Parents ‘n Schools

Today, hereabouts, is the first day of a new school year. Big day. Exciting. Lots of new stuff. The work begins anew.
A K-12 course of learning is no small thing. It is, in its entirety, a rather big thing. Maybe the biggest thing in a child’s life. And you, Gentle Parent,… it’s a […]

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In Matt Ridley’s “The Rational Optimist”, he describes how IQ scores have been improving over time… or, significantly, the spread from high to low has been shrinking steadily, with the low scores catching up. It is part of a steady improvement in IQ scores that people achieve at any given age — at a rate […]

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(GLO — August 2010 — From one year ago, when Mr. Webber published his book. This perspective underlies the argument for “PD for Parents”, as an engine for broadening education and facilitating learning around the clock and around the calendar.)
Alan Webber, in his book “Rules of Thumb”, articulates his Rule #11 as “We’ve moved […]

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Rule #7 in Alan Webber’s “Rules of Thumb” reads: The System is the Solution. It describes a magazine “system” as like a three-legged stool (editorial, reader, advertiser).
Government schooling is a three-legged-stool-like system, too. I think it is a stool that a child stands on to reach their success in learning. The […]

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In the bargain bin at Chapters I came across a book by the unlikely author Danica McKellar, the actress who starred in “The Wonder Years”, and who happens to have a degree in Mathematics. When www.youtheducationservices.ca was created by Essentialtalk here in Calgary a few years ago, its graphics and formatting was designed to capture […]

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From Whitney Tilson’s blog recently, a piece that educates on the “race” in the world of academia to combat cheating via technology with proctoring via technology. Children can be led to cheat in school in the same fashion as they are led to steal copyrighted material. Because it is easy, and others get away with […]

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(GLO — July 2010 — From 2 years ago. The tilting continues, in its extreme. Change the way the dollars move, and the system changes automatically. The bulk of the work of status quo schooling advocacy is maintaining the financial status quo. Almost blindly. As if it is a given that what is “best” for […]

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Pedagogy is one of those ten-dollar-words that get tossed around in the world of schooling which help to make it hard to follow without a glossary at hand. What I think it means is “theory”… as in a certain pedagogy is a certain theory of schooling… a certain way of schooling… […]

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The Alberta Government initiative “Speak Out” (http://www.speakout.alberta.ca) has been underway nearly two years, and it is doing a very good job of encouraging, facilitating and capturing the students’ perspective on Alberta government schools. In innovative, energetic and thoughtful fashion it finds ways to get Grade 9 - 12 students voicing their comments and concerns, and […]

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(GLO — July 2010 — From one year ago — Don’t think the world actually came to an end, as one might have been led to fear by the critics of this initiative. Again, that this had to be done outside the School Act is what really intrigues me. That nothing like it or anything […]

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