How can a widely acclaimed benefit of music study (improved spatial/temporal reasoning) be incorporated without overwhelming musical values? By focusing on musical learning goals stipulated in the standards and graciously including some ancillary purposes, music educators can protect professional integrity while comfortably promoting beneficial…

Education in and through the arts has been overlooked by educational reformers. The classroom arts are mistakenly viewed as programmatic add-ons or pleasant diversions from the core academic basics. Instead of subjecting youngsters to mindless, text-driven drills and exercises, the arts-integrated school stimulates them to investigate many ways of…

An English teacher who taught two years at a racially and economically diverse high school reflects on unintentional forms of racism hiding behind her hard-working colleagues' standard practices. Examples include underrepresentation of black authors in the curriculum, lack of faculty diversity, and a persistently "white" school ethos.…

A successful problem-centered program must focus on problem-solving and planning strategies more systematically and intensively than is typical in most classrooms. Teachers can approach problem solving by posing open-ended questions, teaching the steps of thinking, incorporating problem solving into the curriculum, connecting lessons to children's…

In poor, urban schools, so much time is spent controlling and disciplining children to obey authority (or to learn the hidden curriculum), that scant time is left for "real" teaching and learning. This article shows how school culture (conditions, norms, relationships, and structures) can be changed to educate all children adequately. Includes 10…

Information technology cannot produce marvelous outcomes if the classroom environment lacks opportunities for communication, decision making, and genuine problem solving. Teachers must be proficient software uses before they can use it to teach others. Curriculum and testing standardization is also undermining the teacher-student relationship.…