There’s all this talk of ‘’best practices’’ in education but nobody talks about worst practices.  Here’s something that I think qualifies as a ‘’worst practice’’ – it involves educators’ propensity to teach mostly explicit knowledge as opposed to tacit knowledge.  Scientist and philosopher Michael Polanyi bases his understanding of ‘’tacit knowing’’ on the principle ‘’that...Read More

I’m getting fed up with the term ”data-driven instruction” that I keep hearing and reading about in the educational media.  To help articulate exactly why the word conjures up such a disagreeable sensation in my gut, I’ve listed seven reasons why the word should be stricken from every educator’s vocabulary. ”Data-driven instruction” is a term...Read More

One of the reasons that I’ve been enthusiastically teaching and writing about Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences for the past thirty-four years, is that it is so easy to understand and apply to one’s own personal life.  In this post, I’d like to demonstrate this to you by outlining how you can learn just...Read More

I’ve been hearing a lot about ”the science of reading” recently. This seems to be the new ne plus ultra ingredient in the ”best” reading programs.  It’s part of this ”evidence-based” nonsense that I’ve written about elsewhere in my blog.  As if some of us are going to sit back and let researchers in white coats...Read More

I’ve often claimed that every child is a genius.  This is sometimes misunderstood to mean that I think every child could be an Einstein or a Picasso.  I mean nothing of the kind.  I’m using the word ”genius” in its original meaning, which means ”to give birth” (it’s related etymologically to the word ”genesis”) and...Read More