592. No, Virginia

Gregory is a boy in third grade who does not particularly want teachers to teach him. He doesn’t mind doing what he considers learning, but not if the way he has to do it is by having teachers teach him. When he reads, he says words, and he says them pretty fast. For the most…

As June gets into people’s systems, things can start to change in a school. There are social dynamics going on, as well as individuals’ reactions to the approaching end of the school year. When people are caught up in it all, they can forget about some parts of it, and get obsessed with others. I’ll…

Once in a while, somebody creates something that’s really good – so good that people like it even when that somebody isn’t around any more. Then it’s called a classic. Some classics start to seem sacred; you aren’t supposed to change a word, note, or stroke of it. You’ve got to keep it exactly the…

In our society, when adults steal, they’re supposed to be punished. When children steal, they’re supposed to be taught not to. That’s the way our society works. Some people believe, as I do, that adults should also be taught not to steal, but I don’t know how to do that; I specialize in children. And…

Lately, I’ve heard that some schools are being sued, sometimes by pupils and sometimes by pupils’ parents, for not doing the job schools are “supposed to” do. My first reaction to such suits is that they’re nonsense – that educating people is everyone’s job. Teachers, parents, pupils, administrators, and politicians are key players, and ought…

There’s such excitement when a child first utters a word. It’s the beginning of a new level of communication. We start to know so much more about the person than we could ever learn through grunts, cries, and all those other pre-verbal sounds. The moment is written down in a baby book, maybe, or at…