Highlights from my conversation with Paula Roy first dropped as a very early episode (003) in July 2017. I believe it is well worth revisiting in this moment where book-banning seems to be edging out baseball as the national pastime here in the Home of the Free, and too many legislators and governors have convinced themselves that they know more about education than professional educators do.

There is plenty to critique about dominant modes of schooling, from pre-kindergarten all the way through grad school, and lots that really needs rethinking and change. But as you enter that conversation, it's important to acknowledge the expertise of professionals like Paula Roy, who have spent years thinking about what and how and why kids learn, and who have experience negotiating the competing demands of real students' individual needs and capabilities as well as changing political contexts outside the school. Above all, it's important to take students seriously, and to keep them at the center of your work. In more than 25 years as an educator, I've never met anyone who does that better than she does.

This classic episode inspired not only this beautiful drawing by artist and school administrator Al Morales (called “Curriculum,” after Paula’s description) but also a five-minute video exploring the difference between sarcasm and humor, with animation by Roy Chambers (available on the original show page linked below). Five years after it first appeared, “Supervision, Poetry, and Feminism with Paula Roy” remains one of the most downloaded installments of Point of Learning.

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SPECIAL THANKS to current financial supporters: Aaron Bartley, Gilberto Belaval, Melinda Bihn, Gretchen & David Brand, Jenni Brand, Jake Brown, Patty Cruice, Ryan Daly, David Davis, James Duggan, Dave Eisenberg, Anna Falicov, Errick L. Greene, Jonathan Hiam, Gregory Horn, Janice & John & Ava & Brooke Horn, Robyn Lee Horn, Greg Jackson, Tim Lear, Janet & Robert Lee, Kristen Lee, Tom Loughlin, Carol MacVey, Linda B. Matt, Ellen McLaughlin, J. W. Gregg Meister, Miriam Meister, Sarah & Peter Meister, Dwight Nolt, Julia Olff, John Opera, Gail Radford, Gail & Frank Richeson, Stacy Rodgers, Elizabeth & Terry Rowlands, Paula A. Roy, Emily Style, Marue Walizer, John B. Webb, Keith Zemsky

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