Letters

The Story of a School

Three huge cheers for Wood Smethurst, Martha Burdette, and the Ben Franklin Academy. Betsey Russell's article, "The Story of a School" (Winter 2005), was a gem. As a reading therapist, I often recognize the influences of the late Dr. Jeanne Chall in my private practice. Fluency and vocabulary work aside, it is memories of Dr. Chall telling grad students about inviting struggling young readers who had come to her for tutoring into her kitchen to help make (and eat!) cookies. That was a lightbulb moment for me, that taking time to know the child is the source of invaluable information for the teacher. Careful observations of each student--and keeping daily written records of them--is paramount in teaching, but no longer seems to be a skill taught in schools of education. As educators, how can we possibly help a child to be a successful learner if we do not know the child?

STEPHANIE FLETCHER DEERAN, ED.M.'90
Reading Therapist & CFO, Hugobooks, Inc.
Marblehead, Massachusetts

Where Are the Charter Schools?

As a loyal HGSE alumnus, I read Ed. with the same sense of nostalgia as all of HGSE's interested alumni. But, as the executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools, I read the Winter 2005 issue with a progressively increasing sense of disappointment. The first story is about a private school, while the ensuing article on HGSE partnerships touched not on one charter public school. To boot, there was a sidebar about a project in South Africa. That's an okay topic, but the most entrepreneurial contemporary public education in this country, and arguably the world right now, is charter public schools (more than 3,600 charter public schools are operating in this country right now, all
of them started since 1991).

As a former public school principal and school superintendent, one of my biggest frustrations with American graduate schools of education was their eschewing the professional training necessary to our endeavors. Although professional schools of every other stripe devote a significant portion of their curricula to training their professionals, most graduate schools of education are focused on content, theory, research, and academic pursuits. While medical schools, dental schools, theology schools, architectural schools, and business schools focus on both academic knowledge and the translation of this knowledge to behavior that is similar to the profession that will be practiced, graduate schools of education seem to be modeled upon graduate schools of arts and sciences, with actual schools inhabited by children being far removed.

Harvard is one of the few places, where, if a department or a professional school wanted to truly transform itself, the resources are there to do so. As an alumnus who loves his school, I urge HGSE to transform itself and engage in the professional work that would make it a truly sentential institution.

TIMOTHY H. DANIELS, M.A.T.'68
Executive Director, Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools
West Chester, Pennsylvania

Magazine Redesign

Congratulations on the redesigned format of Ed. It's splendid! I've always looked forward to reading the magazine from HGSE, but recent articles have seemed particularly engaging and inspiring, such as "The Story of a School" by Betsey Russell in the Winter issue.

I'm also impressed with the high quality of expression throughout the magazine. I think it's better than ever.

LOIS WIEN, M.A.T.'57
Retired Teacher
New York, New York