Welp, here we are. Facing the surreality of coping with the domestic outbreak of this coronavirus, with news of more positive cases and more closures and cancellations daily. The World Health Organization has just declared that the spread of COVID-19 across more than 100 countries now qualifies as a global pandemic. In a couple of days I will be heading to [...]
March is Woman's History Month, and in celebration today's Thoughtful Thursday features two powerful poems by two artistic powerhouses: Toni Morrison and June Jordan. Toni Morrison (1931–2019), while best known for her critically acclaimed and prize winning novels, wrote one volume of poetry, Five Poems (Rainmaker Editions, 2002), which features poems alongside illustrations by Kara Walker. The first of these poems, [...]
Alexander Twilight, Middlebury College, Class of 1823 Today, in honor of the last few days of Black History Month, we celebrate the earliest Black graduates from U.S. white colleges. Imagine, almost 200 years ago, young Alexander Twilight was poised to graduate from Middlebury College in 1823, making him the first Black college graduate from a White institution. To [...]
To all you new moms (and friends of new moms ): did you know that 80% of a child's brain growth happens in the first three years of its life? And that there are a few everyday activities that you can do with a child in those first three years to make a big impact on it's learning? You [...]
In today's Thoughtful Thursday we will hear from two wise women poets: Anne Spencer and Audre Lorde. Anne Spencer(1882-1975) was a Harlem Renaissance poet and civil rights activist. Though she lived in Lynchburg Virginia her whole life, she maintained close friendships with many Harlem Renaissance writers, including James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, and W.E.B. Du Bois, and her home [...]
We are still reeling from the tragic loss of basketball great Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gigi, and seven other passengers on that helicopter flight. For today's Thoughtful Thursday, rather than presenting more poetry to soothe our collective pain, we offer inspirational quotes from the man himself. Taken from interviews over the years and his book "The Mamba Mentality", his [...]
Children's brains grow explosively during the first three years of their lives. Neural connections are made during these years which, if properly nurtured, build a solid base for future success in school, relationships and life. Alternatively, if a child experiences severe stress and trauma during this period, this can lead to emotional and social issues, and delay development. This [...]
Happy Belated Birthday to Dr. King! While we as a nation will officially celebrate on Monday, we should not forget (or let our children forget) that January 15th was his actual birthday. Today's Thoughtful Thursday will break from our normal poetry/inspirational quotes offering to ask: How are you planning to commemorate Dr. King's holiday? Here are an assortment of [...]
Is your son in grades K-5 a reluctant reader? David Banks, leader of the Eagle Academy network of all-boy public schools, wants to help him learn to love reading. Frustrated by the dismal national reading stats for African American and Hispanic boys (only 28% African American and 34% Hispanic fourth grade boys are reading at or above proficiency level, [...]
Happy New Year! The GCP vision for 2020 will be posted shortly, but before we turn to the future I want to focus on a late 2019 special event. Just as the holidays got underway, I had the pleasure of joining RIISE (Resources in Independent School Education) founder Gina Parker Collins for "Lunch with Gina", where we talked about [...]