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Weapons of Mass Instruction (Highlights)
“Weapons of Mass Instruction is probably his best yet. Gatto’s storytelling skill shines as he relates tales of real people who fled the school system and succeeded in spite of the popular wisdom that insists on diplomas, degrees, and credentials. If you are just beginning to suspect there may be a problem with schooling (as opposed to educating as Gatto would say), then you’ll not likely find a better exposé of the problem than Weapons of Mass Instruction.” Cathy Duffy Reviews Next up in the GATTO series is a focus on his book, Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher’s Journey Through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling. The book is both a…
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Games Make Learning Fun!
We love to play games. Gaming has been a go-to activity since my kids were very young. Board games, card games, made-up games, video games, outdoor games, you name it, we have played it. Not only are games a great way to bond as a family, but they are also rich in learning opportunities. When I worked with children in the classroom, time and time again games were shown to be a conduit for teaching new skills in a fun and engaging way. As a tutor, I almost always found a way to turn the skills I was being paid to teach into a game-like activity. When there is intrigue,…
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The John Taylor Gatto series
This is a continuation of highlighting the work of John Taylor Gatto, former New York Teacher of the Year. You can find his resignation letter on my Instagram or Facebook page. It is the post entitled, “I quit, I think”. Gatto was a vocal critic of public schooling in America after spending almost 30 years inside classrooms. For some, his words will be a welcomed explanation to something you have known all along or felt in your gut but just couldn’t quite put into words. For others, his words will be uncomfortable. Particularly if you are a current teacher, currently have children enrolled in public schools, or believe public school…
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We Were Already Homeschooling. This Quarantine is Not What Real Homeschooling Looks Like.
We homeschool. However, the word “homeschooling” is a misnomer.We do not spend all of our time at home doing school work. Our choice to skip school was not taken in favor of simply replicating school at home by dividing life and learning into subjects, inflexible time blocks, and bells. We chose to homeschool. It was not forced onto us. More specifically, we chose self-directed education because we wanted to expand the definition of education to include everything a person does and experiences. I wanted my kids to understand learning as something you do every, single day. And I wanted to move learning outside of classrooms, walls, rigid schedules, and state-mandated…
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Finding the Opportunities Underneath this Quarantine Burden
We are experiencing the largest global effort to distance ourselves from one another than anyone alive has ever seen. This call to action goes against the very nature of our humanness, which is to gather socially. I know it will be a huge mental and emotional challenge for many people. My wish for each of us is that we will find, underneath this burden, opportunities. The light in the dark. The purpose inside the pain. The soulful connection despite the physical distancing. While we are social by nature and seek out activities that bring us together, many of us will be spending a lot more time with our own family…
