Peter Gow, Trying to Further Education and Educators

Archive for the NotYourFathersSchool Category

KNOWING THE STUDENTS WE DON’T TEACH by Will Harrington

On August 23, 2020   /   Not Your Father's School, NotYourFathersSchool, Uncategorized  
KNOWING THE STUDENTS WE DON’T TEACH by Will Harrington

THIS IS A GUEST POST BY A YOUNG INDEPENDENT SCHOOL TEACHER (currently in search of a position after his previous school downsized due to COVID, BTW). I’m delighted to share Will’s perspective here. Conversations about the start of the school year have been dominated by the question […]

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THE UNEXAMINED CURRICULUM IS NOT WORTH TEACHING

On September 6, 2019   /   NotYourFathersSchool  

I said it the other night in a Twitter chat (the #ISEDchat; first Thursdays 9–10pm ET), and I’ve said it privately to folks, so I guess I can say it here, for the world: The unexamined curriculum is not worth teaching. It may have been worth teaching […]

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GREATER GOOD—A NEW PLAY THAT HURTS SO BAD YOU NEED TO SEE IT

On August 20, 2019   /   NotYourFathersSchool, progressive education  

Since I was a kid I have been fascinated by movies and books about schools. This probably comes from growing up on a boarding school campus and taking in my family’s administrative worries with my meals of institutional food from Number Ten cans. From Blackboard Jungle to Lucifer With […]

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CONFRONTING STUDENT PREJUDICE: Important Questions About a School’s Obligation to Address Hateful or Hurtful Expression; Do Your Values Have Teeth?

On March 16, 2019   /   NotYourFathersSchool, Uncategorized  

A history teacher encounters a dismissive and demeaning reference to gay and lesbian people in a student essay. A Spanish teacher senses that students are obliquely mocking stereotypes of Latinx persons during conversational practice exercises. An English student continually asserts in class discussions of a Toni Morrison […]

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EQUITY IN EDUCATION: LET’S ELEVATE OUR EXPECTATIONS!

On March 10, 2019   /   NotYourFathersSchool, Uncategorized  

(This essay has been partly inspired by my recent reading of Anand Giridharadas’s Winners Take All and Steven Brill’s Tailspin. Both books should be on every educator’s #MustRead list. It appeared originally as my “From the Executive Director” message in the Independent Curriculum Group’s March 2018 newsletter […]

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READING FOR A WEIRD WINTER: McLuhan, MarketWorld, and Adolescence

On February 18, 2019   /   NotYourFathersSchool, Uncategorized  

If there is anything about the winter of 2018–19 that hasn’t been pretty strange somewhere, I haven’t heard about it—and I mean everything from weather to governance. Sometimes I just need to curl up with a good book, and lately I have found a few. It’s been […]

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TOWARD A NEW JERUSALEM?

On April 6, 2018   /   NotYourFathersSchool  

I’ve long been puzzled by some of the weirder aspects of William Blake’s poem “Jerusalem.” What was this man talking about, imagining Jesus bopping around England, touching down on a verdant hill here and a sooty factory there? Having taught the poem on occasion, I have pondered […]

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IN A DYSTOPIAN WORLD, A COMPELLING CASE FOR INDEPENDENT CURRICULUM?

On December 17, 2017   /   NotYourFathersSchool  

A colleague observed the other day that the recent proliferation of unusual essay and short-answer prompts on the applications of super-selective universities might have a purpose other than making 18-year-olds commit to a decision on their favorite movie or what, exactly, inspires them. The colleague’s hypothesis is […]

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TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION: A CHALLENGE TO SCHOOLS

On July 12, 2017   /   NotYourFathersSchool  

“I (we) wish to acknowledge this land on which the University of Toronto operates. For thousands of years it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. Today, this meeting place is still the home to […]

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THE TAINTED PROMISE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

On January 3, 2017   /   NotYourFathersSchool  

(This post originally appeared on the Independent Curriculum Group Blog as “My Twitter Problem.” It has been edited slightly to serve the transition to my personal blog.) We’ve been hearing it for years: Don’t blame electronic media for the bad things kids do using electronic media! Kids […]

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF TRADITIONAL LANDS

I here affirm that the offices from which I work are situated on lands that have a very long and continuing history as a locus of residence, livelihood, traditional expression, and exchange by the Massachusett, Wampanoag, Abenaki, Mohawk, Wabanaki, Hohokam, O’odam, Salt River Pima, and Maricopa people. The servers for this website are situated on Ute and Goshute land. We make this acknowledgment to remind ourselves, our educational partners, and our friends of our shared obligation to acknowledge and work toward righting the inequities and injustices that have alienated indigenous peoples from the full occupation and utilization of these spaces.