John Merrow on Muck Rack

John Merrow

New York
As seen in: Forbes, HuffPost, PBS, PBS NewsHour, Washington Monthly, The Martha's Vineyard Times, Vineyard Gazette
fmr NewsHour Ed Correspondent. Please subscribe to my Blog: themerrowreport.com & read "Addicted to Reform: A 12-Step Program to Rescue Public Education"
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Articles by John Merrow

A roof of her own

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By John Merrow
| The Martha's Vineyard Times Verified
Our black Lab made the connection, the way dogs always seem to do. Henry went right up to the stranger, wagging his tail, and she began petting him. The child, who looked about 10 years old, was nicely dressed and waiting quietly outside our thrift store, where my wife was inside, searching for treasures. I assumed the little girl was a summer resident, perhaps from Greenwich, Conn., or some other wealthy town, and that her mother, like my wife, was also inside.
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OK WE’RE AGAINST KINGS. WHAT ARE WE FOR??

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
More than five million demonstrators in about 2000 communities stepped forward to declare their opposition to Donald Trump, on June 14th. “No Kings Day” was also Trump’s 79th birthday, Flag Day, and the anniversary of the creation of the American army. So now we know what many of us are against, but the central question remains unanswered: What do we stand FOR? What do we believe in? Just as FDR called for Four Freedoms, the Democratic party needs to articulate its First Principles.
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Where Have All the Plumbers Gone (long time passing)?

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
When I called our long-time electrician recently to ask him to replace a defective thermostat, no one answered his office phone. I managed to reach him on his cell phone, and he told me that he had retired and moved to another town. “Who’s taken over your business,” I asked? “No one,” he replied, explaining that he tried but failed to find a younger person with the skill set and the interest.
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An Apology

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
I want to apologize for not responding personally to those who shared their views on last week’s blog post, my analysis of why the Democrats lost. I’ve been busy, keeping a close eye on the bizarre and frightening rush of zealots, sycophants, and the power-hungry to join the clown show 490 miles south of where I live. I’m also busy dealing with mountains of paperwork-–Who knew applying for Scottish citizenship was so complicated! With this apology comes a request.
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Democrats Didn’t Lose the November Election in November…..

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
Some pundits are blaming Kamala Harris for not doing this or that, and others are blaming Joe Biden for not dropping out earlier, but I am convinced that Democrats lost the Presidential election long before November 5, 2024. Here are three possible dates that help explain Trump’s victory:  August 24, 2022; December 22, 2020; and July 24, 2009. They represent bad policies and missed opportunities, all of which came back to hurt Kamala Harris.
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“Project 1897”

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
Much has been written about “Project 2025,” supposedly a blueprint for a second Trump Presidency. I have learned that candidate Trump had nothing to do with “Project 2025.”  However, he has been personally involved in another less complex but more ambitious project, named by Trump himself as “Project 1897,” a reference to William McKinley, Trump’s second favorite former president (after himself, doh).
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“Make America HATE Again”

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity W. B. Yeats, “The Second Coming” Those red hats do not say “Make America Hate Again,” but they might as well, because former president Donald J. Trump and his enablers have made it perfectly acceptable to wallow in bigotry, hatred, threats of violence, and–far too often–violence. Don’t dismiss Trump as a clown, riffing and rambling and ranting in his interminably long rallies.
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Cellphones should be banned in schools

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By John Merrow
| The Martha's Vineyard Times Verified
Many schools, both public and private, are banning cell phones. Is this a good idea? Let me present three connected points and a (seemingly) logical conclusion: Nearly all teenagers — 95 percent — are on social media, like TikTok, WhatsApp and their counterparts.
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“Necessary But Not Sufficient”

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
Many schools, both public and private, are banning cellphones. Is this a good idea? Let me present three connected points and a (seemingly) logical conclusion: Nearly all teenagers–95%–are on social media like TikTok, WhatsApp and their counterparts. One-third of teens admit to using social media “almost constantly.” Social media is damaging our kids, according to the U.S. Surgeon General: “The types of use and content children and adolescents are exposed to pose mental health concerns.
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A message to students on the first day of school

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By John Merrow
| The Martha's Vineyard Times Verified
It’s my hope that my grandchildren’s teachers, and lots of other teachers as well, will say something like this on the first day of school: “Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to school. I hope every one of us will have the best year yet. And I want this classroom to be a warm and welcoming space for everyone.
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The First Day of School

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
(It’s my hope that my grandchildren’s teachers, and lots of other teachers as well, will say something like this on the first day of school.) “Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to school. I hope every one of us will have the best year yet. And I want this classroom to be a warm and welcoming space for everyone.
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Results of the 2024 “Biking My Age” Challenge

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
Here’s the news, which I hope won’t be TMI, but, regarding my “Bike My Age” annual challenge, I made it, but not by much. It’s the 14th year in a row that I’ve managed it, and, believe me, it’s getting more difficult. If you haven’t donated to our Island Housing Trust, please do so. IHT is building affordable/attainable homes and apartments for the men and women (and their children) who keep the community together. Any amount will help.
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“Biking My Age”

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
In a few days I will turn 83 and will once again attempt to “Bike My Age,” but here’s a far more urgent issue: Housing insecurity and food insecurity. Both are significant problems in communities around the world, including the island that Joan and I have retired to, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Combating Hunger:  World Central Kitchen and Feeding America are two notable organizations helping combat food insecurity, and on Martha’s Vineyard our Food Pantry helps hundreds of families.
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Who Removed “public” from “Republican”?

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
Full disclosure: Genetically, I am 50% Republican, the offspring of a liberal Democrat and a conservative Republican. Environmentally, I should be about 60-70% Republican, because I grew up in a Republican stronghold, a Connecticut suburb of New York City. What’s more , I am old enough (83 today!) to have strong memories of the “Grand Old Party (GOP), many of whose politicians often (but not always) put the public interest ahead of politics.
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How to address a national crisis: Chronic absenteeism

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By John Merrow
| The Martha's Vineyard Times Verified
American students are skipping school in record numbers, a crisis that is so acute that it became the lead story in The New York Times recently, as well as the subject of the Times’ podcast series, The Daily. The lead story is long on anecdotes, graphs, and other data. It’s also chock-full of quotes from experts, but no students are heard from. No teachers either. Another serious problem with the reporting, in my view, is the lack of context.
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Guess Who’s NOT Coming to School!

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
American students are skipping school in record numbers, a crisis that is so acute that it became the lead story in The New York Times recently, as well as the subject of the Times’s podcast series, The Daily. The lead story is long on anecdotes, graphs, and other data. It’s also chock full of quotes from experts, but no students are heard from. No teachers either. Another serious problem with the reporting, in my view, is the lack of context.
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Toward a more perfect union

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By John Merrow
| The Martha's Vineyard Times Verified
I’ve always loved the elegant, aspirational phrase “toward a more perfect union,” found in the opening sentence of our Constitution. It was our Founding Fathers’ first priority, ahead of establishing justice, ensuring domestic tranquility, providing for the common defense, promoting the general welfare, and securing the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.
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How to Teach Children to Read

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
A teacher is standing in front of her class of First Graders, most of them 6-year-olds, a few age five. She holds up a sign: “Who can read this?” Almost every hand goes up, and a few children call out the answer. “That’s very good. I thought that you would know that word. Maybe you recognize the sign because you see it on lots of street corners. It says ‘Stop,’ but now let’s take it apart, letter by letter. The first letter, S, makes a sound.
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18 Ways to Improve Public Schools

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
A few days ago in this space I listed the 14 ways to improve public schools that I’ve been blogging about for the past six months or so. However, reactions from thoughtful readers convinced me that I had stopped making suggestions too soon, so here’s a better list, EIGHTEEN simple steps to make our public schools more interesting, more challenging, and–yes–more productive. 1) Looping, which I expanded upon a short time later in Looping (revisited).
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Improving Public Schools: A Final Thought

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
Back in August I began using this space to suggest simple changes that would, I believe, improve public schools significantly. Five months and fourteen  suggestions later, it’s now time to wrap this up, not because I’ve run out of ideas but because I’m hoping some readers will take this list of ideas and run with it. Perhaps some of you will work with your local school boards to implement these changes.
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Improving Public Schools (#15): Acknowledge the Opportunity Gap

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
Do I mean “Acknowledge the Achievement Gap,” you may be wondering? No, that’s not a misprint. The Opportunity Gap in public educationis real, and growing. Making a commitment to closing that gap would, in time, close the Achievement Gap that so many policymakers obsess over. The Achievement Gap is real, but it is primarily the result of gaps in both Opportunity and Expectations. Start with Opportunities: The playing field in American public education isn’t even close to being level.
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Keep the faith in public education

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By John Merrow
| The Martha's Vineyard Times Verified
Before we sign off completely for 2023, I have a short message: Our public schools are under attack, but they are stronger and more resilient than their enemies assume, and more effective than you are being told. The crusade against public education: Unfortunately, the right-wing, anti-public-education crusade has been effective, as witnessed by a recent Gallup poll showing that just 36 percent of the general public report being “satisfied” with public schools.
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Winning the War on Public Education

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
Before signing off for 2023, I have a short message: Our public schools are under attack, but they are stronger and more resilient than their enemies assume…and more effective than you are being told. THE CRUSADE AGAINST PUBLIC EDUCATION: Unfortunately, the right-wing anti-public education crusade has been effective, as witnessed by a recent Gallup poll showing that just 36% of the general public report being ‘satisfied’ with public schools.
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Personalized Gifts Can Be Dangerous

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
(Because gift-giving season is when many grandparents shower their grandchildren with stuff, I am reposting this warning about the harm that well-intentioned “personalized” gifts represent. Please share it.) The adult and child walking in front of me were complete strangers. The man, who looked to be in his early 30’s, was casually dressed. He was holding the hand of a young girl, probably about five years old.
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Improving Public Schools (#14): Ban Cell Phones!

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
A simple way to improve public schools would be to institute a complete and total ban of all cell phones and so-called smart watches. Banning these ubiquitous devices would improve student mental health, reduce cyberbullying, and make schools safer for the most vulnerable students. As Education Week reported in October, “A growing number of studies have linked children’s use of smartphones and social media to their deteriorating mental health.
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Community service versus ‘serving your community’

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By John Merrow
| The Martha's Vineyard Times Verified
Some years ago, when I was visiting a high school classmate in a small town in Ohio, he showed me some benches near a bus stop and a small park. “Our high school kids built those and installed them,” he told me, “because the senior citizens told them they needed benches.” “Ah, community service,” I responded, but he corrected me. “We call it ‘serving your community,’ and not ‘community service,’ because they are not synonymous,” he told me.
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Improving Public Schools (#13): Serving Your Community

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
Some years ago when I was visiting a high school classmate in a small town in Ohio, he showed me some benches near a bus stop and a small park. “Our high school kids built those and installed them,” he told me, “because the senior citizens told them they needed benches.”  “Ah, community service,” I responded, but he corrected me. “We call it ‘Serving Your Community,’ and not ‘Community Service,’ because they are not synonymous,” he told me.
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Improving Public Schools (#12): Making Schools “SAFE”

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
I put quotation marks around “SAFE,” because school safety has three overlapping and perhaps inseparable aspects: physical, emotional, and intellectual. Most public attention is on physical safety—school shootings, ‘Active Shooter’ drills, arming teachers, ‘hardening’ school entrances to keep shooters out,and so forth–but a ‘fortress mentality’ is insufficient and, from my perspective, harmful.
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Improving Public Schools (#11): “Make Stuff”

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
The footstool in the pictures below was made by my paternal grandfather, John G.G. Merrow, probably in 1900 when he was 14 years old. Pegged and meticulously carved, it now holds a place of honor in our den It’s more than 120 years old and still useful, although someone (my father?) put in some screws at some point, probably when some of the pegs began wearing out.
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Improving Public Schools: Looping(revisited)

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
Back in mid-August, I began recommending concrete, specific, small, and doable steps that would, I believe, improve public schools. My first recommendation was for Looping, the practice of keeping an elementary school class with its teacher for at least two years. The logic is pretty straightforward:  Would you change your child’s pediatrician, music teacher, sports coach, et cetera, every year? Of course not, because you want them to know your child in order to be better able to help him or her.
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How to Improve Public Schools: “Grand Rounds”

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
“Grand Rounds” actually doesn’t have anything to do with public schools. It’s the practice where everyone involved in treating a hospitalized patient meets in that patient’s room to discuss his/her condition and various treatments. isn’t something associated with public schools. Doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, and lots of medical students participate in what is a common practice in medical education. So why am I recommending “Grand Rounds” for public schools?
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Badly behaved bikers, and lax and lazy lawmakers

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By John Merrow
| The Martha's Vineyard Times Verified
My neighbor tried to run me off the road in late August. He was in his car, and I was on my bike, and if I hadn’t stopped, he would have crashed into me. This occurred on Fuller Street in Edgartown, a two-way street that’s half again as wide as most streets, but with no center line. Parking is not allowed, but that morning a worker had parked a van on my side.
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How to Improve Public Schools: Ask the Right Question

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
The campaign to undermine public schools has taken a new turn with North Carolina’s passage of Education Savings Account legislation. Passed with support of enough Democrats to make it veto-proof, the law will provide up to $7500 per child, depending on family income, to pay for private school tuition. According to The 74, a right-leaning on-line education site, “Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Utah and West Virginia now have ESA programs open to all. Oklahoma has a universal tax credit program.
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How to Improve Public Schools: Expanded Homerooms

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
“Homeroom” for most high school students is the equivalent of the starting blocks in a track meet. They touch base, listen to (or maybe ignore) morning announcements, and, when the bell sounds, dash off to class. In truth, “Homeroom” is important to school administrators because it gives them a head count. It’s a meaningless perfunctory exercise for kids. For them, “Homeroom” is just a room, about as far from actually being a home as one can imagine. That has to change.
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Help save public education with teacher business cards

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By John Merrow
| The Martha's Vineyard Times Verified
Friends, At every back-to-school night I can remember, I made a point of introducing myself to the women and men who taught my three children. It went this way: “I’m John Merrow, (name of child)’s Dad.” And the teacher would smile and respond, “I’m Mrs. Hobson,” or, “I’m Mr. Blair,” or, “I’m Ms. Anderson.” No first names … ever. Just a studied formality that created a distance between us.
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How to Improve Public Schools: Frequent “Talent Nights”

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
I need to start with a story. About 20 years ago the State of Virginia adopted a school reform strategy called ‘Turnaround Schools.’   To their way of thinking, the right way to turn around ‘failing’ schools was to recruit experienced and dedicated administrators and spend a summer teaching them ‘Turnaround Tactics.’  These newly-minted ‘Turnaround Specialists’ would then be assigned to lead ‘failing’ schools.
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HOW TO IMPROVE PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Involve ‘Outsiders’

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
The problem with the truism “It Takes a Village to Raise a Child” is that most villagers have no direct connection to children or to the schools they go to. Only about 25 percent of homes have school age children, and in some communities that number drops into the teens. Even if one includes households with grandparents, the percentage probably won’t reach 40.
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How to Improve Public Schools, Step Four

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
At every ‘Back to School’ night I can remember, I made a point of introducing myself to the women and men who taught my three children. It went this way:  “I’m John Merrow, (name of child)’s Dad.”  And the teacher would smile and respond, “I’m Mrs. Hobson,” or “I’m Mr. Blair,” or “I’m Ms. Anderson.” No first names…ever. Just a studied formality that created a distance between us.
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Want to make public schools better for students and teachers? Try ‘Looping.’

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By John Merrow
| The Martha's Vineyard Times Verified
All over the U.S., public schools are reopening. You can picture what’s happening in about 85-90 percent of the classrooms: The teachers are spending the first week just getting to know their students, explaining (or developing) the rules for classroom behavior, working out the routines, setting expectations, and doing other important (but not particularly educational) stuff. It’s a week of getting to know one another, with very little teaching and learning.
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How to Improve Public Schools, step three

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
The first two posts of this series recommend Looping and Play as simple, inexpensive steps that will improve public schools. The third step, Practice Democracy, is also simple, but this one will not be easy because undemocratic behaviors are baked into the structure of public education. By that I mean that almost no one inside a school has a vote or even a say in what they have to do.
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What’s in a name?

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By John Merrow
| The Martha's Vineyard Times Verified
Martha’s Vineyard is HOT! It’s pure gold for entrepreneurs, Realtors, hospitality providers, and more. While the home real estate market has cooled temporarily, storefronts are in demand, and the key to success is associating one’s new venture with the name Martha’s Vineyard.
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How to Improve Public Schools, step two

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
My hope in this series of short posts is to call attention to some simple steps that will improve public schools (and, by extension, the life chances of more children). Last week in this space I lobbied for LOOPING, the practice of keeping a teacher with her/his students for two consecutive years. Another easy step: PLAY.
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A New and Improved “War”

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
If you are fortunate enough to have a grandchild young enough to enjoy playing ‘War,’ this blog post is for you, because you are  going to learn how to make ‘War’ more enjoyable, exciting, and–roll of drums–shorter! You know the basic rules of War:  Each player turns up a card at the same time, and the player with the higher card takes both cards. When the cards are the same rank, it is War. Each player turns up one card face down and one card face up.
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How to Improve Public Education (step one)

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
Want to make public schools better for students and teachers? Try “Looping.” All over the US, public schools are reopening. You can picture what’s happening  in about 85-90% of the classrooms: The teachers are spending the first week just getting to know their students, explaining (or developing) the rules for classroom behavior, working out the routines, setting expectations, and doing other important (but not particularly educational) stuff.
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Defend or Defund? It’s Time to Decide

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
For many right-wing politicians, 2023 is “the year of universal choice in education.”  They and eager entrepreneurs are working overtime to defund public education by diverting tax dollars away from traditional public schools and, they say, into the hands of parents so they can decide how their children are educated. Many of these zealots and opportunists also hope to discredit, dismantle, and eventually destroy public education. It’s not just rhetoric.
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Are The Reading Wars Finally Over?

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
Are The Reading Wars Finally Over? They should be, because it’s clear that a combination of Phonics and Word Recognition–what I like to call “Shapes and Sounds”–is the most effective way to teach reading. Very young children start by learning to identify the 26 letters (the “Shapes”) and the 44 sounds they make (the “Sounds”). As they progress, Phonemic Awareness and Phonics (more “Sounds”) take precedence, although Word Recognition (more “Shapes”) remains essential.
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IF YOU CAN’T READ THIS……

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
Readers of a certain age may be familiar with the wonderfully clever line, “If you can read this, thank a teacher.”  Of course you can read it–you just did!!–which implied that you ought to be grateful for teachers. Attributed to former President Harry S. Truman, the line is now associated with Teacher Appreciation Week, which began as Teacher Appreciation Day in 1953 with the strong support of former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
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Is ‘E Pluribus Unum’ a pipedream?

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By John Merrow
| The Martha's Vineyard Times Verified
“Out of Many, One” was the motto of the U.S. from 1782 until 1956, when it was replaced by “In God We Trust.” Even now, the Latin phrase “E pluribus unum” can be found on our $1 bills in the banner held by the eagle, on of our coins, and on the flags and seals of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. Always aspirational, “Out of Many, One” was meant to signal to the world that the original 13 colonies were united — which they were in 1782, when faced with a common enemy, England.
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GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS….

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
The good news is that my birthday ride was a success; the bad news is that I got scammed–again! First the ride: A perfect day, I was on the road at 5AM, and the only living things I encountered for the first 90 minutes or so were some wild turkeys. I was half-way to 82 miles, my goal, by 8, when I returned home for a nice breakfast. Joan joined me for miles 72-82, and then I tacked on a few more. The bad news is pretty embarrassing.
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Another Birthday, Another Bike Ride

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By John Merrow
| themerrowreport.com
In a few days, Lord willing, I will turn 82, and that means it’s time for another attempt at biking my age. I began this exercise in putting off the inevitable in 2011, the year I turned 70.
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