Gary Ackerman @garyackerman@qoto.org

When I taught math, I’d show my students my 4th grade report card with the D in math. I’d also show them the Cs in writing, then the books I’d written.

Clear definitions are great, especially when doing science. They are, however, things we impose on nature and they can start meaningless arguments.

If you are a leader who does not pay attention during presentations, especially those being made by your members, you lose all credibility.

The fact that science has proven itself wrong is not evidence that pseudoscience is correct.

“Numbers do not guarantee truth.” -Stephen Jay Gould

Students often don’t find resume writing workshops valuable because they recognize there is too little for them to add. But advisers don’t let that stop them.

Note to leaders: if you want to understand the article, you need to read more than the title.

“I have an open door policy” is leader speak for “if you have a problem, I’ll be busy.”

“Students have the right to do anything.”
“Students must follow our rules without exception.”

Reality, and functional schools, lies between those extremes.

One thing I have learned over 35+ years in education is how to spot attempts to pull me into conflicts and how to avoid reacting when someone tries.

Some problems are mine alone. Others are solve with my team. Yet others, I assist in solving. But there are some that are not mine.

Differentiating them is essential to being a productive worker.

It’s one thing to find literature that supports your view, but you research doesn’t begin until you read that which does not support your view.

There is no one more expert than a person asked to join a committee whose work marginally on a topic about which they know nothing.

In my experience, once educators understand students and how to put them at the center of teaching, they changes their practices in an irreversible way.

Meaningful feedback from some lessons can be automated, for other lessons it cannot. If you lessons don’t include both, you are missing the point.

The fact a large part of society has been convinced to abandon science with devastating effects is going to be what the early 21st century is known for.

If you aren’t ready to do the work… the real work… the stuff you are asking others to do, then you are not ready to lead.

Yes, I am more qualified than you to comment on some things. Decades of study and experience qualify me. I may not be correct, but I can justify my stances. And I know where my expertise ends.

Answers to math, physics, chemistry tests really don’t matter. It’s what happens in nature that matters.

I’m an atheist working in a public institution. One new colleague has taken to saying “god bless you” at the end of each conversation. It really annoys me.