Blog

Blog Posts

Some of these have also appeared on the Washington Post ‘Answer Sheet’ blog, Psychology Today, or The Huffington Post.

        All written work certified AI-free.

• Seeing What Isn't Out There
• October 27, 2025
• Education for What?
• August 25, 2025
• The *&%$!#! Baseball Study
• February 24, 2025
• Heterogenius: Why & How to Stop Dividing People into Us & Them
• January 27, 2025
• The Siren Song of "Evidence-Based" Instruction
• May 23, 2024
• Cognitive Load Theory: An Unpersuasive Attempt to Justify Direct Instruction
• March 4, 2024
• Aggressive Nostalgia
• October 25, 2023
• Pay Attention, Class: Here Come More Facts for You to Forget
• April 20, 2023
• The Caring Subversion of Nel Noddings: An Appreciation
• March 13, 2023
• How to Prevent Social Change: A Handy Guide for Educators and Parents
• February 28, 2023
• The Times Deeply Regrets These Errors
• December 23, 2022
• "Eduspeak" Reconsidered
• November 3, 2022
• Is It Enough for Learners to Be "Engaged"?
• September 30, 2022
• When the Myth of Progress Unravels
• May 16, 2022
• Last Time, the Religious Right Told Us Not Only What We Can Teach but How
• April 29, 2022
• Second Thoughts About Community and "Empathy"
• January 11, 2022
• Indoctrination
• November 4, 2021
• What Makes a True Skeptic?
• September 24, 2021
• When Racism Isn't the Only Problem
• July 14, 2021
• The Progressive Teacher's Role in the Classroom
• May 3, 2021
• Dewey, Piaget, and Frosted Mini Wheats
• March 8, 2021
• The Tests Are Lousy, So How Could the Scores Be Meaningful?
• December 19, 2020
• Fame Is the Name of the Game
• October 16, 2020
• All of Us Are Smarter Than Any of Us
• September 23, 2020
• Out of Control
• May 21, 2020
• Autism and Behaviorism
• January 21, 2020
• How Not to Get a Standing Ovation at a Teachers' Conference
• October 24, 2019
• It's Time to Rethink Education Policy
• October 15, 2019
• GENER(aliz)ATIONS
• July 16, 2019
• The Trouble(s) with College
• May 22, 2019
• Deconstructing "Scaffolding"
• March 6, 2019
• The Why Axis
• November 26, 2018
• Oprah and I
• August 23, 2018
• The Overselling of Gratitude
• July 11, 2018
• Who You Are Does Not Show Up on a Brain Scan
• June 4, 2018
• "...And I Turned Out Just Fine!"
• March 21, 2018
• When "Big Data" Goes to School
• March 7, 2018
• Do We Perform Better Under Pressure?
• December 18, 2017
• Transformation by Degrees
• September 25, 2017
• Don't Lecture Me!
• June 24, 2017
• What Student Test-Takers Share with Ejected Airline Passengers
• April 18, 2017
• Is Trump a Conservative Only by Accident?
• March 23, 2017
• "Free-Range Kids"? It Depends...
• February 7, 2017
• The Case for Abolishing Class Rank
• December 12, 2016
• Narcissist-in-Chief
• December 1, 2016
• The Bonus Effect
• September 27, 2016
• Do Our Expectations of Kids Aim Too High or Too Low?
• September 6, 2016
• Choice
• July 21, 2016
• The Failure of Failure
• June 23, 2016
• Why Lots of Love (or Motivation) Isn't Enough
• April 23, 2016
• The Overselling of Ed Tech
• March 12, 2016
• "Your Hand's Not Raised? Too Bad: I'm Calling on You Anyway"
• January 29, 2016
• What 'No Child Left Behind' Left Behind
• December 18, 2015
• All Aboard the LeaderShip
• October 31, 2015
• The Back-to-School-Night Speech We'd Like to Hear
• October 4, 2015
• Cheerful to a Fault: “Positive” Practices with Negative Implications
• July 11, 2015
• What's the Real Purpose of Classroom Management?
• June 25, 2015
• Learning as a Sandwich: Revisiting the Ingenuity (and Radicalism) of K-W-L
• June 2, 2015
• The Wrong Way to Get People to Do the Right Thing
• May 12, 2015
• The Grass Moment
• April 23, 2015
• Evidence? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Evidence!
• April 7, 2015
• Four Reasons to Worry About "Personalized Learning"
• February 23, 2015
• Progressive Labels for Regressive Practices
• January 31, 2015
• Why the Best Teachers Don't Give Tests
• October 30, 2014
• The Illusion of Discovery
• October 1, 2014
• Perfect, It Turns Out, Is What Practice Doesn't Make
• July 25, 2014
• Just Another Brick in the Wall: How Education Researchers Ignore the Ends to Tweak the Means
• June 4, 2014
• The Trouble With Calls For Universal "High-Quality" Pre-K
• February 1, 2014
• A Dozen Essential Guidelines for Educators
• October 29, 2013
• Five Bad Education Assumptions the Media Keeps Recycling
• August 29, 2013
• “We’re Number Umpteenth!”: The Myth Of Lagging U.S. Schools
• May 3, 2013
• Is Parent Involvement In School Really Useful?
• February 6, 2013
• Why Do We Punish Children?
• January 2013
• Homework: An Unnecessary Evil? … Surprising Findings From New Research
• November 26, 2012
• What Do Kids Really Learn from Failure?
• October 3, 2012
• Lowering the Temperature on Claims of "Summer Learning Loss"
• July 20, 2012
• What Makes a Terrific Parent?
• April 23, 2012
• Criticizing (Common Criticisms of) Praise
• February 3, 2012
• The Risks and Potential of Required Community Service
• January 9, 2012
• Five Not-So-Obvious Propositions About Play
• November 15, 2011
• Whoever Said There's No Such Thing As a Stupid Question Never Looked Carefully at a Standardized Test
• September 16, 2011
• What We Don't Know About Our Students -- And Why
• September 7, 2011
• Teaching Strategies That Work! (Just Don't Ask "Work to Do What?")
• August 10, 2011
• Why Are Some People Always Late? And Other Human Puzzles
• July 25, 2011
• How to Write an Article About Current Parenting Styles
• June 30, 2011
• What Parents Aren't Asked in School Surveys -- and Why
• May 23, 2011
• Studies Support Rewards, Homework, and Traditional Teaching. Or Do They?
• March 31, 2011
• "But I Need to Assign Homework! Look at All I Have to Cover!"
• March 3rd 2011
• STEM Sell: Do Math and Science Matter More Than Other Subjects?
• February 16, 2011
• Do Tests Help Students Learn or Was a New Study Misreported?
• January 28, 2011
• "Politically Correct": The Lazy Bully's Label of Choice
• January 18, 2011
• Remember When We Had High Standards? Neither Do I
• December 10, 2010
• "Ready to Learn" = Easier to Educate
• November 18, 2010
• Operation Discourage Bright People from Wanting to Teach
• November 1, 2010
• How to Sell Conservatism: Lesson 1 -- Pretend You're a Reformer
• October 20, 2010
• School Would Be Great If It Weren’t for the Damn Kids
• September 17, 2010
• What Passes for School Reform: "Value-Added" Teacher Evaluation and Other School Reform Absurdities
• September 9, 2010
• Competitiveness vs. Excellence: The Education Crisis That Isn't
• August 9, 2010
• So What SHOULD Parents Do?
• April 2010
• Getting Rid of Grades: Case Studies
• January 2010
• Teachers Describe the Harms of Test-Driven School Reform
• December 2009
• Ted Sizer and Jerry Bracey: An Appreciation
• October 2009
• Twenty-first Century Skills? It Depends What You Mean...
• September 2009
• Bushobama
• August 2009
• More Evidence That Incentives Fail
• May 2009
• Teachers Who Have Stopped Assigning Homework
• September 2008
• Teachers Who Refuse to Hand Out the Tests
• May 2008
• Gleanings #3: Test Boycotts, Death to the Syllabus, and Why Secretaries of Education Are Never Educators
• April 2008
• Are Fewer Young People Reading for Pleasure?
• November 2007
• Gleanings #2: Fresh Writings on the Achievement Gap
• September 2007
• Parrot Math
• June 2007
• Gleanings #1: Resources on Inclusion, Gender, Classroom Management, and Assignments That Require No Thinking
• April 2007
• Close the Book on 'Book It!'
• March 2007
• Is The Homework Myth Popular with Students? Well, Sure. What's Your Point?
• December 2006
• Kohn et al. v. Massachusetts DOE
• August 2006
• Reindeer Ruminations
• December 2005