Essays 1-20

When I was in junior high school, a friend whose thinking I trusted heard me during one of the many marathon talking sessions I had back then (I’ve cut back somewhat since then), and said to me, “Bob, you don’t have to talk.” I was taken aback by his comment. While the statement was literally…

I’m confused about the issue of bilingual education. At first, I thought I’d avoid writing about it untIl I was able to think clearly about it, but I’m beginning to think that confusion about it is evidence of clear thinking. If I’m ever able to stand confidently on one side of the issue, I’ll write…

The Pat I’m writing to is a fictional character – a composite of all the people who, for one reason or another, didn’t think I was doing a very good job teaching. Pat may have been a parent, a teacher, an administrator, or a child. There were more people who thought that way in 1969,…

We’re a culture that puts a lot of faith in research. I have some faith in it myself. But sometimes I wonder what kind of thinking would motivate anyone to volunteer for a control group. Other times, I wonder about the experimental group. If I were supposed to die of some terrible disease in six…

Sometimes a child has difficulty doing what’s supposed to be done in school. Ideally, the child, the child’s parent(s), and school personnel work together to figure out what the difficulty is and what can be done about it. Then the child is given timely and effective help, and what was difficult gets easier. This scenario…

If a teacher is lucky and skillful, sometimes a class can be a community of learners, all working together. Everyone in the class is motivated to learn what the teacher has planned to teach. They may have different reasons for being motivated: some may be sincerely interested in what is to be learned; some may…