Schools call it a problem, the flip side of distractibility and an identifying feature of ADD (ironically). Entrepreneurs and some progressive corporations call it a superpower, the heartbeat of “Deep Work”. For good or for bad, ‘’hyperfocus” has our attention, mine included — not as an academic or scholar on the subject, but as someone who has lived with it my … Read More
The Tension between Creativity and Productivity
A quick Google search for “to-do list” pulls 6,430,000,000 results in .45 seconds. I didn’t realize there was so much to say about a concept so simple that it’s literally defined by its title. But I guess gettin‘er done is the name of the game. In contrast, the word “idea” pulls 2,100,000,000 search results in .94 seconds, less than 3 … Read More
Common Sense Standard (CSS) #3
Education should be shaped around the students, not the other way around. When I taught in a public high school, my colleagues and I were often given opportunities to write curriculum for our respective departments for a fee. Not only did it seem like the curricula were continually being written and rewritten, but this task almost always felt like a … Read More
Common Sense Standard (CSS) #1
Education is training; not a performance, game or race to the top. It shouldn’t make or break anyone, but it should shape and build everyone. The way I see it, no one passes or fails in training. They simply get more or less out of it. Training equips, but it doesn’t prove anything. Education is Yoda training Luke how to … Read More
The Importance of Play
As a writing teacher, I love helping writers free themselves of certain not-so-great writing habits. It’s easy to trap yourself as a writer, going down well-worn paths, following forms and ideas already been done. Once you believe a poem or story should look a certain way, if you’re not careful, all your poems look that way. And where did you … Read More
Dream BIG and Find Home
I recently came across a social media meme that stated “If your dream doesn’t scare you, it’s too small.” Have you ever had an idea that made your heart pound? Or a vision for the future that you were embarrassed to share because it’s just “too ridiculous”? Little children dream freely like this all the time. This one wants to … Read More
Opting In
About this time last year I was free falling. I had refused to proctor the state mandated PARCC assessment and stood to lose my job as a NJ public school teacher of 13 years. In the words of my union lawyer whose counsel I desperately sought, I was “putting myself in front of a buzzsaw.” I remember how rattled I … Read More
Nurturing Creativity
In 2006 the on-line TED.com talk by Sir Ken Robinson “Do Schools Kill Creativity” initiated in me a profound desire to change the high school experience for the young people in my care at the time. One of my favourite snippets from the talk is this: I heard a great story recently — I love telling it — of a … Read More
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