by KP | Nov 30, 2015 | Education, Journalism, Social Issues
When I became aware of anything besides my laptop screen, the first thing I noticed was that my hands were shaking. I suppose my fingers had been steady enough for keystrokes, letters into words into sentences. But my trembling hands symbolized how unsure I felt that...
by KP | Sep 27, 2015 | Education, Social Issues
A wise-beyond-her-years high school junior wrote recently to ask for my perspective on whether liberal arts schools or art colleges were “better” for someone who wants to major in art. She’s a serious student and a talented, hardworking artist. It has been a joy to...
by KP | Sep 6, 2015 | Education, Social Issues
It is an early August evening in northern Michigan. When I first arrived at Interlochen seven weeks ago, the daylight stretched until after 10 p.m, and we watched late-night campfires sparkling into summer nights before midnight caught up with us. Now the evenings...
by KP | Dec 26, 2014 | Ceramics, Education, Social Issues
Holidays challenge me. In my role as a teacher, one of the hardest parts of a holiday is accepting gifts from my students. Post-Santa, I was raised to understand that celebratory gifts are, conceptually, an exchange – you give a gift, you get a gift, with some...
by KP | Jun 11, 2014 | Education, Journalism, Social Issues
This past weekend, a school colleague challenged me to ‘get a selfie with the president.’ As I watched President Obama leave the State Room where he had just spent the last hour talking with about a hundred of us about education, I heard one young woman in...
by KP | May 13, 2014 | Education, Social Issues
In the spring of 1993, I received a letter that changed my life. I’d been accepted into the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts – a 5-week summer program for the visual and performing arts. Over 2,000 high school sophomores and juniors applied, and 200...
