In small town Califon our school district could not afford a bus system, so morning walks to and from school became routine until high school. I didn’t mind. Boasting a little over one-thousand residents nestled into a beautiful square mile in north-central New Jersey, Califon has the ideal small town feel. With my graduating class consisting of twenty-four students, a large number considering Califon’s population, I’m discovering that Califon did all it could to incorporate

A version of this post originally appeared on the Jones Elementary School blog. What happens when you pull together 15 principals from Arkansas, Indiana, New York, Montana, California, Louisiana, Illinois, New Jersey, Tennessee, Kansas and Idaho together for a meeting? One united voice begins to emerge working to improve the quality of education for children in America. I was recently invited to Washington, D.C., to participate in a round table discussion at the U.S. Departme

In heart-centered development, young students learn to practice kindness ‘“an integral component to their overall development. At Plains Elementary School in South Hadley, Massachusetts, students, parents and organizers come together to promote a kind minds program by inventing ways students can understand and practice kindness. Through storytelling, music and forms of expression, local singer and storyteller, John Porcino, reached out to students and penned the Kind Mind Son