Kansas City District School Closings

I hope closing schools will get the district’s finances down to a manageable level. They have spent too many years living in the past and bouncing from one temporary fix to another. Their mission has changed. Instead of serving all the students in one geographic area, they now serve students who aren’t interested in the offerings of charters schools, or can’t afford private school, or particularly want to invest in the district, or want some specialized experience they offer, like African-centered education or an arts focus.

Expressways

The first walk around my neighborhood in three months reveals what I had suspected: any sign of spring is way underground. My sycamores are still skeletal. The locusts are still wearing a few of their blackened seed pods, like they forgot to take off their eyeliner after a great party. Everywhere I looked for a […]

Getting Your Sea Legs, or The Secrets of My (Wobbly, Five-Year) Success

I know, you want to help people. Change lives! Reach out to the disenfranchised! Create educational equality in an unequal world! My goal was to do all that, and to make it through five years in teaching. More than half of our new teachers in America quit before five years. In schools with lots of […]

Size Matters

This week I drank a glass of merlot at happy hour. It was no big deal to anyone except me. For many years, I gave up alcohol for Lent. I felt like I needed to rethink my ritual, so I decided I would be easier on myself. I’m calling this a “soft Lent.” I would […]