School? From whence the word?

Our word “school” has an interesting derivation…
Latin
Etymology
From Ancient Greek σχολή
Noun
schola (genitive scholae); f, first declension

Leisure time given to learning.
A school; a place for learning or instruction.
A student body; the disciples of a teacher.
A sect; body of followers of a teacher or system, such as the Praetorian guard.
An art gallery.

How close or far from the above ideas are we?  Is there any connection between leisure and learning in our [...]

Vouchers and Gummit

Someone led me to this link for a recent Glen Beck sound bite.  Maybe its worth five your minutes, maybe not:
http://www.edspresso.com/index.php/2009/03/oh-now-thats-a-good-idea/

How does a vision become a commonly held vision?

It has now been years since I discovered the most exciting metaphor I currently own for what is collectively going on in “education,” “schooling,” and “learning.” I don’t now remember the day, time, or activity which brought me to the realization that the entirety of those ideas above are subsumed in the word, “conversation” [...]

It’s a Really Big Show Coming Up – Andrew Kern

You see, there’s this guy and he and I have this internet radio conference not on tv kind of show thing that we call the Pluto and Plato Show. And now we have an awesome guest signed on for Sept. 25. Andrew Kern is going to talk with us about how to lead [...]

Un-Rest a U Rant

Wierd title to simply say that my current level of unrest and nonleisure has prevented me from doing much blogging. I will get back to it as soon as I have some time to think, clearly, I hope, that is to say, maybe.

Here I am, on the scene, high above my child’s life…

What an interesting new addition to modern phraseology: “helicopter parenting.”  I am going to assume that most of us have heard this enough to find out what it dennotes, and to then shake our heads as educators over how prevalent we know the phenomenon of parents “hanging” over their children has become.   And it is [...]

Peevish about Percentiles

I just love the mentality ol’ Gilbert Highet states in his work, The Art of Teaching. He explains his title by stating,
“I believe that teaching is an art, not a science. It seems to me very dangerous to apply the aims and methods of science to human beings as individuals, although a statistical principle can [...]

Deconstructing Derrida

Recently some of my staff and I have been discussing the issue of teaching students to read. At the heart of the current stream of thought is the ongoing shout match between “phonics” and “whole language” theories.
In the course of our discussion, I mentioned that “whole language” was more than simply a method or technique, [...]

Deconstructing Derrida

Recently some of my staff and I have been discussing the issue of teaching students to read. At the heart of the current stream of thought is the ongoing shout match between “phonics” and “whole language” theories.
In the course of our discussion, I mentioned that “whole language” was more than simply a method or technique, [...]

Whole Language Defined

Though this is a little old now, the points ring true. Normally Blumenfeld has an edge, so don’t judge him by his swagger but by his reasoning and ratio.
Whole Language Defined
8/27/2002
Dr. Samuel Blumenfeld
The other day, I received an e-mail from a lady in California who asked, “What on earth is the whole-language system?” She [...]