For those families going to London this fall, (which is probably none of us but this site sounds so exciting and cosmopolitan when I start a post that way, doesn’t it?) there’s an exhibit at the Victoria & Albert Museum called Disobedient Objects. The exhibition is a celebration of our natural ability to break rules.
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In education we continue to approach the same problems with the same sorts of solutions, despite the fact that they’re not working. Instead, we need a fundamental shift in how we educate our children. Our public school system was designed to meet the needs of a long-ago era—the Industrial Age. Old ways are not working because now, we are in the Information Age. Read more
This is a guest post from Daphne Gray-Grant. She is a writing and publication coach.
We started homeschooling our three kids because I’d hated school as a child. I wanted to give them a better life and I knew that had nothing to do with the public school down the street. Or with sitting at the kitchen table supervising math and English workbooks. Read more
The huge momentum behind homeschooling today is mostly fueled by the huge disappointment of public school. Academic research shows estimates that homeschooling in the US growing at up to 15% a year. Increasingly, competent parents see conventional education as an antique practice designed only to get kids out of the house. Read more
In my career coaching life I have noticed many patterns that come up over and over again.
- For example, many women who are 35 and unmarried have commitment issues.
- Many men who are 45 and want coaching have a family with a burn rate that is on track to exceed their earning power.
- First-generation immigrants in their 20s don’t have career problems as much as they have parent problems.
Now that I’ve been coaching people about how to start homeschooling, I’ve noticed a pattern there as well. And it surprises me: The most common struggle with homeschoolers is money. Specifically, many people I coach are a two-income family and would have to change to one income so one parent (mostly) could homeschool. Read more
As a career coach I’m constantly stunned by how unprepared kids are for the workforce. Teachers and parents spend tons of time telling kids to get good grades and get into a good school, but no one mentions that good grades actually have little correlation to workplace success. Read more
I have let my kids run wild all over our farm, doing whatever they want, even in the almost-dark of early autumn evenings.
We have a lot of land. They have a lot of choices. Read more
Donalyn Miller is a reading expert who also writes a blog. I took a look at her site today and the first post I read was about how the reading curriculum does not encourage reading. You already know the arguments, but one interesting one Miller added is that she read three picture books with her granddaughter but the books did not count as reading because there are no words.
I have been reading tributes to Joan Rivers for the last three days. Some, like this sign my friend saw in London, are very funny. Nearly all of the tributes acknowledge how Joan Rivers was groundbreaking in comedy. Read more
I want to tell my friends who send their kids to school to STOP STOP STOP this is crazy. Ours will be the last generation of educated parents to send their kids to public school. How will you explain to your kids that you didn’t see that school is a waste of time? Will you say everyone else was doing it? Really? STOP STOP STOP!!! Read more