Schools are designed on the assumption that there is a secret to everything in life; that the quality of life depends on knowing that secret; that secrets can be known only in orderly successions; and that only teachers can properly reveal these secrets. An individual with a schooled mind conceives of the world as a pyramid of classified packages accessible only to those who carry the proper tags.
New educational institutions would break apart this pyramid. Their purpose must be to facilitate access to the learner: to allow him to look into the windows of the control room or the parliament, if he cannot get in the door.
-“Deschooling Society” by Ivan Illich, quoted in “A Pattern Language” by Christopher Alexander et al.
"Learning from programmed information always hides reality behind a screen."
Ivan Illich (via elestirelgunluk) (via notational)
Connecting Academic Research With Secondary Education: Practicality and Customization - Synthesizing Education Blog
n reading Drive by Daniel Pink, I have to tell you that the more I read, the more agitated I have become, and it has minimal to do with Pink’s content or discussion. I can’t help but take specific notice of an underlying theme of the book that strikes a particular chord with education. Pink discusses the gap that exists between what science has proven and what business is practicing with regards to motivation and using various reward schemes to prompt (or not) a better output from the worker.
Here’s the reality in education: most research done at prestigious universities by academics fails to make its way from a journal article to K-12 implementation. In addition, when the research does make its way to secondary education, it is often implemented with a cookie-cutter approach and the target of arguments over how “impractical” academic research is to making a difference in the lives of kids. Maybe instead of faulting the product we are purchasing we should start taking a look at the process of implementation and how we can make research meaningful through quality professional development programs and conferences.
Joseph Gullotta, Teacher, Made Fourth-Grade Students Fight: Prosecutors
The title says made. I wonder if he made them or allow them to fight. I wonder what A.S. Neill would say about this. I personally would not rush to judgment. I think we spend a lot of time pretending kids don’t fight. What harm are we causing by only teaching “using words” to solve problems. What are we losing in the way of self discovery of force and violence. Could a fight here or there release the anger and fear that builds up later and then exploits in a more unhealthy way? I am not sure I have the answer but I do wonder.
If men were castrated at the same rate that women have their ovaries removed, there would be war in the streets
From the local paper:
Rep. Bruce Borders, R-Jasonville, will get a hearing today on a bill he has filed to tighten up rules for consent prior to a hysterectomy.
If passed into law the bill would set a more stringent standard on what information a woman must be given before she can sign a consent form to have the operation, which sometimes includes the removal of all of the sex organs, plus a 48-hour waiting period before consent can be given by a patient.
“If men were castrated at the same rate that women have their ovaries removed, there would be war in the streets,” said Borders, whose district includes northern and eastern Knox County.
Borders contends that a majority of hysterectomies performed are unnecessary and can come with serious life implications that not all women are informed of at the time of consent.
“Only 2 percent are performed because of life-threatening situations,” he said. “Women are not being told the facts.”
Some of the complications that Borders and those he’s been working with to draft the bill say can affect a woman after a hysterectomy include a change in personality, loss of sexual desire, and an increased risk of heart disease.
Borders has encountered some resistance to his bill from medical associations and doctors, some of whom say that patients are already informed of what they need to know to make an informed decision on a major surgery.
“You explain the risks and benefits and alternative treatments. You have to lay it all on the line as far as risks go,” said Dr. Thomas O’Rourke, a family practice physician in Vincennes. “There are legal standards of what a reasonable person would expect to be informed of, and you might have a complication that occurs one in 10,000, but the most common complications are the ones that patients need to know.”
O’Rourke said there are a number of reasons that a hysterectomy is recommended to patients besides cancer, including excessive bleeding, uterine pain, fibrous cysts, and endometriosis, a disease of the lining of the uterus.
He doesn’t believe that most hysterectomies are unnecessary because by the time most physicians recommend it, other avenues of treatment have already been exhausted.
O’Rourke also said because of billing procedures and the time between when a doctor informs a patient about a surgical procedure and when paperwork is signed, there is a natural waiting period and he doesn’t see what putting one into law will change.
“It’s not like you make the decision today and tomorrow you do the hysterectomy,” he said. “A waiting period … I think that’s something that happens anyway. Patients are autonomous and can decide for themselves.”
But Borders is not convinced that what’s in place now adequately protects patients.
“The medical community argues there is already an informed consent statute, but it’s pretty lightweight,” he said. “We want to say not only will informed consent be required, but we want (patients) to know … in specific detail what will happen to them.”
“What do you mean by informed consent? We want to spell out what it means to have a hysterectomy,” Borders said.Aaaaaaand……go, debate! Go!
2010 Sundance Film Festival : WAITING FOR SUPERMAN
For a nation that proudly declared it would leave no child behind, America continues to do so at alarming rates. Despite increased spending and politicians’ promises, our buckling public-education system, once the best in the world, routinely forsakes the education of millions of children.
Filmmaker Davis Guggenheim reminds us that education “statistics” have names: Anthony, Francisco, Bianca, Daisy, and Emily, whose stories make up the engrossing foundation of WAITING FOR SUPERMAN. As he follows a handful of promising kids through a system that inhibits, rather than encourages, academic growth, Guggenheim undertakes an exhaustive review of public education, surveying “drop-out factories” and “academic sinkholes,” methodically dissecting the system and its seemingly intractable problems.
However, embracing the belief that good teachers make good schools, and ultimately questioning the role of unions in maintaining the status quo, Guggenheim offers hope by exploring innovative approaches taken by education reformers and charter schools that have—in reshaping the culture—refused to leave their students behind.
The Importance of Revamping Teacher Preparation Programs - Synthesizing Education Blog
Read the whole Post including the comments. Very thoughtful debate! I agree with Adam, as I share his passion for Goddard College. I have found my calling as a teaching in the last six months. Goddard College reminded me of the power I have to learn.
(Review) Instructify » Educational videos, organized, at WatchKnow
January 5, 2010Teachers rely on video for reaching different learners, as a resource to help those couple kids who didn’t “get it” the first time around, and as an instructional resource for conveying concepts that are visual and complex. As the lead science teacher at a high school in Raleigh said recently at a professional conference, “We use YouTube every day. I couldn’t teach biology without it.”
But finding quality instructional video takes time. What if there was a website that collected the best free educational videos for children and made them findable and watchable on one website?
WatchKnow is a resource for you and your students, collecting the best free educational videos for children and made them findable and watchable on one website. WatchKnow organizes and categorizes video according to subject and education level. You can go or send your students to WatchKnow to find video that explains every topic that is studied in school instantly and reliably.
Content
To find out what videos have been identified for that next unit you are planning, browse the site by subject by drilling down through the topical menu on the left side. For example, Physical and Health Education: diseases: bacterial infections nets a return of nine videos including an animation demonstrating how bacteria gain entrance to the body, and a CDC-produced news clip that explains how a salmonella outbreak associated with peanuts was identified and how the affected products were tracked and recalled.
If your information need is more specific, search the site. A search for “mammals” returns many videos, but you can filter the results by age, choosing just the age range appropriate to your need to narrow the results.
Community organization
WatchKnow is both a resource for users and also a non-profit, online community that encourages everyone to collect, create, and share free, innovative, educational videos. Adding a video is only the first step. Once the video is approved and available, the users can suggest different categories and add an age range. Like a wiki, the records for each video may be edited by users over and over again.
It is through the participation of the user base that these videos are made most useful, as users can categorize and re-categorize, add to descriptions, rate and sort these videos to make the most useful videos simple to find. To learn more about how to use this in your classroom, take advantage of the site’s help resources including Tips for Teachers and view the videos (of course!) about WatchKnow linked on the bottom left side of the home page.
While joining WatchKnow is not required for participating as a content contributor, if you join, your ratings are weighed more heavily. Most teachers will need only a simple account which requires no email address, yet provides the ability to track your activities. If you find that you are adding and editing content and would prefer to do so without moderation, the simple account is upgradable to Confirmed Account which requires your real name, e-mail, location, statement and legal agreement required. [You need not use your real name as a username.] Finally, if you want to enter WatchKnow contests, upgrade to a Contest Account [only for U.S. residents ages 13 and over].
I find this resource is oddly compelling. Something in the easy and flexible yet highly functional way the site works makes me want to revisit and add to the collection. WatchKnow captures that best aspect of online community, building upon the integrity of the educational user base and the energy of the teachers who get excited when they find that gem of an instructional video that will help them to reach the one student they have been struggling to reach. The premise of this website and the collaborative way the users work to make it more useful is in keeping with the trend toward crowd-soured development of content and exemplifies some of teaching’s best qualities, collaboration and sharing.
Cons
Even though the need for quality video is great, there may be issues with using the content identified on WatchKnow. The video comes from a variety of online video sharing sites including YouTube, TeacherTube, and eHow, as well as some more traditional educational sites like National Geographic. If these sites are blocked at your school, you will be able to find the videos on WatchKnow, but you will not be able to view them, as the filter blocks the source of the video.
Given the fact that many schools and school systems cannot afford the cost of paid multimedia content, free content identified on WatchKnow may represent the best opportunity for finding and using video content for many of our less advantaged students. If you can’t take full advantage of quality, vetted video in your classroom because of indiscriminate, across-the-board filtering of video, take this argument to your educational leaders, your school boards, and others to bring attention to this issue of equity (for more information on content filtering, please see the bottom of this page).
Cross-posted at LEARN NC
Related stuff:
YouTube EDU features educational videos online
SpaceTime TV: Quality science videos that are not just about space…or time!
Produce an Educational Video in Your Classroom
All Educational, All the Time–TeacherTube
Filtering info
For more information about filtering, equity, and information access issues, visit these sites:
AASL Essential Links: resources for school library media developmentAmerican Library Association
Update: you can now watch pt. 1 of "This Emotional Life" right here
Thanks to site reader Rachel for the tip and link! :)
