Brain Frieze

A Look at One School District's Struggle with Curriculum Reform

Curriculum. Now there's an exciting topic! Unless you're a professional educator like I am, it's probably not even a part of your regular vocabulary. But here in Palm Beach County Florida our community has been embroiled in a controversy about just that topic. In a nutshell, last Spring a new Chief Academic Officer (Jeffry Hernandez) was hired to oversee a total overhaul of the approach our teachers were to take in delivering instruction. This new approach was to be based on three...

My Personal Parental Protest Against the Culture of Testing: Why Our Daughter Won't Be in School Today

My daughter is staying home from high school today. Not because she's sick, not because of any pressing appointment or family emergency, but only because her time at school will be wasted today as the campus goes into lock-down during school district-mandated diagnostic testing. Since her school won't be offering juniors and seniors who have passed their required testing regimen anything more than long hours sitting in the gym while other students take diagnostic tests across the campus,...

How to Get 13 1/2 Hours of Extra Flying Time on a Cross-Country Trip

Some of my more sadistic friends who follow me on twitter asked for a complete listing of all the travel delays I ran into when I flew from San Jose CA back home to West Palm Beach FL the other day. So, for those who just didn't get enough of my live updates from the road as I ran into one problem after another, here's a complete listing of the events that led to me arriving back home 13 1/2 hours later than I...