When education leader Peter DeWitt invited me to participate in one of his online discussions, he told me that EDWeek readers had been asking for a segment on early childhood education. They had questions about the effect of the pandemic on ECE, but they also wanted to discuss the field in general. What was different…
There’s a whole lot of misinformation flying around these days! Whether it’s about what it takes to be a good parent, or what children really need to succeed, there are myths wreaking havoc on childhood, on early education, and on you! I don’t know why people are believing the myths. And I don’t know how…
There’s really nothing I can add to all of the meaningful conversations currently taking place in our country and around the world. Like so many others, I am hurting. When Barack Obama was elected president, I celebrated the idea that racism was, if not a thing of the past, then at least significantly waning in…
The other day I was proofing the final pages for my upcoming book, What If We Taught the Way Children Learn? and read the following from Chapter 20: We need creativity in medicine if we’re to find new healing methods. We need creativity in science if we’re to discover answers to the world’s mysteries. When…
Over the 40 years I’ve worked in early childhood education, I’ve believed many times that a revolution in the field was imminent. Heaven knows we’ve certainly needed one, as misguided policies have brought about increasingly inappropriate practices. Surely people who understand child development would finally begin making the decisions about ECE! Clearly, I’ve been naïve.…
Albert Einstein wrote, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Unfortunately, our system of education values and validates only the most narrow of abilities and talents, in essence judging every student by its “ability to climb a tree.” If a child happens…