Essays 1-20

If you’re a teacher, there’s probably another teacher next door or down the hall, doing what you’re doing, but not the way you’re doing it. Ideally, you get some time to trade successful ideas with this teacher, and warn each other about possible problems. Ideally, you respect each other and see each other as comrades…

Most people aren’t very good at spelling, and most people who are good at it never had any trouble with it. There have been all kinds of studies done to find out whether there are any ways to explain why some people can spell and some can’t. The last time I checked, which was in…

Jeannette is an outgoing seven year old girl who lives near me. She shouts out “Hi, Bob!” every time I pass by where she’s playing. And if I don’t shout back, “Hi, Jeannette!” (if I have something in my mouth, or am talking with someone else), she shouts “Hi, Bob!” again. She doesn’t give up….

When children are ready to go to school, many parents are faced with a decision: public school or private school? If public school, which town or city has good schools? If private school, which one? It can be a complex decision, and there’s a tendency to try to simplify it by leaning on stereotypes. Some…

I remember what it was like to get lots of put-downs. Some people may have been kidding; I often responded to put-downs with humor, and maybe some people thought that meant I wasn’t bothered. In fact, sometimes I wasn’t bothered; if people made fun of aspects of myself I didn’t consider important anyway, that was…

I was once in a school cafeteria, having lunch with a small group of second-graders. The place was about as noisy as school cafterias usually are at lunchtime. At our table, we were asking each other riddles. I was politely pretending not to know the answers. We were having fun. Suddenly, the lunch monitor’s voice…