It’s very trendy to say that New Year’s resolutions are passé. Perhaps. Many now write about New Year’s “intentions.” That’s fine. Either way, Great Schools for All sees this new year as a crucial one not only for our work, but for the students in our communities. So whether resolutions or intentions, here is a …
Yes, I know. New Year’s resolutions are made to be broken. Whether it’s giving something up (eating, smoking) or taking something up (exercise, salads), resolutions prime us for disappointment and discouragement. Still, they express aspirations and hopes at the start of a new year. They present an opportunity to start anew on a clean page, …
An item in the recent news cycle reminded us of the enormity, complexity and urgency of the problems our community faces: An update to a 2013 ACT Rochester/Rochester Area Community Foundation report confirmed a rising concentration of poverty in city neighborhoods and an expanding number of census tracts where the poverty rate stood at 40 …
Every morning in my inbox I receive an email from something called www.delanceyplace.com. The email includes a summary of a book, a kind of a contemporary Reader’s Digest Condensed Version for people who only have time—or perceive they only have time—to read a paragraph or two. I look at the topic each day. Some I …
Elsewhere on our website, you will read our new proposal for Breakthrough Schools. It is the result of hours and hours of work and creative energy. It is not a curriculum, or a business plan. It is a roadmap to those things. Remember that the Great Schools for All (GS4A) goal is a regional, voluntary …
I lived in Chicago, for 17 years. One of the local icons was The Second City, a comedy institution of mystical reputation. You might know The Second City as the launching pad for many great comedic talents who first found their way to Saturday Night Live and then to cinema stardom. John Belushi. Gilda Radner. …
Our educational future depends on a ‘Yes, and’ approach Read More »
I grew up in small-town Ohio, and from the moment school ended in the spring until the first day of class in the fall, you could find me playing sandlot baseball. We played in a field – no pitcher’s mound, no fences, no backstops, no baselines, no bases, actually. If we didn’t have enough players …
What has most impressed me about the Great Schools for All (GS4A) conversation is how open the community is to having it. Ever since the Raleigh team returned a year ago (read more about that experience here), we have been invited again and again to tell the story of how that community turned around its …
Urgency and hope make great schools a possibility Read More »
Welcome to Great Schools For All (GS4A). We are grateful that you have found our website, and, at a deeper level, we hope you find our mission and vision compelling, so much so that you would connect with our work. Who are we? We are a group of citizens, urban and suburban, residents of Monroe …
