Educated or Scarred for Life? Yes!

I love videos like the one embedded below, as I have been fascinated by dinosaurs all of my life. In some ways, I wish things like this had existed when I was a child. (Although, since I was terrified of the Philly Phanatic, this might have caused me to blow a gasket.) But one site asks the question are such animatronic and puppeteering scare-fests really educational? Or are we just fooling ourselves that fun and learning can co-exist in such environments?

A world with no homework... just home "lectures"?

I give this idea high marks for creativity, and I think it would have worked with me. But I am not sure if most students could manage to put their teacher first, when YouTube has so much empty entertainment to offer. Then again, maybe the answer is the same either way - disciplined students or disciplining parents.

However, instead of lecturing about polynomials and exponents during class time – and then giving his young charges 30 problems to work on at home – Fisch has flipped the sequence. He’s recorded his lectures on video and uploaded them to YouTube for his 28 students to watch at home. Then, in class, he works with students as they solve problems and experiment with the concepts.
Lectures at night, “homework” during the day. Call it the Fisch Flip.
“When you do a standard lecture in class, and then the students go home to do the problems, some of them are lost. They spend a whole lot of time being frustrated and, even worse, doing it wrong,” Fisch told me.

Utah flirts with abolishing Senior Year

We all knew a few of "that type" of student. The ones who worked hard all thru high school and as soon as they were accepted to college, they stopped trying at all. Of course, most of "that type" learned too late that colleges (1) keep an eye on early admissions, and (2) are able to rescind an acceptance if they see grades slacking off. Still, at least one legislator in Utah is exploring the option of eliminating the Senior Year of high school altogether or at least making it optional. But it is not with the good of the students in mind - it is an attempt to close a serious budget gap.

The sudden buzz over the relative value of senior year stems from a recent proposal by state Sen. Chris Buttars that Utah make a dent in its budget gap by eliminating the 12th grade.

The notion quickly gained some traction among supporters who agreed with the Republican's assessment that many seniors frittered away their final year of high school, but faced vehement opposition from other quarters, including in his hometown of West Jordan..."You're looking at these budget gaps where lawmakers have to use everything and anything to try to resolve them," said Todd Haggerty, a policy associate with the National Conference of State Legislatures. "It's left lawmakers with very unpopular decisions."

Playing Hardball with Teachers

I never doubt the good intentions of teachers - they have dedicated their lives to serving children and preparing the next generation. But in my experience, teachers are the last group willing to give concessions at the bargaining table. A school superintendent in Rhode Island has decided on a way to deal with a recalcitrant teacher's union. She fired every teacher and administrator at the school in question. Apparently, this is a politician who does not do things halfway. Especially when dealing with the worst school in the state.

Obama: Make the School Year Longer

If President Obama had any hope of recovering his approval rating among teens, he probably just lost it when he announced support for making children go to school longer each day and each year. The reasoning given is that schoolchildren in other developed nations have longer school years, and are learning more than Americans.

"Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."

"Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

This is not a new idea. When I was in high school, they were talking about year-round schooling and experimenting with alternative school schedules. Very few showed any concrete results. Then again, it does seem strange that we're still observing school schedules based on the corn harvest in parts of the country where you can't find a corn stalk.

HIV does not need a break to enter the body

For years, conservatives has been ridiculed for claiming the only sure way to prevent AIDS was to abstain from sex outside of marriage or at least outside of a committed relationship with a tested, monogamous partner. We have been told over and over that there are plenty of effective alternative methods to prevent HIV transmission. But again, we are learning HIV is wily and extremely flexible in its infection strategy.

Instead of infiltrating breaks in the skin, HIV appears to attack normal, healthy genital tissue, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday in a study that offers new insight into how the AIDS virus spreads.

They said researchers had assumed the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, sought out beaks in the skin, such as a herpes sore, in order to gain access to immune system cells deeper in the tissue...

He said until now, scientists had little understanding of the details of how HIV is transmitted sexually in women.

But fear not. I am sure the leaders in our public schools will never allow abstinence to be taught.

Learning is Fundamental

It is amazing how much one's perspective on school changes after graduation.

You're Never Too Old To Learn

Congratulations to Alferd Williams, a 70 year old man who has joined a first grade class to fulfill his promise to his mother that one day he would learn to read. Alferd is an example of just how valuable an education is and that you are never too old to learn.

Philosophy on the rise in Colleges

I don't know how many Mod-Blog readers know that I was a philosophy major in college. I started out in Physics and learned in my Sophomore year that I did not want to spend the rest of my life eating, breathing, and thinking Mathematics 24/7. Philosophy - augmented by mathematics and computer science - turned into a major for learning LOGIC, which has been invaluable to my career in Information Technology.

In an age where NONE of my friends got a job in the area they majored in, doesn't it make sense to choose a major which prepares you for LIFE rather than for a particular field? Apparently, many, many college students are thinking the same way as philosophy departments across the country are seeing a huge boom in enrollment.

Home Schooling Ruled Illegal in California (in most situations)

A California appeals court ruled that homeschooling your children is illegal unless the parent doing the teaching holds teaching credentials for the grades the students are in. This means that basically unless you are a teacher who stops working to teach your own kids, it will be illegal to homeschool your children. Perhaps the scariest part of this case is what the judge said in his ruling.

"A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare," the judge wrote, quoting from a 1961 case on a similar issue."

This is scary! I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up in front of the US Supreme Court.

Legos vs "Social Justice"

I am not sure what exactly disturbs me about this posting from a teacher (warning, long article), but I think it is the explicitly anti-capitalist and commuitarian bias. (I am avoiding saying communist, because of the Marxian overtones which are mostly absent.) Read thru it and let me know what you think.

We also discussed our beliefs about our role as teachers in raising political issues with young children. We recognized that children are political beings, actively shaping their social and political understandings of ownership and economic equity — whether we interceded or not. We agreed that we want to take part in shaping the children's understandings from a perspective of social justice. So we decided to take the Legos out of the classroom...
From this framework, the children made a number of specific proposals for rules about Legos, engaged in some collegial debate about those proposals, and worked through their differing suggestions until they reached consensus about three core agreements:

- All structures are public structures. Everyone can use all the Lego structures. But only the builder or people who have her or his permission are allowed to change a structure.

- Lego people can be saved only by a "team" of kids, not by individuals.

- All structures will be standard sizes.

With these three agreements — which distilled months of social justice exploration into a few simple tenets of community use of resources — we returned the Legos to their place of honor in the classroom.

Am I being too sensitive here, or are you also concerned by the explicit values being taught to these children?

Should "No Child Left Behind" be left behind?

A good friend of mine works in education, so I regularly hear bits and pieces from the world of education. One thing I hear over and over is how much educators hate the No Child Left Behind law. Some obviously hate it because it forces outcomes to be measurable, and it is easier to claim achievement when it can't be measured. Others hate it, because it gives so little flexibility to teachers in adapting their educational process to their students.

This article claims that NCLB should not be amended, as suggested by the White House, but scrapped altogether. It makes the point that NCLB punishes teachers for the failings of communities (high crime, poverty, drug dealers, etc.)

THe article makes some good points, although I have heard the same argument many times in business - usually from people who are making excuses for their own failings. (It is easier to blame the test, than to admit you failed it.) I am interested in the opinions of other Mod-Bloggers. Is NCLB fundamentally flawed or are educators making excuses? Or are both true?

CT takes High School online

Most days, I have no particular love of my state of residence: Connecticut. But every once in a while it feels good to be from the Nutmeg State.

Connecticut public high schools will begin offering online courses to students next month, according to Gov. M. Jodi Rell.

The pilot program, called CT Virtual Learning Center, will offer courses such as algebra, geometry, and English to students at risk of falling behind or failing, Rell said in a written statement. By enrolling in the courses, students will be able to avoid summer school and recover credits.

Electives that may not be available at many schools -- like Mandarin, biotechnology and international business -- will also be available online.

Now if only these courses were open to ALL residents in some way. I'd love to take a course in Mandarin, even if teacher support were only available to real high schoolers.

GameStop punishes manager for "Games for Grades"

A manager of a GameStop has been suspended by the home office after introducing a "Games for Grades" program. The idea was that his store would sell no games to a school age child unless a parent or guardian could vouch that they were keeping their grades up. The attempt to make a statement about proper priorities was not appreciated by the corporate headquarters.

After CNN picked up the story, GameStop backed off somewhat and claims to be re-evaluating the program. What do Mod-Bloggers think about this? Is the manager to be lauded for trying to get across a message about education to kids? Or is GameStop right to protect any patron's right to purchase legal products in their stores?

A Different Perspective on Educational Spending