December 2010
Human-Scale Schools →
my other tumblr blog about Human Scale Schools
Watchhumanscaleschools:
Small Schools: Small Schools: Big Reforms? | Learning Matters
Child Honouring Covenant & Principles →
We find these joys to be self evident: That all children are created whole, endowed with innate intelligence, with dignity and wonder, worthy of respect. The embodiment of life, liberty and happiness, children are original blessings, here to learn their own song. Every girl and boy is entitled to love, to dream and belong to a loving “village.” And to pursue a life of...
Guest post: Waiting for Superman — A Canadian... →
An Open Letter to Educators →
Bullies, Victims, Voices →
today is Anti-Bully Day….though I am making everyday Anti-Bully day!
Education Hell →
The other day, I had an awesome conversation with a South Korean hair dresser. While she cut my hair, I peppered her with questions about how school was different in South Korea compared to here in Canada.
Here’s roughly how I remember the conversation: Joe: “What was school like in South Korea?” Kelly: “It was very different. I was at school from 7:30 to 10:00 pm....
“As a student myself, I think schools should give students a little more freedom...”
– Comment by a student on the post How Would Students Rethink Education? « Cooperative Catalyst
School was bad enough for me, so it's bad enough... →
from for the love of learning by Joe BowerI have two objections when people say “school was good enough for me, so it’s good enough for my kids.” Firstly, I fear that what we really mean is “school was bad enough for me, so it’s bad enough for my kids.” Often it is hard to look back upon the way we were parented or the way we were taught and admit that we...
(very little) Room for Debate →
from for the love of learning by Joe Bower The New York Times invited at least 7 people to contribute to their latest Room for Debate on the topic of Stress and the High School Student. Evidently there is less “room for debate” in the New York Times than some would like to believe, as only six posts were authored as a part of the discussion. One name was left out. Susan Ohanian. ...
The Real Lessons of PISA →
These two systems are diametrically opposed in one sense: Shanghai relies heavily on testing to meet its goals; Finland emphasizes child-centered methods. Yet they have these important things in common: Neither of them does what the United States is now promoting: They do not hand students over to privately managed schools; they do not accept teachers who do not intend to make teaching their...
The Real Lessons of PISA →
Last week, I went to a luncheon with Pasi Sahlberg, the Finnish education expert. I asked him the question that every politician asks today: “If students don’t take tests, how do you hold teachers and schools accountable?” He said that there is no word in the Finnish language for “accountability.” He said, “We put well-prepared teachers in the classroom,...
50 Ways To Make Your School More Democratic →
This is also cross posted at the IDEA (Institute for Democratic Education In America) website.
It was an amazing meeting. Ten activists, educators, school founders, and school re-starters recently gathered for an IDEA Board Retreat in San Francisco. Fired up by Pedro Noguera’s keynote speech to the Coalition of Essential Schools the day before, we framed up IDEA’s commitments and strategy: ...
elementaryteachers asked: Why would you post a video with obscene content and language on an educational blog? This is rude and unprofessional and should be done on your own personal blog.
How Would Students Rethink Education? →
Last year in my Multimedia Authoring class, I asked students to create short projects on school reform. Their answers were far from revolutionary. In fact, few of them seemed to want broad, sweeping reforms. Instead, nearly all of them suggested the following:
Better cafeteria food with real ingredients
No school busses – nearly every child mentioned the bullying of bus rides as one of the...
Sabrina Stevens Shupe: How Do Successful School... →
Rather than guaranteeing teacher quality before teachers take responsibility for students, we’re growing a system where we put teachers in the classroom, then try to figure out if they’re good enough after the fact. This experiment-and-punish approach is remarkably cruel to both teachers and students, especially the neediest ones — who are often subjected to strings of...
Sabrina Stevens Shupe: How Do Successful School... →
In a piece I did this week for the Washington Spectator, I suggested a few points that have been key to honest education reform. These are points which we must hold on to now to take back the debate:
Reform demands empowered communities — not passive recipients of charity from above, but communities that demand the resources and freedom to pursue their deep interests. We need more ...
Rick Ayers: Taking Back the Narrative from Arne... →
In a piece I did this week for the Washington Spectator, I suggested a few points that have been key to honest education reform. These are points which we must hold on to now to take back the debate:
Reform demands empowered communities — not passive recipients of charity from above, but communities that demand the resources and freedom to pursue their deep interests. We need more ...
Rick Ayers: Taking Back the Narrative from Arne... →
Now, the problem is that true reformers, community activists and those closest to the painful realities of American cities, have been pushed into a corner, have found ourselves reacting to the Duncan-Rhee-Gates-Guggenheim offensive by falling back to a defense of teachers unions, a defense of good work done in schools, a reminder of the painful impacts of poverty. We have been pushed back to...
Rick Ayers: Taking Back the Narrative from Arne... →
But the problem here, Secretary Duncan, is that we must acknowledge the horrible, horrible effects of poverty, racism, violence in the lives of our children. We must face them, even in our educational reform efforts. To appropriate the language of reformers for his attacks on teachers and students is just cynical. It is like the right wing activists who appropriated Martin Luther...
Alfie Kohn: Remember When We Had Higher Standards?... →
“In recent years, parents have cried in dismay that their children could not read out loud, could not spell, could not write clearly,” while “employers have said that mechanics could not read simple directions. Many a college has blamed high schools for passing on students … who could not read adequately to study college subjects; high schools have had to give remedial...
Sam Chaltain: Is Michelle Rhee Putting Students... →
“Blaming us, the teachers, absolves all others of their complicity in the failure...”
– Quote: The War On Teaches, Continued
The Education Emperor Wins, Kids Lose - Page 1 -... →
Joining the latest assault on mayoral control in Nat Hentoff of the Village Voice who calls Bloomberg the Education Emperor.
Spencer's Scratch Pad: 10 Things I Didn't Learn in... →
8. Nearly everything in teaching is a paradox. Whether this is skills vs. concepts, results vs. process, compassion vs. truth, every single “versus” is misguided at best. When presented in tidy boxes in a textbook, it seems like I have to pick my team and cheer for them (hooray for Constructivists!) but it’s almost never like that in a real classroom. It’s messy....
Spencer's Scratch Pad: 10 Things I Didn't Learn in... →
WatchThank you for that! :)
niner:
austinkleon:
Oliver Sacks talks about his desk
I want company, even if it’s inorganic…I think some of the happiest years of my life were between 10 and 14 when I had a passion for chemistry in general, and metals, in particular. And now, I’ve left my hometown, and my parents are dead, and my brothers are dead, and so much of the past is gone…this rather...
We Need Public Schools and Democratic Governance... →
“We must continue to have schools that are the center of their communities, where children are students, not products, and parents are citizens, not customers.”
—
Diane Ravitch
We Need Public Schools and Democratic Governance
I think Diane Ravitch is right on this comment. Yet most schools today are not the center of communities and students are seen as products and parents as customers!...
We Need Public Schools and Democratic Governance →
When you see the same thing happening all over the country, then you realize that Congress must not just “tweak” No Child Left Behind, but start over. NCLB has become a vehicle for the destruction of American public education, not only because of its absurd mandate that 100 percent of all students must be proficient by 2014, and not just because of its requirement that schools...
The kind of mayoral engagement I think we can... →
A Quick Snapshot of the Education City
The Education City is a model that helps revamp the city by using education as a lever for change.
It focuses on adjusting the education system to the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. It provides each and every child with the opportunity to excel in what they are good at by enlisting the strengths and opportunities of the community.
...
One Kid at a Time
How to Make Learning
More... →
Dewey and the Dilemma of Race
An Intellectual... →
This historical study traces how John Dewey, like most of his contemporaries, struggled with the major dilemma of how to reconcile evolution, pedagogy, democracy, and race. In an original and provocative presentation, the author seeks to capture Dewey’s original meaning by placing him in his own intellectual and cultural context. Fallace argues that Dewey created an ethnocentric curriculum...
Blog 4 Real Education Reform – The Sequel →
cooperativecatalyst:
On November 22, and the few days leading up to it, I was crazy busy posting links to this site as people blogged about reform for education. it was one of the most amazing things to watch as…
If School is a Race to Nowhere, Where’s the... →
cooperativecatalyst:
I recently watched a screening of the film Race to Nowhere, about how the pressure on our children in school is making them so stressed out that they become sick and depressed and cheat with…
Arthur C. Clarke, Alvin Toffler, and Margaret Mead... →
