Two schools in New York using character-building programs.

Mixed into a story about the author trying to learn to program.

A rounded look at Björk's latest, and just what it is she’s doing.

‘It’s great to suggest that every student should be equipped with a laptop or given 24/7 access to Wi-Fi, but shouldn’t our federal bureaucrats figure out how to stem the tidal wave of layoffs in the teaching ranks and unrelenting cutbacks in school programs and maintenance budgets first? School districts can’t afford to buy enough textbooks for their pupils, but they’re supposed to equip every one of them with a $500 iPad?’

‘In all, industry advocates met more than two dozen times with White House and Education Department officials, including senior officials like Education Secretary Arne Duncan, records show, even as Mr. Obama has vowed to reduce the “outsize” influence of lobbyists and special interests in Washington.’

‘The teachers’ role, then, is not only to teach students what to learn, but to teach them how to learn. And you can’t teach the learning process from the top in the way that you can teach content from the top (“here’s what I know; here’s what they need to know”). You have to meet students where they are and create steps to the path. It isn’t just the teacher’s responsibility to do so — it’s the teacher’s primary responsibility. And it’s a responsibility that needs to be very sensitive to the ways in which students learn at every developmental level, from the time they’re born to the time they enter a classroom.’

“Three American siblings attend an experimental school in Moscow where instruction is only in Russian and classes are videotaped to improve teaching.”

I just helped Anil Dash fix his blog and, in return, he fully funded the writing supplies for this program at the Volcano School of Arts & Science that I selected on DonorsChoose. Go internet!

“Students are hitting the books less and partying more. Easier courses and easier majors have become more and more popular. Perhaps more now than ever, the point of the college experience is to have a good time and walk away with a valuable credential after putting in the least effort possible.”

“Many of these young men and women are unable to communicate effectively, solve simple intellectual tasks (such as distinguishing fact from opinion), or engage in effective problem-solving.”

It’s not terribly shocking that a reality show about an ignorant millionaire trying to fix a school’s lunch program with his own special menu was a costly, exploitative, and ruinous failure, but the disastrous state of school lunch programs nationwide *is* shocking.

“Apparently people in their 20s are a bunch of entitled whiners. I also hear we’re afraid of hard work. I’m rather sick of hearing it. Of course we have a sense of entitlement—we had an understanding with the older generation. We followed through with our half of the deal. What happened? Let’s talk a bit about generational justice.”

As a commenter puts it: “I’m a tired of hearing a generation that got everything handed to them (I’m looking at you baby-boomers) bungle everything up so badly and then badmouth the generation that has to clean up their mess (e.g. the national debt, the planet, the educational system, and so on).”

See also my notes on that NYTimes article: http://pinboard.in/u:matthewmcvickar/b:a83c50952510

"It is they, fronted by President Obama, who are behind the charter school movement. Their goal is to make franchises of our schools, docile, low-cost industrial robots of our teachers, and McStudents of our children. This, despite the fact that the best academic studies of charter schools have shown that they perform no better than public schools and in many cases perform worse. Sometimes much worse."

Finally got around to reading this. I still can't reconcile the problem, but this is a very thorough analysis. My hunch is that it isn't exactly an undiscovered life stage or nothing but spoiled kids, but rather a confluence of factors stemming from stuff like 'extended adolescence' (and the provision thereof by parents, college atmospheres, and the entertainment industry), the recession, the internet, and an increasingly ineffectual educational system.

We can't all be great writers, but we can be better writers. This advice is for everyone. And I put particular importance on number 3.

"Atul Gawande gave the commencement speech at Stanford’s School of Medicine last week. Here is what he told the graduating class."

On the need for building interconnected systems of care in medicine, rather than a hodgepodge of specialists not communicating with each other.

Is it?

There are two problems with this piece that I have noticed right off the bat and later would like to comment on. One, he states that no research has actually shown that going for better teachers makes a difference, but that's not true (see the Economist article I linked to earlier regarding TFA's study etc.). I think the phrasing is ambiguous anyway, but there's a straw man here. Two, he seems to imply that bettering teachers is a quixotic goal, but isn't "bettering America" just as ambitious? He is essentially suggesting that we wage a war on poverty to get our children better educational environments. I don't disagree, but I think that finding top-notch teachers to bridge the gap while we fix that problem for the next fifty years is a good idea.

On the effectiveness of teachers.

How a school like Yale fails to teach a person how to want to think for themselves and be true intellectuals, how to interact with people from other walks of life.

Stressing the importance of actively engaging everything that you take in and the way that you take it in, so you can synthesize and maximize and!

Spaced repetition! "Designed to help you remember facts (such as words and phrases in a foreign language) as easily, quickly and efficiently as possible. To do this, it tracks how well you remember each fact, and uses that info to schedule review times.

Those who get to take this course are lucky indeed.

Extensive, exhaustive, informative.

"In 1969 the US Senate had a hearing on funding the newly developed Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The proposed endowment was $20 million, but President Nixon wanted it cut in half because of the spending going on in the Vietnam War."

"This site contains an ever-growing set of study guides and tutorials for both serious students and casual enthusiasts of the language of the sagas. I add new lessons periodically."

"With little mathematics, the text explores the most fascinating parts of mechanics, thermodynamics, special and general relativity, electrodynamics, quantum theory and modern attempts at unification."

"The MIT Media Lab is launching a new research initiative to develop a $100 laptop—a technology that could revolutionize how we educate the world's children."

"10,000 entry dictionary for beginning/intermediate students."

From the Capital Community College Foundation.

Repetition algorithms for learning, using paper systems.

Very handy.

"The Japanese name literally means Kansai Foreign Language University, which explains the school's focus on language studies, including a popular Asian Studies program for foreign students."

Fighting weak and religion-infused education.

"Computer people are fine human beings, but they do a lot of harm in the ways they 'help' other people with their computer problems."

"Welcome students ... I trust you will keep this site's name and purpose confidential."

Free music lessons from one of the greatest music schools in the world.