The book is Sweating the Small Stuff:  Inner-City Schools and the New Paternalism, by David Whitman, and it examines six schools that are succeeding, in part because they explicitly teach middle-class values.  The Core Knowledge blog and Thoughts on Education have thoughtful articles responding to the book. The question is, are these ...

Splatypus’s comment about my last post got me thinking about the days when I taught kindergarten in one high-poverty school after another. Kindergarten can be high-stress for a teacher.  And not just because her students are living in poverty and have all the problems that go with poverty.  Kindergarten can be high-stress because ...

I have long been intrigued by KIPP schools and what they accomplish.  As a public school teacher, I am chagrined by the way my school in particular — and my district in general — are failing our African-American and Latino students.  KIPP schools work miracles, and I support them whole-heartedly. I wonder, though, how what KIPP schools ...

Does your child need to go to preschool before kindergarten?  Does every child need to go?  What do kids need to learn before kindergarten, anyway? I think preschool is great, but it isn’t necessary for everyone.  If you are raising your child at home, and you’re reading to her, talking to her, playing with her, taking [...]

This article in the San Jose Mercury News reports that only 15% of preschol-age children living in poverty are in high-quality programs.  This is where I want to tear my hair out and rant that we should more like the French and the Italians, and have universal preschool.  This is where I want to run around [...]

Well, duh, yes of course it does.  But when I saw that that was the title of an op-ed piece in the LA Times, explaining why Reading First isn’t working, I rolled my eyes and figured it would be more moaning about how parents aren’t doing their jobs, so teachers can’t do theirs.  (I’ve heard [...]

Forty years have passed since the assassination of Reverend Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. America lost a pure soul and a charismatic leader who tried to unite people. Many television programs devoted time to memorialize one of the true kings of justice and equality. His surname is such an appropriate fit.   Someone said that “Dr. King is more ...