Tag Archives: Education

Autonomy: An Ideological Link Between Democratic Equality and Localism

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IVotedpicAmerica’s schools are one of the first places where we learn to become citizens. It is the place where we go to learn about our history, our values, and how we will contribute to the common good. Scholars often refer to this vital aim of schooling as the democratic equality goal. Educational researcher David Labaree explains that “ . . . a democratic society cannot persist unless it prepares all of its young with equal care Continue reading →

School Lunches from Around the World: Beware the Mystery Meat

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neverseconds.blogspot.co.uk / Via Never Seconds/ Martha Payne

While America’s school children spent Thursday gorging themselves on turkey and football, the rest of the world’s students were going about business as usual. That, of course, means school lunches. A family member related to me this weekend that he once attended a school where no one was allowed to go out for recess until they had finished every last bite of their lunch. He noted significantly that your best friend was always the kid who was willing to eat your split pea soup for you.

Ever wonder what kids around the world are eating for lunch? Check out this great post from Buzzfeed!

Even Educators Could Use Some Enlightenment Sometimes

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10-30Despite the best of intentions, educators do not always understand where students and their families are coming from. I learned of this troubling lack of enlightenment and compassion among some educators at an education studies graduate school function in 2012. As I sat with other students at a meet-and-greet luncheon, we shared stories of how we each became interested in our graduate programs. During my turn, I related my experiences as an AmeriCorps volunteer in Washington, DC and how working with adult students with low academic skills had inspired me to make a career of education reform. Continue reading →

Friday 5: High-Tech, Low-Tech, and ‘Oregon Trail’ In-Between

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Buzzfeed, the internet king of list-making, offers “15 Things We Did At School That Future Students Will Never Understand.” This is a serious trip down educational memory lane. I have to admit that I really do miss chalk, but I certainly don’t miss overhead projectors. I once accidentally obliterated one in the 6th grade. Don’t ask me. I don’t want to talk about it. However, I’m ALWAYS willing to talk about ‘Oregon Trail,’ Continue reading →

What I’ve Learned from Growing My Own Food

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potatoesAn old friend and I have a saying: “The world would be a much better place if everyone grew their own potatoes.” It’s a political nerd reference to Thomas Jefferson’s belief that those who are close to the land are close to God, and as an extension have a greater appreciation for the importance of our relationship with what the natural world has to offer. It’s a back-to-basics belief that Continue reading →

“Improbable Scholars”: Urban Students Can Get a Great Public Education, Too

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abrazos

A nurturing culture is at the forefront of Union City’s success.

David L. Kirp’s 2013 book, Improbable Scholars: The Rebirth of a Great American School System and a Strategy for America’s Schools, shows us that the average urban school system can be a great one–but that takes a lot of doing. Kirp offers a case study of Union City, NJ, a small but heavily urban district comprised largely of first- and second-generation immigrants from Latin America. While many urban school districts languish, Continue reading →

Friday 5: Finland, Swim Class, Sod Schoolhouses

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The one-room schoolhouse is the stuff of legend in modern-day North America, and in an era when 4,000-student high schools are not uncommon, it’s easy to forget that one-room schools still exist. In “Lessons to be Learned from a One-Room Schoolhouse” from CBS News, we hear about how in some towns across the country, education is still flourishing the old-fashioned way. Continue reading →

The Capitol Dome and Its Two Cities

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Capitol DomeFor a year after I graduated from college, I worked as an educator in the shadow of one of the weightiest symbols in the world, the embodiment of all of the ideals that make up the great ideological experiment that is America. The Capitol Dome feels omnipresent when one travels around Washington, DC, and the city planners have made sure of that Continue reading →

25 Years After Tiananmen, We’re Still Learning

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tiananmen-vase-banner

“Don’t be a vase.”

“In darkness dwells a people which knows its annals not.”

                               –Ulrich B Phillips

So much of what happened at Tiananmen Square in 1989 is still unknown to the Chinese people and the rest of the world as a result of the active information suppression and distortion by the Chinese government.

They don’t want their people to know of the atrocities that the government committed there, but they also don’t want their people to know about the 7 weeks of non-violent, student-led demonstrations that preceded the bloodshed. Continue reading →