Not seeing the best in our students is not as much an issue for them as it is for us. Many of them go happily along feeling free and knowing they just want to stay under the radar of parents, school, teachers and traditional expectations. Jimmy, for example, is a C-student who, “… trained us. […]
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Besides being creative, innovative, wildly successful and new-age businesses (that weren’t even dreamed of 30 years ago), do you know what Google, Amazon, Wikipedia & Sim City have in common? The founders of these companies (two at Google) have Montessori educations, says Peter Sims in the Wall Street Journal. What is “a Montessori education?” Although […]
Have you noticed that passion is a favorite new word? “I’m trying to find my passion.” “What if I don’t have a passion?” “You’re so lucky you found your passion.” “I just want my son to find his passion.” I find it inspiring to see that so many people have a passion for passion. It […]
I sometimes wonder why so much of what is considered “good literature” for ourselves and for students has to be dark, depressing, or unhappy. I’m not against stories in which something bad happens, but knowing that bad news seizes and clings, while good news slides right off us, I like to prime myself with uplifting […]
“Bring back Vo-Tech” and “Not everyone needs to go to college—some people would be better in the trades.” These are two comments I often hear when I speak about Gifts that Conflict with School™, The Myths of Education™, or Race to Nowhere. Now, those of you who have been on my calls or in my […]
What Scares You? For Anna, it’s driving. Watch her learn to use imagination to make it less scary:
In this video, Anna takes her first step in building resilience… Click on the Photo above to watch the video. Or go to youtube.
If a young adult you know is in the bottom 80% of the class, you may have been told that she is “an underachiever” (a polite way of saying lazy or dumb). Ask yourself, “Underachiever compared to what?” Compared to the narrowly-defined, standardized measures of school performance? Or compared to the abilities that will help […]
Successful. Entrepreneur. Prime Minister. Nobel Prize Winner. Scientist. Leader. What words come to mind when you think of people described by this list? Underachievers? Learning disabled? Unmotivated? These probably weren’t your first thoughts, but many people with these job titles weren’t good students. In fact, A BBC-study found that a “significant majority” of self-made millionaires […]
Originally posted on February 21, 2007 What would you expect to hear from a would-be superintendent if you asked him what he wants to change in the public school system? Smaller classes? Stronger academics? Improved test scores? These are often the words we hear proclaimed when discussing school improvement, so I was surprised and delighted […]
