Recent Commentaries

"Community Hub Schools: An Emerging Third Option," The Chronicle Herald, March 8, 2013.

'Better Approach Needed to Correct Reading Deficits," The Chronicle Herald, February 2, 2013.

"Scares, Misadventures, and Reversals in Canadian K-12 Education," The Mark News, January 3, 2013.

"School Board Reform: A Better Cure for the Democratic Deficit," The Chronicle Herald, November 22, 2012.

"Province, Union Mired in Class Struggle," The Herald Magazine, Education Edition, September 24, 2012.

"Digital Learning and the Social Media: Why has Dr. Michael Fullan Gone into the Stratosphere? VoicEd.ca, August 6, 2012

"Early Childhood Education: Why the Stork Arrived in Nova Scotia" OpenFile Halifax, 14 June 2012

"Building Healthy Schools: Site to Fight Child Obesity" The Chronicle Herald, June 14, 2012

"Inclusive Education: In Practice, Theory Never Works" The Telegraph-Journal, June 14, 2012

"Gazing into the Near Future: Transforming Battery Hens into Free Range Chickens" VoicEd.ca, March 15, 2012

"What's Next for Education in N.S.?" The Chronicle Herald, October 10, 2009.

"Whatever Happened to School Flu Shot Clinics?" The Coast, November 5, 2009.

"School's Losing Teens' Attention," The Chronicle Herald, November 18, 2009.

"School's Out, Again: Why Throw-away School Days Hurt Students"AIMS Research Report and Commentary (www.aims.ca), April 13, 2010.

"Turning Around Our Schools"Progress Magazine, May 2010.

"Teens Can't Escape Torment" The Chronicle Herald, June 3, 2010.

"The Ken Fells Takedown Video"
The Mark (Toronto), June 14, 2010.

"The Public Voice in Education: Without School Boards, Where's the Accountability?" The Mark (Toronto), August 5, 2010.

"Edifices and Students: The Halifax Board's Costly Move to New Headquarters" Halifax Magazine, September 5, 2010.

"Should Schools Friend Facebook?"The Mark (Toronto), Sept. 23, 2010.

"Charter Schools: Will Waiting for Superman Revive the Canadian Movement?" Educhatter's Blog, Sept. 25, 2010.

What's at the Core of Education?
"The latest fad to sweep K-12 education is called '21st -Century Skills.' ...But skill-centred, knowledge- free education has never worked...We stand on the shoulders of those who have come before us....Until we teach both teachers and students to value knowledge and to love learning, we cannot expect them to use their minds well."
Diane Ravitch, Co-Chair of Common Core, Professor of Education, New York University ( 2009)

What's New

COMMUNITY HUB SCHOOLS INITIATIVE: Dr. Paul W. Bennett has proposed that threatened Small Rural Schools be transformed into Community Hubs. In a Commentary in The Chronicle Herald and a TV Interview on Global Maritimes Morning News, he explained the concept and cited examples of Nova Scotia school projects underway. Nova Scotia's daily newspaper endorsed the proposal on March 29, 2013 in an editorial entitled "Small School Closures: Think bigger."

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT PROJECT: Since early February 2013, our Schoolhouse Director has been touring Nova Scotia promoting a Public Engagement strategy in place of the divisive School Review process. His quixotic provincial campaign in defense of small schools was profiled in The Chronicle Herald and the Yarmouth Vanguard covered the tour stop in South West Nova Scotia.

CANADIAN EDUCATION REPORT CARD 2012: Schoolhouse Director Paul W. Bennett's 2012 annual review, "Scares, Misadventures, and Reversals in Canadian K-12 Education," appeared in The Mark News, January, 3, 2013

POLICY RESEARCH REPORTS: Three of the most recent reports focused on Special Education, Schools and Rural Revitalization, and Online Learning. Here are the links: Inclusive Education in New Brunswick (AIMS, June 14, 2012) entitled Building a Bigger Tent , Schools at the Centre (Nova Scotia Small Schools Initiative, May 15, 2012) summarized at Revitalizing Rural Education, and Online Learning in Canada’s K-12 public schools, entitled The Sky Has Limits. A Guide for Leadership Transitions was produced in September 2012 for the Canadian Association of Accredited Independent Schools (CAIS).

ONGOING INITIATIVES:
MAKING THE NEWS: Since January 2012, Paul Bennett has produced fifteen more news commentaries and book reviews for The Chronicle Herald as well as periodic news analysis reports for News 95.7 Halifax and CBC Radio Nova Scotia.

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