The start of a new school year can be like the coming of spring. There can be a glow of fresh, exciting possibilities in the air, the anticipation of the new. Something that often sets the tone for [...] Continue Reading
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I Began Reading Forbidden Books at a Young Age
In Lodi—my home town—the public library was split into two clearly marked sections. There was a children’s room and, beyond an imposing wooden door, there lay the adult section. But even in grade [...] Continue Reading
How the “Cellephant” Controls Instructional Time
One Fresno Unified School District (FUSD) teacher calls it the “cellephant.” For a significant number of middle and high school students in FUSD, attending classes regularly involves slipping into [...] Continue Reading
“The cellephant in the room”
Walk into many Fresno Unified School District (FUSD) middle and high school classrooms on any given day, and you’ll spot several students using their phones—not in conjunction with their formal [...] Continue Reading
Are Students Achieving Their Greatest Potential?
On the marquee in front of a Fresno Unified School District (FUSD) elementary school, there stands a bold and spirited message: “Achieving our greatest potential.” It would be wonderful if that [...] Continue Reading
FUSD Academic Performance in Decline
Some call it “product downsizing.” For others, it’s “shrinkflation.” It happens when you buy tissue paper or instant coffee, and the amount you get is less than what used to be in the same [...] Continue Reading
From a TV Show to Reality
Back in the late 1960s, The Prisoner was my favorite TV show by far. It was a quirky spy-type series, and in it a British agent was whisked away to a clandestine site known only as The Village. In [...] Continue Reading
Can Schools Return to Normal?
So what’s been happening inside the Fresno Unified School District (FUSD)? What do teachers experience on the job nowadays, and what’s changed over the past few years? In recent few years—partly [...] Continue Reading
The Decay Of FUSD
“I’ve never worked for such inept people before.” “When we got back to school in August [2021], it was as if the administration was making it up as they went along.” “[These days] I go to my job [...] Continue Reading
Letters from the Holocaust
“You are hereby required to report to the Gestapo Regional Headquarters in Munich, Brienner Street 50 (in the courtyard) on January 17, 1945, no later than 15 o’clock so that you can be assigned to an [...] Continue Reading