I loathe state testing. It’s ridiculous and damaging when for much of the school year — but especially in the spring — caring, intelligent, and creative teachers are forced to “drill-and-kill” their students. For this reason I work at Palmer Trinity, a great private school in Miami, Florida. Here, nobody is a slave to the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT).

It’s 1993, and my 11-year-old brother is frustrated, pounding the kitchen table as he tries to complete a short reading assignment. My parents try to help, but they grow equally frustrated with their son’s constant struggle. I’m a year younger, and I hear emotions flying about from my room upstairs.

As I learn from education author Rick Wormeli, fair isn’t always equal. It was my first year of teaching, and I had assigned my 11th-grade history students their first take-home essay. After two weeks and several check-ins, one student (let’s call him John), failed to submit anything. I gave John a “0,” which plummeted his grade along with any sense of hope that he could recover in my class, much less excel.

We have placed ludicrous financial, academic, and social importance on how well one can fill in a bubble. Every year, I hear of students spending hundreds if not thousands on SAT tutoring. I’m disappointed by how society has placed such a ludicrous importance on how well one can fill in a bubble.

I was unaware of the pervasiveness of online companies that, for a fee, produce customized essays. I stumble upon BuyEssay.org, among the most vile pieces of online trash I’ve visited. I sit at my favorite sushi bar and see an intriguing Facebook post from Nikhil Goyal, the seventeen-year-old author of One Size Does Not Fit All: A Student’s Assessment of School.

Through embarrassingly inaccurate comments about the past, President Trump is highlighting the critical need for humanities instruction. “As we have a language requirement for the Foreign Service, so should we have a history requirement for the White House.”. So said Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough during his 1986 commencement address at Middlebury College.

Before the first day of school, I open up to my journalism and history students via my online class page by writing to them. “I am here to help you succeed, and as much as I hope you look forward to learning from me, I’m equally excited to learn from you,” I say. I use this intro to signal to them that while I am their teacher, I’m not the only source of knowledge — and at times, not even the best.

What I learned from interviewing Susan Cain, author of ‘Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking.’. It’s 2005. I’m a junior at Brandeis University attending “Modfest,” a loud, crowded and sweaty party organized by student events. I’ve been socializing for two hours, and I want go home.

My chat with the eminent education author opened my mind to new possibilities. As far as education reformers go, Harvard education professor Tony Wagner is king. Several months ago, I read his most recent book, Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change The World. “The long-term health of our economy and a full economic recovery are dependent upon creating far more innovation,” he writes.

I’m not sure it’s my place to tell my eighteen-year-old student how to act, or in this case how to put away her phone when speaking with someone. If parents accept and demonstrate certain behavior, what authority do I have to question or override such accepted family norms? Before today’s morning bell, I ask one of my students about college acceptance news.

Some exciting efforts are underway to promote collaboration, improving education for all students. At the 2015 Annual NAIS Conference in Boston, Todd Bland, Milton Academy (Massachusetts) head of school, explained what he describes as a misconception about the independent school sector: Seven years ago, he arrived at his prestigious Massachusetts institutioneager to promote partnerships between different types of schools.

There is something to be said about a child, having been pushed in the sandbox, pushing back. I begin to wonder as much after reading Emily Bazelon’s brilliant new book, Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy, which reminds me of a traumatic childhood memory.

Students can be mean and nasty to one another, producing all kinds of negative consequences. But I’m growing increasingly concerned with the anti-bullying movement, a well-intentioned cause adopted by many to address a hyped-up phenomenon that, despite what the media and some “experts” profess, isn’t nearly as clear-cut.