Category: Articles
K12 Insight: How To Take Social Emotional Learning Schoolwide
December 11, 2019
This article by Tom was originally posted on the K12 Insight blog TrustED on December 11, 2019. Why do we do what we do? What’s the purpose of education? Is it to prepare students to perform well in school and become effective workers or is it to develop good people who will make a positive difference in the world? Of course, the answer is both–and yet, schools and curricula have […]
What Should Be in a Library? An MI Expert Explains
January 17, 2019
In August 2018, MI Expert Dr. Thomas R. Hoerr, Emeritus Head of School at New City School and Scholar In Residence, UMSL College of Education in St. Louis, MO, wrote an article about the questions that informed the design of the Learning Library at the New City School. Below, the article is printed in full and prefaced by a brief comment from Dr. Howard Gardner. If you are over fifty, […]
Looking for ‘Solutions’ in the Face of Staff Conflict
July 9, 2018
Tom was featured as a response in this EdWeek Blog post called “Response: Looking for ‘Solutions’ in the Face of Conflict” by Larry Ferlazzo. Read Tom’s response below. What are your suggestions on how to resolve teacher-to-teacher and/or principal-to-teacher conflicts? I led schools for 37 years and taught for years before that, so let me begin by sharing my bias: conflicts are inevitable when people come together. That’s true at […]
Huffington Post: Grit Isn’t Enough!
December 11, 2017
“Who you are is more important than what you know.” The notion of grit has been getting lots of attention lately. Propelled by the work of McArthur Genius Grant winner Angela Duckworth, there’s a growing realization that parents and educators need to teach children to persevere, to hang in, and to not give up. Thomas Edison’s statement, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they […]