Category Archives: Education

Let go of shame

Three weeks into the Solitary Spring of 2020, after the unpredictable lows of social distancing and the unexpected exhaustion of distance learning have set in, some unsettling trends are taking hold. I can understand on some levels what is happening. Robert Sapolsky’s book about human behavior, Behave, describes what he calls an “Us vs. Them” […]

I am feeling powerless.

It is beginning to feel like things in my country are out of control, and I am feeling powerless to change it. I will vote my conscience every election day, don’t get me wrong. I will vote, and I will encourage others to vote, and I will be passionate about it. But it is not […]

Speaking of evidence

I’m going to put my educator’s hat on for a minute here. Actually, my educator’s hat is pretty much permanently affixed to my skull at this point, being that we just completed the first week of school and we educators have basically been eating, breathing and sleeping school-related everything since well before the doors opened […]

Our Place In The World

For the 30th blog post, we’ve got a new name. Welcome to The Unrealized Republic. For the bulk of 2016, we’ve explored some exciting and controversial topics in public education, and looked into some ways that Maine could be a steward in the realm of public education. With its isolated northeast corner location of the […]

The Mandated Curriculum

A number of weeks into the school year, teachers start to get into the rhythm of their work.  The initial units of study are complete, beginning-of-the-year assessment results are coming in, and classroom dynamics are starting to take shape.  Teachers are figuring out who their students are, which ones will require a lot of support, […]