Certification is messed up. People in their middle-age are most likely to pay for certification in a career-related skill. But kids are the ones who will most benefit from professional certifications. Certification is an announcement you believe you need to learn a particular skill to make yourself valuable in the workforce. For a middle-aged person listing a certificate program on your resume highlights a lack of self-confidence – a good resume writer can show you how to rewrite your resume to get the job without the certification. (Seriously. If all you needed is the certification you can g ..read more

The measurement for whether school is successful is — drumroll — if the kid does well in school. Think about it: You have never read research that says what kids do in school causes a person to have a good adult life. Neither the school or the teacher has long-term impact on outcomes. So we make up stories about why school is important. Based on no data. To make ourselves feel better. Here’s an example of the circular logic that guides education research: Children and adolescents spend a considerable amount of their time in school, and the school environment is therefore of importance for chi ..read more

  My grandma was a teacher with an open classroom and I went there when our school holidays did not coincide. Since her classroom was first through third grade I got to go there for a long time. Classroom design in Sweden is based on the  open classroom model with a comforting nod to its 70s vibe, and my own open classroom for second and third grade. Basically any learning I did in school I did in an open classroom. I am an independent learner. I am unable to listen for long periods of time. And I wanted to have the ability to cheat when a test did not interest me. I wonde ..read more

My son is friends with a girl who grew up in the foster care system. Her mother left when she was a toddler. Then her dad died of a drug overdose. In front of her. We have known her only a short time, since a family adopted her at age 15. She was at our apartment when Z was taking a practice SAT math test. She had not heard of the SAT. She said her sister did not take it. But the friend didn’t want to sit around while Z took it, so she joined him. I told her she should just take it for fun. Then I set the timer. The two of them went to Starbucks while I scored the tests. Z didn’t even finish ..read more

Primary and secondary school teaching was never meant to be a real profession. Women used to take these jobs until they got married. You can see this during Children’s Blizzard, which happened in the midwest during the 1800s. The Blizzard occurred unexpectedly during the school day. And hundreds of teachers had the nearly impossible job of saving school children from frostbite. One of the most remarkable aspects of the stories about this day is that teenaged girls were left alone, in charge of 20 kids, with very little training. Once school started functioning like a factory and teachers form ..read more

Women went to work outside the home to create a more equitable society. But the more equitable a society is the more clearly women want labor divided by gender. Where are we today? In a study in 2022 women in a very selective college assumed that when they marry they will be responsible for the children and household chores. They expect their spouses to “help with chores”, but not have large responsibility.  But we still put girls through systems that assume men and women will have similar careers. We don’t tell girls they are most likely won’t want to work outside the home. Our schools ..read more

We have known since 2014 that kids don’t learn social skills in school. Yet there is endless conversation about what are social skills and  can you get them in school. The short answer is no, you can’t. Here’s the longer answer: There is still no treatment for social skills in school-aged kids that is approved by the FDA because there is no evidence that the treatments kid get in school make a difference long term. Schools provide interventions to kids who are annoying the teachers so they stop doing whatever is annoying. Luckily, it’s okay because kids with autism do not need to interac ..read more

When it comes to sensory input, change the environment rather than the person. That’s why I made a castle for myself to sleep in. Once I understood my sensory integration dysfunction, I noticed I adjust my environment for  sensory needs all the time, unconsciously — the castle is one of many places where I make sure the light is yellow. The majority of kids with autism have sensory issues, and a classroom is a difficult place to get sensory needs met. Kids are much more likely to get their sensory needs met at home, where they can control the environment. (Pre-emptive strike: an of ..read more

When you read research about preschool keep in mind the most of it is about very low-income kids. Preschool is not important for academic preparation or socialization. Preschool is important because it provides a nurturing environment where children can play while their parents are working. Kids who have a nurturing environment at home, with a parent, do better in life. That’s right. In all of life. That’s how much more beneficial it is to be with a parent than a caregiver from 0-3. The higher quality of childcare the less negative impact it has on a child. However this correlation is mi ..read more

There’s a test of positive childhood experiences to see how resilient a person is. How positive your childhood was impacts how resilient you’ll be as an adult. (I think this was developed to be a pick-me-up for people who scored poorly on the adverse childhood experience test, which I scored almost 100% on.) I assumed positive childhood experiences would be things like go on family trips, have a family dog. But they are actually more complex than that. Like, feel supported by family in difficult times. So, I guess pawning that job off on the family dog doesn’t cut it. Okay. Predictable n ..read more