I’ve been reading a lot of posts on Twitter from parents who are not happy campers. They didn’t plan on serving as ad hoc teachers for their out-of-school students during this pandemic.  Some are discouraged, others are exhausted, still others don’t know where to start.  For those parents who have these burn-out symptoms and can manage...Read More

In 1968, futurist educator George Leonard wrote a book called Education and Ecstasy, which had a chapter titled ”Visiting Day, 2001 A.D.”  In this chapter he described a learning environment for kids where they would have access to all cultural knowledge via giant ten-foot square screens.  While our screens are usually smaller in 2020 A.D.,...Read More

You’re child is a genius.  No, I don’t mean that your child is an Einstein or a Picasso or a Martha Graham.  I’m using the word ”genius” in its original meaning which relates to ”giving birth” (e.g. genesis) and ”bringing pleasure” (e.g. genial).  Thus, being a genius means giving birth to joy, and I believe...Read More

Over the past thirty years, I’ve sought to explain to educators and parents that each child is a natural genius, born with innate curiosity, creativity, playfulness, imagination, wonder, wisdom, and many other qualities besides.  As many great thinkers have pointed out, the challenge is not how to get our children to be creative or curious,...Read More

Curiosity is built into the human genome.  It’s really a question of life or death. If we hadn’t been curious as a species, it’s likely that we would not have survived to pass along those curiosity genes.  Curiosity endowed our ancestors with the ability to pay close attention to the environment, especially when it underwent...Read More