Parents ‘n Schools

(GLO — Feb/10 — From a year ago… more musing on homework dynamics…)
A friend recently shared the contents of a message home from school, where his child’s teacher was appealing for help at home reminding students where homework assignments can be found online and reminding them to get that work done in a timely […]

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When schoolers deliver up studies or statistics suggesting homework in any small or large amount is not helpful to children’s learning, my spidey senses tingle. The paranoid, suspicious side of me (yeah, I got one, perhaps) tends to think it is a way of appeasing that part of the parent population who feel their children […]

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(GLO — Feb/10 — I think the Heath boys have a new book out soon. I recommend their writing and thinking to you.)
In Chip and Dan Heath’s bestseller “Made to Stick”, they talk about the “Curse of Knowledge”, or what happens to our human thinking after we know something and how hard it becomes […]

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“… despite all the rhetoric about “parental involvement,” you don’t see a lot  of people within education tripping over themselves to encourage it.”
This is a very true comment on Andy Rotherham’s www.eduwonk.com blog recently (in regard to policy in California that empowers parents in regard to school staffing changes for failing schools).
“Parental involvement” is one […]

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(GLO — Feb/10 — When the 1% hit the fan recently over a labour arbitrator’s interpretation of the magnitude of pay increase to be awarded teachers in Alberta this year under their negotiated wage mechanism, some of the criticism that went back and forth in newspaper comment pages included rather pointed questions about the “readiness […]

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The TED Prize ($100,000) was awarded this past year to British food celebrity and Naked Chef Jamie Oliver, to further his work in promoting schooling and modelling of proper cooking and eating in schools. His work is summarized in his Naked Chef manifesto:
my manifesto
Local and national government need to come up with a ten-year strategy […]

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(GLO — Feb/10 — When fundraising dollars in small or large amounts hit school council bank accounts the “independent wisdom” of parents becomes severely tested in the world of schooling. They aren’t generally encouraged to do their own research, to offer their own guidance or to embark upon their own initiatives. They are more often […]

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The work of schooling individual learners… each unique and special in their learning preferences and styles… in classrooms of 20 or 30 or more and days of multiple classes… is a juggling and performance art challenge comparable to Cirque de Soleil. And that is what happens in every school, in every class, in every period […]

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(GLO –  Feb 2010 — Written about a year ago now, the venom from last week’s arbitrator announcement connects me to this essay and makes me think that if government schooling actually accomplished all that it purports to accomplish, another 1% in wages would likely be much less begrudged. Venomous exchanges in government schooling are […]

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Every few years (Grade 4, Grade 7 and once in high school) the government education ministry here in Alberta surveys each student’s parents regarding their child’s “quality of education” being received in government schools. I got one in the mail just the other day. 42 multiple choice questions, with an introductory brochure describing the exercise […]

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