Reflections on Education - Albert Jay Nock. I was greatly interested in seeing that our system of free popular instruction was producing results, both negative and positive, which were quite different from those which its original designers expected it to produce.
As Herbert Spencer has shown, no man or body of men has ever been wise enough to foresee and take account of all the factors affecting blanket measures designed for the improvement of incorporated humanity. Some contingency unnoticed, unlooked-for, perhaps even unforeknown, has always come in to give the measure a turn entirely foreign to its original intention; almost always a turn for the worse, sometimes for the better, but invariably different. It is this which predestines to ultimate failure every collectivist scheme of "economic planning," "social security" and the like, even if it were ever so honestly conceived and incorruptibly administered — which as long as Epstean's law remains in force, no such scheme can be.
Mr. Pott and Mr. One can not be sure that Mr. Studies Reveal Why Kids Get Bullied and Rejected. Kids who get bullied and snubbed by peers may be more likely to have problems in other parts of their lives, past studies have shown.
And now researchers have found at least three factors in a child's behavior that can lead to social rejection. The factors involve a child's inability to pick up on and respond to nonverbal cues from their pals. In the United States, 10 to 13 percent of school-age kids experience some form of rejection by their peers. In addition to causing mental health problems, bullying and social isolation can increase the likelihood a child will get poor grades, drop out of school, or develop substance abuse problems, the researchers say. "It really is an under-addressed public health issue," said lead researcher Clark McKown of the Rush Neurobehavioral Center in Chicago. And the social skills children gain on the playground or elsewhere could show up later in life, according to Richard Lavoie, an expert in child social behavior who was not involved with the study.
School teacher straightens out a problem in the classroom. Chris Hedges: Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System - Chris Hedges' Columns. Why the United States Is Destroying Its Education System Posted on Apr 11, 2011 By Chris Hedges A nation that destroys its systems of education, degrades its public information, guts its public libraries and turns its airwaves into vehicles for cheap, mindless amusement becomes deaf, dumb and blind.
It prizes test scores above critical thinking and literacy. It celebrates rote vocational training and the singular, amoral skill of making money. Teachers, their unions under attack, are becoming as replaceable as minimum-wage employees at Burger King. Passing bubble tests celebrates and rewards a peculiar form of analytical intelligence. Teachers, under assault from every direction, are fleeing the profession. Get truth delivered to your inbox every week. Previous item: The End of Shutdowns Next item: Demanding the Impossible New and Improved Comments If you have trouble leaving a comment, review this help page.
Teaching: A Student Called Jacqueline - Education. A former grade-school teacher reflects on his Teach for America days.
For years, I have been haunted by the fate of Jacqueline Barnes, my best student during my second year teaching in the Mississippi Delta. She left my fourth grade classroom reading at the eleventh grade level, winning the school's reading contest by a wide margin. I allowed her to read as soon as she had completed the assignment at hand, let her take her book of choice to a corner, where she liked to barricade herself and escape into another world. Why Standardized Tests Kill the Joy of Learning - Education. One mom illustrates how bureaucracy in education is failing our children, one standardized test at a time.
My children have a mother who would eat early-American literature for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if she could. So imagine my delight when I recently learned that my son would read Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Purloined Letter” for 7th-grade Language Arts. I recalled my own exposure to Poe's well-formed, interminable sentences as a ninth grader. I quickly visualized my son's teacher asking students to read aloud selections to their class, prompting group discussions to analyze the plot, analogies, and subtleties in Poe's story.
I also envisioned kids rolling their eyes at excerpts read aloud before discovering Poe's wit and subsequently rolling on the floor with laughter. Redesigning Education: Rethinking the School Corridor. "I am entirely certain that twenty years from now we will look back at education as it is practiced in most schools today and wonder how we could have tolerated anything so primitive.
"-John W. Gardner, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, "No Easy Victories" (1968) Education reform is in the air and taking root in thousands of classrooms across the country. From overhauling No Child Left Behind to closing poorly performing schools and raising student expectations, the push for change is powerful. Yet, the space where most learning takes place--the school and classroom--has changed little over the last 200 years.
Let Kids Rule the School.