Education as a rite of passage There is an old saying: "If the men in a society are not initiated into it - they will destroy it." I believe that we live in those times. I think of education as two things - an opportunity to learn information as well as the recognition...

A good sign that a class, course or workshop went well is when I – the facilitator – learn something from it. Last week our first Facilitating Individualized Education Workshop had a few of those learning moments. The workshop reminded me about what motivates learning....

For a while I worked with a teacher who had mastered the art of getting students involved. She often talked about the obvious fact that if you do something badly, awkwardly, with incompetence, etc. students will just say - let me do that. Does it really matter if we sh...

A student, who is generally not motivated about school, came to me to complain. She had a long list of points on her phone. She paced back and forth in my office, explaining that it would be good to have more structure, a student council, and more varied learning. Stud...

I've often mused that if we could teach one idea per course per year, that would be enough. How many courses - years of study - have you gone through, from which you cannot recall learning anything in particular? Is there a class you carry with you that inspired you; a...