Following unbridled curiosity is the central work of children. And, contrary to what industrialized education might demand of us, enabling the deep work of childhood to flourish is the actual central work of educators, school leaders, caregivers, and anyone bestowed with the honor of raising and educating young people.
Every Friday, Mr. Reading Pot would make a grand entrance into the classroom and be seated in the middle of a large circle of squirrely kids. Mr. Reading Pot was a bad-tempered and curmudgeonly fellow.
It was the week before the exhibition at High Tech Middle Chula Vista. My eighth-grade class had spent the last eight weeks exploring the question “What makes us resilient?”
One of the key principles of continuous improvement is that you should spend a lot of time understanding a problem but this is not necessarily feasible in a large school district
Lots of teachers come to High Tech High, see how collaborative the teachers are, and get inspired to make their first project a massive interdisciplinary collaboration between, say, English, Spanish, Biology, and Algebra.
This is almost always a bad idea.
