Teachers are seeing a decline in common sense, life skills, and general positive attitudes. Creativity is slipping. Social connections are awkward. Kids have inconsistent sleep patterns. A focus on academics and “the future” seems oppositional…
It’s that time of year again. School has started, and the drivers have set aside logical ideas. Every school zone is a little different. In twenty years, I’ve worked at many different schools, and I…
I just realized that I’ve entered my twenty-first year as a teacher. I should have known by the wrinkles around my new reading glasses (I finally had to get them), but I had not stopped…
Please take a moment to read this article from Jessica Lahey writing in The Atlantic. It speaks to a major problem in our school community considering the pressure that students put on themselves to earn…
August 17, 2020 I’m sitting on a bench outside my classroom. The temperature is ninety-one degrees today, and wearing a mask the whole time seems to make it feel like 910 degrees. Today is “materials…
As seems to be a theme in many of my posts, I want to pass along the importance of play. I don’t mean video games (absolutely the opposite). I mean creative, unstructured, social (or individual) play…
Due to the nature of social media, we sometimes see news stories float around for a couple years. Certain articles are shared over and over again, and unfortunately, we have to check their validity all…
Occasionally, I find myself distracted by lists that pop up in my news or Facebook feed. There’s always a catchy title like “Twenty Places to Visit Before You Die” or “Top Ten Foods That Everyone…
When I read this article about the problem of over-parenting, and saw this video with a former Stanford University dean, I felt compelled to share from conversations with students and parents over the years. Every…
Illustration credit: Rebekka Dunlap. I saw this article in The New York Times online, and I thought it was an interesting opinion piece. Recently, I drove through a part of San Jose near Willow Glen,…