This post is a lovely essay by Clare Coffey that was recently published in The Bulwark. Here's a link to the original. It's an ode to the most wonderful of civic institutions in American life: the snow day. Can you remember what if felt like when you woke up one morning, dreading the thought of … Continue reading An Ode to Snow Days
This post is a classic essay by Philip Jackson from his 1974 book, Life in Classrooms. Here's a link to the original. To me, it's the best piece that has ever been written about "the daily grind" that students experience in elementary classrooms, which I often used in my classes. It's all about the hidden … Continue reading Philip Jackson — The Daily Grind
This post is a piece I wrote for Kappan, published in the March 2020 edition. Here’s a link to the PDF. It was also reprinted in my latest book, The Ironies of Schooling. Bureaucracies are often perceived as inflexible, impersonal, hierarchical, and too devoted to rules and red tape. But here I make a case for these characteristics … Continue reading Two Cheers for School Bureaucracy
This post is a piece from a recent edition of The Economist. Here's a link to the original. It focuses on a key issue in educational policy in the developing world. When you expand educational opportunity to a population that has had little access in the past, where do you focus your efforts? As the … Continue reading India’s Education Problem
This post is a lovely essay by Steven Mintz, which was published in January in Inside Higher Ed. Here's a link to the original. It connects with a piece I posted here a couple weeks earlier, looking at the way schools turn off students and what college might do to improve their own ability to engage … Continue reading Steven Mintz — Most Kids Find K-12 Education Boring and Stressful
This post is a new piece I published several years ago in Kappan. Here's a link to the original. It's a response to an essay by Jal Mehta proposing a new US grammar of schooling, and it refers to a piece I wrote for Kappan with my take on understanding the roots of this grammar. … Continue reading The Attractions of Doing School
I published this op-ed in the San Jose Mercury News four years ago, in the early stages of the pandemic. Here’s a link to the original. It now appears as a chapter in my new book, The Ironies of Schooling. If anything, its relevance is even more apparent now than it was in 2020. Consider … Continue reading The Triumph of Efficiency over Effectiveness — in Both Public Health and Public Schooling
This post is an essay by David Brooks that appeared in The Atlantic in late June. Here's a link to the original. It's a tribute to people who were late bloomers. They didn't make it big right at the start of their careers but found their way to a more satisfying and substantial life of accomplishment … Continue reading David Brooks — Late Bloomers
This post is an essay by Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider, which was published recently in The Nation. Here's a link to the original. It draws from their new book, which I highly recommend: The Education Wars: A Citizen’s Guide and Defense Manual. Their core argument is that the pressure for school choice -- "fund students … Continue reading Berkshire and Schneider — Why “Fund Students not Systems” Is a Recipe for Disaster
This post is a new essay of mine that was published two years ago in Kappan. Here's a link to the original. And here's a link to the pdf. It is also reprinted as a chapter in my new book, The Ironies of Schooling. The essay focuses on an issue I've been thinking about for years, … Continue reading The Fraught Connection between State and School
David Labaree on Schooling, History, and Writing 