When I was a teacher, all ten of us – one teacher for each home room (K-8), and yours truly who taught 7th and 8th grade science and health, 8th grade algebra, and instrumental music – had recess duty once a week every other week.  Kids played.  It was not structured.  It was not attuned…

Recently, I met a gentleman who told me he played in a band for 19 years, and made 3 records. He loves music, and is grateful to his dad for “making” him learn a musical instrument – even though when he was young, he hated it…especially when his friends were outside playing baseball and street…

I’m sure you’ve heard the argument that students in faith-based schools academically outperform public school students because of small class sizes.  Let’s debunk that myth here and now by going back to 1965…almost 50 years ago.  The 1st grade at St. Albert the Great School in Baldwin Boro (a suburb of Pittsburgh, PA) had approximately…

I’ve succeed in finding something that does not exist in some computer coding languages – the “does not equal” sign.  ≠ needs to be found somewhere, then pasted in as a character.  There are suggestions in several coding forums regarding what can be used, such as -=, which is the negation of the equal sign, !=…

(Author’s Note: During July and August, the seminal articles of this site will re-posted with some potential re-editing.  It’s a good practice to go to the very beginning from time to time and reiterate (in the truest form of that word) the “why” of any undertaking.  Even though the articles are somewhat the same, as…

“Let’s start at the very beginning.  That’s a very good place to start.” (As sung by Julie Andrews as Maria in “The Sound of Music.”) Unfortunately, Maria, you’re wrong.  The best place to start is at the end.  As Stephen Covey wrote in his book, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” habit #2 is…

There are three types of thinking which can be employed to solve problems:  Linear Thinking, Process Thinking, and Systems Thinking. We like to think linearly.  It’s the First/Next mindset.  We learn addition first, then subtraction.  When following a recipe, we’re told what to do first, then next.  It’s simple.  The problem is that we employ…

Here’s a TedX/Portland presentation.  There is a difference between “schooling” and “education.”  It’s important to know the difference.  

All through the month of June, Edu-Cat-Ion will feature some selected videos on systems thinking.  Einstein is credited with saying that we can’t solve the problems of today with the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.  The thinking we’ve been using to solve problems originated with the scientific method, and that’s…

Today’s video is from Peter Senge, speaking about systems thinking in education.  Systems thinking, as described last week, focuses on the whole, and how all the elements of the whole interact with one another.  We tend to look at problems within the system and ask ourselves, “How do we correct this problem?” incorrectly thinking that…