There’s a lot of talk nationally about the importance of teachers, and the need to identify what great teaching actually looks like — and requires.
Our search should start and end with people like Kathy Clunis D’Andrea.
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This is How Youth (& YOU) Learn
Imagine if we acted on these insights?
Read More »The curious paradox of “Won’t Back Down”
Won’t Back Down, the new Hollywood film about two mothers determined to take over their children’s failing inner city school, represents everything that’s wrong with the present way we talk about school reform – and everything we need to talk about more in the future. Continue reading . . .
Read More »The Science of Learning (and of School Reform)
Here’s a strange but illustrative little animated short based off a short clip of a David Brooks speech, in which he lays bare one of the false assumptions about the brain that has led us down the wrong path for generations.
Read More »This is what a day in the life of a typical American school district looks like
50 people. 50 different stories. Is it what you expected?
Read More »This is what Special Education (in America) Looks Like
Imagine if the goal in America was to make every teacher a “special ed” teacher – and to give every student specialized attention?
Read More »In Chicago, Imagining a Different Ending
Now that the teacher strike in Chicago has ended – and the city’s schoolchildren have returned to school – one thing seems unavoidably clear: despite the agreement, Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his city’s public school teachers will remain deeply divided, deeply mistrustful of one another, and deeply entrenched for the foreseeable future.
The good news is that the rest of us can learn something from the mistakes both sides in this particular drama have made. In fact, there are cities out there that have actually transformed their school systems for the better, and done so in a way that left everyone feeling good about (and committed to) the changes. To bring about such a shift, however, the central figures of reform in places like Chicago – elected officials and teacher unions – must start thinking very differently about how transformational change occurs, and what it requires.
Read More »This is What Student Creativity (& Human Inspiration) Looks Like
Happy Friday!
Read More »The World is Watching Chicago, Once Again
In 1968, student protesters stationed outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago broke into a spontaneous chant that quickly crystallized the tenor of the times: “The whole world is watching!”
It’s ironic, then, that one day after this year’s Democratic National Convention, rumors of a city-wide teacher strike in Chicago are reaching a similarly feverous pitch.
Read More »Who We Are, And Who We Aspire to Be
It has been four years — when the promise of an Obama presidency was still just a promise — since I have felt as inspired as I felt tonight, watching Michelle Obama, as First Lady, remind us of who we are on our best days. Back then I produced a short video that tried to […]
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