Bricks, clicks and civics
In a post on “hybrid schools” that combine “bricks and clicks,” Larry Cuban warns that efficiency isn’t the only goal: Schools are not “information factories.” In some ways, the new hybrid schools are...
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The ‘college experience’ without academics
More than 250 programs help intellectually disabled youths go to college, AP reports. That’s up from four programs eight years ago. Now, as I wrote here, federal grants and work-study funds will be...
View ArticleSocializing the virtual student
Virtual schools are adding socialization to the curriculum, reports Ed Week. Students enrolled in Commonwealth Connections Academy, a cyber charter school based in Harrisburg, Pa., spend most of their...
View ArticleThe preschool socialization myth
Preschool won’t socialize your wild and crazy kid, writes Shawn Burns on Babble. . . . unless your kid is already a shrinking violet, having that many other kids around just means that now your...
View ArticleAbolish social studies
“Social studies” — as opposed to history, geography and civics — was invented in the Progressive era to socialize children for a future planned by technocrats, writes Michael Knox Beran in City...
View ArticleIf Mama ain’t reading, ain’t nobody reading
Preschool can’t compensate for poor parenting, editorializes USA Today. A few small, high-quality programs have shown enduring benefits for at-risk kids. But intensive study of Head Start, the nation’s...
View ArticleTeaching ‘grit’
Teaching “grit” – resilience, persistence, conscientiousness — is the topic of an Education Week roundtable. Teaching non-cognitive skills blames the victim, writes Darnell Fine, a “multicultural...
View ArticleSlate: Private school parents are bad people
“You are a bad person if you send your children to private school,” writes Allison Benedikt a trollish Slate piece. Parents who choose private school (and presumably home schooling) are putting their...
View ArticleClassDojo: Teachers disagree
ClassDojo is free software that makes it easy for teachers to award positive or negative points for students’ behavior, track the data and show reports to parents and administrators. Larry Cuban looks...
View ArticlePretty or smart?
Verizon’s viral Inspire Her Mind ad is based on dubious facts and the dubious idea that girliness is the enemy of “pretty brilliant” in math, science and engineering, says Christina Hoff Sommers, the...
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Bright kids can’t get ahead
Why are American schools slowing down so many bright children? asks Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews. He cites a new report by the University of Iowa’s Belin-Blank International Center for Gifted...
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