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Chris McNutt
he/him
Obsessed with progressive education. Chris was a digital design and media & social studies teacher at a public school in Ohio. He is the Executive Director of HRP.
This is why we should stop giving homework
The United States must examine the underlying inequities of peoples’ lives, rather than focus on increasing schools’ workloads and lessening children’s free time for mythical academic gains that lead to little change.
Schools Can't Accept the Corporate Status Quo
Young people must become critical thinkers that are able to build a better world, which will involve challenging corporations that continually exploit humans, animals, and the environment for profit. If all young people believe that profit is the purpose, then our world will teeter toward collapse.
Fighting Back Against the Future
The simple act of having hope for a better future breaks the doom-loop and builds a platform for action.
The Only Lasting Truth is Change
Like-minded educators can build friendly, hopeful spaces for young people to channel their energy toward creative rebellion against unjust systems, rather than falling prey to grifters and hate manufacturers.
ISEA: Personality Test
ISEA: Excerpt: Teaching to Transgress
The following is an excerpt from Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks, Chapter 2.
ISEA: Excerpt: The Inner Level
The following is an excerpt from The Inner Level: How More Equal Societies Reduce Stress, Restore Sanity, and Improve Everyone's Wellbeing by Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson, Chapter 9.
79: Reimagine the System with REENVISIONED (Dr. Erin Raab)
Creating conversations toward human flourishing.
85: Combatting Adultism to Create a Flourishing Democracy w/ Dr. Tanu Biswas & Dr. John Wall
Aligning social justice work to childism in classrooms.
101: Imagining Education Outside Capitalism w/ Dr. Nick Stock
Connecting Mark Fisher's Capitalist Realism to pedagogy.
Bonus: Conference to Restore Humanity Overview
An overview of our conference.
Conference to Restore Humanity 2022!: Keynote, Dr. Henry Giroux Critical Pedagogy in a Time of Fascist Tyranny
A transcript of our first keynote at Conference to Restore Humanity! 2022 with Dr. Henry Giroux.
Conference to Restore Humanity 2022!: Keynote, Dr. Denisha Jones: Education as the Practice of Freedom - Learning From the Movements
A transcript of our second keynote at Conference to Restore Humanity! 2022 with Dr. Denisha Jones.
Conference to Restore Humanity! 2022: Keynote, Harvest Collegiate Circle Keepers - Transformative Justice
A transcript of our third keynote at Conference to Restore Humanity! 2022 with the Harvest Collegiate Circle Keepers.
Conference to Restore Humanity! 2022: Keynote Q&A - Dr. Henry Giroux
A transcript of our Q&A with Dr. Henry Giroux at Conference to Restore Humanity! 2022.
Conference to Restore Humanity! 2022: Keynote Q&A - Dr. Denisha Jones
A transcript of our Q&A with Dr. Denisha Jones at Conference to Restore Humanity! 2022.
Conference to Restore Humanity! 2022: Continuing the Fight w/ Dr. Jennifer Berkshire
A transcript of our event with Dr. Jennifer Berkshire at Conference to Restore Humanity! 2022.
Conference to Restore Humanity! 2022: Keynote Q&A - Harvest Collegiate Circle Keepers
A Q&A transcript of our third keynote at Conference to Restore Humanity! 2022.
MINDFOOD I: Top 10 Books Every Progressive Educator Should Read
We break down our favorite books on progressive education.
120: A Pedagogy of Love w/ Dr. Antonia Darder
Combating the inhospitable and increasingly individualized notions of the school system.
The Path to Discovery: Providing Real Choice in Schools
As far as I knew, this was “great teaching” — not only had I known my students “were learning” but often my lessons were engaging and at least better than what I remembered in school.
PSA for Teachers: Teach to Get Fired
At almost any school you will find the lifeless, dead-eyed educator going through the motions, miserable at the sight of their students, administration, parents, or the education system at large.
Prepared for What? The Future for Graduates
College-ready schools make an assumption that they are actually preparing students for college — however — is this an accurate sentiment? Moreover, what is the danger of always preparing people for the “next thing” without ever focusing on the now?
Review: Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be
Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be: An Antidote to the College Admissions Mania by Frank Bruni lays out a remarkable case against the ridiculous nature of college admissions programs and the dangerous pathways it leads our children on.
Review: Excellent Sheep
Our children spend shockingly little time figuring out what it is that they love to do.
Why are we not taking happiness seriously?
Where’s the alarm bells? Why is there no national call-to-arms for every educator to solve this problem? Why do our school systems value standardized test scores, GPAs, and attendance ratings over happiness?
Gamification: Is it all just a ruse?
I was quickly swept up in gamification. Being a “gamer” all my life, the draw of “gamifying” my content seemed like a no-brainer.
Review: Making the Grades
I always bite my tongue when I hear educators defend the testing industry, even if they don’t outright support it. “Standardized testing is just one tool in the toolbox!"
What really is an "A"?
Grades are meant to be representative of a child’s progress. If a student is doing well, they receive an A or B, so on and so forth. Often overlooked is the actual measure of progress: feedback.
Get Out There!: Connecting to the Community
Authentic work is at the heart of any great classroom. When empowered, students will change the world — they just need the opportunity to do so. Although many teachers are capable of fantastic projects and dialogue, the community beckons young people to innovate and serve.
A Superhero Teacher's Lament
Every passionate teacher enters the classroom with boundless, optimistic energy. They never think they’ll become the sarcastic, aloof, dismissive type. But, when push comes to shove — it seems like it happens to everybody.
Teaching at the Edge of Hope
Oftentimes we feel discouraged or hopeless as educators — whether it be economically, socially, racially, an instance of intersectionality, or otherwise, many of our students (and teachers) are fighting an uphill battle.
Response: The importance of rigor in bringing history to life
The Thomas B. Fordham Institute prides itself on sponsoring college-preparatory schools across Ohio. Particularly, this article is referenced as one of its most popular and aims to promote this pedagogy.
Review: Teaching to Transgress
Teaching to Transgress summarizes hooks’ viewpoints through a series of essays which manifest a strong structure for understanding, analyzing, and changing systemic issues.
Is the factory model a myth?
And this has bled into our current schools — we’re centered around control, using a traditional structure to tell children what to do, how to do it, and then expect the same uniform result.
“Let’s get to work!”
Students love school the first day and begrudge it the rest. Teachers plan their beginnings to be engaging, then “get to work.” Isn’t it odd how easily this aligns?
Review: These Schools Belong to You and Me
Students should want to go to school — learning is fun, interesting, and natural— but the more we accept our place under the dictatorial rule of standardized, government orders, the less our students will subscribe.
Accepting the Status Quo: Teaching Without Bias
Frankly, to remain neutral is a single-sided story. One can’t teach without bias.
“We all do what’s best for children.”: The Banality of Educative Statements
“We all work everyday doing what’s best for children.” “We care about kids.” “We work tirelessly for our students.” Frankly, I’m tired of statements like these. It’s the perfect copout to any argument, a safety blanket for failing at innovative practice.
Review: On Being a Teacher
Kozol’s unwavering stance carries a heavy weight throughout the entire book, demanding change, taking firm positions, and drastically altering how we view the classroom.
Being the Serious Teacher Who Doesn’t Take Traditional Seriously
Educators face this scenario daily: by doubling down on progressive practice, their unwillingness to embrace the traditional delegitimizes their class.
Review: Timeless Learning
If the education system didn’t have over a hundred years of the status quo, what would it look like? If we examined real-world careers and passionate opportunities, how would we truly prepare students for them?
Escape from Reality: The Apathetic Adolescent
How can I possibly design a curriculum that conquers instant gratification? Especially when this content stands to be delivered no matter what (as it is a “standard”) and students have no choice in coming to the building?
Review: The End of the Rainbow: How Educating For Happiness (Not Money) Would Transform Our Schools
This isn’t a critique as much as it is an inspiration for teachers looking to reignite their passion for the profession. It’s time we restore the purpose of education.
Finding Your Purpose in Education
Finding my purpose in education was born out of an immense frustration with education itself.
The “Fad Trap” of Progressive Education
Because these ideas are surface-level, wastefully rolled out, and so commonly a marketing tool rather than for actual teaching, they fall short, kids suffer, the school loses money, and teachers double down on traditional practice.
Review: This Is Not a Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education
This Is Not a Test: A New Narrative on Race, Class, and Education by José Luis Vilson heralds a personal, provocative story of doing what’s best for children.
The Naughty List: Stop the Madness
Critics outcry that “rote-based memorization”, “facts and dates”, and prison-like environments aren’t commonplace, and the average school is a vibrant place of learning.
Wait, 20 is the perfect amount for a classroom?
Outside of the obvious logistic and financial reasoning for larger classrooms, I just couldn’t wrap my head around why we would ever want 20 students as a “great number.”
Assurance
I’ve rarely discussed progressive education without this question. Yet the assumption always is that students, parents, and educators reject these ideas. I don’t think this is the case. Instead, it is a lack of understanding.
Neo-Progressivism
Experiential learning isn’t a packaged curriculum. Social and emotional learning isn’t an expensive workshop on managing stress in a classroom. Ed-tech isn’t meant to do what we already do “better.” Student voice and choice aren’t concepts sold in the latest book.
Review: On Critical Pedagogy
On Critical Pedagogy by Dr. Henry A. Giroux inspires me to rally teachers and students and overthrow the government. Of course, that’s not realistic so I’ll start by overthrowing my classroom and work from there.
Data: A New Conversation
In an era where standardized measurement is a given, and it isn’t going away any time soon — why don’t we change the data measured?
Making Them All Look the Same
It’s not enough that students are required to attend whitewashed, water-downed classes that the masses can distribute, but now they must have the same on their bodies.
At a Crossroads of Anti-Authoritarianism: Dismissing Far-Right School Advocates
Progressive education typically wants a plethora of schools and non-traditional experiences for children to choose from. However, I want to outline the differences of thought between some libertarian homeschoolers versus ours.
Review: A School of Our Own
Hearing a high schooler’s perspective, combined with the expertise of a post-graduate education specialist, is as interesting as it is informative.
I use evidence to inform my teaching.
There’s hundreds, perhaps thousands, of articles promoting progressive education. Research among child development psychologists overwhelming favors student choice and voice and experiential learning.
Review: The Inner Level
The Inner Level: How More Equal Societies Reduce Stress, Restore Sanity, and Improve Everyone’s Well-being by Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson demonstrates a fundamental element to education: we can’t fix the system solely by making schools “better.”
Dispelling Illusions
Chomsky relays how our society holds up its “truths” in an Orwellian fashion — each idea is how it has always been, and changing it would be neigh impossible.
Review: Why They Can’t Write
John Warner’s message is clear in Why They Can’t Write: we need to restore purpose to writing (and all curriculum) by removing antiquated “structure.
Reflecting on Rigor
Every year I struggle with this fact: when we run students through the “rat race” of perceived rigor by our endless assignments and high-stakes exams, are we actually teaching a student anything?
Review: The Book of Learning and Forgetting
The Book of Learning and Forgetting is a simple book in the best way possible. A 120-page, Q&A filled, assurance that students are learning all the time.
It’s time to stop using Kahoot as a whole class review tool.
For some students, this is a way to quickly recall information they may need to know, but this isn’t justifiable for whole class review where most Kahoot sessions take place.
Death to the Acronym
Educators love acronyms. It’s the key to successful empire in the professional industry; developing a simple phrase to communicate adjectives in a catchy way. But they mean absolutely nothing.
Review: We Got This: Equity, Access, and the Quest to Be Who Our Students Need Us to Be
We Got This is part personal narrative, part Paulo Freire critical pedagogy, and part comic book allegory. It’s a fascinating look at how a current public school teacher disrupts the status quo so his students have every possibility to achieve.
Starting off Right: Writing a Pro-Student Syllabus
The words we use to structure our syllabus can have a lasting first impact on how students view our class. Intentionally or not, the verbiage and wording of our attitude toward students is reflected in our writing.
Supplying a more responsible, equitable classroom.
As we’re kicking off another exciting year of education, I’m making my annual trip to the store to resupply our classroom. And each year, I reflect on what I could buy to make my space a little more equitable for all.
Review: Free School Teaching: A Journey into Radical Progressive Education
Free School Teaching: A Journey into Radical Progressive Education by Kristan Accles Morrison is an exemplar of what self-directed, progressive schooling looks like.
Game Design, Classroom Design, and the Faux Use of Gamification
“Gamification” is a popular buzzword — whether it be corporations wanting users to excitedly spend money or educators motivating students through extrinsic rewards. Consistently, well-meaning educators are seeking gamification to encourage students to meet their standards.
Review: An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People
An Indigenous Peoples’ History consistently poses questions that counteract misinformation about Native communities, specifically stories that are usually taught in elementary school.
Review: The Labor of Lunch: Why We Need Real Food and Real Jobs in American Public Schools
The Labor of Lunch by Jennifer E. Gaddis is a treatise on the United States school lunch system: its history, battle over nutritional quality, and those who are fighting to change it.
Revisiting Disobedience Instruction as Classroom Structural Change
Accounted by Jonathan Kozol in On Being a Teacher, disobedience instruction is teaching students how to say “no” toward teacher authoritarianism or counter a teacher’s sweeping political statements.
Remaking Professional Development
Professional development in education is defective and I think almost everyone knows it...PD tends to promote fads, one-and-done workshops, and the latest district initiative that fails to make any long-lasting change.
Review: The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning
The End of Homework by Etta Kralovec and John Buell offers a succinct and researched account of why homework does little to actually improve academic performance, and instead hurts a family’s overall well-being.
Simplification: School Policies and Practices to End During COVID-19
It is our responsibility as educators to ensure that all students are supported through this event. It will take proactive, decisive planning and decision-making by teachers to make this happen.
Building a Student-Centered Third Place
Even though I don’t usually interact in these spaces, the feeling of being surrounded by other people and being apart of a greater societal culture is enlivening.
Drop the College Board
It’s clear that the College Board is not only grossly overfunded and a waste of money, bordering on corruption, but a completely unethical, inequitable, and useless indicator of college preparedness.
Review: The Right to Learn: A Blueprint for Creating Schools That Work
Darling-Hammond’s work, which is nearly 400 pages with 200 citations, is a formative review of inner-working and issues within the United States education system, and perfectly captures the need for progressive policies.
Unpacking “Neoliberal” Schooling
Within the school system, neoliberalism rears its head in the standardized testing-, marketing-, and curriculum-complex, where each assessment, packaged idea, and educational buzzword is sold for high profits.
Review: The Art of Critical Pedagogy
The Art of Critical Pedagogy provides an overview of the concept of critical pedagogy, showcases why it is needed in urban contexts, and provides three case studies of what it actually looks like in practice.
Unpacking “Neoliberal” Schooling, Part 2: Teachers Pay Teachers
While Teach Like a Champion, the bestselling secondary education book, trains teachers to control students through behavioral compliance, Teachers Pay Teachers — generally — trains teachers to control students through “fun” activities, worksheets, and slideshows.
Review: “You Can’t Fire the Bad Ones!”
“You Can’t Fire the Bad Ones!” And 18 Other Myths About Teachers, Teachers’ Unions, and Public Education by William Ayers, Crystal Laura, and Rick Ayers provides a quick-to-understand, ready-to-read breakdown of the common assaults against public education and its workers.
Death and Teaching: COVID-19 and the Return to School
It's a grim time in the United States.
Creating a Virtual, Liberatory Feedback-Driven Classroom
This past week, Human Restoration Project has had the honor of presenting this workshop on ungrading and liberatory pedagogy at Digital Pedagogy Lab 2020. Here's an overview of the activities we covered, what we learned, and resources to share!
Endorsing Student Voice Through Virtual/Hybrid Activism
This is an overview of our August 1st Summit with Inspire Citizens (Donna Guerin, Steve Sostak, Kavita Tanna), Out of the Blocks (Aaron Henkin, Wendel Patrick), and Evan Whitehead!
Liberatory Learning: Dismantling the Hidden Curriculum
This is a recap of our asynchronous professional development session, where we worked as a cohort to develop actions and solutions for equitable practices in our classrooms.
Review: Radical Teacher, Academic Journal
Published by the University of Pittsburgh, Radical Teacher is a self-described socialist, feminist, and anti-racist journal founded in 1975. Since 2013, the entire publication is accessible for free online, double peer-reviewed, and filled with in-depth articles.
One Teacher Can't Save the World
What is it about the world that is worth preparing students for, and are we dedicated to the work of building that better world alongside them?
Review: Manufacturing Happy Citizens
Manufacturing Happy Citizens: How the Science and Industry of Happiness Control Our Lives by Edgar Cabanas & Eva Illouz provides a convincing condemnation of "positive psychology", the relatively recent scientific study of happiness.
Review: Teacher & Child
This work outlines the day-to-day interactions teachers have with children, offering suggestions to solve the minute interactions that encompass most of this profession.
Learning from Games: Making Decisions for Others
Even the most well-intentioned changes can have horrific outcomes.
100 Days of Conversations: Amplifying Communities to Reimagine Education
In our pilot, we explored a reimagination of this project as a result of the pandemic, while simultaneously recognizing that the American education system was already in need of change.
Review: We Do This 'Til We Free Us
Mariame Kaba's collection of writings, We Do This 'Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice is a perfect encapsulation of understanding the carceral network, the importance of organizing, and counteracting inhumane systems.
Binary Solutions to Systemic Problems
This year has highlighted that there is a continual issue with equity in education; and that there’s a serious problem with the way schooling in general is tackling the issues we face today.
How Teachers Can Start a Grassroots Revolution for Better Schools
The Biden Administration offers a space for educators to demand transformation. But that does not mean that we can count on better outcomes coming from the federal government.
Review: Equity-Centered, Trauma-Informed Education
Alex Shevrin Venet's Equity-Centered, Trauma-Informed Education is a masterful work which inspires a systemic look at the injustices in classrooms, schools, and communities.
Oh What a Tangled Web We Weave: How the Testing Industry Manufactured the "Learning Loss" Narrative
In the wake of pandemic schooling, the testing industry sees an opportunity to sell schools on assessments and interventions that line their pocket-books, but do their claims live up the cost?
Unpacking "Neoliberal" Schooling, Part 3: Progressive Education: Enter the Matrix
Instead of finding ways to fight fire with fire through more critique, we deviate from the norm in ways that confuse, conflate, and separate ourselves from the narrative. Baudrillard-inspired theorist Franco Berardi writes, "the best thing to do is to make friends with chaos."
Empty Pedagogy, Behaviorism, and the Rejection of Equity
In our mission to be the best possible educators for young people, it is imperative that we understand the art and science of teaching beyond simple prescriptive ideas.
A Day in the Life at Three Schools
When we work together, what classrooms will we create?
