EDUCATION An excerpt from the book Learning Every Day by David Wilson, available on Amazon.com. Students tell us school is boring and doesn’t have a direct connection to real life. Businesses say many graduates aren’t prepared for the working world. Universities frequently tell us high school graduates cannot successfully begin college level work. And media outlets often report American students are not keeping up with their counterparts in many industrialized countries. Clearly, changes are in order. The entire picture, however, isn’t bleak. In schools throughout the country, educators have begun to look at research, collect data, and make decisions about practices that will get the best results. Many schools are becoming more flexible in every area and there is a great opportunity for improvement. And improve they must. Making the changes to support what today’s students need will require communities all across the country to support a school model very differe...

HISTORY The following article appeared in newspapers on Feb. 21, 2018: by David Wilson In the second scene in the 1970 academy award-winning movie Patton , one gets a gruesome view of the results of a severe American defeat. The scene depicted Kasserine Pass in Tunisia, North Africa during World War II. Amidst the smoldering ruins of tanks and other armored vehicles, local Arabs were looting the valuables from the bodies of dead American soldiers. American officers arrived in jeeps to survey the damage.   They fired several rounds of ammunition in to the air, causing the looters to flee before they could pilfer more items. Actor Karl Malden, playing the part of the General Omar Bradley, sadly scanned the scene. After such a humiliating American defeat at the hands of the Germans, there were lessons to be learned and changes that needed to be made. The Battle of Kasserine Pass took place Feb. 19-25, 1943. That was 75 years ago. By all accounts, ...

EDUCATION Changing how we think in schools A very relevant article originally published on Jan. 22, 2012 by David Wilson Years ago when I was teaching junior high students, we took official grades on some student work but not on others.  If student work was not graded, it still had great value when it was used as student  practice or as classroom review. One day, some students said if the work didn’t have a grade attached to it, then they weren’t doing it. It was an excellent moment for a good classroom conversation, and we had one at that time. I said, “Wait a minute everyone.   Why are we here anyway?   Are we here to learn or are we here to collect numbers to put in the grade book?” From that point on our conversation went well. The students generally agreed they were in school to learn, but for years in school their efforts had been paid for with points. That was their experience, and they were conditioned to expect it would ...

CURRENT ISSUES Various editorial comments (originally published on October 4, 2017) by David Wilson Today we have a rundown of several brief editorials. Bear with me. So many topics; such limited space. NO REAL EXPERTISE – In today’s world celebrities and star athletes speak out often on various issues. No crime in that. But the plain truth is most of them aren’t qualified to speak with authority on the subject at hand; nor do they have a level of expertise about the topics they wish to address. Actors should act. Musicians should perform. Athletes should play ball. Outside of their professional domain, their opinions shouldn’t count any more than yours or mine. FREE SPEECH – That is not to say that they shouldn’t speak up when they want. In fact, any customer, client, consumer, or citizen can speak his or her mind on any issue. On the other hand, anyone can also reserve the right to place little value on what is said, or can choose to ignore the message altogether. ...