Diane Ravitch takes apart Joel Klein and Condoleezza Rice’s new report “US Education Reform and National Security” piece by piece and exposes it for the sham that it is…
Do Our Public Schools Threaten National Security? by Diane Ravitch | The New York Review of Books: “NCLB and Race to the Top have imposed on American education a dreary and punitive testing regime that would gladden the hearts of a Gradgrind but demoralizes the great majority of teachers, who would prefer the autonomy to challenge their students to think critically and creatively. This dull testing regime crushes the ingenuity, wit, playfulness, and imagination that our students and our society most urgently need to spur new inventions and new thinking in the future.”
What a terrible, misguided and harmful thing to publish.
Teaching is the most exhausting career imaginable but also the most rewarding.
So true:
No Quiet Time | Merianna Neely: “Most people outside of education do not know what it is like to look at the clock in the morning and hope that you get a chance to run to the bathroom before the bell rings, because if you don’t, you’re just not sure when you’ll make it there. But it’s ok, these are all the issues that come with being an educator and most of us accept it with a positive attitude because this is our chosen profession.”
I love what I do, but in reality I accept that the average civilian has no idea how many times I hear my name called on a daily basis and how tiring being a progressive teacher in the 21st century can be.
I’m ok with that (even when a parent comments to me about how great it must be to be a teacher so that I can spend more time with my two daughters in the afternoon and during “summers”).
Maybe teaching was a profession for “those who can’t” thirty, forty or fifty years ago but that has certainly changed for those of us who do keep up with brain science research, sociological studies of pre-teens and early teens and the rising tide of technological tools at our disposal.
I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Now, back to class. I just used my “free” period helping a 6th grader with a math problem, an 8th grader install dropbox on their Droid and another 8th grader making a strong conclusion to conclude her research on AIDS and the developing world.
I have the greatest job in the world. Quit your job and go teach.
Everything.
Jim Dalrymple wrote an eloquent post about blogging, trust, audiences and large companies that is specific to the tech industry but could just as well be directed at my middle school students who are figuring out their own voice on their own blogs this year:
Blogging is not a thing, it’s an attitude: “Blogging is also about trust. If you’re readers know that you are writing from your heart, they will listen. They will engage you, and in the process you will learn something new. That, in turn, will help shape your opinions.”
As I keep telling myself and my students, trust is a two way relationship that is essential for real learning and authentic sharing. Trust is dynamic, unquantifiable and in many ways a slippery bird that refuses to go into its cage.
However, we should all try to sing along with its melody in our own relationships.
I love that my Assistant Principal is writing such salient and relevant posts for our middle school experience here at Carolina Day and schooling in general…
DomainDouglas: On Writing and Blogging — Following a Fifth Grader: “If you want your fifth grader to write, give him a blog; perhaps he will surprise you.”
So true.
Even though my beloved southern states normally get the grief of silly legislation in the name of national/religious pride, it’s frustrating to see legislators anywhere debating such literally inane points in the time of national/economic/climate/educational/fiduciary crisis…
N.H. Bill to Ban International Baccalaureate Program Is Defeated – Curriculum Matters – Education Week: “‘Do you want your children to be indoctrinated to be world citizens or do you want them to be residents of this state and this country?’ said Rep. Ralph Boehm, a sponsor of the bill, according to the newspaper.”
Robert Welch Jr called… he wants his poor logic back.
Best post I’ve read on the latest “should everyone learn to code?” meme that’s been floating around the tech/edu sphere the last week or so…
Rands In Repose: Please Learn to Write: “Writing is the connective tissue that creates understanding. We, as social creatures, often better perform rituals to form understanding one on one, but good writing enables us to understand each other at scale.”
I wholeheartedly agree that coding is beneficial more for the structure and the application of organized thought than for most people’s practical needs. It’s somewhat similar to studying philosophy or religion in college even though you’re a business major… it might not seem directly applicable but helps you notice the subtlety of life and experiences that you might otherwise miss and that leads to a more enriched life.
So yes, I like to introduce my 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students to HTML, some PHP and even Python or Ruby compilers if they are interested. However, I introduce these elements into our traditional middle school studies to help them see the underlying matrix-like complexities of a website and information delivery, even on a simple looking blog like this.
Go learn to code. It’s good for you. Don’t forget to read some Plato and Ecclesiastes along the way.
Blessed are the people who see beyond the surface of things, because as Douglas Adams reminded us, things are not always what they seem.
While I had many great teachers in primary, middle and high school (and college), I didn’t do much “learning for learning’s sake” until after graduate school. That’s not because of the lack of skill or passion of my teachers but was a result of the nature of factory education and schooling.
When I read this, I think about myself and the students I’ve had the chance to work with over the past seven years of my life:
The Nerdy Teacher: Letting Go of Control #PBL: “There is an idea out there that students need to be told what to do and how to do it when it coes to projects. For some students, they have no idea what to do when told they can be creative because they have never been given the freedom to do what they want. It’s terrible when I have to help a student find their creative passions again. Sadly, I feel like some students never recover.”
As we move towards more PBL based learning dynamics at Carolina Day and with StudiesLab, I’m hopeful that creativity will play a big part in opening up my classroom to do cartwheels.
That quote above is from this guy “with no special talents” who didn’t do that well in his schooling.
As we enter that mentally and physically exhausting period at the end of the school year, our tired teacher eyes perk up when we start considering the possibilities of “next year’s” (meaning the new crop of students we’ll be working with in 2-3 months) experiences.
One of the things I’m personally looking forward to is whether or not I can do cartwheels with my co-learners…
Why Flip The Classroom When We Can Make It Do Cartwheels? | Co.Exist: World changing ideas and innovation: “When you decide to change higher ed with the purpose of changing the world, you aim high. Because of academic freedom–freedom of ideas but also freedom from having to produce an income or a profit–you can achieve what few other investments achieve: a return on our society’s future, not just on quarterly Wall Street reports.
The cartwheeled classroom not only connects text books and classrooms to the real world, but it also inspires, uplifts, and offers the joy of accomplishment. Transformative, connected knowledge isn’t a thing–it’s an action, an accomplishment, a connection that spins your world upside down, then sets you squarely on your feet, eager to whirl again. It’s a paradigm shift.”
I’m planting sequoias.
A healthy, supportive, challenging and collaborative school environment (faculty, students and parents) makes all the difference.
It’s one of the things we do well at Carolina Day…
DomainDouglas: “Learning and teaching. These two words are closely related, but unfortunately too much emphasis is put on teachers teaching rather than on students learning. All too often, American teachers view themselves as the holder of knowledge whose job it is to pass that knowledge on to students. This model has created mediocrity in schools for generations. Let’s put the focus where it belongs, on the learner and learning.”
Thanks for being an awesome Captain, Mr Douglas.
Free time is not harmful…
The Case for Breaking Up With Your Parents – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education: “The current dean of freshmen concurs: ‘Starting at an earlier age, students feel that their free time should be taken up with purposeful activities. There is less stumbling on things you love … and more being steered toward pursuits.’ Some of my students begin to look downright uneasy; some are now listening hard.”
Creativity, independence and the learned ability to subjugate boredom with constructive (or fun) activities are all linked in some strange subjective manner.
Imagine if schools gave new faculty a letter like this on their first day…
The Inspirational Note Apple Gives to New Employees on Their First Day
Chill bumps.
Not just “higher” education, but especially independent middle and upper school education…
The Campus Tsunami – NYTimes.com: “What happened to the newspaper and magazine business is about to happen to higher education: a rescrambling around the Web.”
There will be resistance to the inevitable (and healthy, needed) changes, but the music and news industry is a cautionary tale for schools looking to hold off the rising flood waters for three or four years.
Not being political here (Obama’s culture of education hasn’t been anything to sing praises over), but the culture of education as practical job preparation is so damaging to education all the way down:
Romney to students: borrow money from parents, take risks: “‘You really don’t want to take out $150,000 loan to go into English because you’re not going to be able to pay it back. You might want to think about something else that meets your interest,’ Romney said, noting that ‘as an English major I can say this,’ reports ABC News.”
I guess graduates can always just borrow $20,000 from their parents to start their own businesses if they do major in one of those unproductive majors.
Tough, wonderful and challenging post…
The challenge of the introverted student – The Answer Sheet – The Washington Post: Our classrooms contain too many forgotten introverted students who may need help but are not getting it and/or have gifts that aren’t being either elicited or supported. It’s important to remember that while Rich survived his high school experience and learned from it, some quiet students may not. Which is why — amid all the noise and excitement of our extroverted society — we must tap into the hidden gifts of our invisible adolescents as well.
As an admitted INFP myself who spent my middle school and early high school years rolling 20 sided dice in dark corners with a couple of like-minded friends and trying my best to hide when we were marched to the communal lunch room, I’m always particularly interested in spotting those students who have a great voice but have the hurdle/challenge/blessing of being more introverted.
Again, it’s not just about differentiation in education, but also about relationship and a real knowledge of our students.
It’s time to move to portfolios and authentic assessments. Schools that don’t will be left behind…
Movement Against Standardized Testing Grows As Parents Opt Out | MindShift: “‘Our schools are faced with contradictory and incomplete directives regarding high-stakes testing and evaluation, our teachers are humiliated by the thought of publicized evaluation numbers and our students are stressed by the unnecessary testing that has consumed precious learning time,’ the letter says.”
Reminds me of U2′s greatest song, Acrobat:
“I’d join the movement if there was one I could believe in…”
Indeed.
Yeah, not this…
Sign Up | The Nation
Thanks for trying, though.
Beautifully put and so right on…
Re-designing spaces for learning | Connected Principals: “The greatest challenge to change in learning is our reticence to simply take action:
- change the space
- change the program
- expect high outcomes.”
Patience for patience’s sake is not always a virtue.
Nope, we’re already building it over at StudiesLab.
How Schools Can Teach Innovation – WSJ.com: “Creating new lab schools around the country and training more teachers to innovate will take time.”
Come change the world with us.
Thanks to future StudiesLab participant Devin T for the link.
