Maybe you’ve reached a point where you consider your child/student (choose one or more):  unmotivated, lazy, spoiled, hyper, inept, bratty, inattentive, unmanageable, messy, distractible, beyond redemption.   Before you give up on your child, consider what the following parents and teachers felt about their own children and students: “This fat, little fellow goes around in a...Read More

Why is it that we expect children to sit quietly in their seats while they’re being taught in school?  We even use the word “seatwork” to describe this behavior.  I want to know who made this decision.  I can imagine some grizzled old scholar somewhere in Europe during the late eighteenth century thinking:  “You know, I really like...Read More

The word “alignment” has many meanings:  there’s wheel alignment, body alignment, road alignment, and many other kinds of alignment.  But when the word is used in the field of education, that should be a red flag to educators and parents.  Beware!  Usually the word is used in reference to the curriculum at different age and grade levels. ...Read More

I have noticed that kids in Scandinavia are allowed to play in freer ways than in the United States.  For example, in one elementary school that I visited in Norway, kids were climbing trees, and they were really high up – I was very concerned for their safety.  And yet the teachers seemed perfectly at...Read More

I was just reading an article on the website “Disability Scoop” about inclusion of kids with intellectual disabilities in Connecticut’s public schools.  Connecticut ranks second in the country in terms of the percentage of intellectually disabled kids mainstreamed in regular classrooms.  So one might view the state’s efforts as exemplary.  However, the article indicates that many of these students sit...Read More