There are teachers who always teach the same grades, and always do the same things with the children in their classes. It may be that these teachers are in a “groove,” and are doing what they do remarkably well. It may be that it would be a big mistake to move these teachers out of…
Throughout school, as far as I can remember, I hated science. Science was, for me, what music was for other kids – something you just had to put up with. Being allergic to formaldehyde, I was unable to stand being in the room to disect frogs. When we had to do projects, I had no…
When I was a child, my parents unknowingly hired a bunch of teachers for me and my siblings. These teachers had never worked in schools, and didn’t know much about child development or curriculum. They were great at classroom management; in fact, we were spellbound, hanging on their every word. My two favorites were Popeye…
“Discipline” was an important word when I first started teaching. It meant something related to what “classroom management” now means. In fact, “discipline” is still used by some people, and the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably. It may be that it’s still commonly used to mean adult “control” of children, but I prefer to…
The teachers assigned to teach your child in school are not the only people to teach your child. You know that. We mostly teach your child how to do schoolwork. We sometimes make valiant efforts to include the rest of life in our curriculum, and we succeed to varying degrees. But no matter how hard…
If you are a good parent, you want to do as much as you can to make life go well for your child. If we didn’t have schools, and the custom was to hire a teacher to teach your child, you would probably be pretty picky. You would want a teacher who shared certain values…
The issue of parent requests not to have certain teachers is a difficult one, and I’ve faced it both as a parent and as a teacher. This article will tell you how it feels to one teacher, and my next article will tell you how it feels to one parent. We’re both the same person,…
At least twice a year, parents and teachers have conferences to discuss children’s progress. The conferences are mostly friendly encounters. There may be some anxiety at first (Am I parenting well? Am I teaching well?), but it doesn’t usually last long. Because these conferences are such a time-honored tradition, we are apt to forget an…
Homework is many issues. Years ago, treating it as one issue, I opposed it. I didn’t give homework, and I responded to parents who wanted it by suggesting things they could do at home. I thought of many reasons parents might have wanted their children to have homework – none of them good reasons. When…
People occasionally talk about a pendulum that swings back and forth, indicating the philosophical trend that is in style. There’s an educational pendulum, a political pendulum, and I’m sure that people immersed in theology, sociology, and other disciplines have their pendula. I don’t like the image, and don’t accept it. Our species is not where…