It’s a new year, and with it comes a new crop of educational bills in the state legislature. Recently our local paper, wrote an editorial against school voucher programs. Embedded in article were a summary of a few of the new bills. I picked a few of the more interesting ones to discuss today: (For [...]
Recently the local newspaper wrote an editorial about the school voucher debate (I prefer to call it a debacle, not sure where the real debate is). The article was… interesting… I don’t really know what to take from the article other than the newspaper is against school vouchers. So where does that leave us? Not [...]
A recent article in Time caught my attention: a discussion by many school systems to sell ad space within their building. This brings up a very controversial topic. Today, I’m going to add my own two cents. Stay with me, this might begin rambling… For As documented everywhere, systems are losing money. States and local [...]
Over the break, I read a lot of news articles dealing with education reform. All agreed that something needs to be done, but disagreed on what. Now, I am all for healthy disagreement to search for the best possible solution to any problem. However, in education, I think we need a change now. I really [...]
Education is the transmission of civilization. — Will Durant What is citizenship? What does it mean to be an American? What should we teach to students about being an American? How do we approach these very complicated topics? Being a high school social studies teacher, these questions come up a lot. I constantly wonder what [...]
At my last school we had a serious problem with attendance… not that every school doesn’t, but ours was annoying. When hired, I was told by many friends and colleagues that private schools have much better attendance because parents are much more involved. I hate to say this, but my experience has shown this to [...]
With the continuing debate about school budgets, I thought I would look into the actual costs of educating children in K12 public schools. Turns out it’s very hard to get any definite information on school budgets and costs. I know, I know public schools are public entities and therefore have to have their budgets open [...]
“When you speak your words echo only across the room. But when you write, your words echo down the ages.” — Bud Gardner So I love writing… but like many casual writers, I often have trouble getting started. And if I have problems getting started, I know my students have trouble. How do teachers deal [...]
As part of my real job, I routinely read blogs about social networking, privacy, and security. While scrolling through a tech blog, I ran across the article at the end of the post. It jumped straight out at me. A tech and education article in one! And a topic that have a wrestled with throughout [...]
“The best gift of all: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in one another.” It truly is the best thing of all. It would be wonderful if all my students came from the perfect happy family, but I know that’s not reality. I have had students that came from many types [...]