"Your job is to be a kick-ass student," I told my then-13-year-old daughter Maya. "Do that, take care of your little brother, walk the dog, and everything will turn out fine. Promise."

My darling Maya upheld her end of the bargain: straight A's, perfect attendance, gushing teacher recommendations, and...

Dear Santa,

I imagine you don't get too many letters from pre-kindergarteners who haven't held a pencil or sung the alphabet or haven't heard a bedtime story. On behalf of the five million at-risk kids under five years old, here's a giant Christmas wish: Please save Head Start. Once a...

Like many parents who read Amy Chua's Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, I flogged myself for raising two perfectly perfect child generalists. I've simply lacked the discipline or will to raise a dancer like Baryshnikov, a cellist like Yo Yo Ma, a tennis player like Venus Williams, or an...

Dad: Okay, kiddo, bedtime.
Daughter: But Daddy, I wanna stay up and watch TV.
Dad: Sorry, sweetheart, it's a school night.
Daughter: Um...strike.
Dad: Ooooooooh right---Let's watch Conan!

This was not just any Second City show. Joining main-stage actors for a spirted game of freeze...

Last week, on the very same morning Karen Lewis announced a ten-day strike notice, Abby at Crosstown Tree Service texted that a truckload of woodchips was speeding our way. Over the past four years, parents have been working like gangbusters to transform a narrow stretch along the side...

Let's be clear: I love, love, l-o-v-e teachers. The teachers at my kids' neighborhood elementary school, Nettelhorst, individually, and collectively, represent everything that's right with public education. So much so, I'd put their education on par with any private school in this country -- our teachers are that...

Tell anyone over fifty that October fifth is International Walk to School Day, the highlight of an entire month devoted to the concept, and you'll likely get back a blank stare, furrowed brow, or outright laughter. "Nonsense," they'll tsk-tsk, "In my day, we walked ten miles, uphill, both...

There comes a point for every world traveler, however adventurous, when you wake up in your hut (or tent or yurt), and think, "Gosh, I would love to make waffles." Then, you catalogue all the stuff you'd need to pull off waffles--the iron, the mix, the whisk, the plate, the...

When the real Rahm Emanuel offered the fake Rahm Emanuel $5,000 to reveal himself, it was anybody's guess who the doppelganger was, or which charity would get the cash.

Thanks to the magic of Colbert, the whole country now knows that Columbia College journalism professor Dan Sinker...

Governor Scott Walker thinks that Wisconsin's a giant domino that's going to tumble over into Illinois, as evidenced by my state's proposed Performance Counts legislation; um, don't bet on it. While our law would tweak the collective bargaining process, it does not eliminate the teachers' right to bargain...

As Governor Quinn signed historic anti-bullying legislation at Nettelhorst, my neighborhood's public elementary school last summer, it came as no surprise when Unabridged, our beloved independent bookstore across the street, asked us to host their upcoming discussion for the release of It...

Last night, my little public elementary school, Nettelhorst, hosted a public screening of the powerful new documentary Lunch Line, which follows six Chicago high school kids as they set out to fix school lunches --ending up at the White House. But the real drama began after...

The food mega-giant, Chartwells Thompson, just won a ginormous contract from the federal government contract to provide a free breakfast to every single Chicago Public School student. For the nation's third largest school system, that's over 410,000 breakfasts served, every single day. We know that hungry kids can't...

In the hothouse terrarium that is Chicago politics, a stormy debate over teacher accountability is looming large.

One thing everyone seems to agree on is that a quality classroom teacher is the single most important school based input-factor in student performance and lifetime achievement. The evidence has been mounting...

I never listened to the toothsome Suze Orman or read the "Modern Love" page in the Sunday New York Times or even knew that the Huffington Post had an entire section devoted to navigating the ugly world of divorce. Why would I? Divorce was for tired, harpy wives and boorish,...

As Illinois has the proud distinction of ranking 49th for state education funding -- second only to Nevada, a state heavily subsidized by the gaming industry -- parents across Chicago rightfully want to know where Chicago's mayoral candidates stand on education.

Yesterday, I joined a standing-room-only crowd at Walter Payton...

Winter break is right around the corner, and as usual, all the ho-ho-holiday cheer has left me over-extended and cranky. I still don't have gifts for my kids' teachers. Surely they wouldn't mind some re-gifted tchochkies; after all, it's just a gesture, right? Turns out, they do mind. I asked...

Congress just sent President Obama ground-breaking legislation that will dramatically expand and improve school lunches across the country. In a recent Los Angeles Times article about the bill, the reporter led with a crazy-cute photograph of a Nettelhorst student happily devouring his school lunch. Random AP shot? Not...

Last week, over a thousand people turned out to hear Geoffrey Canada, the powerhouse behind the Harlem Children's Zone, give the keynote address at the United Way's Education Summit at Chicago's Park Community Church.

The summit was billed as a faith-based,...

It was the Top Chef of education reform. Last weekend, Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and the Indianapolis-based non-profit, The Mind Trust, held its second annual Education Case Competition for top business school students from across the country. A rather intimidating panel of education powerhouses assembled to...