Archive for January 2024
The Art of Mattering
Many people at Andover are familiar with issues such as anxiety, imposter syndrome, and burnout. These are phenomena that are generally unavoidable and in most cases attributed to the stress of school. However, I would argue that these symptoms point to a bigger problem: students don’t feel like they matter. According to Isaac Prilleltensky, professor…
Read MoreNew Year resolutions? Maybe….
So every year I hear, see and read about people’s New Year resolutions toward self-improvement or toward a goal, for about a week or two, and then I hear, see and read about how they have fallen by the wayside, a victim of great intentions without follow-through, or more accurately, poorly conceived follow-through. I see…
Read MoreFinding Our Own Answers: A Case Study
On November 28, I attended a truly excellent webinar conversation with Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, hosted by Intrepid Ed News and OESIS. Once again, I was struck by the response of so many teachers and administrators who, when presented with new insights into how people learn (insights that challenge the status quo), want very specific…
Read MoreDemocracy in Peril
New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie wrote this week about the threats to our democratic republic: Democracy, remember, is not just a set of rules and institutions. It is, as the philosopher John Dewey argued throughout his life, a set of habits and dispositions that must be cultivated and practiced if they are to…
Read More