School Choice & Charters Blog

Independent Schools, Common Perspectives

Peter Gow was an administrator and teacher in independent schools for nearly 40 years. As the Executive Director of the Independent Curriculum Group, he wrote about the relationship between private and public education and how the two sectors might draw upon each other’s strengths. This blog is no longer being updated, but you can continue to explore these issues on edweek.org by visiting our related topic pages: private schools.

Education Opinion Giving Meaning to Independent School Mottos
I have written quite a lot about the aspirations of independent schools, and how these are ultimately the expressions of schools' founders, usually idealists for whom embodying a philosophy of education into a school of their own creation was an act of extraordinary hope.
Peter Gow, April 15, 2013
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3 min read
Education Opinion Defining the Public Purpose of Independent Schools
We must be clear in our missions and values and clear about representing worthy choices, not just comfortable opt-outs, for families and children; it's not enough just to educate our students--we need to add real value, cultural and even moral value, to society. This is a tall order, and not all of our constituents may fully understand it. But it's what we must do.
Peter Gow, April 12, 2013
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4 min read
Education Opinion Lockdown!
Lockdowns are the uninvited guest, the evil witch, at the banquet of "21st-century learning." Some of you, Gentle Readers, have known this for years, but for others of us it's a new thing: post-Newtown, post-Virginia Tech, post-Columbine.
Peter Gow, April 10, 2013
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3 min read
Education Opinion Independent Schools: Making Professional Development Work
I believe that independent schools are at last starting to pass through the barriers of our own history, and that there is a growing realization that teachers must be what so many school mission statements extol: lifelong learners. There should no longer be excuses or ways for teachers to opt out of professional learning that will make them more effective in engaging, challenging, and educating their students.
Peter Gow, April 8, 2013
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4 min read
Education Opinion Dewey Ever! The Enduring Vision of John Dewey
Dewey was not soft on learning and demanded purposeful and well-trained teachers, and he believed education should above all prepare students for informed and thoughtful engagement with their world.
Peter Gow, April 5, 2013
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4 min read
Education Opinion More Independent School Voices: A Blog Sampler (Part II)
The evolution of "tech support" to curriculum and program experts to influential thought leaders is, to me one of the cooler developments in the world of school administration in the last couple of decades. That so many tech folks are now leaders in our schools is yet another, somewhat unexpected, manifestation of the power of technology in education.
Peter Gow, April 3, 2013
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4 min read
Education Opinion We're All Stakeholders in Public Education
As a society we have the know-how to teach every kid well. We have the wealth to create schools in which every student is known, valued, and educated. Know-how and wealth. What's missing, of course, is the will.
Peter Gow, April 1, 2013
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4 min read
Education Opinion Independent Schools and Uncommon Standards
A lofty mission statement and compelling standards on a website or in a handbook do not guarantee much of anything. Standards, whether the Common Core or an enumeration of the qualities of an effective teacher, mean nothing unless their working significance is clarified.
Peter Gow, March 29, 2013
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3 min read
Education Opinion What Is It About the Common Core?
Like Wonder Bread, maybe the Common Core Standards are too well wrapped, whether in flags, promises, or some more commercial or sinister guise. At the same time, they may simply be the lowest common denominator, educational white bread, far more squishy than nourishing.
Peter Gow, March 27, 2013
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3 min read
Education Opinion Independent School Voices: A Blog Sampler (Part I)
In the service of identifying some common perspectives, I'd like to offer up a small sampler of independent school bloggers--teachers, administrators, thought leaders--whose regular writing has more than occasional relevance to education as a whole.
Peter Gow, March 25, 2013
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4 min read
Education Opinion Middle School, A Gift From the Public Education System
I'm just pointing out that one of the great developments in American education, one that thankfully changed the lives of tweens permanently, was, at least in my experience, a window into the amazing work that public schools and their teachers were doing to change kids' lives.
Peter Gow, March 22, 2013
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3 min read
Education Opinion What Does Your Independent School Tuition Buy?
Independent schools tend to charge tuitions that make people shake their heads. In New York City, Boston, and L.A., the head-shake number is now at $40,000 and more--for day schools, mind you.
Peter Gow, March 20, 2013
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3 min read
Education Opinion Big Data in Independent Schools: Assessing What We Value?
I find it encouraging that there are tools to actually assess what we value--critical thinking, problem-solving, writing, engagement and curiosity--and to give us support in valuing what we assess.
Peter Gow, March 18, 2013
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3 min read
Education Opinion Independent Schools, Democracy, Plutocracy, and Responsibility
Our job as educators is to offer what those boarding school founders of the late nineteenth-century tried to: an education steeped in moral purpose as well as authentically connected to the requirements--social, cultural, and practical--of the "real world." We cannot, we know, simply surrender to the temptations of association with a new plutocracy.
Peter Gow, March 15, 2013
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3 min read
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