I recently remembered a bizarre and painful phenomenon that occurred in my elementary school years. Although I had plenty to say at home (a fact to which my harried mother would have attested!), I recoiled at the prospect of speaking at school. I never raised my hand to volunteer answers, but despite that (or maybe, […]
Dr. Markham: Feelings
Most of us learned as children that our feelings were unacceptable, even dangerous. Dr. Laura Markham from Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids
Holt: Where Children Learn to Be Stupid
To a very great degree, school is a place where children learn to be stupid. A dismal thought, but hard to escape. Infants are not stupid. Children of one, two, or even three throw the whole of themselves into everything they do. They embrace life and devour it; it is why they learn so fast […]
Arthur C. Clarke
If children have interest, then education happens. -Arthur C. Clarke
Paley: Respecting Tears
Decisions about fairness, it seems, often appear as the result of someone’s tears. We teachers are not overly fond of crying when there is no physical hurt, but the children insist that crying means something is unfair and needs to be corrected. It is never a case, for them, of the adult “giving in” to […]