What should we do when a child doesn’t want to go to school…ever? The standard approach is to assume something is wrong with the child and to use a combination of incentives and disincentives to get them to go. It feels like there is no other choice–go even if it’s distressing and even at great cost to mental health, well-being, … Read More
Let’s Not Force Our Kids Into Early Retirement
Several years ago, when I was a high school teacher, one of my students was seriously injured in a field hockey game. She was a star player and would probably have earned a scholarship to play field hockey. Her season, and possibly her entire field hockey career, was over. Right around the same time, I read an article, I think … Read More
A Dumping Ground?
The idea that if kids aren’t in a traditional school something must be wrong with them is pervasive. This is demonstrably not true, but it is a powerful idea in our country.
Jumping Off A Cliff! But, Not Really…
Princeton Learning Cooperative has been supporting young people and their families to be in charge of their life and education for the past 8 years. We’ve seen that providing a flexible, interest-based education in a welcoming community with caring adults can be a LIFE-CHANGING idea for young people. In order to get this flexibility to really do what is in … Read More
Things Work Out
In my last post, I wrote about my refusal to proctor the standardized PARCC tests, which I equated to free falling. Here I’d like to talk about how I landed that fall. It was not at all through any special powers or skills of my own. I don’t have super cliff-jumping capabilities. People have told me I was courageous, but … 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