Parents ‘n Schools

Go to www.education-consumers.com
Look all around, but particularly at the “About ECC”. I personally appreciate every word, and every part of how it is set up and what it is about. When I grow up, I want to be more like them.
Cherish its striving to be independent. Appreciate its priorities. Recognize its uniqueness and […]

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Rule #27 in Alan Webber’s new “Rules of Thumb” book articulates three “rules” for how we all need to be in business (“all”, I have to believe, would include the schooling business). He attributes these three rules to Megan Smith, Google’s director of new business development and strategy. I’m guessing here… […]

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“In school redesign, we are constantly battling the gravitational pull of school as usual.” (Billie Donegan, Colorado educational consultant, ASCD’s Educational Leadership, p. 56, May 2008)
Government schooling in Alberta is a nearly $6 billion per year business. In Canada, nearly $60 billion per year. In North America, nearly $600 billion per […]

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(GLO — July 2010 — From 2 years ago. The tilting continues, in its extreme. Change the way the dollars move, and the system changes automatically. The bulk of the work of status quo schooling advocacy is maintaining the financial status quo. Almost blindly. As if it is a given that what is “best” for […]

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The most recent Fast Company magazine features a long look at Apple and its success, and includes this excerpt:
Steve Jobs has often cited this quote from Henry Ford: “If I’d have asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, ‘A faster horse!’ “
This is Jobs’s defense of Apple’s reluctance to listen […]

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(GLO — July 2010 — From one year ago — Don’t think the world actually came to an end, as one might have been led to fear by the critics of this initiative. Again, that this had to be done outside the School Act is what really intrigues me. That nothing like it or anything […]

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Recently drove up to a self-serve gas station. Made me think if we had government gas stations the way we have government schools, there would be no self-serve pumps (would there be lineups?… would the gas be available?… would there be premium?)
If we had government banks the way we have government schools, there would be […]

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(GLO — June 2010 — From an early essay, about two years ago. Schoolers in government schools do not have contractual or statutory duties of “good faith” or fiduciary duties generally as among the adults at work or in contact with government schools. They have duties vis a vis the children and conducting themselves toward […]

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When encountering “accountability” in government schooling, parents should not be confused by the word and they should not be comforted by its use. It does not mean what parents might think it means, and it is not used in the same way as it is used in real life.
Important questions to ask […]

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“When people are in a group, responsibility for action is diffused.” Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point.
A fundamental problem for parents ‘n schools is that nobody… and I mean NOBODY… champions and advocates for parents’ interests (above all other interests) exclusively.
Another fundamental problem for parents ‘n schools is that everybody… and I […]

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