My father went to medical school at McGill University in Montreal, Canada in the 1940’s at a time when there were some really distinguished physicians walking in the halls such as Hans Selye (the originator of the concept of ”stress”) and Wilder Penfield, who did a series of amazing experiments with surgery for epilepsy which...Read More

Let me start by telling a story based on actual classroom research.  A research psychologist gave 27 students in a high school classroom wireless pagers and told them that whenever they received a ”page” they were to write down on a form he’d given them whatever was going on in their minds at that moment. ...Read More

 This video presents a clear case for school reform based on how Albert Einstein might implement changes. It presents 12 school-based interventions using supporting quotations from Albert Einstein’s writings. The 12 ways include: focusing on imagination, opening children to a sense of wonder, promoting individuality over standardization, putting play back in preschool and kindergarten,...Read More

If you have a student who’s been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), you probably notice that they get bored with routine more easily than other kids.  In fact, I’m surprised that this dislike of boredom is not written into the diagnostic criteria for these kids.  But what I want to talk to you...Read More

When I was a special education teacher, most of my students had difficulty with academic tasks involving either words or numbers (or both).  However, many of these kids were gifted artists, cartoonists, Lego experts, mechanics, visualizers, and in other ways demonstrated competence in visual-spatial thinking.  Now, an exciting new article by a Duke researcher makes...Read More