Judging children by their date of birth

I have written before, or if I haven't I should have, about the craziness of placing children in classes according to their birthdates. I have been known to call this practice "birthday-based apartheid". It is ludicrous. anti-educational and anti-child. 

Has the US effectively (and unknowingly) re-created its school system?

I've been thinking about this for a while, and I think the answer is "yes". School in the US today is not what is was.

Truth or dare (to tell a lie)

Reading and listening to this morning's news reminded me of a discussion in which I have participated several times. What is a "lie" and how should schools approach this definition? 

Cameras are not the holy grail

The current debate over police bodycams reminds me of a time when a prospective parent demanded we place cameras in preschool spaces so that she could check in on her child at any time. I said no.

So much Published Educational "Research" is just not good

There. I've said it. It's true and it's concerning. Let me explain.

What happens to whistleblowing teachers?

I have just had an interesting offline discussion prompted by my reflections in "Failing up". The former teacher does not want to go public, but has said I can tell his story. Joe was a Head of Department in a large school, responsible for a department with eleven other teachers, and all Language Arts programs for almost 1000 students. He also had a Principal who had failed up.

Close Distancing

Over the last few weeks. I have noticed something a little odd. I have seen lines of people waiting outside a bank, a drugstore, a school. I am sure that these lines indicate well-meaning, public health motivated measures so why is this odd? 

Bad Science

Regular readers will know that I once founded a school, and when doing so, I made a program decision that Preschool and Elementary teachers would be generalists, ie they would teach all the core subjects, and that Middle and High School teachers would be specialists, ie they would teach one or two subjects only. I also implemented an Elementary program where the core subjects were all integrated, and "science" or "geography" as such did not exist. Things went well, very well in fact.

What's in your wallet? Not Capital One.

I was listening to the radio this morning and a commercial caught my ear. It reminded me why I will not go near Capital One.

Advocates say students should never be expelled

A report of a discussion about student exclusion in the UK, aka "expulsion", noted that the position being debated was that students should never be expelled, and that any expulsion is a mark of failure for that school. I beg to differ.