I heard this week of the passing of one more of the teachers who taught in my junior high school. When I was a student, George taught industrial arts. In seventh grade the curriculum was mechanical drawing and woodshop and in 8th grade it was ceramics and metal shop. He was one of three full-time Read More
I learned this morning of the passing of one of my middle school (but we called it junior high school back then) teacher who later became a colleague and mentor. He brought me in to the work I do now and advanced my career and work in ways I won’t forget. One of the projects Read More
Social justice education is an idea that has captured the attention of teachers, scholars, leaders, and other in recent years. I have tried to find just what it means for me for some time. For context, I am a white, heterosexual male with grey hair; while I was raised in a weakly-practicing Protestant family, I Read More
With the arrival of digital electronic computers and the knowledge age late in the 20th century, the stability and predictability of necessary literacy and numeracy skills and knowledge evaporated. These technologies evolve much more rapidly than other information technologies, and this necessitates information skills to be updated constantly and for new skills to be learned Read More
Teaching is a fascinating profession; it comprises individuals who were all successful as students. Implicit in our concept of teaching is replicating for our students what proved successful for us. The reality, however, is that most of our students are not on the same path we are on (there are exceptions to this especially in Read More
Mark Deuze (2006), a scholar from Indiana University, Bloomington, identified participation, remediation, and bricolage as skills needed for the 21st century media landscape. Social networking sites and media sharing sites are examples of technologies that encourage this participation. The Internet provides access to vast information from sources of dubious reliability; this necessitates individuals take a Read More
Education is a well-established social institution. In modern history, it has served the multiple purposes to prepare young people to participate in the economic, political, and cultural life of the society. They have also been developed to prepare novices to enter professions and function within organizations. For many decades, that society was stable and slowly Read More
Especially in this century, education has become the focus of much political attention. Government agencies, politicians, and philanthropists are all much more influential in determining educational policy and practice than they were in previous generations. Neal McClusky, a policy analyst for the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom observed the effects of No Child Left Read More
Education has broad and diverse goals in our society; *free* and *appropriate* education is to be available for *all* learners. We educate learners who have many different needs and goals. We educate for society that recognizes many different needs and goals. Despite this, a generation of students and teachers have heard that education is grounded Read More
My email response to a leader seems to deserve a place on this blog: The purpose of education is to help people learn. Learning is a natural physiological process of the human brain. Nature, then, defines the rules within which educators (and education policy makers) must play. While it might be convenient for policy makers Read More