Peter Gow, Trying to Further Education and Educators

Archive for the NotYourFathersSchool Category

Looking Inward, Looking Outward: Good for Us All

On January 29, 2014   /   #PubPriBridge, EdCamp, Gerald Bracey, Independent Curriculum Group, independent schools, NotYourFathersSchool, public schools, Twitter  

A large part of my life these days is a kind of distillation of what it has been for a while: advancing the work of independent schools. I’ve got threads going relating to curriculum and assessment, data development, professional development, even marketing. It’s all pretty fun, and […]

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Ambassadors All: A Proposal

On January 9, 2014   /   EdCamp, independent schools, National Association of Independent Schools, NotYourFathersSchool, public schools, unconference  

I posted this message yesterday (January 8) in several of the National Association of Independent Schools online communities. Since these are for members only, I was encouraged to find a more public forum. So here is the message, as posted: Over the past year or so I […]

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EdCamps and the Dialogue We Need

On January 4, 2014   /   EdCamp Cape Cod, EdCamp Home, independent schools, NAISAC13, NotYourFathersSchool, public schools, TABS 2013, Twitter, unconference  

This afternoon I spent several very happy hours exploring yet another confluence of really interesting and powerful notions, the UnConference and the Google Hangout. The place: EdCamp HOME 2.0.  I just want to put it out there that one of the more educational aspects of EdCamp Home […]

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Teamwork and Grace

On December 30, 2013   /   collaboration, community, NotYourFathersSchool, school sports, teamwork  

I found myself in an interesting conversation yesterday with a coeval—in fact, a high school classmate. We were watching a hockey game involving our distant alma mater, the unlikeliest of fans and the unlikeliest of alumni lettermen in this sport—I the one-time manager and he the statistician. […]

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Holiday Greetings: Family Style!

On December 22, 2013   /   boarding schools, family-style meals, holiday meals, junior boarding schools, Junior Boarding Schools Association, Norman Rockwell, NotYourFathersSchool, school lunches  

Lamarck may have had it wrong—critters don’t evolve on demand—but I’m always amazed at the speed with which certain things can become so ingrained in our consciousness as to constitute a kind of species memory. Vast tracts of my brain are devoted to old advertising slogans, songs […]

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Profit and Profiteering in Education

On December 17, 2013   /   business investment, educational technology, entrepreneurship, for-profit schools, independent schools, NotYourFathersSchool, public schools, schools, standardized testing, students, textbooks  

Lately I was gently (and privately) chided for expressing skepticism about the role of business enterprises—the people who sell us our computers, our textbooks, our desks, our apps, our standardized tests, our paper towels, and our trays of ravioli—in schools. Can’t live without ’em. Gotta have ’em. […]

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Reflections on Standards, Grades, and Excuses

On December 14, 2013   /   Amada Torres, Andrew Niblock, Common Core, Council for Aid to Education, CWRA, grade inflation, grades, grading, Jonathan Martin, National Association of Independent Schools, New Tech Network, NotYourFathersSchool, St. Ann's School  

These are strange times for educational standards. First, there’s political polarization around the Common Core has everyone a swivet: Are they evil imposed from above, a federalist plot to undermine local control of schools? Or are they a Trojan horse for more testing and yet further reductions […]

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A New Conference Experience: The Association of Boarding Schools

On December 8, 2013   /   Bill Ivey, boarding schools, EdCamp, independent schools, Kim Sivick, NotYourFathersSchool, Pete Upham, The Association of Boarding Schools, the Bridge Year, The Hill School, Thomas Steele-Maley, unconference, Zack Lehman  

I wasn’t sure quite what to expect from my first experience at The Association of Boarding Schools annual conference, but, as good events do, #TABS13 (as the hashtag goes) left me with plenty to think about and a sense that some of the things I’ve been yammering […]

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School Thanksgivings, Past and Present

On November 26, 2013   /   John Brown, Lake Placid, North Country School, NotYourFathersSchool, school celebrations, Thanksgiving  

Back when my father’s school was still really my father’s, and even my grandfather’s school, Thanksgiving meant something a little different for me than for most kids. Like many boarding schools, the school remained in session during what is now the ubiquitous “Thanksgiving break.” Instead of scampering […]

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Mission and Admission–Some Reflections

On November 14, 2013   /   admission, AISAP, Association of Independent School Admission Professionals, collaboration, Crane MetaMarketing, marketing, mission statements, NotYourFathersSchool, school mottos  

Last week I and my friend Tiffany Hendryx of Crane MetaMarketing presented a webinar for the Association of Independent School Admission Professionals called “Selling Mission: Aspirational Statements as Selling Points.” Our mission, if you will, was to remind admission officers that their schools’ mission statements, mottos, taglines, […]

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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.