June 20 is the longest day of the year — the summer solstice. Over the eons, farmers celebrated the day as the transition from planting season to growing season. For the ancients, the placement of the sun’s shadow could portend the future. Always, people have celebrated the longer hours of sunlight, especially on the solstice. We […]
We will spend several weeks exploring Standard 2: Curriculum – Program Curriculum and Structure. This week we will focus on the definition and role of curriculum. Next week we will address how to design an effective curriculum. After that we will explore how to crosswalk programmatic curriculum with the Standards.I love this quote from Mahatma Gandhi: “Live […]
I had written two other posts for this week. One about the summer solstice; the presence of life-giving light and possibilities for celebration. The other about Standard 2: Curriculum; its definition and its role as the foundation for a training program. However, after the terrorist shootings this week in Orlando and France, I’m going to save […]
It has happened again. The Consortium’s first blog was written in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Brussels. This weekend the carnage was in Orlando. One more pointless tragedy that is incomprehensible and all too real. One person’s destructive violence ricocheted through the lives of so many others causing death, irrevocable harm and permeating […]
As promised, we’ll begin to explore how the Accreditation Standards were created and why they are important. The take home point about the Standards is that they provide the framework for excellence and evaluation as well as pragmatic guidelines for the design and delivery of the program. They are the compass rose for the program. […]
In preparing to write this blog, I looked up the definitions and synonyms of mission. I was especially interested in the difference between “mission” and “vision”. Here is what I found. The Business Dictionary.com offers these definitions: A mission statement is: “A written declaration of an organization’s core purpose and focus that normally remains unchanged over time. Properly crafted mission statements (1) serve […]
When the Cheshire Cat asked Alice where she wanted to go, she answered: “I don’t much care where–” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat. “–so long as I get SOMEWHERE,” Alice added as an explanation. “Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.” (Lewis Carrol) Program development can seem […]
First a brief history: In 1929 the Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy published in a short story called “Chains” describing how everyone on the planet is connected through their acquaintances. Karinthy speculated that there were no more than five connections between any two people.Throughout the 20th century, researchers tried unsuccessfully to prove the theory of six degrees […]
The news in DC last week was full of stories about major public institutions and public figures and their credibility or lack thereof, safety or lack thereof, and trust or lack thereof. There were two consistent questions: “Were they adhering to their core beliefs and ‘doing the right thing’?” and “What would the consequences be?” […]
Returning to the nature theme – our purple martins have returned. Last year was the first time that we had a purple martin house. I’d read that they are rather finicky about how high the house is, the color, the size, if there are other species of birds etc. My approach is: Do as much […]
