Spoken to an educator recently? Opened a newspaper? Then, no doubt you’ve heard about the startling increase in remarkably cruel, insensitive & flat-out rude behavior kids are showing on a regular basis. Group-think is short-circuiting basic decency with alarming regularity. At my middle school in recent months, as in schools …
A few weeks ago, I read this Medium post by Dr. Shayla R. Griffin, which I posted my initial reflections on, and which has had an enormous impact on my thinking over the intervening weeks. My takeaway: There is a population that wants schools to open: parents working from home need space; …
Listening today to an episode of The Takeaway from a few weeks ago (7/6/2020), and I was struck by the final segment, in which Tanzina Vega interviews Amanda Mull about her research into the #GirlBoss moment in American culture. Mull states as clearly—and frankly sympathetically—as I’ve ever heard it, why …
Over the weekend, I read this Medium post by Dr. Shayla R. Griffin, “Some Students Should Go To School, Most Should Stay Home.” In it, Dr. Griffin highlights the crisis of the schooling decision facing all communities right now: remote learning has serious weaknesses, but in-person instruction presents significant risks …
Within my school district, the George Floyd protests prompted a push for anti-racist education, which several faculty, staff, and administrators are trying to ensure doesn’t end up as the latest “thoughts & prayers” and leads to action and, with work, results. To build a common baseline-—and hopefully a coalition of …
A friend on Facebook recently posted to ask, “What’s different this time?”, a sincere invitation to ponder what caused the video of an incident of police brutality in Minneapolis resulting in the murder of George Floyd to catch fire. Today, I watched the video Trevor Noah posted about a week …