Chris Lehmann's New Position, New Blog

Chris Lehmann has a new blog and a new position -- he's principal of the soon-to-open Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia!  Maybe we'll be able to get together when I'm up there for one of the MAPP on-sites this Spring.  In fact, he'd like my cohort mates, so ...

While you're at his site, check out his post on visiting Benjamin Franklin HS. He's right about engaging kids; it's critical.  And he's right about relationships.  I'm not sure he's right when he suggests that teachers can't use Like Water for Chocolate in English to support what's going on the culinary institute.  I don't know Pennsylvania's laws or what Philly has done on mandating curriculum.  There are pros to having a substantive, substantial core curriculum that every student in a system is entitled to receive.  Their are cons to taking it to the point where no flexibility is left for teachers.  Of course, some of it depends on how much you expect students to read.  If it is 25 books per year, I suspect there's room for Like Water for Chocolate and a few others besides!

Comments

[Chris Lehmann]

And the problem is the constant struggle between the desire to standardize and the need to innovate. That has to be a healthy and living tension. My sense, after a few months, is that for most schools in Philadelphia, it tilts very far toward standardization.