I’ve not written much for publication over the past year-and-a-half because I’ve been writing sentences like this: “The cost of incidental repairs which neither materially add to the value of the property nor appreciably prolong its life, but keep it in ordinary efficient operating condition, may be deducted as an expense, provided the cost of [...]
Write Now: Generating Ideas and Writing Articles with Educational Themes for the Mainstream Press
Writing isn’t easy and it’s rarely fun. Most educators, given the choice between writing an article in a clean, well-lighted place,1 or mowing the yard in a rain storm, would head for the lawnmower. [I wrote this essay at the request of the University of Pennsylvania Midcareer Doctoral Program Director (GSE, Educational Leadership) who was [...]
I Sound My Barbaric Blog Over Roofs of the World
When a public schoolteacher exercises poor judgment in the blogosphere, criticizing students and parents and bringing unwanted attention to the school district, should she lose her job? Maybe. It sure will cement her reputation as the wicked witch of CB East. Talk about getting hoisted by one’s own petard. Consider the story of Natalie Munroe, [...]
Back to the Future and Into the Matrix
Not all cyberschools and distance-learning endeavors are created equally, nor do they share the same zeal for educating children. [Note: This article has been tentatively accepted by Educational Leadership, the ASCD magazine. Click here for list of published opeds and articles.] Last September, all of my high-school aged students returned to campus with their school-issued [...]
Don’t Count on the Youth Vote
Most of us evolve. More Dr. Jekyll, less Mr. Hyde. But the major blame for the big change in tomorrow’s elections should be assigned to America’s youth. [This piece appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News on Monday, November 1st, 2010. The original version appears below.] Pundits have been fanning the airwaves for months about what is wrong with America: [...]
Meeting as Metamorphosis: The Power of Worship in a Quaker School Context
By Mark Franek on 10/07/2010 in All Editorials (Op-eds), Quakerism, Teaching and Learning, Uncategorized
You won’t find it listed on a student’s transcript, or in the school’s budget; you can’t demonstrate it during back-to-school night, and you can’t take a picture of it for a glossy catalog. Yet meeting for worship is a Quaker school’s most valuable asset. [This essay was published electronically by Friends Journal on October 1st, [...]
Bella!
This is Bella, short for Bellatrix, the dog with an unusual and unnatural devotion to her masters, May Mon and Mark, the alpha dogs.
Death of Dog-ears and Books
Children born today will experience the slow decline of the universal yet wonderfully idiosyncratic process of giving and receiving actual books, holding and shifting them in the lap, turning pages, and moving the eye and the mind across ink and shadow. [This piece appeared in the Christian Science Monitor on Friday, July 24th, 2010. Below [...]
Big Brother Should Be Watching
Big Brother may not be such a bad addition to the neighborhood. [This oped appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News on Wednesday, April 7th, 2010. Original publication; newspaper clipping in PDF.] The solution to the city’s flash-mob problem is literally right over our heads. Looking skyward, maybe you’ve seen a few of them already, with [...]
Why Law School?
[This has been kind of a secret, but I'm starting law school next year in the part-time evening program at Temple. The program will take 3-4 years to complete. Below is my law school essay. I feel a bit guilty—not about going to law school but about comparing law school to Hell in an admissions [...]
Quotable:
"There is no law governing all things."
--Giordano Bruno
--Giordano Bruno
