What is a whole child approach to education? It is an education that enhances learning by addressing each student's social, emotional, physical, and academic needs through the shared contributions of schools, families, communities, and policymakers. It is a move away from the recent knee-jerk reaction to education policy...

Relationships matter.

In the never-ending discussion around school improvement and reform, the role of relationships rarely gets a mention. However the role relationships play -- as research shows us and children tell us -- is key. Whether it be inside the classroom, outside the school, between peers, teachers or...

Last week at the Federal Partners in Bullying Prevention Summit, parent Kevin Jacobsen delivered a heartfelt and purposeful speech touching on the pain he's experienced and the steps he's taken since the premature death of his son Kameron this year as a result of bullying.

Kevin finished up...

Why do we have education? What is the rationale behind schooling? Is it just to transfer content knowledge or is that just a part of a larger picture? Why do we subject our children to 12, 14, 18, or even 20 years of education? If we don't know, if we...

School reform -- or at least talking about school reform -- has been the flavor of the month for quite a few months now. However, what we have seen has not been discussion or debate about what constitutes sound reform, but rather debate by headline.

It's been a quick, dirty,...

The child walking though schoolhouse doors enters a world filled not only with subject matters such as science, art, and math, but also with people matters such as cherished friends and acquaintances, collaborators and competitors, your crowd and someone else's crowd, the sting of rejection, and quite possibly hated enemies...

A few months back I wrote a piece for The Washington Post education section titled "What Other Countries Are Really Doing in Education." In the first line I asked, "Are we moving forward or chasing our own tail?"

I repeat it here because it seems that the...

Here in America, it's time we treated the people who educate our children with the same level of respect. -- President Obama, State of the Union Address January 25, 2011

Respect. That was a key word in the President's State of the Union speech last month. Respect those that educate...

We've heard a lot lately about the need to revamp teaching. In short, the majority of the loudest voices have followed the line of more testing, more standardization, more accountability, and some call for more "non-education" control of education. Many have followed this with a demand for longer school days,...

The great thing about education currently is that it is provoking ideas, thoughts and suggestions from the wider community -- and that community comprises not only of educators, teachers, and researchers but of course students themselves. Kudos to Jingwei Zhang who posted Cash Rewards To Help His Classmates...