John H. Zurn
My Blog
Traits For Succes
Traits for Success We agreed to work on eight character traits in four different schools to help children become successful in school and in life. Organization: I plan ahead; I have places for everything; I am ready to learn. Attentiveness: I...
Stories From the Classroom: Nia
Stories from the classroom: Nia. I worked for several years in a community of sailing families. Throughout the year, there were weekly sailing lessons for children, for teens, and for adults. Frequently, I was approached with a conversation like this: ...
Intellect Versus Character Which Would You Choose?
Intellect Versus Character: Which Would You Choose? I spent four decades working in independent schools- first as a teacher, next as an administrator, and for the last 28 years of my career as a Head of School. I principally worked in kindergarten through 8th grade...
Stories From the Classroom: Mark
My friend, Mark, is brilliant but failed in school because he could not get information from a book off the printed page. Today, he would have been identified early on as a dyslexic reader and given strategies to compensate for his weaknesses. However, this was...
Our Children Are Being Influenced by the Wrong People
As parents and teachers, we need to reclaim our traditional role as influencers of our children - not by shouting louder than the influencers our children discover online, but by stressing ideas that are more important than fancy shoes and snappy TikTok...
Stories from the Classroom: Suzanne
Suzanne signed into TikTok at nine, following several of her friends. Her parents had no reason to suspect that Suzanne was using the social network, so disguising her online activity was not difficult. In fact, Suzanne felt some adventure in the cat-and-...
Traits for Success
The Case for Character Education in American Schools
