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By BEN TOBIN

One of the first things I notice in many schools these days is the emphasis on “belonging.” Certainly, this is an important element in any communal space and especially for developing learners. However, I can’t help but find this latest push,...

By BEN TOBIN

The primary function of a school, aside from educating children, is to protect their students. While we don’t have a serve and protect tagline, there really should be.As an odd hybrid of a special educator and an advocate I see a lot of different...

By BEN TOBIN

As we approach the start of another school year it is long past time to look at the question of removing local control from our schools.The notion of each community having autonomy over its neighborhood schools, while utopian and aspirational in...

By BEN TOBIN

The world of education is rife with feel-good messages and jargon: growth mindset, whole child, inquiry-based, social-emotional learning.The learning will be rigorous and catered to the individual while also still meeting the requirements of state...

By BEN TOBIN

Fifty-seven years locked in a cage. It’s hard to fathom being trapped in a small space that isn’t even large enough to stand upright.Such was the fate of Josiah Spaulding Jr. in the late 1800s. By all accounts Josiah was a kind-hearted young man and,...

By BEN TOBIN

Sixty-thousand mollusks. It’s hard to conceive of that many invertebrates in one location. That is, however, the number of mollusks discovered at the home of famed epistemologist Jean Piaget after his death in 1980.Sixty thousand octopi, snails,...

By BEN TOBIN

As a licensed special education teacher and disabilities advocate, one of my first and foremost responsibilities is to follow the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This law includes the mandate that districts must identify...