Learning By HeartLearning By HeartThis Open Source Learning Community is created by educators for educators. Open Source Learning is the new name for Progressive Education. Articles
EDUCATION: FRONT AND CENTER FOR 2010
2009-12-26 09:33:00 If you thought that LEARNING BY HEART took a holiday over the last 12 months, you would be correct. Future blog posts on this site will continue to cover news stories, events, and media analysis dealing with the world of K-16 education. The news of the last year was dominated by the economy and healthcare. Issues of the day tend to push the business of tomorrow off the front burner. The business of tomorrow should be our children as learners; those who will inherit what we leave them. In baseball this back burner report is typically called the hot stove league, which is where news items are placed to simmer for a while. Consider these news items and analysis the simmering pot of our educational democracy.Named after Roland Barth's extraordinary book, LEARNING BY HEART, the thoughts written on these pages are mine and mine alone. Instructions: Please feel free to post comments and commentary about what may be important to you, too. I'll also plug blogs and reports of educat... More About: Education , Front , Center
Lifelong Learning: Financial Matters
2009-04-16 06:17:00 Can you speak mortgage-backed securities?I've been stretching myself over the last year and a half, learning all that I can about the economy. I did not take Economics in college or high school, so this study is definitely self-directed and personally generated. Understanding about "toxic assets," "shadow banks," "credit default swaps," and the US Government's "TARP" plan has been pulling me in directions that I could have never imagined more than eighteen months ago. Every night I put on my iPod Classic, drifting off to sleep listening to American Public Media's "Marketplace" with Kai Ryssdal. What I have learned relates directly to Chaos Theory and how our world is truly interconnected now. When George H.W. Bush described his New World Order, perhaps he meant this world that we are in right now where when a folks in a neighborhood in Las Vegas default on their risky loans, then workers in Finland might find themselves out of a job. Our world, this brave new world, is so w... More About: Financial , Learning
What We Learned from the Somali Pirates?
2009-04-15 04:51:00 Absolutely nothing... More About: Pirates
Can't Stop the Tide: Same Sex Marriages and Gay Vice Squads
2009-04-14 05:14:00 The culture wars dictate that there must be losers. In the battle over same sex marriages, the losers try to dictate what others must do. In this case, those folks who love each other and who want to solidify lives together. We're not talking civil unions here, we are talking equals before and under God.I, like most of us who grew up in the Black Church, was taught to fear what I really didn't know. For many of my gay and lesbian brothers and sisters, growing up in a small town African American community outside of Chicago--Southern Baptist inflected--in the tumultuous 1960s and '70s and being a man in love with another man or a woman who adored another woman was tantamount to existing as a social pariah, or worse. One false move, like a side-long glance at a bar or showing affection for a beloved in the privacy of your own backyard, might mean certain death. Forty years later what has changed? Not much, really. This past fall the New York City Police Department, posing a... More About: Stop
The Threshold: College Admissions
2009-04-11 23:58:00 So, the most competitive college admissions season is nearly behind us. What have we learned? What has been seen by students (and families) applying this year to college is that there is no way to know for sure how colleges make admissions' decisions or who will get into what schools, or why. Neither grades, nor test scores, or even a great non-academic profile will assure students the ability to get into the more so-called elite schools. The great counsel that I can still give students and their parents is to follow their passions regardless of the name of a specific school or schools. Don't worry about getting into one of those named brand colleges or universities because you can't predict with any certainty what colleges may want in a particular applicant or in a class that they are trying to build. The brutal fact is that the more elite schools are only admitting about 5% of those that apply. In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell posits that the so-called elite school... More About: College , College Admissions
WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT--Open Source: Narrowing the Divide between Education
2009-04-04 10:29:00 © 2009 Jim Whitehurst. The text of this article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-n d/3.0/ ).EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 44, no. 1 (January/February 2009): 70–71.BY JIM WHITEHURSTJim Whitehurst is President and CEO of Red Hat.Comments on this article can be sent to the author at and/or can be posted to the web via the link at the bottom of this page.Open source is now recognized in institutions of higher education as a viable technology solution that provides superior value at a fraction of the cost of proprietary applications. That's a good thing—but that's not all it can do. Open source can be a transformative force in education. In particular, it can transform computer science curricula. Academic institutions that are consumers of open source need to reverse roles and shift gears to “preach what they practice” and place higher emphasis on integrating open source into the classroom.Open s... More About: Education , Open Source , Source , Open-Source
The Big Cram for Hunter High School By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ
2009-01-07 05:56:00 Reprinted fromThe New York Times, January 2, 2009While their friends played video games in pajamas or vacationed in the tropics, a dozen sixth graders spent winter break at Elite Academy in Flushing, Queens, memorizing word roots. Time was ticking as they prepared to face the thing they had talked about, dreamed about and lost sleep over for much of the past year: the Hunter College High School admissions exam, a strenuous three-hour test that weeds out about 90 percent of those who take it.On Wednesday, the final day of test-prep boot camp before the Jan. 9 exam, there seemed to be nothing more terrifying to these 11-year-olds than the risk of failure.Some had taken up coffee; others, crossword puzzles and cable news shows to glean vocabulary words. A few of their parents had hired private tutors and imposed strict study hours, and several had paid up to $3,000 for a few months of English and math classes at Elite, a regimen modeled on the cram schools of South Korea, China and Jap... More About: High School , Hernandez
ROLAND BURRIS: THE POST-CIVIL RIGHTS BLACK MAN BLUES
2009-01-04 22:23:00 Burris is no idiot. In fact, he's crazy like a fox. Roland Burris is right in line with the other "grabbers" in Chicago and Illinois politics. Burris sees an opportunity and he's going for it. What else would a 71 year old man want from a political career that was the envy of many but also dull, dull, dull. Roland Burris is acting out a REVENGE OF THE NERDS psychology that will have people talking about him long after this end game has played out. Burris never had that as Illinois Attorney General or as Illinois Comptroller. This is his moment in the national spotlight, his fifteen minutes of fame in DC. It must have burned his hide to see an uppity upstart like Barack Obama become a US Senator and then President-elect of the United States. Like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and other Civil Rights and post-Civil Rights era Black men, Burris sees what was denied him rather than what he effectively laid the groundwork for by being the first African American elected to statewid... More About: Blues , Post
BLAGOJEVICH AND BURRIS: WHAT ARE WE TEACHING OUR CHILDREN?
2009-01-02 09:32:00 This past week I tuned into the press conference given by Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois when he named Roland Burris to be his choice to fill President-elect Barack Obama's recently vacated U.S. Senate seat. The scene played out like a comic opera. Blagojevich looked shifty and like the canary who ate the catbird. Yep, that odd. Even though it seems like everybody except the Pope has asked Blago to re-sign for trying to sell that very same senate seat in question, the Illinois Governor is within his right to appoint a successor to Obama before next Tuesday when the other U.S. Senators are seated--representative Bobby Rush's feeble race politics comments aside.I have one word: Unbelievable.I must admit, I miss watching the drama that is Chicago and Illinois politics. This is proving to be a tremendous boon for bystanders, Republicans, and people who love politics as theater. It shows how broken our political system is. The long and short of it is: Roland Burris should ... More About: Children , Teaching
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
2009-01-01 08:54:00 2009, WHAT'S OLD IS STILL NEW AGAIN More About: New Year , Happy , Happy New Year , Year
How long will the recession last?
2008-12-29 07:24:00 The recession is effecting everyone and everything from the banking and credit industry to auto and manufacturing concerns. The gloom and doom is thick in the streets like one of those fogs in the Central Valley that rear ends semis, jack knifes fifth wheels, and upends mini-vans and cars alike. We're in for quite a dense and protracted foggy economic picture. This current economic debacle has more to do with the lack of trust in the entire global system and the collapse in confidence that people and institutions are basically good and trustworthy. As a wise man once told me, it's like turbulence in an airplane. Turbulence just is. When you're sitting in your over-priced row 12, seat F and the plane hits a pocket of air that makes it dip and buck as if you're on a cheap carnival ride, most people who have flown don't start swearing at their pilot or flight attendants. They know that it is just turbulence. The bucking dip is neither good nor bad; it just is. That's wh... More About: Long , Recession
INTO THE WILD: AT THE EDGE OF THE AMERICAN WILDERNESS
2008-12-25 00:30:00 What's the most revealing movie of the past two years? It's not about high flying special effects, Brad Pit getting old, or Sean Penn playing a gay rights hero. It's not any of these, however, Penn is a part of what I found affecting about movies over the last two years. One movie in particular I dug, which represents the Thoreauvian dystopia that is America now. Into the Wild is Penn's take on John Krakauer's non-fiction book recounting the tale of Christopher McCandless. McCandless leaves his comfortable life and heads off to find himself in the wilds of Alaska. Just like Thoreau did around Walden Pond for two years, two months, and two days, McCandless discovers the essence of an uniquely American philosophy: one's self versus community. The trailer from "Into the Wild" reveals this most distinct of national traits--Horatio Alger, Abraham Lincoln, George Bailey, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, et. al. The American mythos is about humble beginnings, big visions, and ope... More About: The Edge , Wilderness , Edge
Teacher sorry for binding girls in slavery lesson: White teacher taped hand
2008-12-24 07:39:00 From the AP Wire: updated 4:34 p.m. PT, Mon., Dec. 8, 2008WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - A white social studies teacher attempted to enliven a seventh-grade discussion of slavery by binding the hands and feet of two black girls, prompting outrage from one girl's mother and the local chapter of the NAACP.After the mother complained to Haverstraw Middle School, the superintendent said he was having "conversations with our staff on how to deliver effective lessons.""If a student was upset, then it was a bad idea," said Superintendent Brian Monahan of the North Rockland School District in New York City's northern suburbs.The teacher apologized to the mother who complained and her 13-year-old daughter during a meeting Thursday that also included a representative of the local NAACP. But the mother, Christine Shand of Haverstraw, said Friday she thinks the teacher should be removed from the class."I think the teacher should have gotten some discipline," Shand said. "I know if that was me, I would ... More About: Girls , Slavery , White , Teacher , Hand
CHARITIES WE RECOMMEND: THE HUMANE SOCIETY
2008-12-22 23:58:00 It's Day III: What's more humane than the National Humane Society . With YouTube's Project for Awesome to reduce the world suck, you can get involved at the local level. You can view and later donate to your local humane society or animal rescue agency: More About: Humane Society , Charities
CHARITIES WE RECOMMEND: THE LUPUS FOUNDATION
2008-12-22 07:41:00 Day II: It's one of those diseases that gets the spit end of the stick--lupus. Let's wipe it out! Visit the Lupus Foundation More About: Charities
CHARITIES WE RECOMMEND: THE HEIFER PROJECT
2008-12-21 00:30:00 'Tis the Season: We want to recommend some charities to our readers so that you might share the gift of life and love during this season of giving. The Heifer Project is number one on our list. More About: Charities
WILL THE REAL SECRETARY OF EDUCATION PLEASE STAND-UP?
2008-12-20 08:04:00 So, what will Arne Duncan do as President-elect Barack Obama's Secretary of Education ? Like Obama, Duncan has been known to straddle the middle of the road.George Lucas's Edutopia proclaims::Arne Duncan has a type of personality that Obama seems to prefer, which is a pragmatist who will bring about change, but he'll do it in a way that will minimize confrontation in conflict," says Jack Jennings, president of the nonpartisan Center on Education Policy. "He's brought about change in Chicago, but it hasn't been a head-on clash with the teachers' union. He's done it in a way that they all walk away from the table congratulating each other."Even though the Progressives have claimed Obama as their own, Obama's true colors are beginning to slowly seep out. In actuality, Obama is as a hard driving pragmatist. I'm not sure what others will say about him, but the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Jr. said, "He's (Obama) a politician and I'm a minister. He is anaswerable to the people whil... More About: Real , Stand Up , Stand , Stand-Up
Lost in the Crowd--By David Brooks
2008-12-17 08:15:00 from the New York Times--December 16, 2008--http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/o pinion/16brooks.htmlAll day long, you are affected by large forces. Genes influence your intelligence and willingness to take risks. Social dynamics unconsciously shape your choices. Instantaneous perceptions set off neural reactions in your head without you even being aware of them.Over the past few years, scientists have made a series of exciting discoveries about how these deep patterns influence daily life. Nobody has done more to bring these discoveries to public attention than Malcolm Gladwell.Gladwell’s important new book, “Outliers,” seems at first glance to be a description of exceptionally talented individuals. But in fact, it’s another book about deep patterns. Exceptionally successful people are not lone pioneers who created their own success, he argues. They are the lucky beneficiaries of social arrangements.As Gladwell told Jason Zengerle of New York magazine: “The book’s saying,... More About: Lost , David Brooks , David , The Crowd , Brooks
Improving Public Schools Hearing: Arne Duncan Part 1
2008-12-16 17:41:00 Arne Duncan , unvarnished, talking about improving public schools in the City of Chicago, known as the city that works. More About: Schools , Public , Part , Hearing
Chicago Schools Chief Is Obama’s Education Pick--By SAM DILLON
2008-12-16 17:39:00 December 16, 2008--from the New York Times--http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/ us/politics/16educ.html?_r=1&hpArne Duncan, the Chicago schools superintendent known for taking tough steps to improve schools while maintaining respectful relations with teachers and their unions, is President-elect Barack Obama’s choice as secretary of education, Democratic officials said Monday.Mr. Duncan, a 44-year-old Harvard graduate, has raised achievement in the nation’s third-largest school district and often faced the ticklish challenge of shuttering failing schools and replacing ineffective teachers, usually with improved results.He represents a compromise choice in the debate that has divided Democrats in recent months over the proper course for public-school policy after the Bush years.In June, rival nationwide groups of educators circulated competing educational manifestos, with one group espousing a get-tough policy based on pushing teachers and administrators harder to raise achievement... More About: Education , Schools , Chief , Pick
NO PROCESS, NO PEACE: Michelle Rhee and the DC Public Schools
2008-12-15 04:05:00 One person's name that has been floated as a possible Secretary of Education is Michelle A. Rhee, the Chancellor of the District of Columbia's Public Schools . Take a look at the News Hour's John Merrow's initial report on Rhee and her "gutsy" moves to shake things up in our nation's capital. Is Rhee a reformer or just foolish? You be the judge. More About: Peace , Process
Why All the Fuss (About the New Secretary of Education)
2008-12-15 02:38:00 As the last article that we posted around the selection of the new secretary of education, Barack Obama's choice in a chief of America's educational system will be hotly scrutinized. Obama is playing his true intentions close to the vest largely to see how the media may play out the possible choices.You can probably rule out all of the front runners, including Linda Darling-Hammond, the Stanford University Professor, Arne Duncan, the City of Chicago's school chief, and Joel I. Klein, who is the Chancellor of New York City public schools. Why would these folks not be considered in the running for this much contested role? Since Barack Obama does not like being second guessed or figured out when it comes to education, he and his team of rivals will pick a relative unknown for the seat. Picking an unknown for the Secretary of Education would indicate that President-elect Obama wants to break away from the expectations that come with this crucial hire. While Senator Ted Kennedy ... More About: Fuss
Uncertainty on Obama Education Plans--By Sam Dillion
2008-12-15 02:30:00 (from The New York Times, Sunday, December 14, 2008)As President-elect Barack Obama prepares to announce his choice for education secretary, there is mystery not only about the person he will choose, but also about the approach to overhauling the nation’s schools that his selection will reflect.Despite an 18-month campaign for president and many debates, there remains uncertainty about what Mr. Obama believes is the best way to improve education.Will he side with those who want to abolish teacher tenure and otherwise curb the power of teachers’ unions? Or with those who want to rewrite the main federal law on elementary and secondary education, the No Child Left Behind Act, and who say the best strategy is to help teachers become more qualified?The debate has sometimes been nasty.“People are saying things now that they may regret saying in a couple of months,” said Jack Jennings, a Democrat who is president and chief executive of the Center on Education Policy in Washington.... More About: Plans
Who Will He Choose?--By DAVID BROOKS
2008-12-12 07:35:00 As in many other areas, the biggest education debates are happening within the Democratic Party. On the one hand, there are the reformers like Joel Klein and Michelle Rhee, who support merit pay for good teachers, charter schools and tough accountability standards. On the other hand, there are the teachers’ unions and the members of the Ed School establishment, who emphasize greater funding, smaller class sizes and superficial reforms.During the presidential race, Barack Obama straddled the two camps. One campaign adviser, John Schnur, represented the reform view in the internal discussions. Another, Linda Darling-Hammond, was more likely to represent the establishment view. Their disagreements were collegial (this is Obamaland after all), but substantive.In public, Obama shifted nimbly from camp to camp while education experts studied his intonations with the intensity of Kremlinologists. Sometimes, he flirted with the union positions. At other times, he practiced dog-whistle pol... More About: David Brooks , David , Brooks , Choose
RE-DEFINING SUCCESS: MALCOLM GLADWELL'S NEW BOOK, OUTLIERS
2008-12-09 03:36:00 I just had a great discussion this evening with my friend Emily who is the Head of a school in Vermont. We were talking about the nature of success in our industry, education, and generally what it takes to be successful at anything. Although I haven't read Malcolm Gladwell's new book, Outliers, I am intrigued by the book's premise about what makes people in different endeavors successful. I have been thinking a great deal about this subject since Barack Obama's election and before, really. The premise, or 10,000 hour rule, certainly applies to Obama. Think about it.Take a look at the video from the London Economic Forum and let me know in the comment section below whether or not you agree with Gladwell's premise. Also, if you're interested in getting the book, go to your nearest library, book store, or just click on the link to your right to order Outliers from Amazon.com. Finally, check out the video on the Amazon site where Gladwell also talks briefly about success i... More About: Success , Book
RESTORING FAITH IN HUMANITY: DOING COMMUNITY SERVICE WORK WITH HABITAT IN N
2008-12-05 14:38:00 Dateline: New Orleans, December 5, 2008A contingent of students (6) and staff members (10) from Bentley School arrived three days ago for the annual People of Color Conference sponsored by the National Association of Independent Schools. Our first day was spent in the Upper Ninth Ward doing community service work together with members from other schools across the nation with Habitat for Humanity .Enjoy! More About: Faith , Community , Service , Work
GUEST POST: BY LIA
2008-12-02 08:55:00 As an educator, I know how difficult it is to motivate all students in all subjects. I’m glad formal and research-driven incentive programs are being explored in schools across the country.Alfie Kohn’s states that “getting them hooked on the rewards” undermines the ultimate goal of loving learning for its own sake. However, research has shown that even after rewards have been removed, the positive effects persist. In a Kenya study, “Incentives to Learn” published in January 2008, the removal of rewards did not impact motivation. “Surveys of students in our Kenyan data provide no evidence that program incentives weakened intrinsic motivation to learn or led to gaming or cheating.”Also, in an evaluation of the Advanced Placement Incentive Program (APIP) conducted by C. Kirabo Jackson of Cornell University, “A Little Now for a Lot Later; A Look at a Texas Advanced Placement Incentive Program” published December 2007 Kirabo reports that AP course enrollment increased... More About: Post , Guest
TONI MORRISON DISCUSSES HER NEW BOOK: A MERCY
2008-11-30 04:02:00 Last week at Head-Royce School in Oakland, California, Toni Morrison sat down for an interview with NPR. See part of the interview above. After the interview and book signing, Morrison allowed a brief meet and greet with a group of African American young men and boys at the Vanguard Conference, the first of its kind in Independent Schools. I was one of the faculty mentors and session leaders for the day. Since the meet and greet with Morrison was impromptu, meaning most of us didn't know that we we're going to meet the Nobel Laureate that day, we couldn't adequately prep for her visit. One of my colleagues from a San Francisco private high school gamely gave a bit about Morrison's history as we waited for the arrival. After a few halting minutes, I jumped up and attempted to fill in the blanks. I'm happy to say that I'm a Morrison fanatic with a good deal of arcane trivia at my fingertips. It was surprising to me that less than 1/3 of the boys and young men had ever he... More About: Book , Mercy
All Kinds of Minds Educator, Mel Levine Accused of Child Molestation
2008-11-28 20:49:00 Say it ain't so, Mel!---From The new York TimesNovember 25, 2008Accused Pediatrician Is Leaving InstituteBy TAMAR LEWINDr. Melvin D. Levine, the famed pediatrician who is facing five lawsuits accusing him of molesting young boys during physical examinations, has resigned from All Kinds of Minds , the North Carolina institute he founded in 1995 to train teachers to help children with learning disabilities.The co-founder of the institute, Charles Schwab, who provided financing and served as co-chairman with Dr. Levine, resigned in September.The institute, which has teacher-training contracts with two states and dozens of individual schools, said it would continue its work of spreading Dr. Levine’s views on how children learn.“All Kinds of Minds was formed to create a venue and legacy for his work so the genius of this man wouldn’t die with the individual,” said Mary-Dean Barringer, chief executive of the institute. “Do I think we’ll make it through without him? I do.”Bot... More About: Molestation , Child , Educator
SCHOOL ME: WHAT'S NEW, WHAT'S HOT
More articles from this author:2008-11-27 09:57:00 The following video came from another blog http://sfjukebox.blogspot.com/. Here's what they wroteKwaito is a South African brand of house that combines house beats and sweet basslines with (usually) lyrics rapped or sort of chanted. More About: School 1, 2, 3, 4 |
 |
|
 |
