education – Page 3 – Don't Gel Too Soon

HILLARY, THE TONKIN GULF AND 1984

OK, those folks who run TypePad and YouTube haven’t found a way to add this blog host to automatic video posting so I’m hooking a link in right here so you can watch this. I can’t decide what I think – it’s funny and clever and a perfect definition of a mashup but it’s also mean and off-mark. While many, including many feminists, have issues with Senator Clinton – this 1984/Apple Commercial version isn’t representative of most of them. Accusations of opportunism and flabbiness on the war are not the same as totalitarianism. True, she voted for the Patriot Act, but so did all but two Senators – and one of them didn’t vote at all!

Now, I remind myself – we still remember who voted against the Tonkin Gulf Resolution (Senators Wayne Morse of Oregon and Ernest Gruening of Alaska) and that was in 1964 so maybe this vote will last too. Anyway, I don’t know where I’ll land politically this year – I’m really just thinking about the power of the kinds of media manipulation (in the technical sense) that are possible today. How will we ever help newer voters figure out how to determine the truth? Are they so much more evolved than we are in a media sense that we needn’t worry, or is the dismal lack of critical thinking work in current No Child Left Behind education going to affect how people think in the voting booth as well as our educational standing in the world?

Thoughts?

WHAT WOULD BOOK BURNING LOOK LIKE ON THE INTERNET?

If you heard a story of a teacher being prosecuted and facing 40 years in prison for exposing kids to pornography because a porn ad page popped up unsolicited while she was teaching, you’d think it was a joke, right? Everyone understands about pop-ups, right? This story seems as absurd as the legendary Senator Ted Stevens’ "tubes" speech.

Well apparently not. In Connecticut, Julie Amero, a seventh grade substitute teacher, faces 40 years in prison for just such an event. You can read a longer story about it here, on AlterNet.

Fortunately, she at least has some supporters. I learned of this story from Kelly at Mocha Momma — a committed and very gifted teacher herself. She is sending all her readers there for the details. This site’s proprietor, Karoli, not only provides links to backup information; she’s also donating $1 for every posted comment. In later posts, she adds still more info – and links. Take a look at them – and maybe even the fund itself. There’s more information there, too.

It’s a very troubling and scary story – not only for the obvious civil liberties and injustices, but also for what it says about technological expertise among the powerful. What do you think?

EDUCATION R US

This was a business day – no fooling around. I spent much of it reading education blogs for a client. I’m a real education junkie but often forget just how many wonderful, caring teachers there are out there. Wander around the blog world of educators and you find humor, commitment, talent and creativity. I admit that being the parent of kids with learning disabilities and the daughter and sister of teachers predisposes me to my admiration and interest but when you read these posts you really can’t resist.

I worry though about our schools. From what I’ve read we’re way behind China and India — among other countries — in the education of engineers and computer/math/science kids — and artsy and verbal as I am, I know those skills will be the ones we need to keep our country, and our economy, competitive. Yet all the hollering about the future of education is pretty empty. We give the No Child Left Behind tests, and I must admit that there are schools that really do need basic standards. But it’s critical thinking, inquiry and problem-solving, that will keep our country strong – and that’s suffering to fund the tests as a one-size-fits-all solution. In addition, funding for gifted kids is almost non-existent these days, so their talents aren’t being leveraged for our futures either.

If you want a real look at education today though go visit Mocha Momma — she tells it every day and with great style and compassion. Give her a try.

1.0 – Redux

REPOSTING FROM VOX

I’ve been promising to do this for a long time; this is the first post and a bit unnerving. I’m thinking lots of things at once. That I read today that 2/3rds of DC residents on welfare read only at the 5th grade level at best. Earlier I’d read that six in 10 adults in DC can’t read beyond a 4th grade level. What are we DOING???

At the same time, reports tell us sexy music might make kids have more sex (surprised, anyone?),and that fact gets geometrically more attention that this reading and education crisis. I don’t understand why no one cares — we are losing our international leadership position because those emerging from our schools don’t measure up to our economic competitors. Never mind the politicization of science and the exodus of scientific researchers to more enlightened countries.

OK so I sound cranky. And I didn’t really begin this blog to talk about the state of American education – even though it does obsess me. But it’s just so sad! I grew up in a milltown and went to a “culturally deprived” high school. We had all kinds of enrichment, we had plenty of AP classes and amazing teachers. As far as I can tell lots of that has stopped. This country can provide excellent education, it just isn’t doing so. I went to Russia in 1991 to produce a tv show and the advanced kids there were reading Jane Austen in THE TENTH GRADE!! IN ENGLISH!!! Holy cow.