On this journey I want to visit schools of all kinds to find out what innovation means, and how it is, or is not, taking root. Today’s post is about a school with more than 200 years of tradition, history, and success at fulfilling their mission. Why would a school like that worry about innovation? [...]
I made an unscheduled visit to St. Andrew’s Episcopal in Middletown, DE this week. A colleague of a colleague Tweet messaged me in the morning to see if I could come down from Philly. Think about that: someone I had never met face-to-face got ahold of me via a pathway I did not have until [...]
I made it to the Atlantic. Top Ten Pieces of Advice for Anyone Else Thinking of Leaving Home for 12 Weeks to Drive All Over and Stay in Cheap Hotels and Eat Bad Restaurant Food: Don’t; you must be crazy Sometimes crazy is what needs to be done Don’t really need more Things I Find [...]
The existential issue in education of our time, particularly in the public sector, is the tension between teaching to the test and teaching for the skills that students will actually need in their futures. It is unlikely that I will see that issue playing out any more clearly on my journey, and with a good [...]
The only resources that schools have are money, time, people, space, and knowledge. Schools are constructed around the units of time, subject, age, and achievement. It is critical to understand that the one common element of what we need to function and how we are organized is time. This post is about a lot of [...]
Reflections and Questions From the Second Week So many miles of stunted, brown corn across the upper Midwest. Sad, but global climate change is not a myth and it has real implications. Many great lessons we can share from both public and private schools. It is not about the name on the school but what [...]
One of the precepts for my journey is that both private and public education have much to offer in terms of innovation for the future. They face different challenges in terms of funding, politics, value proposition, and demographics, but learning is not public or private, it is learning. Already in the last two weeks we [...]
My great-great aunt and uncle founded Francis Parker School in San Diego in 1912, and in the last 14 years I have been proud to give my time and expertise, along with some blood and sweat, to help transform that great school. So it was a bit like returning to the Mother Ship when I [...]
Around my house, “old school” is one of the great compliments we can give. We are a volleyball family, and the best player in the history of the game (and new coach of the USA women’s team) is Karch Kiraly, who defines “old school” volleyball: good at every position, great at the basics, and willing [...]
Great schools have a clear mission that is known and shared by faculty, students, and administration. I have visited schools with a variety of missions, but I may never have been at a school with a more pervasive sense of mission than at Crossroads Prep in St. Louis. At Crossroads, from the Head down to [...]