I'm a 60-year-old educator. This blog is to help my friends (and soon-to-be friends) by providing a one-stop shop for information and key links about education, learning and teaching, and the impact of technology on education. I will focus on the burning issues that don't go away when the fads do!

It's easy to get side-tracked from the real issues (burning issues) in education, and I hope to guide my readers around the noise as well as learn from contributors along the way. It is easy to avoid the tough questions, but they don't go away. 

I am unhappy when I see new educational program after new program, new book after new book, all with a new solution or a new "must do" within the K-12 school arena. Every year they pop up, just like stacks of plates pop up in buffet-style restaurants.

I am unhappy because the new solutions mean that we abandoned last year's great ideas, even though last year they looked as good as the new ideas do. In many cases, we have no idea if last year's ideas were really tried, if they were done long enough to know if they worked, if they were done correctly or incorrectly, if they were done sufficiently, if they were done by people who wanted them to work or prove they don't work, or if their advocates are now gone. The list goes on. 

The biggest problem is educational fads. They block true reform. A fad in the form of a major product, report or bright idea comes out, noise follows with a mix of action, excitement and then inaction. The light fades as the next fad comes to the front.

I will do my best to avoid this problem. I want to share what works so that more students can get more out of the education system they are in, or they will be given better options to go elsewhere. 

Fads are always exciting. They are the new best thing. Long-term, hard-to-confront burning issues aren't new. This leads to retelling the same old story — the long-term story that we really can't ignore. Educational basics are basics, even if some folks consider it boring. Well, that's the way it is, and that's what I'm all about — the burning issues that won't go away, and the solutions that work.

Add the change factor permeating all sectors (technological, social, economic, etc.) with greater magnitude of change at an increasing pace, and we have a lot to talk about and a lot to think about.

It all adds up this challenge: How can we do what is right for the children of today who will be the citizens and leaders tomorrow? And, we need to do it today!

Stay tuned (and let me know what you think of all this)! I also share parts of this blog with my blog at www.delphian.org.

—The assistant headmaster at Delphian School in Sheridan, Ore., Mark Siegel focuses on social studies, business/economics, science/technology and school information systems. Active in local, state and national public and private school affairs, Mark directs the Oregon Federation of Independent Schools and serves on the Council for American Private Education's board.