Not seeing the best in our students is not as much an issue for them as it is for us. Many of them go happily along feeling free and knowing they just want to stay under the radar of parents, school, teachers and traditional expectations. Jimmy, for example, is a C-student who, “… trained us. [...]
Myths of Education™
I sometimes wonder why so much of what is considered “good literature” for ourselves and for students has to be dark, depressing, or unhappy. I’m not against stories in which something bad happens, but knowing that bad news seizes and clings, while good news slides right off us, I like to prime myself with uplifting [...]
“Bring back Vo-Tech” and “Not everyone needs to go to college—some people would be better in the trades.” These are two comments I often hear when I speak about Gifts that Conflict with School™, The Myths of Education™, or Race to Nowhere. Now, those of you who have been on my calls or in my [...]
Note: This is the third article in The Myths of Education™ series. Some babies walk at 10 months and others don’t walk until 17 months. Right from the start, we have a 70% performance gap, yet we accept this as normal so we don’t insist on rating babies’ walking skills. We understand that by the [...]
Note: This is the second article in The Myths of Education™ series. Have you ever wondered why we urge teens to be the best possible student? Many parents, leaders, and educators say it’s because they believe this will get him into the “best” colleges and — the big assumption — that this will lead to [...]
The future looks very bright for our teens– when we de-bunk three false, damaging myths. In a recent study, I found that—no matter what their GPA—teens will have great opportunities because world, corporate, and scientific prospects depend on a far broader set of characteristics than those we emphasize in our system of education. I’d like [...]