Category: education

E-Learning at Home and Why it’s a Fail

E-Learning at Home and Why it’s a Fail
My grandkids who live in another state had an e-learning day last week when their school was closed for staff in-service. I guess this counts as a learning day. It was also a trial for doing the same thing on snow closing days, thus avoiding having to make these days up at the end of... Read more »
By Laurie Levy,
November 13, 2018 at 3:09 pm • 

Finding my Voice

Finding my Voice
I loved my fifth-grade teacher, Martin Hollander. He told us our class was a democracy in which all of us had a voice and a vote. For the first time in my school career, my opinion counted and my voice was heard. That all ended when he had to leave class for a meeting and... Read more »
By Laurie Levy,
October 23, 2018 at 9:07 am • 

When 47% of the Entering Kindergarten Class is Deemed Not Ready, Something is Very Wrong

When 47% of the Entering Kindergarten Class is Deemed Not Ready, Something is Very Wrong
Another of my grandkids started just kindergarten. My daughter experienced the expected emotions of a mother whose “baby” is entering public school. But there was an added worry. Was he ready for the demands of kindergarten at his school? As his grandmother, I think he is a terrific boy, full of curiosity, caring, imagination, and... Read more »
By Laurie Levy,
August 17, 2018 at 8:00 am • 
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Starting School: My Earliest School Memories Were Not So Happy

Do you remember the cloak room or folding your piece of paper into eight sections? If yes, maybe you started school in the fifties like I did. That was an era when parents were more ghosts than helicopters and when The Teacher’s word was respected and feared. We sat in neat rows with lots of... Read more »
By Laurie Levy,
July 25, 2018 at 2:14 pm • 

Citizens Should be Literate, Not Poorly Educated

In my home town of Detroit, children do not have the right to be taught to read. Judge Stephen Murphy recently ruled in Gary B. v. Snyder that the Constitution does not guarantee kids have the right to become literate when they attend school. While the judge agreed that, “When a child who could be taught to... Read more »
By Laurie Levy,
July 10, 2018 at 4:20 pm • 

Evanston Technology Decision Leaves Some Kids Behind

This is an educational tale of two tweens. My granddaughters are six months apart in age and separated by one grade level. The one who lives in Indiana uses a tablet at school, has been taught word processing, keyboarding, how to edit her writing, a bit of excel, and how to organize her homework on... Read more »
By Laurie Levy,
May 7, 2018 at 1:16 pm • 
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Time to Try a Different Way to Teach Reading

The only volunteer job I ever quit was being a reading fluency tutor shortly after I retired. The job was simple enough. I took fourth grade students whose reading skills were deemed below grade level, one at a time, to a quiet area in the hallway and asked them to read a passage three times.... Read more »
By Laurie Levy,
April 23, 2018 at 11:26 am • 

Schools Need Custodians Who Care, Not Outsourced Companies that Don't

Gus Lira has been Cherry Preschool’s custodian for most of its 25-year existence. In my years as Executive Director, he came to our rescue time after time. If something broke, we could just call him at his day job. If teachers made a huge glitter mess, they would leave him a note apologizing in advance... Read more »
By Laurie Levy,
March 29, 2018 at 9:36 am • 

In Honor of National Grammar Day: It’s Between You and Me…Not I

March 4 was National Grammar Day, so this is a belated rant about one of my pet peeves: the misuse of I when it should be me. Reading my morning paper last week (that should give you a clue as to my age), I came upon this Corey Lewandowski quote in an article about Hope... Read more »
By Laurie Levy,
March 9, 2018 at 8:08 am • 
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Park School Needs a Playground its Students with Disabilities Can Use

They are so close to their goal…make a donation today The school playground is usually empty. The swing frame holds no swings. The wooden climbing structure is decaying, faded and cracked with age. The wood chip surface is thin and unusable for children whose wheelchairs can’t be pushed across it. When the Penny Park, a... Read more »
By Laurie Levy,
February 8, 2018 at 5:52 pm •