One of my favorite movies is The Usual Suspects.  Certainly not because of the violence in the film, but because of the twist that I didn’t see coming the first time I saw it.  One of the gleanings I took away from that experience (since everything you experience is a learning experience whether you think…

About 30 or so years ago, there was a crisis in education: a shortage of science and math teachers in our nation.  As a young father at the time, working as a program director for an NPR affiliate station, it resonated with me.  A couple of years before that, I left my position as a…

During the first 3 weeks of October, articles from other sources will be featured to help to form the mindsets necessary to embrace the changes occurring in education. The first article comes from Thrive Global (www.thriveglobal.com) and speaks to the two mental shifts that are necessary every highly successful person makes:  https://community.thriveglobal.com/the-2-mental-shifts-highly-successful-people-make/    I would…

Poet John Keats was born on Halloween (before it was Halloween) in 1795 and died February 23, 1821 at the age of 25.   This young man penned some of the most beloved works of those who study literature, including “A Thing of Beauty (Endymion)” which starts with the famous line, “A thing of beauty…

“Teacher quality and engagement matters more to student achievement than any other aspect of a school.” This insight was published by Rand Education (Rand.org/education/projects/measuring-teacher-effectiveness/teachers-matter.html), and quoted by: Scott Barron on SchoolGrowth.com The Center for Public Education’s statement on teacher quality and student achievement; A text published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)…

In 2001, Pennsylvania enacted a masterful piece of legislation to allow funding to assist the children of qualifying families to attend faith-based or private schools.  Rather than a “voucher” system, which directs funds collected from the State government to schools willing to accept the amount as payment in full for the child to attend a…

Several years ago, a disturbing trend began to happen in education – teachers were leaving the field. Not the teachers that had reached retirement age, or who were offered early retirement packages, but young teachers, who were those enticed to enter the field because of the market. A little earlier in time, the media shed…

Some people believe that tax credits and vouchers are the same thing when it comes to new ways of funding education. They’re not. While they both have an effect on the State’s budget, the source and processes regarding those funds are completely different.  With vouchers, state monies go directly to benefit families who would qualify…

To be clear, this doesn’t mean that there should be prayer in public schools.  Actually, if the local community wants prayer to be present “in” the public school, it should be allowed…but that’s another topic for another article. Regardless of if prayer is or isn’t permitted in the school, the school and its students should…

One of my earliest childhood memories was snuggling up to my mom on the couch on Sunday mornings.  She would read the comics to me.  It didn’t matter that I may not have understood the humor the cartoonist was presenting, because mom would explain what was going on in the pictures.  I still remember bringing…