jedscott

Don’t miss your chance on Monday night to see some amazing young performers in a performance to remember. The Jimmy Awards brings together dozens of high school performers from across the country for a week of rehearsals, masterclasses, meetings, and more. It culminates in a performance on Broadway at the […]

It helps to know people who are on the same journey as you. Whatever the journey is – parenting, composing, teaching music – it makes a difference to know others going the same way. It’s less important whether they’re ahead of you or behind you. They can mentor you, you […]

I was moved by this article about a recent revocation of admission from Harvard College. Kashuv has a shot at redemption because Harvard revoked his acceptance. Consequences and redemption are not in tension. In fact, they go hand in hand. Forgetting the specifics of this situation, I’m more interested in […]

The great science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke is known, among other things, for this adage, the third of “Clarke’s Three Laws.” Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. I think of this often when considering the magic at our fingertips daily – smart phones being the prime example. […]

The first question I want to ask each of my singers when we get started this August is this: Why do you sing? It will be a part of the one-on-one meetings I have with each of them at our retreat, alongside personal goal-setting and general conversation about our year […]

I always say that because I’m the family grocery-shopper, I’ve trained my eyes to not see 75% of the grocery store items – I know what I’m looking for and don’t look at most of the rest. It’s an important skill to build if you want to get into and […]

The first full chapter of Dare To Lead is called “The Moment and the Myths” (it’s the first of five sections in Part One, “Rumbling With Vulnerability”). The core of Dr. Brown’s message is this: Vulnerability is at the core of the change we seek to make through our art and […]

I attended a great lecture today – it was informative and compelling. Unfortunately, it was given to an audience of 20 who were pretty well-informed and had no need of being compelled–they were already on board with the thrust of his speech. It got me to thinking about the need […]

In the Sunday New York Times, and already online, is a great article by Alfie Kohn assessing the true impact of zero-sum testing…on students, on culture, on what and how we teach. A few choice quotes: “A school’s ultimate mission, apparently, is not to help everyone learn but to rig […]

The joke goes, there are only two seasons in Michigan: Winter and Construction. As I see it, there are two seasons for educators, too: Build, and React. React lasts from September to June. The days move so quickly, with so many demands placed on educators time, that the best they […]