Tag: students

Americans love their brick and mortar schools. It’s part of the traditional public education system. But in other parts of the world, leaders have learned to adapt to their environments by creating learning spaces anywhere and everywhere. Most recently, Getting Smart’s Nate McClennen sat down with Mohammed Rezwan, who has spent over 20 years increasing…

There are millions of kids in the world who do not go to brick and mortar schools (think of rural India and China). Instead, these young learners work on their reading, writing, and problem-solving skills wherever they can find a place to learn. Instead of thinking of these global microschools as strange, like many Americans…

It used to be that the Republicans was the party interested in privatizing education in this country. The Republicans were friendly to private schools, charter schools, and vouchers – anything to improve America’s failing public school system. The Democratic Party were always the ones playing the role of cheerleader for America’s public education system, especially…

Stronger and smarter learners depend on the ability to make good decisions. When learners develop their own learning plans, when they define, plan, execute, and evaluate their own learning, they make hundreds if not thousands of decisions about what and how they will learn. Recently, Arthur C. Brooks, a contributing writer to The Atlantic and…

Traditional K-12 leadership hold two beliefs dear. First, they believe that their system serves the public – all of the public. Second, they believe that public education is essential to the future of democracy. In a recent EducationWeek article, reporter Chad Aldeman took on both premises. Aldeman writes, “Is public education the foundation of American…

To be an effective learner, you must have a growth mindset – meaning you must be comfortable with change and all it brings to you. Recently, I watched Maya Shankar, host of the podcast “A Slight Change of Plans’ deliver a TED talk on “Why Change is So Scary – and How to Unlock its…

When you spend a week at a vacation lake house in northern Minnesota with family, there’s always a chance the topic of “how to fix public education” might pop up as a kitchen conversation. This visit, while I was washing the breakfast dishes, my sister-in-law wondered out loud if we should pay our public school…