Nancy E. Bailey's Blog, page 95

Don’t Sit Alone and Cry in Your Soup! Let’s All Advocate for Students!

One of the pleasures of starting a blog is to hear from parents and teachers. Some post. Some don’t want to put information online, but they want to be heard. Others comment on Facebook. The stories are often heart wrenching. Teachers recognize they can’t teach the way they know they should because they are pushed to follow a curriculum not in the interest of their students. One teacher/parent on FB likened the current school atmosphere for students with disabilities to “taking away ramps from those with wheelchairs.”

I heard from a tough dad whose family struggled throughout his child’s school career to get the right accommodations. In this time of cheap talk about more school accountability, and while we repeatedly watch schools close due to bad test scores, this parent bemoaned the fact they could never find anyone who displayed accountability for their student!  After all their attempts to get help, they still hadn’t learned who the “go to” people were at the local or state school levels! But as good parents they didn’t give up. Now, their grown child has a spot at a community college to take classes that will meet their needs and academic interests. There is much hope!

But I have to ask, what purpose was served to make the public school experience miserable for their child? How much time was wasted on testing and so-called accountability measures that didn’t do what they claimed? What happens, I also wonder, to the students with disabilities and/or difficulties who don’t have the luxury of parents who are able to advocate for them? Many parents are troubled with a myriad of problems surrounding a troubled economy–how to keep a roof over the family’s head or put food on the table. How do their children fare? We know this is always a problem for disadvantaged students.

Then there were the concerns about children who worked slowly. Those who couldn’t comprehend well at reading were, it appeared to me, being looked upon by school officials as failures due to stringent curriculum requirements. Parents and grandparents struggled amidst stressful homework assignments to keep the joy of learning alive in their children.

There were students who struggled with expressive language, ADHD and specific learning disabilities seemingly lost in the shuffle of Common Core requirements. Most parents undeniably supported their student’s teachers. They recognize their struggle and appreciated their commitment to teaching. But they are all caught up in the disingenuous push for achievement that has become more and more impersonal.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Public schools are not meant to be places where students are beat down because they learn differently. I might add that many children learn differently. Public schools are supposed to lift children no matter their academic and/or social difficulties or whether they have learning problems at all! It can be done! It must be done! If it is not done it will have far reaching consequences not just for the children but for the country.      

Perhaps, most upsetting, was the email from the mom who’d received a school permission form requesting her signature so her child could receive corporal punishment if deemed appropriate. The form noted that if the child had preexisting medical problems they wanted it documented, but if the parent did not sign the form the school could hit the child anyway.

Not only have high visibility organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics and others http://www.stophitting.com/index.php?page=usorgs come out against hitting, the accountability rhetoric certainly falls short in promoting high expectations when it comes to corporal punishment. Sending home a blanket permission form for paddling demonstrates the lowest expectations ever! I emailed this compassionate parent the links to The Center for Effective Discipline http://www.stophitting.com/ and in case the superintendent believed in the “spare the rod, spoil the child” stance the http://www.parentinginjesusfootsteps.org/.  

In all these situations, I again suggest parents connect with others who share their worries. Gather research and information to substantiate your concerns. The internet and the local library provide a wealth of information. Librarians are often eager to help you find what you are looking for. If you are close to a university that is better yet because they have research articles galore.

My website provides some links to groups, organizations and research that might help. There are others out there. Let me know if you find a new book, group, or link you think I should add. Also feel free to ask me or others questions. I don’t know all the answers, but I can try. If you disagree…well that’s alright too! If you post a question at nancyebailey.com it comes to me first before it is posted. I will not post your comment if you ask.

There is power in numbers. Gather with other parents and educators who share your concerns. Approach teachers, principals, superintendents, school boards and respectfully bring to their attention disagreements. Document everything, and if you are still not satisfied, look for a lawyer or an advocacy group that will support you. Carry on! While it is true it may take time…you will be leading the way to right what you believe is wrong in education. It’s better than sitting alone and crying in your soup.                

Isn’t It Time for Some Class Action Suits Against Common Core–For Students with Special Needs and Young Children?

This past weekend’s post about Common Core not rhyming with Individual Educational Plans brought over 1,000 Facebook likes. For a relatively new Blogger this jumped out at me as a sure sign that people, especially parents with students who have special needs and their teachers, are fed up with Common Core State Standards which have little redeeming value when it comes the education of children who struggle with disabilities. So I wonder. Isn’t it time for some class action outside of the classroom?

A lot of people recognize that the CCSS has age-appropriate problems and is off in other ways too. Young children are faced with ever more outlandish situations when it comes to their learning. Reports of play being extinguished in kindergarten and even preschool, in favor of rigor, make those of us who understand children and child development cringe! I’d say there are lawsuits aplenty here alone.

But as a special educator, the lacking special education component reflects a push in the last 20 years, or more, to rid schools of special education in general. In Misguided Education Reform I write about reauthorizations that have pushed us backwards instead of forward. I express fear that students with disabilities will eventually return to state institutions. Outlandish? Take a look at New Orleans where charters send students with disabilities back to public schools that have turned into dumping grounds. See http://www.splcenter.org/access-denied/special-education-in-new-orleans-public-schools and http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2013/08/special_education_students_sti.html. Where’s the so-called inclusion in that scenario? Thank goodness the Southern Poverty Law Center is in this fight.         

I come from the era that saw the removal of children from horrendous conditions in state hospitals. The evolution of education to a Free Appropriate Public Education for ALL, which we acronym lovers coined affectionately as FAPE became the law of the land. Court cases like the landmark 1971 Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children (PARC) and the 1972 Mills v. Board of Education were monumental in obtaining education services for ALL children.

Isn’t it time for parents and teachers who complain about CCSS and its lacking support of their children to gather together for some new class action suits over the word “appropriate” when it comes to curriculum surrounding Common Core? There is power in numbers. We know this. So instead of fussing and fretting, connect with other parents and teachers in your state who share your concerns. We know what is right and wrong when it comes to educating. Do what is right! Search for a lawyer who will hear your concerns. And then make your case.        

A Big Thank You to the Shelby County PTA

I enjoyed speaking to the Shelby County PTA and Administrators last Wednesday at their luncheon about my book. I would like to thank Terri Harris, Shelby County PTA president, for the invitation. I am impressed by how savvy parents are about the harmful reforms that are taking place. Parents are the real drivers of school change and these parents have done their homework! I especially hope administrators heard my message about recess and the arts.

At the end of my speech I referenced Mrs. Puglisi’s 100 Standards from Sarah Puglisi’s Blog http://sarahpuglisi.blogspot.com/2010/03/mrs-puglisis-100-national-standards.html.  I think they went over well. I only read 15 of them (a few of my favorites), but I recommend we all stop and reread these from time to time and visit Sarah’s lovely Blog A Day in the Life http://www.sarahpuglisi.blogspot.com/. Sarah reminds us what teaching should be all about. Her students are always involved in wonderful projects. They are very lucky to have her as a teacher. I am proud to call her a friend. And Hey Sarah! Can I buy up some of that student artwork? I’d like to see some of those pictures on the walls of my house!     

Common Core State Standards Don’t Rhyme With Individual Educational Plans

Think about it. Common Core State Standards do not rhyme with Individual Educational Plans. Say it slowly. Listen to the words. They don’t go together. The whole point of CCSS is for everyone to get to the same standard. It is the same goal. You can argue that students with disabilities might get to the same goal in a different way…but it is not an individually designed goal.  

Parents need honesty and they need teachers who rally to bring their child forward from whatever point they find them. Implying that the child is not quite right if they don’t master the standards is an insult. Telling all parents of students with disabilities that their child is going to do the general curriculum and master the same standards as everyone else, is nothing short of irresponsible.

I am not saying some students with disabilities cannot do all of the above. But the reality is many will not. Many students will have special needs for their whole life. I don’t care how many books are written about aligning standards—Common Core OR State Standards—to IEPs. The truth is, forcing all special education students to master standards is cruel and unusual. It is definitely not what the old idea of individual educational planning was all about.

There are all kinds of questions in general about standards. How many do we need? Do we need any standards? If standards are so great and we have had them for years, why are public schools closing? Why are we getting MORE untested, unpiloted standards?

I wrote this post today out of a great deal of frustration trying to find information to show how CCSS connects with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The trouble is the reauthorizations that have taken place over the years have stripped the original law, PL 94-142, of its meaning and original intent, so there really isn’t much special about special education.

I am disappointment in many of my fellow special educators who go along with the false idea that all students with disabilities must adhere to the Common Core State Standards. The belief is that all students with disabilities must have schooling that will include proper alignment of standards to individual educational plans. Students will become like everybody else with just the right goals leading to the mastery of the standards. I have also noticed they are long on goals and short on strategies to reach them!  

Directors who have bought into this false ideology, are leading special education and regular teachers over the cliff. Many will get fired when the next value added testing scam is rolled out. They will not be able to get their students to reach the standards, and when they walk out the door they will be leaving special ed. students in the lurch. I have yet to see how CCSS will address the students who DON’T master the standards. So far I have seen NO safety net.

The idea that all students, even those with disabilities, must master the same standards is an insult to the differences ALL children display. Common and individual do not rhyme no matter how you try to make it so.

Mr. Duncan—A Few Reasons Why I Question Your September 30th Speech, “Beyond the Beltway Bubble.”

Arne Duncan takes a lot of criticism from educators. They have never seen him as one of their own. For me personally, I wanted Linda Darling-Hammond to get the job. I don’t always agree with Darling-Hammond, but I do respect her as an educator and a researcher. When Mr. Duncan was hired I and a lot of other educators knew immediately what direction President Obama would drive in education. The die was cast. And I’m betting most would agree we might be upset about a lot of what has happened to public schools since the president was elected, but we are rarely surprised.

This is the first major speech Mr. Duncan has given I have heard since starting a blog. So it is with real interest I listened and tried to analyze what he said. He seemed more fired-up with this speech than many of the others. And some of what he said sounded good, especially at the end. But while many in the general audience and diehard Democrats might like the speech, I believe it is fraught with inconsistencies and misrepresentations. It is also rather insulting to educators and parents who disagree with his policies. There are more of us than he would like to acknowledge.

I have chosen some initial statements Mr. Duncan made to debate. He implied that many don’t listen and are uncooperative—like we are bratty school children ever clamoring and complaining but not seeing that the majority (he assumes) like the draconian reforms the federal government passes down to the local schools. Yet in the second statement (I mark his words in red) I noticed his comment about enforcing law. Public schools are being made to implement unproven curriculum changes like the law of the land when the control should come from within the community.

But here is some of breakdown of his speech and my most humble interpretation and armchair punditry.

This town, which so often thinks that it’s somehow the center of the universe, is, instead, an alternative universe.

While Mr. Duncan makes this statement about Washington D.C., some pretty harmful policies from his so-called alternative universe drive education reform today—reforms that a lot of Americans at the local level and even state levels don’t like or believe in.

Here you have some members of Congress who think the federal government has no role in public education—not as a backstop for accountability, not as a partner in enforcing laws and expanding educational opportunity, and not as a supporter of innovation and courage.

Mr. Duncan implies, I think, that it is the Tea Party that is hampering school reform in regards to Common Core State Standards. But there are a lot of other parents and teachers pushing back on Race to the Top including Common Core State Standards and PARCC. Many are democrats and regular old republicans. Many of us do not mind the federal government helping when state or local funds might not be enough. But the federal government is becoming more far-reaching in education policy than ever before. They are taking over curriculum and schools. They have, as just one example, emphasized Charter Schools and put tax dollars towards this endeavor, even though the research on charter schools is weak.

They have thrown their support behind privatization groups like The New Teacher Project, Teach for America and New Leaders for New Schools to name a few. And while the Governors and state education commissioners have signed on to Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and PARCC, they include Achieve and the federal government. The standards have the essence of a national curriculum making many uncomfortable. It also raises a lot of legal questions concerning state rights. Many are concerned over the lack of pilot testing these reforms.   

I must add that at the same time, the federal Head Start Program, mostly funded through federal dollars in the past, has been passed (Pres. G.W. Bush) to the state as a block grant where communities must now compete. This jeopardizes funding for the program. More and more it is my guess that we will see Head Start pass to private partnerships or be totally privatized. Or, we will see less and less in the way of preschool for disadvantaged children. Already we see that happening. Every day matters for today’s young children.

Inhabiting this bubble are some armchair pundits who insist that our efforts to improve public education are doomed to fail—either because they believe government is incapable of meaningfully improving education, or because they think education reform can’t possibly work since the real problem with schools is that so many children are poor.

In blogs, books, and tweets, some pundits even say our schools are performing just fine and that fundamental change isn’t needed. Or that we have to address poverty first before schools can improve student achievement.

Armchair pundits? Is he speaking of Diane Ravitch whose book questions current policies and is on the best sellers list? Bloggers and writers of other books, me included, could take offense at the armchair pundit reference. Most of us have degrees in education and years of experience working with students. Mr. Duncan’s lacking qualifications should be of concern. Not only is Mr. Duncan lacking a good educational background for the important job he is supposed to do, but many state education commissioners and those in education leadership positions throughout the country, like Kevin Huffman (TN) and John White (LA) and others, have little formal education and experience for the jobs they do.

No other profession would value the ideas of leaders with so few qualifications. Perhaps, because they lack qualifications, they don’t seem to value the criticism or debate of real educators. We have wanted a voice since the president took office. To Mr. Duncan’s credit I believe he has met with some on the other side of his beliefs, but their ideas are dismissed. Many parents, who know best about the needs of their children, are ignored as well.

As far as poverty, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t think schools can’t be changed to accommodate students better especially in poor schools. But Mr. Duncan and those of his ilk want to make public schools the sole fixer of poverty. They do it in a rather harsh manner treating poor children like they need more discipline, even in the early years. They also fire teachers without providing them assistance, smaller class sizes, and/or support. Mr. Duncan should dialogue with the rest of us on those issues.           

In blogs and books and tweets most educators and savvy parents know things aren’t right with our public schools. In fact, bad things have been done to schools in the name of school reform. Many of us believe the bad reforms started happening a long time ago with the damning school report A Nation at Risk.  

A lot of us also heard about another report called The Sandia Report, http://www.edutopia.org/landmark-education-report-nation-risk  lost forever in the 1993 Journal of Educational Research. This raised questions as to whether public schools were ever doing so badly to begin with. Then there was the 1995 book The Manufactured Crisis: Myths, Fraud, and the Attack on America’s Public Schools by David C. Berliner and Bruce J. Biddle,  and numerous books by the late Gerald Bracey. Those books found a place on our bookshelves long before Diane Ravitch turned her thinking around to reject the current education reforms so eloquently.

This is just a small analysis of Mr. Duncan’s long speech. I know I am one of many, and a lesser known individual, who critiques Mr. Duncan. It is enough for today. I will see if it is popular enough to continue analyzing this speech. I really sit at a desk to type. Now I need my real armchair and a cup of tea.  

Data Frenzy!

A parent was bemoaning the fact that her young student is made to carry his notebook with his standardized test scores around the school in the chance an administrator, or test Nazi, might need to take a look at the scores. Are test scores this important that administrators must have access to them every minute of the day? Is the school just too poor to purchase a locked filing cabinet? Of course, no doubt the scores are on a computer someplace. So what possible purpose does it serve to have a child carry their scores around the school?

It would seem to me to be precariously close to creating a serious privacy violation. Of course, in today’s world, testing advocates would argue that the child has his scores in his own private possession. Since children aren’t allowed too much time, if any, to play or to be children, one wouldn’t worry (well I’d worry anyway) that the folder would sit out someplace where another snoopy child would take a peek at the scores. Or that the school has some bullies who might grab the folder and begin to taunt the child….or…well you get the picture.

Discussing this exercise in test obsession, and whether there could be a legal suit concerned with privacy issues, parents and educators suddenly turned the conversation to the data rooms now proliferating into schools across the country. There are all kinds of examples of the dizzying array of post-it notes and magnets moving around—forward and backward—monitoring every test point a child moves. This is one of my favorites http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Data-room-keeps-teachers-students-focused-on-2431886.php.

Student’s names or pictures are listed on a wall and the rooms are supposed to be top secret, although most acknowledge people can sneak in or that the rooms aren’t secure. It is in these data rooms that strategic battle plans are drawn-up to watch the data. I am struck by how war-like this is. This school even calls it what it is. http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/education/article/Where-the-battle-to-improve-students-work-3056841.php.  The rooms do look like what I could imagine would be a briefing room found at the pentagon. But it is children we are talking about here.

Those who like high-stakes tests and sorting through mounds of data will argue that it is necessary to watch every move the child makes on a grand scale to see improvement. They will tell you the data helps them to plan their strategy to help the child learn better and faster. They like to point to students who have difficulties in school.

I would argue that you need to take your eyes off the data and put them on the child with the difficulties and all the children for that matter. While you are at it, you might cast your glance at the parents who are fed up with all of this. And believe me, they are fed up. Peggy Robertson who leads United Opt out of the Test National http://unitedoptout.com/ claims she can hardly keep up with all the parents signing up to opt out.

Still, I always try to be fair. Could this set-up really be worthwhile? Has it worked? Do we see children advancing by leaps and bounds? Jonathan Supovitz, an associate professor and director of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, had this to say:

We certainly motivate educators when we hold them accountable for the results of the high-stakes tests their students take. But what do we motivate them to do? Years of research on NCLB and similar high-stakes testing programs tells us that without anything more to go by than the results of high-stakes tests, educators will produce shallower, not deeper instruction. That is, they’ll ‘teach to the test.’ They’ll use valuable class time to go over test-taking strategies. And they’ll put far more emphasis on the tested subjects—reading and math—at the expense of subjects like science that our children need to learn if they’re going to compete in the global economy.   

Everyone seems to know this. We know about the cheating scandals as well. We also know that children learn better when they have a nurturing environment. Tests are merely one tool, of many, to discover more about children and how they learn. The real education takes place in the heart of the classroom with the teacher and their personalized educational plans for the child. And these plans are made in conjunction with critical input and feedback from involved parents. This is not rocket science. There doesn’t need to be mounds of data to understand a child. There is no war. Thus there is no need for data war rooms or children carrying their test scores around every minute of the day. Children can hand back their test scores to their teachers and carry around a good library book instead.

How About a Broader, BOLDER Approach to Education?

I am adding a national campaign to the Early Childhood section of the website although it could be applied to Adolescence and Educators as well. It is associated with the Economic Policy Institute and is called the Broader, BOLDER Approach to Education (BBA). The BBA is described as “a national campaign that acknowledges the impact of social and economic disadvantage on schools and students and proposes evidence-based policies to improve schools and remedy conditions that limit many children’s readiness to learn.”

The BBA provides an extensive bibliography of research related to students and schools, and they promote and share principles in regards to Early Childhood Education, Comprehensive Strategies, and School Improvement. There is much more to explore on this website and they share recent news features, like the September 12th, Politico article by Nirvi Shah entitled “Race to the Top for Education a Flop, Report Finds.”

Every state is represented. It is easy to learn about the programs affecting individual states.   

Should Teach for America Have Recruiting Happy Hours?

So what’s wrong with Teach for America advertising their get-together—uh—recruiting  Happy Hour party?  Why did parent, Jennifer Proseus, PTA mom extraordinaire, even bother calling it into question on Facebook?

I like to socialize and as a teacher I found it helpful to meet after school to talk about issues or just kick back. Almost always, we teachers basked in the loveliness of a real lunch at a restaurant, any restaurant, away from the teacher’s lounge or the school cafeteria on teacher planning days. As far as alcohol…I recall some wine and cheese parties after school, maybe even a few were hosted by teacher associations. And I personally remember a few Happy Hour get-togethers with several close teacher friends.

Here’s why the TFA soirees bother me.

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In any of the socials I attended, I don’t recall any recruiting going on at the time of the social. Making connections…discussing issues…of course. But recruiting at a Happy Hour seems wrong.  

The TFA parties/recruitment, apparently held select times throughout the year, appear to be mostly for the young. The TFA in Memphis are with the Achievement School District which wildly promotes itself, even though it has done little if anything to show proven results, as better than the schools it replaced. They took over after some real public schools were shuttered and the credentialed, experienced teachers excessed, or in layman’s terms fired. There was nothing celebratory for many in those actions.

There are questions as to the funding of these parties. Maybe it seems trite, but when serious budget cuts plague the school district, citizens notice how pennies are spent. Frivolity appears inappropriate.   

The TFA set want respect, or so they imply, from adults in the room (or the adults outside the bar in this case). Partying on down after work makes them appear like—well an exclusionary fraternity. Recruiting while they are drinking and doing photo shoots (yes I said photo shoots) also seems swarmy.

Along with the above, TFA recruiters and college grads have not left their college-age peers too far behind. It is on college campuses where we see much-too-much drinking. In some places it’s a real problem. TFA are also not much older than the high school students they work with. Like it or not, TFA is stepping into the adult role of a teacher. Advertising a Happy Hour for so-called teacher recruitment seems like poor judgment. It makes the drinking scene look acceptable to younger students.

I don’t like the organization Teach for America for the many reasons already written about in the literature and the news. But the young people wanting to take on the role of a teacher can be sincere. One of the criticisms is that they are not well-prepared for the job they are undertaking…that they are young and naïve. The Happy Hour recruitment just reaffirms those criticisms.     

To Watch NBC’s Education Nation or to Not Watch NBC’s Education Nation…That is the Question

It is almost time for…drumroll…NBC’s Education Nation!

If you are like me, I like many of the NBC hosts. They are personable. I even think Brian Williams should be a regular on Saturday Night Live. If I have a chance to watch TV in the morning I am torn between the Today Show and Morning Joe, although I may switch over to CBS and ABC to try to dodge commercials. And Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, Ed Schultz and the others—how many of us haven’t wanted to tweak or write just a little more to their scripts when they address public schools. I have been known to yell out “JUST SAY IT! THEY WANT TO PRIVATIZE THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS!” To which my husband, knowing I am going over the edge, quickly grabs the clicker and switches to Everyone Loves Raymond reruns.    

Then there’s Jonathan Alter. Jonathan Alter is a cancer survivor and I once read his account of some of what he went through. I am a breast cancer survivor and have lost loved ones to cancer. I know the heartache and the fear. So Jonathan Alter can talk snarky all he wants about public schools and teachers, but when I look at him all I see is a cancer survivor who probably still has some fear lurking behind that sharp tongue. There have been times when I have turned him off. But I listen to him talk about other matters of world concern with great interest. I have no idea why he gets so angry about public schools.

While liking some of these people on their own, when it comes to education they just don’t seem to get it…or don’t want to get it…or can’t get it… Maybe the problem is when they get into groups.    

Maybe it is like what George Carlin once said.

“People are wonderful. I love individuals. I hate groups of people. I hate a group of people with a ‘common purpose’. Cause pretty soon they have little hats. And armbands. And fight songs. And a list of people they’re going to visit at 3am. So, I dislike and despise groups of people but I love individuals. Every person you look at; you can see the universe in their eyes, if you’re really looking.”  

When these NBC personalities get together with all of those outside supporters, who really crave the privatization of our public schools, they see only the ideology of the paying hosts. NBC’s Education Nation has had as sponsors Microsoft and the University of Phoenix and some others of the same ilk. It should therefore be of no surprise that if you have those kinds of sponsors, Diane Ravitch will be an afterthought. She will also not be invited to sit up on the stage, but instead she will be told she can speak from the audience, up in the balcony, or out in the street, or in the restroom, or wherever they wanted Diane to speak. So Diane Ravitch, will not speak from anywhere on Education Nation because she is traveling the nation. And, by the way her book is selling, I venture more people will hear Diane speak than will tune into Education Nation.

So the rest of us, debating whether to watch Education Nation, or not, are left with nothing but the guests who sold off our public schools a long time ago and a group of newbies who are doing nonprofit things to show how much they care. For me, I will be selective. I might watch the teachers in the audience trying to make the same points they made since this showcase began several years ago. Perhaps I’ll tune-in to see Goldie because she still looks like she is forty years old, or Lloyd Blankfein, chairman of Goldman Sachs, because…because…well because…I cannot figure why he is even on this program!

But mostly, I probably won’t watch NBC’s Education Nation because I will yell, what everyone knows, ““JUST SAY IT! THEY WANT TO PRIVATIZE THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS!”  Oh…and also…I will say, “Please don’t. We like our public schools. They are fine and we want to keep them. Thanks but no thanks.”                  

Check Out the Philadelphia Declaration of Play and Cheer!

Here is a breath of fresh air for Philadelphia which has seen its share of public school closures. The following is from the Philadelphia Declaration of Play which I am adding to my website under early childhood. Check them out and cheer!

The Philadelphia Declaration of Play is an ongoing collaborative project created by local advocates, mental health professionals, educators, and physicians in defense of play in the lives of children. Despite a century of research on the developmental needs of children, the physical, psychological, educational, and social well being of our children is declining. Children and adolescents are experiencing unprecedented rates of depression, anxiety, aggression, obesity, inattention and hyperactivity. One of the major symptoms of this cultural crisis is the disappearance of free play. Play is essential to every dimension of healthy childhood development. The development of the brain, body, mind, soul, and their interconnections, along with the ability to relate to others, all happen through free play. Learning. creativity, pleasure, hopefulness, mastery, and the regulation of stress rely on the healing and natural resource of play.

It is urgent that we join forces and forge alliances to promote a healthier quality of childhood for now and for the future.

Website: http://www.declarationofplay.org/