Parents ‘n Schools

As a primer to new readers of PnS, and a refresher to the rest of you, I have added a new category that collects up some of the posts from the first 150 entries that I particularly value.
Don’t get me wrong. They’re all golden, each precious entry here on PnS, and you should read every […]

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A new book that I ordered just arrived in the mail from Amazon. It is called “The Back of the Napkin” by Dan Roam. It’s all about solving problems and selling ideas with pictures (on the back of a napkin or on a whiteboard).
Let’s give it a try.
Grab a piece of scrap paper. Just postcard […]

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On the freeways and roads of major cities, where you find traffic lanes reserved for vehicles with 2 or more passengers, it is not entirely unheard of for commuters to put a blowup doll in the vehicle with them so that they can travel in those fast lanes. It is in this same sense that […]

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Gentle Parent, after some 120 entries over six months writing about whatever crossed my clearly confused mind, I have an admission to make.
I’ve been holding out on you.
Throughout that time, and for some time before, I have been in possession of the single best resource I have ever found on parents ‘n schools… and I […]

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Government schooling holds very tightly to the requirement of “certification” for schoolers.
You really can’t be one without it.
How hard would it be to develop and operate a “certification” program for parents, too?
When you register a child in Kindergarten, you are effectively signing yourself up for a 13 year “career” as a co-educator of your children […]

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News Item: Thomas Bata dies in Toronto at age 93. Bata Shoe Organization spanning 50 countries built in Canada after Soviets seized Czech factory.
A great deal about government schooling is generated by how the money is divvied up. The government takes it in, and instead of giving it first to families to go out […]

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In the Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing, scientist Lewis Thomas describes a list of science’s “Seven Wonders” not in the usual sense, but along the lines of the things he “wondered about” the most. Number One on his list was our planet itself — “Of all celestial bodies within reach or view, as far […]

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Early in my involvement as a volunteer board member on the board of the provincial association representing parents on school councils we were invited to review a new Powerpoint presentation that had been prepared by the provincial government as material in support of student financing of post-secondary schooling. I recall being… well, horrified. My comments […]

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I noted with interest when our provincial budget was released that included on one of the line items was a description that another $200 million was going to go toward continuing the “successful” Class Size Initiative. This is a program championed by paid educators aimed at reducing class sizes by a few students per class […]

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An article the other day caught my eye about a school study (San Diego schools) that concluded children likely to fail high school could be identified as early as the 4th grade. The authors of the study viewed their results as evidence for the old-as-time-itself wisdom that an ounce of prevention was worth a pound […]

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