Why school?
November 8, 2009
We go to school to become economically competitive as individuals and as a nation.
Is that all? Why do we go to school?
Here’s Mike Rose talking about his new book: Why School? Reclaiming education for all of us.
Seven suggestions for messy times
November 6, 2009
This morning’s presenter at NYSAIS – Mark Hurst – author of Bit Literacy
And here they are: the techniques to liberate ourselves from enslaving technologies:
1. Empty your inbox every day. And he promises this is doable and easy. Delete, delete, delete, store, move to action list.
2. Use a single to-do list.
3. Do one thing at a time. (See the Stanford study on multi-tasking. Result: Even the best multi-taskers don’t do anything very
well. It’s more respectful as well as more efficient.)
4. Learn to type. The QWERTY keyboard layout was designed deliberately to slow down too fast typing in the day of mechanical typewriters. It slows you down. Learn to touch type with DVORAK. It’s faster, easier to learn and much more comfortable.
5. Manage your media diet. Know what you want to consume and why. Then don’t feel guilty. Learn the skill of managing the mix without overload.
6. Make room for creativity. This is why steps 1-5 are important. It’s all about making room and finding time for creativity.
“I tap-dance to work, and when I get there it’s tremendous fun.”- Warren Buffett.
7. Take time off. Take time off every day. Be in control of technology not the other way around.
Listen to this podcast interview with Clayton Christensen – one of the authors of Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns - A crash course in the business of learning-from the bestselling author of The Innovator’s Dilemma and The Innovator’s Solution.
The 30 second solution
October 30, 2009
“I want the bike,”
“No. You can’t have it.”
A problem negotiated and solved. Friendship maintained, feelings expressed and managed, resource shared, compromise reached, peace maintained, fairness asserted, inequality addressed and crisis averted. All in less than thirty seconds.
I saw all this happen yesterday in a thirty second exchange on the playground. It’s the kind of experience that happens daily in the kindergarten. This one involved two girls and one tricycle. Girl one is happily pedaling the circuit at a furious pace and does not really want to accede to the request of Girl two to take over the bike. There’s a brief exchange that goes something like this:
“I want to ride the bike now.”
“You can’t it’s my turn. I got it first.”
“But I want to and it’s only fair.”
“OK. I will just have one more go around and then you can have it.”
PDS parent and trustee Bruce Judson has been writing a lot about issues of inequality and the social fabric recently. His book It Could Happen here: America on the Brink has received a favorable reception and he and his articles have appeared in many places. He makes the case that inequality and the widening wealth gap threaten the stability of society and democracy itself.
Maybe we all need to return to the values and skills of kindergarten
Scarlet Women
October 28, 2009
Go PDS…?
October 27, 2009
In September we announced that we would be seeking a name for the PDS Sports teams. We asked for names and received well over 100 different name ideas from students, teachers, alumni, trustees and parents. We posted it on the PDS Facebook page and gathered some additional suggestions from fans. The list was wild – everything from the PDS Garden Gnomes to the PDS Stephen T. Colberts and everything in between.
Athletic Director Joan Matheis and I met with the captains of the varsity teams. Our task was to come up with a shortlist of possible names all of which were acceptable to the whole group. We wanted a name that honors and respects our team athletes, represents the school well and is not prmarily associated with a major league team. That eliminated many great names.
The team captains winnowed names down to a short list, all of which they felt met the critera and all of which were acceptable to all of them were it to be chosen.
So – here – in alphabetical order – are the final four:
The PDS Coyotes
The PDS Dragons
The PDS Eclipse
The PDS Navigators
Great choices.
And with great potential for slogans and mascots.
The students prek-12th grade - will make the final decison in a vote this week. But – if you would like to “vote” and join the debate go the PDS Facebook page and join in the fun.
The students’ decision will be announced on Friday.
From the archive: PDS finds a home 1934
October 12, 2009
The Poughkeepsie Eagle-News
Saturday Morning July 14th 1934 NRA – We Do Our Part 3 cents a copy
Here it is: July 14th 1934: the first media mention I can find of the beginning of PDS. Headline: Old Spaulding Home sought by New School. The new school was PDS and the Spaulding House was at Hooker and Grand Avenues. It’s below the fold on the front page. And on the front page – Hitler on the rise and the food crisis from the San Francisco longshoremen strikes.
Walkway over the Hudson – past, present and future
October 9, 2009
A great video of our local bridge – the newly opened Walkway across the Hudson.
Many minds, many voices, many stories
October 7, 2009
The history of Nigeria and African colonialism is not Chinua Achebe and Things Fall Apart; the Holocaust is not Anne Frank and The Diary; Mumbai is not Slumdog Millionaire.
Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice — and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.
Video of Anne Frank surfaces
October 2, 2009
You can see Anne Frank at the 9 second mark, leaning out of a window as she watches a bride and groom stepping out from a neighboring address. According to the Guardian it dates back to July 22, 1941. It was given to the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam by the wedding couple in the 1990’s.
So eerie to see this. And the street scenes and the houses – so modern looking. It brings back that odd sensation i have whenever I read The Diary – perhaps this time it will turn out differently.
