A New Logo

I'm thrilled to introduce Pass-Ed's new logo to the world.

There's something about a bridge that has intrigued me since I started to think about education from what I hope is a sophisticated perspective. I've always thought that good teachers connect important content matter and students. They develop bridges. The best teachers know how to construct lots of individual bridges so each student can interact with subject matter in meaningful ways.

Bob Schwartz, Pass-Ed's new head of sales and marketing, and I just had a discussion about the role of a bridge from a publishing perspective. I suggested that a quality publisher might be compared to an automobile. People need cars to drive across bridges. But a car without a driver, or published material without a teacher, is pointless. I'm not sure how much I like this metaphor but it's an idea.

I'm certainly not willing to equate a driver and a teacher. For the best teachers know that students often learn best when they are encouraged to follow their own chains of thought and motivations. Perhaps in these cases, the published content becomes both a car and a driver. Here's a current example: Dan Wilson, an intern with our company, is currently developing an activity considering Western expansion using Google Earth, for a client. The KML file includes video, pictorial images, prose, and critical thinking questions among numerous other content. Dan's also developed activities to engage students. Students might enjoy interacting with this content at their own pace and in their own methods. Too much teacher guidance might hinder the learning experience, since it's a student centered activity. Pass-Ed's content has become both driver and car. The content is actively enabling students to interact with important ideas about Westward Expansion. The content is serving as a bridge.