This article follows the author's research on the integration of an aesthetic arts initiative in a private elementary school with an established traditional arts program. The narrative describes the sequence of events, interpersonal interactions, and learning experiences in the format of a full-length dramatic performance. Informed by Ben Peretz's…

The famous photo of Hazel Bryan jeering at Elizabeth Eckford as a mob helped drive Elizabeth from Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, on September 4, 1957, compels meditation on the nature of democratic politics. This scene is commemorative of the Little Rock events where school segregation was rampant. The author believes that the photo…

This article explains the court decision on the "Brown v. Board of Education" lawsuit. In this case, there are findings that the Negro and white schools involved have been equalized, or are being equalized, with respect to buildings, curricula, qualifications and salaries of teachers, and other "tangible" factors. The Court comes then to the…

In this article, the author, a university faculty member, shares her experience of teaching young children as she tries to see if she can practice the ideas she has been advocating to university students. She narrates how she adjusted her classroom routines as Alex, a new child student, arrived. She demonstrates how she and her assistant manage…

This is a paper by an educator for other educators. This article is informed by psychoanalytic theory, although it is not about psychoanalysis. The hope for this paper is that it will inform teachers about shaming in the context of child and adolescent development--the child's as well as the teacher's own development. Shaming is not a solo. It's a…

Reading several documents from the early history of Francis W. Parker School and an essay by John Dewey entitled "The Need for a Philosophy of Education" helps the author's students gain some precision in defining what otherwise remain rather loosely held opinions about the core values of the school. For most of the students, these documents…

In this article, the author reflects on Bert Cohler's essay "Desire, Teaching and Learning" and relates it to his teacher, Miss Anna Freud's story. The author asks whether it is possible that what one sees and hears, and encounters as teacher is only partially what is really out there in one's classroom and in the heads of one's students and…

The authors work in a seventh and eighth grade middle school in a suburb of Chicago. At their school, they have built a community of learners in which they share a deep commitment to a progressive, child-centered approach to education. As stated in their district's philosophy document, they believe that "a school must be a place where cooperation,…