Posts Tagged education policy
Education: Debunking the Case for National Standards – Alfie Kohn
originally posted at Daily Kos
Alfie Kohn is one of the most cogent critics of much of what goes on in education. He is well known for his belief that eliminating homework and grades will lead to more and better learning. You can explore many of his ideas at his website.
He has a piece coming out in Education Week, of which he has a slightly expanded version at the website, which you can read in its entirety here. Consider this paragraph from the middle of the piece:
Tags: course, courses, curriculum, department of education, design, education, education policy, education system, education systems, educational, educator, higher education, learning, no child left behind, of education, parents, print, public education, public school, public schools, school, schools, science, score, scores, student, students, study, teach, teacher, teachers, teaching, teaching and learning, training, university, university of, website, writingRelated posts
Thanks for lives past and present
crossposted from Daily Kos
I was, perhaps appropriately, listening to a recording of the Brahms Requiem when I saw the email: Greg Kannerstein had passed away. Let me quote two paragraphs from Haverford College President Steve Emerson’s (’74) email:
Tags: career, college, college s, education, education and, education policy, educational, educator, high school, learning, of education, online, program, programs, research, school, schools, special, student, students, teach, teacher, teaching, writingA mentor, student, teacher, colleague, coach and friend to thousands, Greg recently stepped down from his role as our Dean of the College after a 41-year career marked by boundless enthusiasm for Haverford. He had begun work on his new appointment as a Special Advisor to Institutional Advancement and Lecturer in General Programs when emerging health issues forced him to take a medical leave last month. His illness was diagnosed only weeks ago.
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Social capital and trust
I’m currently taking a doctoral level course on education and economics. At our first meeting, the professor (whose PhD is in Economics) noted that the past two decades have seen the increasing influence of economic theory on education policy, with a sharply rising curve in the 21st century. I asked him why he thought that was and he gave me a great (and honest) answer: Economists have better theories. Economic theories have been honed for decades, even centuries, and economists have vastly better and more convincing quantitative tools to measure outputs. Besides, he said, economists think they’re right and tend to be aggressive. Teacher in a Strange Land, January 2007.
Last year, the nation’s most famous economist, Alan Greenspan, admitted that he may have been “partially” wrong in trusting banks to protect their shareholders. Those sharp quantitative tools and rock-solid economic theories crumbled in the face of rampant self-interest. And we’ve been paying the price in lost trust ever since.
Benjamin Barber, in an eloquent blog on Huffington Post, traces the economic collapse back to lack of trust: Read the rest of this entry »
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