Ralph Tyler presented a model of curriculum design in 1949 that is still the foundation of many designs used today. [...]
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The latest book by Peg Tyre, The Trouble with Boys: A Surprising Report Card on Our Sons, Their Problems at School, and What Parents and Educators Must Do takes a long-deserved look at the way that male students are falling further and further behind their female counterparts. For the last few decades there has been a push to ensure that educational opportunities for girls are equal to that of boys. This book, and the people that agree with Tyre’s viewpoint (myself for one) are not attempting to take anything away from girls. On the contrary, I am a strong supporter of expanding opportunities to the millions of girls who are denied an education. This book does, however, take a look at why boys seem not to be as successful as girls in the same educational climate.
FreeRice is a great way to get some practice building up your vocabulary while simultaneously helping to provide free food for hungry people. Every question you answer correctly translates to 10 grains of rice that will be sent to people who need it. [...] Warren Bennis’ 1989 book, On Becoming a Leader, was revised and expanded for a 2003 edition (the links provided are now for the 2009 edition). In this classic, Bennis outlines some of the key characteristics that are common to leaders in all fields. He draws these conclusions from many interviews and biographies of past and present leaders, such as former presidents, business CEOs and college presidents. In explaining these concepts, Bennis often turns to the U.S. school system to point out how it is not conducive to producing future leaders as it has a tendency to train rather than to educate. His overall message is that it is vital for a leader to have a vision that can be clearly articulated to followers. That vision may need to evolve over time as it needs to fit in the context of the lives of the followers.
Jonathan Kozol’s 2005 book, The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America
It is fascinating to read about events such as the American Revolution in a French textbook … 1) History becomes compartmentalized into an abstract string of facts that is not relevant to the world in which we live today. 2) It fosters a seperationist attitude in American students which will become increasingly damaging as the world grows more and more globally connected … So what should be done about this? [...] The concept is simple – write Wikipedia articles using a more basic vocabulary and grammar then appear on the main English language site. This makes the articles more accessible to children and those who are just learning English, by reducing the relative reading level needed to read and comprehend the article. [...] Jennifer Hochschild and Nathan B. Scovronick teamed up to show the ways in which the public education system advances, but also hinders, the ability to pursue the “American Dream”, in their 2003 book The American Dream and the Public Schools Neil Postman, the NYU professor perhaps most known for his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, originally published in 1985, on the pervasive manner of television into our lives and our ways of communicating had previously written a book exploring the concept of childhood. The Disappearance of Childhood was originally published in 1982, but was revised and republished in 1994. Today’s post reviews that edition of the book and discusses the ways that the notion of childhood has been conceived in our minds may be eroding. As an editor of the New York Times Magazine, Paul Tough is also a leading author on the issues of poverty, education, and the achievement gap. This new book takes a look at the idea Geoffrey Canada, the President and CEO of Harlem Children’s Zone, has for improving the success rates of African-American students, who, through the “accident of birth” were born into a place where their futures are more likely to end up in an early grave or in a prison cell than in a college lecture hall. His system of creating an “assembly line” of different services to address needs at different levels, starting with a prenatal care program for expecting parents, to after-school tutoring for high school students, and everything in between including a preschool, a charter school and a team of social workers is somewhat revolutionary in the battle against poverty. Although this book is now a bit dated, its effect on the reader is not diminished. Kozol takes a look at the stark differences that are experienced by students in the public schools in the United States. Visiting schools in some of the poorest and wealthiest districts in the nation, Kozol speaks with students, parents, teachers and administrators. The inequalities that are observed clearly are savage and designed to perpetuate a sub-standard system for certain students whilst creating another strata of public education for other districts – this sometimes occurs even within the same district. School funding seems to be at the source of many of the problems Continue reading Savage Inequalities
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Although I am not a big fan of studying history by only learning about wars, like the 
, looks at the issue of racial integration in the nation’s schools. Over 50 years after the landmark 
. After first coming up with a definition of what the American dream is, they explore what Americans want and expect from public schools, in the areas of desegregation; finance reform; school choice; curriculum reform; inclusion; and multiculturalism, among others. Their explanations center around three purposes of education: (1) advancement of the individual; (2) improvement of societal goals; (3) furthering the agenda of a particular group or special interest.
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