Pancakes cooking Hard rain at night. Still coming down in the morning and radar shows a tropical depressions blowing up west of Palau. Climb into the old jeepney which blew a flat two days ago on the same road up to the hill village where some of our students are staying but we [...]
Here is a thought experiment that can inform the leading education question of our time. Take a random group of students from three countries: China, the U.S., and the Philippines. All three groups spend long hours in school and take objective exams which will, to a large extent, determine their access to higher education. Replay [...]
Parker boys ready to settle in to their home stay in Boloc-Boloc, a rural farming village The homes are small, the villages poor. They will sleep on bamboo beds or mats on the floor. Showers will be a bucket of water. For five days our students will stay with host families in and [...]
A theme from my many school visits this last fall was that both students and teachers realize we should take or make more time for reflection. We know that authentic reflection starts with being focused on the moment, taking in what lessons we can when we can, be it in a classroom, on the ball [...]
On Saturday I return to the Philippines for an annual trip with high school students. Fresh out of grad school I taught there for year in 1981-82, an experience where I formed some of my first ideas about transformational education. Two stories from that time are embedded in my book, The Falconer, and I [...]
On Saturday I will join with fourteen juniors and seniors from Francis Parker School and fly to Dumaguete City, on the island of Negros, 500 miles south of Manila in the Philippines. By Monday we will be gazing down on the lowlands from high on the side of a volcano, hearing the stories of medieval [...]