Health + Nutrition

4 Minutes on How Food Affects Your Brain. Go!

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I’m convinced that schools can make a significant impact on student…

How to Boost Test Scores Without Changing Standards, Curricula, or Tests

Let’s make a bet. I bet we can see impressive increases in achievement scores without touching academics. I’m not saying…

All I’m saying is That When Parents Tried School Lunches a Meatball Actually Bounced

I once mused to a friend that if policymakers did nothing other than improve the quality of food served to…

Drink and Learn: The Fine Pedagogy of Wine Folly

I am blown away by how well the team at Wine Folly help the broader world learn about wine. Honestly.…

Howard Gardner On the Limits of Assessments

I loved hearing Howard Gardner describe the limits of assessments, a kind warning to parents and the public to let…

WTF? Croissants Will Not Give NYC Students “Energy”

I was astonished to see this advertisement in the subway the other day. While riding the 2 train to a…

Philosopher Martha Nussbaum On Liberal Arts Education

Ever since I read her book Not For Profit, I’ve been drawn to University of Chicago professor Martha Nussbaum’s take…

This 1950 Instructional Film on “Dining Together” Might Just Save Your Thanksgiving

I don’t know who made these films, but there are many of them online. Called “instructional” or “educational” films, you can…

Immaturity is an Incredible Asset for Learning, Dewey Wrote

I’ve been listening to an audiobook of John Dewey’s classic Democracy in Education [free here]. Listening to his work is…

Love the Teenager in Your Life? Know Their Brain.

When working with secondary education teachers, I often find myself reminding them that while teaching teenagers can be challenging on…

Back When They Sold Tonics to Cure Teachers’ “Mental and Nervous Exhaustion”

You know, sometimes you come across an old advertisement that you can’t believe is real. Yet here it is from…

Cafeteria Food & Race

Listen to this episode Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast series Revisionist History, where he looks at how two universities’ decisions to serve particular…

A Defense of Charter Schools

Charter schools received much criticism over the last several years–most recently by John Oliver in a viral segment–as the Obama…

Lunch as a Required Course of Study

How Japanese schools approach lunch is eye-opening, especially as many conversations about public education are reduced to narrowly defined academics.…

Learning as Life-Giving

Spirituality and education are not often used in the same breath today, but perhaps they should be. Parker Palmer wrote…

Food for the Brain–Really

We don’t talk enough about nutrition in education. I don’t mean nutrition curricula, which is also important. I mean we…