Some time ago I completed a master’s degree program in school administration at Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Education.  Shortly thereafter, I received a certificate making me eligib/… Read full post »

            It is a simple truth: staggering amounts of money—in excess of $600 billion—are spent each year on educating our nation’s children, and as a result, our public school system operates under an enormous burden of scrut/… Read full post »

               “Kids today!”

                This hackneyed exclamation has been around for generations, and people of every generation thi… Read full post »

            It was exactly one year ago today that I first posted on Open Salon, and I am very pleased that I did so.  I had just finished watching Julie and Julia with my wife, and she said that I should start a blog.  I had been writi… Read full post »

Christmas

One needn’t be Christian
To rejoice in the celebration
That marries the birth of a savior
With pagan rites and trees
And circles of green.

No doctrine can fully separate
The Yuletide feast
From eight flickering eyes
Watching at no great distance--
Or from other bright dots on the calendar
Named… Read full post »

Findings, Submitted December 1999

             After 25 years of research on the topic of Santa Claus, I feel compelled to produce a written account of my findings—or at least the findings I have deemed most important.  Immediatel… Read full post »

            In sixth grade, I did perhaps the worst thing I could have done to or for another person—nothing.  That person was a schoolmate named Melanie, and the memory of what I saw her endure that year haunts me to this day.

 … Read full post »

            I have been a teacher now for over twenty years, and I have split my career between the middle- and high-school levels.  Five years ago, I decided to pursue a second master’s degree, this one in school administration, and I… Read full post »

               My last post being about an illness that nearly prevented me from visiting relatives in Italy, I received some PMs and such encouraging me to write about the trip itself.

       &nb… Read full post »

I have not posted in some time, as I’ve been away for several weeks due to illness and travel.  I’ll use this post to tell a brief story whose moral is that we all ought to set some limits for ourselves.

I had a week off at the end of the… Read full post »

          New Jersey’s public workers will pay their fair share as the state works its way out of a fiscal mess that was years in the making.

          This past Thursday, the New Jersey Assembly passed a… Read full post »

When it comes to educating our children, all stakeholders need to remind themselves once in a while of things they must do in order to ensure success.  In this post, I share five things that I have learned from my colleagues over the course of my career as a teacher.  This… Read full post »

I do not allow myself as a teacher to play favorites.  I may have a favorite novel to teach or a favorite unit; I even have favorite colleagues.  But when it comes to the students, I make it a point to favor no one—not an individual, not even a particular class/… Read full post »

Last week I was in an department meeting when the topic turned to families in the 1950s.  One of my colleagues remarked, “Yes, well, that was when men were men.”

Attention immediately shifted to me, the only man in the department.  “No offense, Paul.  I’m not ta/… Read full post »

            Recently, my mind has been on a recently departed friend and colleague.  Her name was Jocelyn, but I always called her Madame.

            Madame and I met in early 1992 when… Read full post »

            The school reform debate is, at its core, merely a reflection of how American society has come to debate contentious matters.  The interested parties take up their positions, and they fire away at each other.  While the wars… Read full post »

            I rarely write about myself when I post articles.  Recently, however, I have given a great deal of thought to a particular tendency in our culture that has powerful implications, not only for my work as a teacher, but also for so… Read full post »

            The New York Times reported yesterday that Cathleen Black has resigned as New York City’s schools chancellor.  The former publishing executive was on the job for only three months and had received licensing wavers in order… Read full post »

            The Star Ledger reports today that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is creating a task force that will review state rules for school districts with the goal of eliminating forms of regulation that interfere with the efficient functi/… Read full post »

            Any true education blog must, in this moment, provide commentary on public policy set at the state level and its impact on public education.  Let the highest profile examples and the obvious points come first: Wisconsin Governor/… Read full post »

            More today about the behavior spectrum of today’s students.

            I explained in an earlier post that our entire society—adults and children alike—is stron/… Read full post »

                The initial post on this blog raised some questions to be taken up at a later date.  Now might be a good time to explore some realities that have emerged in the modern public school classroom—realiti… Read full post »

            Teacher tenure comes up often lately in the discussion about how to improve our schools.  The prevailing view of tenure holds that once a teacher has it, he or she has a secure job for life.  Most people believe that tenured/… Read full post »

            Today’s edition of the Star Ledger contains several articles about charter schools and vouchers in New Jersey.  Given the poor conditions in some inner-city schools, reformers are hoping to make more choices available to st/… Read full post »

                A few comments today on a matter specific to New Jersey.  There has been a public relations war going on for some time between our governor, Chris Christie, and the state teachers’ union, and it is g… Read full post »