Dear Colleagues, I’ve been thinking lately about the economist Amartya Sen. After I read a recent piece at Aeon about Sen, I reflected back on my graduate school days, when reading his work first inspired me. I found Sen’s understanding of poverty to be groundbreaking and compassionate. In his acceptance speech for the 1998 Nobel... Continue Reading →
Dear Colleagues, Lately I’ve been reflecting on what it means for our students to become young adults in an age of violence. By that I mean the verbal and sometimes physical violence that saturates our media and sometimes comes very close to us – too close. Elected leaders throw schoolyard taunts at their constituents. Violent... Continue Reading →
Language evolves, and no amount of fulminating, or imposition of rules, can stop it. But more importantly, justice demands that we make the effort to accept ‘they’, ‘themself’ or any new gender-neutral pronouns that achieve widespread use. A language that collapses male and female into ‘man’ reflects a society that strips women of their separate... Continue Reading →
Much gratitude and well wishes to Tikvah and everyone from the Idea School -- we need more visionaries like you! ...The rest of the day we spent at Gann Academy, which has one of the best reputations in the Jewish day school world. We understood why immediately. From the moment we entered the school building... Continue Reading →
Karen Crouse, a New York Times sports writer who has attended around ten Olympic games over the past few decades, stumbled upon a kind of parenting utopia where, in her view, parents are really getting it right. That utopia is Norwich, Vermont, a charming town with roughly 3,000 residents. It has a historic inn and spotty cell... Continue Reading →
2/25/18 Dear Colleagues, Over the course of these past two weeks, I’ve been watching a lot of adolescents in front of the cameras. Sports crews in South Korea often focus on the teenagers, not on the older Olympic athletes. News crews in Florida zoom in on the high school students, not their parents. The stories... Continue Reading →
MIT Professor Sarma sees the future of learning as blended, individuated, fluid and hands-on. Learning science supports his vision. The question is whether schools can be reorganized to do the same. Tara Garcia Mathewson. The Hechinger Report. Following the Lessons of Learning Science in Schools Isn’t Convenient.
The outcomes we choose to measure, as well as the methods of assessment we use, signal to students, parents, and others what matters. If we claim to value critical thinking, creative problem solving, oral communication, and the ability to work effectively in groups, then we need to teach and assess those outcomes. McTighe, Jay. Educational... Continue Reading →
It’s a gray day in New England, and winter across the northern hemisphere. Yet it’s the height of summer elsewhere, and therefore wedding season. One recent ceremony in New Zealand reminded me of Gann’s mission to build a better world where human dignity will flourish. May our students be as loving, and as generous, as... Continue Reading →
Is [autism] a disorder to be diagnosed, or an experience to be celebrated? How can autism be something that must be ‘treated’ at one level, but also praised and socially accommodated at another? Many people in the neurodiversity community say that autism is just a natural variant in the human condition. But should autistic individuals... Continue Reading →
21st Century School Journey 