I recently read Richard Rothstein’s commencement address given at the Bank Street Graduate School of Education on May 14th, 2015. I would like to share some of his thoughts and then suggest some responses for teachers in public schools today. Here are some points Rothstein made in his speech (with liberties taken by this author): […]
I was born and raised in a working class, coal mining town in Pennsylvania. That past has been popping up in my thoughts as Carol and I have recently been searching for a house. It seems that the fact that the most money I have in my wallet at any one time never exceeds twenty […]
Hate crime, genocide, murder, terrorism – these are some of the terms that apply to the church murders in Charleston, S.C. I am writing this post because I feel the need to speak out – to register my alarm and disgust at what has happened. I believe that white people can speak directly to other […]
I have been writing a number of blog entries about my teaching experiences, but have included some family stories and now, another story about my experiences as a volunteer in a wildlife clinic. I am working on a blog entry about the ethical dilemmas facing teachers in this era of standardized teaching and standardized tests, […]
I vividly recall the first words of advice the wildlife rehabilitator gave me just after he had demonstrated for me how to hold on to a hawk’s legs while he examined the hawk — “Don’t worry if you get an itch or sweat in your eyes. Don’t worry if a hurricane or an earthquake strikes. […]
Teaching and learning can occur in varied locations. Last weekend Carol and I made the annual Memorial Day visit to family cemeteries with my sister Pat, her husband Skip and their grandson Nick. One of the values of this trip is that family stories are told and added to by the other family members, resulting […]
Today marks the 30th year since the MOVE catastrophe in Philadelphia – 11 deaths and 65 homes destroyed. This incident has, hopefully, been integrated into the public school curriculum (but I have my doubts that it even appears there). I was not living in Philly when it happened but I was watching and reading about […]
I was feeling frustrated and burned out after five years of teaching in an urban middle/high school. Looking for ways to rejuvenate my mind and my practice I began turning to the idea of joining teacher networks. There were three networks that provided the spark that I was looking for – Seeking Educational Equity and […]
It seems that public education is eliciting many opinions, especially from the mayoral candidates, about how to fund schools and what do to about the SRC. Sanity levels seem to be rising as most of the candidates favor eliminating the SRC (a good move). Replacing the SRC brings out varying positions, but that is a […]
The question came to me after two things that just happened. One is the removal (hopefully on a permanent basis) of Mr. Green as the chairperson of the SRC and the second is a bit of reading I have been doing in Taylor Branch’s “At Canaan’s Edge”. Branch wrote about a sermon that Martin Luther […]
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