Parents ‘n Schools

(GLO — July 2009 — Just Google Garrison Keillor on reading and schooling, if the addresses at the end of this year-old entry don’t work. Well worth the read. Schoolers talk about the value of “time on task” often. Then the only sustained task they allocate parents is fundraising. The only sustained learning is in […]

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People worry about “kids today”.
I don’t, so much.
I’m concerned more about the parents.
Kids have it good. When I was a kid, we’d be handed lawn darts and told “go play”. In hindsight, that does not seem wise.
Bike helmets hadn’t been invented yet that we were made aware of. Seatbelts were tucked away under the cushions […]

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(GLO — If the London Underground can be mapped and portrayed in a readily understandable fashion, a child’s passage through K-12 curricula should be readily portrayed, too. And their passage along that path followed with passionate interest by that child and their family… who can then perhaps better imagine the paths that lie beyond.)
One […]

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Have been getting a bit into the new book “Liberating Learning” by Terry Moe and John Chubb. It is an interesting exploration into the potential for technology to transform schooling, and the political challenges implementing technology to its full potential faces from very strong schooling interests who very strongly desire to preserve the status quo […]

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(GLO — Technological developments in distance learning and internet-based schooling holds the promise of providing the platform and infrastructure for this type of integration between home, school and community. Without the castle walls. Without the black boxes of administration. Open. Transparent. Sharing. Collaborating. I’m sure you can see it in other areas of your life […]

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Just finished the excellent new book “What Would Google Do?” by Jeff Jarvis, exploring the fundamental question posed by the title for the benefit of any variety of organization (he excludes only two — PR and lawyers — from future “Googlification”):
“The question I ask in the title is about thinking in new ways, facing new […]

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(GLO — The AISI Program referenced below (Alberta Initiative for School Improvement) continues along. I participated as a volunteer on its Steering Committee for the better part of two years. Good learning. Good idea. But somewhat painful to observe the struggle that innovation and improvement and experimentation and trial/error has to merely exist in the […]

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The July 6, 2009 issue of Maclean’s magazine contains the rather provocatively-titled two-page article “Why It’s So Hard To Fire Bad Teachers”. The article tells a story about how “most principals would rather hide or transfer incompetent teachers than try to oust them” and reports that “in a given year, Ontario fires just 0.002% of […]

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(GLO — When I was interviewing for articling positions coming out of law school, I had a memorable interview one quiet Saturday with a partner in a medium-sized firm. I asked him a standard-type question, and his response was “You don’t want to know that stuff. What you really want to know is how the […]

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I’ve mentioned before the Alberta government’s initiative this spring/summer/fall at capturing the “hopes, dreams and aspirations” for education 20 years out (see www.inspiringeducation.alberta.ca). Having attended recently one of the 10 community dialogues and found myself largely in the company of passionate, dedicated, but… “usual suspects” (ie., schoolers themselves, in their trustee, administrator or teacher forms)… […]

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