Written by Padma Namgyal, a graduating high school senior musing about what’s yet to come. Waiting as I am in the trails of my eighteenth year. There is excitement shining like a gem but also a lot of fear… I tell myself to do my part. “You need to help out here!” But, when I…
As millions of students (and their parents) discovered the potential of learning from home during the COVID-induced dispersion of entire schools into an educational diaspora, some lessons learned will endure. As we recall students and teachers onto campuses, attempting to reconnect school communities, an opportunity for real innovation in education dawns, though not without struggle.…
Calm and concentration are essential to learning. Yet, in the high stakes, fast-paced, memorize and regurgitate modern American academic meritocratic classroom, where secondary school students switch from learning Calculus to Shakespeare in five minutes or less after deftly navigating the social complexity in crowded (even in COVID-affected days) hallways from one class to the next,…
Kahlil Gibran’s timeless poem provides a contemplation as we all share concerns for the youngest generations. And, while parents are typically the primary adult mentors for children, we all bear the responsibility of helping children realize their full potential. Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for…
Recently, Art and I reflected about the effects of COVID-19 for our company and in our history. As an educator in private practice, I have pivoted frequently not only to meet the needs of clients, but remain competitive in the near perfectly competitive educational support industry. I, working with my partners have continuously sought to…
To stymie cheating, teachers are changing assessments. Instead of simply reiterating the concepts learned, students are being asked to explain their answers or apply the concepts learned. However, no one shared the changes in how they’ll be assessed with students, inciting frustration amongst students as well as parents, and also teachers. Online, students have access…
Many students are dismayed, their hopes for a return to a long-established normal this fall, dashed, as school administrators continued suspending or severely curtailing in-person classes, as well as most clubs and sports through at least the end of 2020, due to the on-going COVID-related health risks. Continued distance learning has disrupted the coming of…
The 2020-21 virtual K-12 schooling experiment, born of necessity from the wholesale disruption of the modern educational process and haphazardly planned and implemented by an institutional elite that does not have to practice managing entrepreneurially since the educational industry is relatively monopolistic, is failing for a variety of reasons. Although I admit that the sample…
Like I posited a few days ago, “Why is the American middle class shrinking?” Firstly, it can be argued that personal success, whether economic or humanistic, requires the acquisition of knowledge and the application of such knowledge. However, rote memorization and regurgitation on cue, skills necessary to compete in the modern American academic meritocracy, yet…
Until mid-March 2020, parents and students each had defined roles and processes when working together to manage a student’s education. Yet, the COVID-induced closure of school campuses and the subsequent implementation of distance learning, upended a well-worn family dynamic. During a typical Pre-COVID school day, all students had a ready-made structure to manage their academic…
Leaders in the California Department of Education are proposing to reopen schools in phases, by grade level with elementary school students and teachers returning to campuses first. Elementary school students constitute the greatest number of K-12 students and the greatest percentage of schools in California, so prioritizing their return to school will serve the most…
As civic leaders seek to revitalize economic activity yet not at the cost of public health, many families are uncertain how to plan for the next school year to ensure continuity in their children’s learning. Adding complexity, on Wednesday, June 10, 2020 Senator Lamar Alexander also stated: Schools should plan for COVID to last at…
As school officials brainstorm ways to reconvene students and teachers in the school building, while living in the midst of a pandemic, educators add “montioring students’ health” to their primary mission of helping students learn. As such, students will also add “decontamination ritual” with “do your homework” as their “get ready for school” checklist. In…
Although more states are beginning to reopen, which is progressing everyday, the degree of “reopening” will vary given the differences in political inclinations of each city, county and state, as well as the severity of the COVID-19 outbreak in a particular region. And, although states, counties and/or cities may be lifting shelter-in-place orders, as Goldman…
Choosing an academic major, or a set of college courses in a particular speciality, is not simple. Students often equate “academic major” as “career-training“, yet academic knowledge doesn’t always immediately translate into “job”. Often, students will still need to understand their aptitude, so they can find an application for what they know, or “to get…
