March 22, 2011

“Blackberry Picking” by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer’s blood was in it Leaving …

Blackberry Picking: A Seamus Heaney Poem with Candor, Virtue, and Reality Read More »

Image via Wikipedia It may be one of my most core of core convictions that we make education so complicated that it disappears in our schools and often in our homes. Among the many reasons for this are the unnatural and harmful modes of assessment that we apply, which undercut the practices that make learning …

Keeping it Simple, Making it Work Read More »

Andrew Pudewa told me at the Southeast Home School Convention that he was “as happy as an oyster.” Not, notice, a clam, but an oyster. Why an oyster? Because an oyster swallows it irritations and converts them to pearls.