I believe education starts at birth. It is necessary that the individuals most directly responsible for a child's well being (i.e. parents, guardians) are versed in the world around them and are good arbiters of sustenance, health, imagination and respect for others. Beyond this, a child's education takes place everywhere and with everyone. His education is the summation of how his psyche has been altered based on all of the experiences he's had.

I believe education is a process where children learn to think for themselves while inheriting the wisdom, knowledge, traditions and techniques of previous generations in a socialized setting. 

I believe schools are a socializing extension of the home allowing more access to actions, resources and opinions than available in the home alone. Consequently, the home must also be a place of action, resource and opinion where parents, guardians and/or siblings are responsible for assisting the child. The importance of adults at home engaging with children in civic, scholarly, artistic and physical activities cannot be overstated.

I believe the philosophy of the public school should be community-driven and groups of expert teachers should develop the appropriate curriculum necessary to achieve the goals related to the overall philosophy of the community (public).

I believe John Dewey is the foremost thinker in terms of how we should frame and reframe education. John Dewey should be required reading for all teachers and extensively so for administrators.

I believe it is the responsibility of the community to emphasize the important role public school plays in achieving the overall public good. It is then the further responsibility of the community to take an active role in sustaining the public school through school board participation, volunteer work, and assisting in the development and redevelopment of a public philosophy year after year. It is only with a current public philosophy that educators will know which direction leads to success.

I believe the public school should always form and reform itself based on the public good and never by an economic trend or philosophy such as capitalism. This is not to say that business and/or capitalistic activities, theories and philosophies should be absent from within a curriculum. However, public schools should never fall victim to espousing content and/or beliefs based on the demands of private and/or commercial interests. A public school's only interest should be the interest in the public good.

I believe education is the most vital factor in the sustenance and progress of a community. Education molds individuals related by geography, demography and/or finance and molds them into groups of individuals with a shared ideology. Therefore, it's the responsibility of the teacher to educate the individual, but also to strengthen the individuals as groups within his methodology.

I believe the school is a physical place where teachers and students come together to learn how to sustain, shape and reshape themselves individually and collectively as a community. The school as a physical place should never be limited to the space inside the classrooms or within the physical walls of the building. The physical space of a school should include all space of functionality within the building (i.e. hallways, bathrooms, offices, closets, maintenance areas, kitchens, storage areas, etc.) and all areas of natural world surrounding the school (i.e. fields, parking lots, woods, water sources, pipe systems, playgrounds, etc.).

I believe public schools have the responsibility of engaging children, beyond the home, in the community around them and in the broader practices of the democratic state.

I believe that the public school is responsible for aiding the child in his quest for a good life and defining just what a good life might be.

I believe the good life is achieved through a healthy mind and body. All curricula should begin with the devotion to a healthy mind and body first.

I believe the realization of one's imagination is a vital piece of a healthy mind and happiness.

I believe the future requires new ideas that will only be possible by training children to think creatively in all situations on a daily basis.

I believe curriculum needs to be hands-on, relevant, pragmatic, and made significant to the learner. Definitions and memorization should be used only as far as to assist the learner in transferring the function of the memorized definition/information into action.

I believe curriculum needs to prepare students to participate in a democracy through constructive civic debate. A democratic community can only succeed through its constant working and reworking by all citizens.

I believe curriculum should, among other things, include hands-on experiences with traditions, technologies, and techniques desirable in sustaining a healthy life and necessary in building a progressive future; planting school gardens where crops feed the cafeteria, flowers color the offices and classrooms and students learn the natural world; dissecting, repairing and building media devices such as phones, computers, and televisions to promote the tradition of reuse in place of hasty actions of disposal; studying energy sources related to the school such as gas, oil, electricity and solar power so students understand the benefits of healthy energy habits and the need to develop reusable energy sources in the future; daily experiences in artistic social practices such as music making (musicing) and dancing nurture individualistic self-expression and healthy group interaction; examining, debating and providing suggestions for the school and community budgets draws students into the conversation of social responsibility and highlights the need for the perpetual  interaction of individuals with the philosophy and financial mechanisms of the public; studying the history of the community and its broader connections (i.e. state, country, globe, etc.) provides humanistic perspective of what roads the public has traveled and how the public might proceed moving forward; participating in philosophical debates, both humanistic and religious, supports the need for civic debate while refining the value of public debate and, also, emphasizes the need to establish and constantly rework a common public philosophy; understanding, above all, the human body, its internal and external parts, and the physical routines and nutritional habits necessary to sustain a healthy life.

I believe that the physical school, the resources associated with the school, and the mechanical functions of a public school system available for analysis and hands-on participation demonstrate that more can be done with less. 

I believe Campbell's Law summarizes the state of our current system of accountability.

I believe the only true measures for accountability can be derived from administrator observations (conducted by expert teachers), student evaluations of teachers, parent surveys, peer-to-peer observations, and self-evaluations. A committee of school board members and former expert teachers should then evaluate these forms of measurement and make commendations and/or suggestions for improvement.

I believe only the most highly reputable teachers with a minimum of ten years in the classroom should be eligible for administration. The role of the administrator should be to discuss philosophy, curriculum and methodology on a daily basis with teachers individually and in groups. Newly appointed administrators need to become experts in educational philosophy and curriculum. Administrators should spend at least one period of each school day participating in and/or observing classes.

I think textbooks are ineffective. I think some people in the textbook industry are doing their best for students, but the industry as a whole offers watered-down summaries of subject matter at a cost that is ridiculously expensive for students. I'd like to see schools move away from textbooks wherever possible.

That being said, I've taught Music Appreciation ( a course that focuses on listening to music more perceptively and critically) for twelve years. I think this book by Tom Moon (a great critic/musician that used to write for the Philadephia Inquirer and now here and there for NPR) is the only book that could be used for a mass audience to successfully achieve what instructors have been trying to do in Music Appreciation courses for over a century now. The true "Music Appreciation" experience would be as follows: 

1) Buy this book 
2) Put your headphones on 
3) Get yourself a Spotify invite  (or spend the bank in iTunes)
4) Listen from album to album allowing yourself to find connections and, eventually, your own original paths to recordings and performances outside of this book for the remainder of your life.

This book is only a start. There are notable exclusions and some cheap inclusions (Best of Frank Zappa as opposed to, say, just Apostrophe and the twelve Beethoven symphonies as opposed to just a good recording of 6, 7 or 9). But in the end, this is a fascinating experience in discovering incredible music.