The R-word

Daniel Willingham observes that college students are expected to be responsible for their own learning. He asks, "What happens during K-12 education to prepare students for this responsibility?"

Look at Willingham's example.

Is he really talking about responsibility for learning? Or is he talking about a more fundamental life skill, a kind of responsible self-management?

This isn't learned through lecture. It isn't learned from a book. It is learned from guided practice...Day after day, year after year children must being given countless opportunities to be responsible for their own learning and for their own behavior.

If students are too tightly managed, if they are always told what to do, they don't get that experience.

Dr. Montessori emphasized the important balance of freedom and responsibility.

Ask Montessori kids about the 3-R's and what do you hear?

Respect

Responsibility

Resourcefulness.

The Creativity Crisis

American creativity is declining. What went wrong and how can we fix it. Read on.

Blog of the Day #2

I'm just back from 3 weeks in the mountains of Colorado and catching up on mail, e-mail, the work that has been going on here at school in my absence, and reading the blogs I follow. Here's one from Gretchen Rubin.

Laughing at Us: Blog of the Day

Dan Pink says we are racing headlong toward the old-style Chinese form of education.