Old friend David Heekin continues his challenges of Ted Wachtel’s “pie in the sky” ideas.
Can Restorative Practices Save Black Lives in Detroit?
This is the fifth in a series of articles by Kerra L. Bolton, on her experiences with restorative practices in the city of Detroit. by Kerra L. Bolton One of the things that struck me most during my visit to Detroit in June, to document citizen-led efforts to transform the Motor City into a “restorative” […]
Restorative Practices Give Hope to Hope Academy Charter School
This is the fourth in a series of articles by Kerra L. Bolton, on her experiences with restorative practices in the city of Detroit. by Kerra L. Bolton Dr. Ronald Williams, superintendent of Hope Academy Charter School in Detroit, is a self-described “old school educator,” who spent most of his 30 years as a strict […]
My Journey to a New Reality
By Ted Wachtel I am delighted to introduce Kerra Bolton, a freelance journalist and opinion writer for CNN and others, who has won awards from The New York Times and the Gannett newspapers for her reporting. Kerra will introduce herself in her first post (below), and explain how she came to work with the BuildingANewReality.com website. […]
Measuring the Marigolds: The Folly of School Grading
by Ted Wachtel Inchworm, inchworm Measuring the marigolds. Seems to me you’d stop and see How beautiful they are. “If you cannot count it, it does not count,” is the official school motto. Without measurement, schools would not be schools. I estimate that I spent the equivalent of between one and two full school years […]
Compulsory Education
By Ted Watchel The day before I started my first year of teaching, I put the following quotation from George Santayana on the bulletin board in ominous black letters: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” The quotation stayed up for several weeks, until I changed it to a display of […]
Skating Away
The Arizona highway seemed an endless blur, edged by desert sand, and topped with a starry night sky. Sue, Josh and Benjie slept behind me in the van, while my thoughts flew back to Pennsylvania. Angry thoughts. Confused thoughts. Replaying the events that led to my resignation from the public schools and to our present […]
Why Schools Should Be Going Around In Circles
West Philadelphia High School was the worst. Suspensions and expulsions didn’t stop the frequent fights and fire setting. The good news is that “restorative practices” came to West Philadelphia. “Circles have changed our class because we’ve had to talk to one another. It’s not just the teachers. It’s all of us together. So we’ve kind of had to come together as a team and talk.”
Learning is Natural — School is Optional
Ken Danford, founder of North Star Self-Directed Learning Center, has demonstrated that teens can learn and succeed without high school and its mandatory attendance, tests and grades. North Star now serves as the model for “Liberated Learners,” a network that helps new programs replicate North Star’s successful efforts to support learning beyond the schoolhouse.
Learning
Spirit Enterprise Learning Justice Governance Care We confuse learning with schooling. Learning is too often measured by the number of years spent in school and the number of diplomas collected. Informal learning, acquired through direct experience, and self-directed learning, driven by personal interest, are usually regarded as less worthy than school learning. We salute those […]
