: About Me

My name is Michael Andoscia and where do I begin describing myself. I guess I could say that I'm...multifaceted. First and foremost I'm a family man. I have a wife, Jennifer and the most beautiful children on earth, Tekoa and Ainsley. In them I take the fullest measure of pride. Next, I'm a teacher, by profession as well as by nature. I learned a long time ago that no matter what I'm doing, I'm teaching. It is the role I fit most aptly. Most recently I've become a published author. My first book is a historical fiction called Stone is not Forever. Since I discovered I have a talent for pressing words together I've endeavored to be a writer. I've been writing ever since I was in fifth grade when I wrote my first short story, The Lost Gold. I'm also an artist, but not by profession. I draw and paint and do pen and ink, though the routines of my life right now do not allow a lot of time for this. Finally, I'm an outdoors-man and an adventurer. I've taken long treks into the wilderness, rode bicycles down mountains, wrestled alligators and climbed mountains. I believe that specialization is for insects. That to be truly human one must expand the mind in as many directions as possible. Helium looks like an interesting format. I hope what I have to offer touches you.

Education > Educational Philosophy Have public schools failed us

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Have public schools failed us? Wow, I bristle whenever I hear this question. Whenever we have an idea of pass and fail there should be some criterion from which to make this statement. Usually this criterion is some false nostalgia about how good schools used to be, or they are categorical errors based on how we think students in other countries are doing in comparison. I hear a lot of comments about "when I was in school..." "We had to think when I was in school." Yet if you read the journals from when "you were in school," the same criticisms existed as are offered today. So here it is. ...

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