This post by Susan Harris MacKay first appeared on the Living in Dialogue blog. In these times, when the demolition of a place as historic as Sesame Street can be thwarted by editing for shorter attention spans and conversion to pay-per-view, it can be difficult to remember what all the fuss was about during the …
Read more “Why we don’t do art in school (and why we should)”
Opal School is part of the Ashoka Changemaker Schools Network, a group of schools distinguished in their efforts to support empathy and agency. Last year, supported by funding from Ashoka, we held a series of site visits and conversations with three other schools who participate in the network: Mission Hill K-8, a Boston Public Pilot …
In a recent episode of This American Life, W. Kamau Bell struggles with how to talk to his young daughters about race and racism. As he grapples with the question, he finds great meaning in UC Berkeley professor Nikki Jones’ conception of dividing America into “White Space” and “Black Space.” Schools? White Space. How can …
Read more “Communities of Resistance – Where each member thrives”
Re-reading this article tonight, after a particularly creative third grade Literacy Studio today, I was thrown against the cold reality of the mindset of those who really would have us believe that control, certainty, and the dehumanization of the students in our care is the way to a more robust economy and stable society. In Creativity …