Schools are scenes of extreme manipulation and coercion. Our national and state interest in them is less than benign, or as the soft-hearted among us might say, less than caring. Let us, residents of our…
Posts tagged school
Neither Men Nor Toadstools
AUDIO: Neither Men Nor Toadstools I’m inclined to think “teaching” and “instruction” in institutional contexts are only misguided industrial practice. The best that can be done (and one might admit it’s not nothing though suspect) is…
What is Learning?
Question: Define the purpose of guttering on a house. Answer: Choose the response that represents your thinking. a. to catch rain water coming off the roof b. to catch and direct rain water deflected by…
Schools (Don’t?) Matter, (Nor) Does Creativity?
Okay, I’ll confess to being less than tactful most of the time. But I gotta tell you, I’m pretty tired of one particular complaint that I hear (rather, read) again and again on education sites…
Discipline and Punish
Maybe you’re not 44 and so are not conversant with the movie Reality Bites (its genesis and presentation 20 years past), but I am. The down-and-out 20-something “losers” (heed my punctuation, please) in that film…
How We Learn: How We Don’t Learn
It’s possible that if I even hint at the name “Melville” to begin a piece anyone who sojourns here will click the “close” button and be well on their merry way. (Though surely there are…
Public Potluck Picnic Perfection
There is real humanity in the potluck picnic. Or rather, a humanity that is real: personal, physical, unmediated. Yesterday, after our annual, end-of-the-year elementary public school music program, the families of students in the the…
The Logic of Technagogy
Our advances in technology offer what we might call short-cuts to thinking and doing. The logic of technagogy might be stated thus: the more technology we use in elementary and secondary schools the less the…
Learning Bathroom Discipline: Let Freedom Aggregate
One of the abiding memories of school for many of us is the fact that you have to ask permission to use the bathroom and that that request can be denied you.* We are taught…
While You Still Have a Body: Rethinking Everything
The world dominated by humans operates outside of our frame of reference. No matter how hard you try it’s hard to think about the muddle when you are surrounded by it. It thinks you. Forgive…