There is big debate among academics about whether patriotism and nationalism should be a goal of public education. On the surface, the debate is whether nationalism leads to nefarious practices (war, for example), or whether nationalism is a prerequisite for making a sacrifice to the community, which is a prerequisite for distributive justice. Read more
I expected that homeschooling would make me militant. After all, I get asked all the time, “Why do you homeschool?” And the only reasonable answer is that I think school is bad/stupid/useless/dishonest/whatever so I took my kids out. Read more
A veteran teacher shadowed two students for two days and then wrote about her experience. She has a lot of good observations but her overwhelming takeaway is that sitting all day is exhausting. Even as a teacher for decades in classrooms, she never realized how much kids sit and how physically and emotionally painful that experience is.
When I was dating my husband and he was trying to get rid of me (over and over again) he would frequently invoke the idea that if my kids and I moved to his farm, we’d be snowed in a lot. “You might get snowed in ten or fifteen days a winter.”
The idea seemed glorious, and only served to make me more persistent every time he tried to break up. Read more
I read about families in Israel that settle the West Bank. I am a Jewish person who is horrified by the treatment of the Palestinians by Israel, but I don’t have any good solution, so I’m reticent to pass judgment. Mostly, I just try to do good when I have the opportunity.
This is an excerpt from the book Humans of New York, by Brandon Stanton. The book is a compendium of street photography and stories from the people in the pictures.
“His grandmother and I are raising him. I worry about putting him into the public school system. I was a teacher for many years. I’ve seen so much confidence destroyed by the standardized system.
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The most heart-wrenching stories come to me in my email, from teachers.
This is one that really got to me:
Hi Penelope. I homeschooled my kids, and now I work a couple of days a week as a school aide. Read more
For a while I thought it was okay for my son to be in school because he was two grades ahead when he entered first grade and really, he just wanted to be in school because he loves other kids. I ignored so much so I wouldn’t have to face the terrifying thought of homeschooling. But I see now that when a kid is smart and rich –that’s the time it’s most important to take them out of school. Here’s why: Read more
People protect the idea of the school teacher like it’s part of the foundation of the thirteen colonies, inherent in the core of our American being. But it’s not. It’s actually the result of the destruction of family. Starting only with the industrial revolution, while the rich people who needed factory workers were advocating that we put kids in school all day under the premise that the parents were incompetent. Read more
I’ve structured my kids lives to find the very best teachers for them and I have so much respect for the adults in my kids’ lives who know exactly what to do to help them grow into their best selves. Read more