my 6-week course, Teacher Tom's Play-Based Learning, I'm reminded once again 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 … | Continue reading
A major focus of my 6-week course Teacher Tom's Play-Based Learning (see below) is the role of the adults when the task of learning is turned over to the children . . . I was watching the girl arrange her things, or rather, the things she had made hers by gathering them from arou … | 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