The Price To Be Paid
Maybe, however, we do have a right to agree (by fiat) that making sense of the world, and above all of democracy is a prime goal of schooling in America. Read Full Post >
Recently in Curriculum Category
December 15, 2011
November 10, 2011
Wanted: Creative Resistance
It's not enough to be willing to die for democracy, one needs to live for it. But that takes a reorganizing of our ideas about what it means to be well-educated. Read Full Post >
November 03, 2011
The One Best Way ... Not
It will take longer and more complicated "sit-ins" to impact on the inequalities now rampant in our country. It will take creative thinking and an attitude toward each other's compromises that is sufficiently tolerant to allow for many routes to recapturing democracy. Read Full Post >
April 21, 2011
The Company We Keep, and Why It Matters
As students, we are in school at most a third of our waking hours every year. Given "how" we learn, how best can we bridge school and the other two-thirds "efficiently"? Read Full Post >
March 03, 2011
Solidarity With Strangers
When 5-year-old Darryl insisted his rock was a living thing, which is not factually correct, should I have demanded he comply with scientific consensus? Or take a vote? Or could we listen carefully and learn from him how he defines "living" vs. "nonliving", and see where that takes us? Read Full Post >
February 24, 2011
On the Ground in Wisconsin
Bob Peterson (of Rethinking Schools) came to talk about; when he finished, we all rose to applaud him and within 15 minutes we cancelled the day's remaining sessions, climbed into whatever vehicles we could find, and headed off to Madison—a two- to three-hour trip. Read Full Post >
February 03, 2011
Rules, Children, Schools, and Prisons
So if I sometimes call schools "prisons," I'm actually trying to be, but am not entirely being, literal. Young people are deprived of their liberty although they've committed no crime except being between the ages of 6 and 18? Read Full Post >
January 11, 2011
'Huckleberry Finn' and 'The Wire'
But I am even more offended by the prospect that Mark Twain's classic work will be expurgated, rewritten by someone who wants to shield readers from the book's original language. How did we become such delicate creatures that we cannot dare to read a word that might discomfit us? Read Full Post >
November 18, 2010
A Loud 'Yes, We Can!' From San Francisco
Once again, a small elite has come to a "consensus" long before there has been any national debate. In the interests of our commitment to schools that foster democracy, how can we do a better job of including "the people" in the conversation? Read Full Post >
November 04, 2010
The Trouble With National Standards
We're all entitled to "our opinions," but schooling should take us beyond "mere" opinions into tentative conclusions that once again are held with care. Will this approach lead to dilemmas? Yes, yes, yes. Read Full Post >
The opinions expressed in Bridging Differences are strictly those of the author and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.
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