When it comes to backto school time, everyone has his or her own perspective. For parents, the list of to-dos sometimes feels daunting. Buying school supplies and clothes, planning daycare and activity schedules, arranging for immunizations or athletic physicals, and re-arranging the household priorities to account for the demands of the school year are just some of the tasks involved.... READ MORE >
There is a saying that basketball teams are made from November to March, but that basketball players are made from March to November. It expresses the shifting balance between the development of individual skills and the application of those skills in specific settings or toward specific goals. Schools are specific settings and academic standards with specific goals in the application... READ MORE >
Perhaps sooner than we’d like, and perhaps more dramatically, signs of change are all around us: longer periods of daylight, warmer temperatures, county road restrictions…. Spring is imminent and as much as we may have been looking forward to more of our favorite winter activities, we need to respond to the nature of the new season. So, too, in education;... READ MORE >
This year marks the 20th anniversary of charter schools. In 1991, Minnesota became the first state in the nation to pass a charter school law. In 2009, that law was updated to strengthen accountability and foster increased innovation. But why create another type of public school in the first place? Recognizing that not all children were finding success in traditional... READ MORE >
Laugh in their face, or bite my tongue and walk away? Those are the two options that jump to mind when someone remarks how great it must be to work in education and have my summers off. Thankfully, I rarely follow through with either of those, often managing a brief explanation of how it is more “different” than “off” and... READ MORE >
A familiar saying warns that our respect for both sausage and legislation is enhanced if we avoid witnessing the process by which each is made. Speaking as a sausage lover, I can appreciate the sentiment. However, I think our society has not been well served by the generally apathetic attitude we have developed toward the many political events that occur... READ MORE >
I don’t like sending my money to Washington, D.C. so career politicians can build airports and bridges we don’t need and put their names on them. I don’t like sending my money to St. Paul so less famous but equally entrenched politicians can fund programs that spend more on their own operations than on the people they were intended to... READ MORE >
