Learning Matters

Wanted: Civility Engineers

2011-05-22T05:46:00.000-04:00

Let's be honest. Surely you've heard someone mention in recent years what they do for a living and you've wondered - Huh? What exactly is that? Well, where there's a will, there's a way. And it seems like where there's a need there's a niche. So, people are carving careers out of problems that need solutions, although I guess you could say it's always been this way. Maybe you're looking to spruce up your living room but you're short on cash. No problem - just hire an interior redesigner. No need for new purchases - S/he'll take what you have and rearrange it. And what about social media strategists or user experience analysts? Thanks to the web, several careers like the aforementioned have evolved that weren't even imagined a few years ago. And lots of careers have sprouted from fertile opportunities in seemingly barren land. Here's one we desperately need - civility engineers.

Civility in this country seems to be in short supply and the mechanisms that typically safeguard it are structurally deficient and even functionally obsolete. The shortage of civility is threatening our civilized world. Indeed, just a few weeks ago we witnessed a Congressman calling the President an outright liar while the latter was delivering a speech, although some might give the Congressman kudos for at least insulting the President to his face and not in cyberpace. What's worse, the Civility Project, an initiative launched that was designed to bring more awareness to the need for civility in the political process, is shutting down after only three of 585 sitting representatives, senators, and governors agreed to sign a simple pledge that included the following - "I will be civil in my discourse and behavior;" "I will be respectful of others whether or not I agree with them;" I will stand against incivility when I see it." (Hope does remain alive, however, as the Civility Initiative at JHU continues to pursue its objectives - see http://krieger.jhu.edu/civility).

We all know that web-based incivility has gone viral, with no boundaries to the attacks launched. What's often overlooked, though, is that workplace incivility has penetrated environments in such subtly insidious and even blatantly invidious ways that its toxicity is now impairing output. How does incivility manifest itself? Below are just some examples;

sending an insulting email.
asking for input and then ignoring the reply.
"forgetting" to share credit with colleagues for work done in collaboration.
interrupting or being verbally abusive in conversations.
giving the "silent" treatment.

No doubt, you could add more. In the process, incivility is making us less productive by adding stress to our lives and subtracting engagement from our work (a case could easily be made for incivility doing the same to students in school). A video to the right of this page (The Hidden Costs of Workplace Incivility) summarizes some of the research that reveals the toxic nature of incivility. And then, of course, there are the random acts of unkindness to which we are subjected almost daily in our own personal lives.

Clearly, we face a growing problem. So, maybe it's time for civility engineers to sprout up and get to work...on building "bridges" that connect human beings in healthier ways, on paving "pathways" that will enhance civil discourse, on designing "infrastructures" that will ensure constructive communication, on planning "dams" that will stop the flow of toxic incivility, on any project that will limit the damage caused by vitriolic spills and outbursts. Human relations managers, you might be thinking, are charged with these responsibilities, arent't they? Well, it seems they have other issues to contend with these days. We need a radical intervention. We need a new corp of civility engineers.

Sound far-fetched? My guess is that interior re-designers once did, too. And so did social media strategists and user experience analysts, and even search engine optimization specialists. As Rodney King implored back in the '80s (remember?), "Can't we all just get along?" It seems like we all can't anymore. It seems like the civilized world has become so devisive and communication so derisive that a solution will need to emerge that doesn't now exist.

Could civility engineers be that solution? If someone has the will, perhaps one can find a way. Clearly, there's a need. Let's be honest.

One If by Land, Two If by Sea...and Too Late If by Cyberspace

2011-04-24T06:26:00.000-04:00

Nothing personal. That's just the way cyber-bullying can be. Except that, for the victim, it is. And hurtful, too.

Warfare has been revolutionized since the days of Paul Revere perched high in the church tower. Technological advancements have brought tactical enhancements. One way it's now conducted is with military personnel controlling drones flying over places like Afghanistan and launching missiles in designated locations, with all of this controlled via remote access back in the USA. When the work day is done, "air traffic controllers" head home for dinner with their families. It resembles a video game. Nothing personal. That's just the way it can be.

Kids can conduct their own warfare at home as well...and from a distance outside the physical reach of the intended target, too. They can launch missiles via text, email, Facebook, Formspring and the like. And the missiles, once exploded, can form viral mushroom clouds that go far beyond the original point of attack. Once done, these kids can move into the kitchen for dinner with the family. It looks like virtual bullying. It's also virtue-less. Nothing personal. That's just the way it can be.

When you don't have to "see" the target, the inclination to launch is less of an impediment. The blow delivered, however, is no less severe. And there is no early warning device, either. Log on and ...boom. You're hit. You never see it coming. And you may never know who launched it because the missile could be wrapped in anonymity. Home used to provide a safe haven from harassment. No more.

Below are some facts related to this potential peril;

Around half of teens have been the victims of cyber bullying.
Only 1 in 10 teens tells a parent if they have been a cyber bully victim (many are afraid they'll lose their tech privileges if they do tell).
Fewer than 1 in 5 cyber bullying incidents are reported to law enforcement.
1 in 10 adolescents or teens have had embarrassing or damaging pictures taken of themselves without their permission, often using cell phone cameras.
Girls are somewhat more likely than boys to be involved in cyber bullying.
Boys are more likely to be threatened by cyber bullies than girls.
Mean, hurtful comments and spreading rumors are the most common type of cyber bullying.

How can one defend against this? Here are some suggestions.

Make a rule that teens may not send mean or damaging messages, even if someone else started it, or suggestive pictures or messages or they will lose their cell phone and computer privileges for a time.
Encourage teens to tell an adult if cyber bullying is occurring. Tell them if they are the victims they will not be punished, and reassure them that being bullied is not their fault. It's not easy to manage this as a parent when texting and Facebook and even emailing are controlled by the child. Open lines of communication between parents and children are vital.
Teens should keep cyber bullying messages as proof that the cyber bullying is occurring. The teens' parents may want to talk to the parents of the cyber bully, to the bully's Internet or cell phone provider, and/or to the police about the messages, especially if they are threatening or sexual in nature.
Teens should never tell their password to anyone except a parent, and should not write it down in a place where it could be found by others.
Keep the computer in a shared space like the family room, and do not allow teens to have Internet access in their own rooms.
Encourage teens to have times when they turn off the technology, such as at family meals or after a certain time at night.

Sources: Hartford County Examiner and Cyber-Bullying Research Center

In order to minimize vulnerability to surprise attacks via cyberspace, it's wise to take necessary precautions and be prepared to respond appropriately if attacked. It's never too late to do either. It only invites harm to do neither.

Nothing personal. That's just the way cyber-bullying can be.

More web sites for information are below.

http://www.eyesonbullying.org/

http://cyberbullyinghelp.com/

http://stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/

End Readicide

2011-04-07T16:10:00.001-04:00

Watch Kelly talk. Talk, Kelly, talk.

See Kelly run. Run, Kelly, run...

Well, you can watch Kelly Gallagher talk in two very short videos (to the right) about his book called Readicide. Gallagher is a longtime educator who argues that schools are performing mass destruction on the joy of reading.

You can also see Kelly "run" with this argument in the attached interview. Click on the link below.

http://www.edweek.org/tsb/articles/2011/04/04/02gallagher.h04.html

I could summarize it for you in Sparknote fashion, but then you wouldn't be able to see Kelly run. Hopefully, the short videos will spark your interest to read more - starting with the attachment (it should take fewer than five minutes to read).

Mark Twain once said that there is really little difference between someone who can't read and someone who won't. According to Gallagher, too many of us simply won't. It's already disheartening enough that some can't. For the many who won't, the joy is gone. And the consequences of this are now upon us.

It's a problem, at least in Gallagher's view. He says that the solution clearly rests with all of us. It's not a problem for the English teachers alone to solve. Rather, all teachers own it. And so do parents.

If you've made it this far, perhaps you'd be willing to share your thoughts. Do it in a few short sentences - like the ones you encountered when you first learned to read.

Can reading be saved?

False Hope

2011-03-30T16:34:00.000-04:00

I learned during a meeting last week conducted at Manchester Community College (MCC) that the state and federal governments will soon be redefining the term “college readiness”. It has several implications for high school students and for their larger school communities. Although the proposal is still being discussed in the legislatures, it’s likely that what it means to be ready for college will change quite significantly.

Here’s the quick take. Not surprisingly, money allocated to community colleges is shrinking while enrollment is expanding. Something has to go and that something looks like remedial classes. So, before students are accepted to MCC, they’ll need to reach established benchmarks on the ACCUPLACER (I asked about the “placement” of these benchmarks but couldn’t get a definitive answer – probably because it hasn’t yet been established). If they don’t grab hold of the benchmarks, but reach an accepted (but, again, not yet determined) level below them, these students will be allowed to take a VERY limited number of courses available to them and will only be allowed to matriculate as part-time students (this will affect insurance coverage on them relative to their parents' policies). If they fail to even reach the aforementioned, they’ll be DENIED admission to MCC, required by the state to return to their local communities and enroll in adult education programs to prepare for the ACCUPLACER and get ready (college readiness) for college. So, community colleges will no longer be an option for anyone with simply a high school diploma or GED if this proposal becomes reality. And the burden for remediation will be shifted back to local communities.

This shift in thinking is really based upon a concept known as "ability to benefit", which means that students need to demonstrate an ability to benefit from being enrolled in college (read: successfully complete college-level work). Anything less will no longer be considered college. Having said that, it will end the false hope that some students have of moving on to higher education without first taking sufficient care of what needs to be done in high school.

The link below will bring you to an article that addresses this issue in Arizona but sounds strikingly similar to the discussion being heard in Connecticut.

http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2011/02/17/essay_questions_remedial_education_and_admissions_policies_at_community_colleges

Teaching to the Text

2011-03-24T16:07:00.000-04:00

Teens text often. They should learn how to write in a concise, coherent, and cohesive manner.

Define. Describe. Conclude.

It's about sound bytes, isn't it?

Hit send.

The attached piece, written by a college professor, addresses this issue.
(Of course, you can hit delete, too.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/opinion/20selsberg.html?_r=1

WDYT?

Rival Philosophies About Education From Two College Dropouts

2011-03-21T15:01:00.000-04:00

Hear from and read about two college dropouts and their rival views on education. You may be surprised to see who they are. Also, take seven minutes to view the video imbedded in the link below (you'll need to click on "Read the Discussion"). And, while you're at it, take a few more minutes to click on the links to the left of the NY Times piece.

What's the primary purpose of education in today's world?

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/03/20/career-counselor-bill-gates-or-steve-jobs/rival-philosophies-both-compelling

Boys Will Be Boys...As Girls Race Past Them In the Classroom

2011-03-16T19:44:00.000-04:00

Below is an article I wrote in March, 2004. Nothing really has changed. If anything, it's become worse. Read on and, if it sparks an interest, then read three articles on this issue that appear below and watch a brief video that speaks to it as well.

If the pursuit of academic achievement in high school were viewed as something resembling a long-distance road race, girls would be out-pacing boys at a considerable rate. And the latter would be losing ground as more distance was covered. At least that is what mounting evidence is revealing. What this means down the road, as experts debate the issue, could have sociological and economic ramifications.

It has been known for years that girls in general outperform boys in the elementary school classroom, and that a gap in achievement usually diminishes by the time they move through middle school. What has the experts scratching their heads lately has been the sustainability of this achievement gap well into the high school years.

The Southern Regional Education Board (SRED), a consortium of 16 states committed to improving education, recently conducted a survey that revealed surprising information. Among the 40,000 males and female students polled in over 1000 high schools, all of whom were considered typical in that they were neither stellar performers nor slackers, boys clearly placed less value in school than did girls. Whereas 84% of females surveyed reported that it was important to pursue higher education beyond high school, only 67% of the males felt similarly. This bears out in the data released by the U.S. Department of Education - at the end of the last decade, 133 women received bachelor's degrees for every 100 men, and the former is expected to rise to 142 by 2010. Moreover, 70% of these "average" girls surveyed by SRED see a direct relationship between school success and achievement of life goals while 57% of the boys hold to the same view.

Skeptics might point to verbal aptitude as a function of gender and that that these differences might reverse themselves in the quantitiative domain. Well, the data doesn't support this notion. Across just about every measure, girls are outperforming boys. Why? Would anyone like to offer an explanation that appears to be perplexing to the experts?

Of course, what happens in the employment world, understandably, is another story, and perhaps for another time. But, for school, falling back on the argument that "boys will be boys" is falling down in the face of a growing problem.

Fast forwarding to 2011, the rate of matriculation to college by gender is at about 57% for females and 43% for males.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/education/09college.html?_r=1

http://www.edutopia.org/are-boys-falling-behind-girls-academic-achievement

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704409004576146321725889448.html

Be sure to read the comments left by readers of these articles. And feel free to post your own comments here.

Look under Short Videos to the right - "Where Have the Good Men Gone?

Is the American Dream Just That?

2011-03-15T04:56:00.000-04:00

No other country in the world can hold claim to its own dream like the United States does with its "American Dream." This dream has lured many from elsewhere to migrate and make this dream become for them a reality. Many have, no doubt. And many haven't. Coined in the 1930s just after the nightmare of the Great Depression was coming to an end, the American Dream became a reality as the country awakened from the financial disaster and then later WWII to find itself flush with resources and a booming economy that brought a middle class lifestyle to millions of Americans.

Six decades later, this notion of the American Dream is now fading for millions as the country has suffered from what is now called the Great Recession. There is much debate about whether or not America will recover from this devastating crash and again become the land of opportunity it has long been known to be.

You may have your own feeling about this and perhaps your own experiences as well. Two pieces recently published in the same newspaper take contrasting views on the fate of the American Dream. Take a few minutes to open both and read them (the links are below). What's your take? Is the American Dream still alive? Or is it an experience that one can only have while sleeping?

http://hartfordadvocate.com/commentary/is-america-becoming-a-third-world-country-057099

http://hartfordadvocate.com/commentary/americans-never-feel-good-about-the-american-dream

If you choose to make the time, a report out of Harvard recently provided directions for "Pathways to Prosperity". click on http://www.gse.harvard.edu/blog/news_features_releases/2010/02/pathways-to-prosperity-seeks-to-redefine-american-education-system.html. It's worth the time.

"Race to Nowhere" Attracting Attention

2011-03-05T05:53:00.000-05:00

"Race to Nowhere" is a documentary film that is actually in a race its producer may not have initially expected. This race seems to be one in which an increasing number of (affluent) communities throughout the United States can't arrange a showing fast enough.

Briefly, the film is about this "race" in which students feel they must participate in order to compete for the few seats available in the most selective colleges this country has to offer. Occupying one of these seats, so goes the thinking, will supposedly guarantee a life of grand success.

This "race", in the process, is producing a generation of stressed-out, depressed, and increasingly disengaged kids who see little value in learning other than amassing AP credits and the like. Other students are opting out of the "race", and some are so turned off by this "exercise" that they are opting out of learning altogether.

The previous post was on the status of AP courses. This is a continuation on the theme.

You may want to spend about twenty minutes viewing the two short clips posted on this film. Each is listed to the right under "Short Videos". After viewing them, you may also want to post an opinion.

While you're at it, why not spend a few more minutes at this site and click on any (or all) of the short clips addressing the state of the American Dream. I wonder if this "Race to Nowhere" and the "American Dream" are intimately linked. Or is there a disconnect here - one where an argument is being made for downshifting the pace of learning and the other calling for an uptick in order to prepare students for a world that is becoming increasingly more competitive?

AP Gets Advanced Play in the News

2011-02-12T11:16:00.007-05:00

The College Board published a report this week that highlighted the steady rise in Advanced Placement (AP) tests taken over the last decade (see http://chronicle.com/article/Number-of-AP-Test-Takers-Has/126313/?sid=pm&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en). You may also want to check out a related article that recently appeared in the Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704858404576134142048372986.html?KEYWORDS=AP+exams). The report was released with a coating of pride in the fact that, not only has participation doubled in the past decade, research indicates enrollment in AP courses helps to increase the likelihood that AP participants will go on to and graduate from college. Also included in the report (although not necessarily highlighted) is the steady increase in lower scores.

AP courses have been the subject of much debate in recent years as some highly reputable prep schools and school districts have discarded them for what they feel are more sensible and equally challenging replacements. Other schools have placed more value upon dual credit programs that allow high school students to complete college courses that also meet high school graduation requirements but without requiring an end-of-course (make-it-or-break-it, win-or-lose) exam. The major criticism of AP courses is that the curriculum, a mile wide and an inch deep, is covered in a sprint that lasts from September to May. And the challenge AP courses present, critics argue, is like asking someone to memorize the New York City telephone book.

Is it time to reconsider this sprint and the amount of ground covered in the race? Apparently, those schools that have opted out have made The College Board think twice about its program. While more students may be participating in the AP Program, they may not be the students for whom the AP Program was originally designed. So, now it is reconsidering its program in light of the criticism and is about to make revisions. The New York Times recently published an article that addresses some of the issues as well as plans The College Board has in store in the coming months (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/education/edlife/09ap-t.html?pagewanted=all).

The College Board buckled under pressure several years ago when the California State University System was ready to abandon the SAT in favor of subject tests, arguing that the test was not an accurate measure of college readiness. With California providing the most test-takers of any state in the country, The College Board was pretty much forced to listen. And it did. So, analogies were deleted, Algebra 2 questions were included, more reading passages were inserted, and a writing sample was required as well. Of course, now it takes about half a day to complete the test.

And now the AP Program is poised for change. Is anyone about to start a "wave" in celebration of this?

Framing Setbacks

2011-01-22T11:02:00.003-05:00

First - about last week's post.

I was very pleased and encouraged by the response received from last week's post on "Not Yet Successful" and the video about "Teen Brains on Technology". Regarding the latter, technology has certainly had an impact on how (and how long) and what we read these days. In fact, it's kind of called into question what constitutes real reading.

You may have missed a previous post on "Reading at Risk" (a couple of weeks ago - you can click on it to the left if you're interested). And you may, if you haven't done so already, take a look at the article on the right entitled "Is Google Making Us Stupid". In the meantime, even though the post was a summary of the published report gleaned from the Executive Summary, what follows is a summary of the summary in (almost) twitter form.

We're not reading much of anything these days...rate of reading is declining rapidly for both men & women...across all ethnic & racial groups...across all ages...steepest decline is among teenagers...decline relates to increase in use of electronic devices, video games, & portable digital devices.

That's the summary, although not in 140 characters. So, you might be asking - "Why, then, should we even read the summary, never mind the report?" I get the sense that kids are asking questions like this, too, when it comes to reading assignments.

On another note... let's continue this conversation about the word "yet". In reality, sometimes the right choice to make when pursuing a goal is to say "Not now, and - you know what? - not ever". This is not an easy decision to make because one never knows how close s/he may be to achieving the desired goal. But here's another spin on it. "Stuff" happens and we have to learn how to deal with it. RESILIENCE. Framing setbacks in a way that provides constructive feedback is an immensely important skill to acquire in life. Sometimes stuff happens that seems devastating at the time but later on may evolve into a blessing. Take a moment to read the SHORT story below;

There was an old man and is son who worked a small farm with only one horse to pull the plow. One day, the horse ran away. "How terrible," sympathized the neighbors, "What bad luck."
But the farmer replied, "Who knows whether it's bad luck or good luck."

A week later, out of nowhere, the horse returned from the mountains, leading five wild mares into the barn. The neighbors heard about this and exclaimed, "What wonderful luck!" "Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?" answered the old man.

A couple of days later, the son, trying to tame one of the wild horses, fell and broke his leg. "How terrible. What bad luck!" cried the neighbors. "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?" said the farmer.

Ten days later, the army came to all the farms to take the young men for war. The farmer's son - with his broken leg - was of no use to them, so he was spared. Good luck? Bad luck?

Retrospect offers us what no moment, in the present, is capable of doing. Time will reveal the reason for the baffling or troubling situations that have dogged our paths along the way. Whenever the road feels rocky or we are confused, we need to trust. Our lives are not happenstances. There is a performance being staged. (From a Promise of a New Day).

In one sense, then, nothing really matters in and of itself because the importance of things lies in the ways we have learned to think about them.It's really all about framing your experiences, and this includes "setbacks" along the way. Experience isn't what happens to you so much as it is how you interpret what happens to you.

Check out the one-minute video interview (posted above and to the right) with Bill Bradley, the former basketball player who starred at Princeton in the 1960s and later on with NY Knicks in the NBA, but not before taking two years to study at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar in between. Later on, he had a long career in politics as a US Senator from NJ and made an unsuccessful run (not yet - not ever) for the presidency.

Not YET Successful

2011-01-16T16:28:00.009-05:00

If you're reading along like I am, you'll recall that the last entry was about the "power of yet". It's linked to failure, that word in our culture with an undeserving reputation. Really, I don't know anyone who has ever achieved success without experiencing failure along the way. We should be paying more attention to those who are successful and how they've learned to befriend failure instead of turning our backs to it.

It's important to fail. And it's important to give children permission to fail. Only by risking failure can anything really ever be achieved. Failure can be an ally in other ways, too. Failure gives us a unique opportunity to learn. And it gives us options, if we're paying attention. Failure, by the way, is no more permanent than is success.

You've heard it - the road to success is full of hurdles and potholes. You may have also heard the Japanese proverb - "Fall down seven times, get up eight." So, failure may simply mean "not yet successful".

Wait a second - isn't this a grading option? Seniors at certain schools who are completing capstone projects sometimes receive this feedback. It means - go back to work and do better because we think you can. It sends the message that someone else expects you to do better.

"You're not done - yet."

We're almost done. There are just a few final questions to ask. What if the D and F were eliminated from grading options? After all, a "D" represents unsatisfactory performance, anyway. What if, instead, any student not performing satisfactorily was told that s/he is "not yet successful"? Does the message in the grade deliver a different kind of lesson?

"You're not done - yet."

Any thoughts on this?

The Power of "Yet"

2011-01-10T16:04:00.001-05:00

With a new year comes new goals to pursue - or recycle. Hope rises as temperatures fall - at least in New England - only to see this hope plummet when, well, temperatures again rise a few months later (at least in...). Hope springs eternal with well-intentioned plans. And then patience begins to wear thin as - for instance, if someone is looking to lose weight - the "waistline" remains unchanged. Failure has no deserving place in our lives, or so we feel. So, instead of feeling like one (a failure), we often just abandon our goals. Yet, what if we added a three-letter word to the end of our judgments - yet? "Yet" can change everything. It can empower us to keep on keepin' on in pursuit of those goals we're otherwise so quick to discard.

We've heard this phrase expressed repeatedly - "Forget it. I can't do that." Okay. Maybe not - yet. "Yet" changes the perception of "failure" from a sense of permanence to one that is temporary. "Yet" extinguishes excuses. "Yet" connotes choice. "Yet" tells us that it's a judgment in the moment and not one that is absolute. "I can't do that - yet."

Think about it. Think about something you want to do or wanted to do but didn't. Perhaps it's losing x amount of pounds or running an x minute mile or learning a new software program or joining a new club - or all of these. Perhaps it's writing a research paper or solving a math problem or doing homework daily. It's January 10th. Now think forward to April 1st. And you haven't done what you set out to do. Don't fool yourself by saying - "I give up. I can't do that." Instead, give up the first sentence in the previous phrase and add one word to the second sentence - "I can't do that YET." Hope remains alive...and so should your commitment. There may be goals we can't reach or behaviors we can't master no matter what, but not nearly as many as we think. Rather, we simply can't do them yet.

If you're old enough, you may remember the three "Rs" as Reading, 'Riting, and 'Rithmetic. Each still has its place in learning, but so does another set of "Rs" - Relationships, Relevance, and Resilience. It's this last one that deserves our attention in this piece. Resilience is about belief.

Believe me. This blog hasn't generated much feedback (its original purpose) since it was launched back in early November - yet.

Another Year and Growing Older

2011-01-03T00:38:00.000-05:00

It's a New Year. And we'll all be a year older on one of the days in this New Year. Rather than focus upon resolutions, which are often simply re-solutions to the same problems (and with the same results), perhaps it would make sense to take a moment to reflect upon what it means to be a year older. The poem below may help trigger a reflection.

Growing Older

Maya Angelou

When I was in my younger days, I weighed a few

Pounds less, I needn't hold my tummy in to wear a belted dress.

But now that I am older, I've set my body free;

There's the comfort of elastic...Where once my waist would be.

Inventor of those high-heeled shoes...My feet have not forgiven;

I have to wear a nine now. But used to wear a seven.

And how about those pantyhose -

They're sized by weight, you see. So how come

When I put them on

The crotch is at my knee?

I need to wear these glasses...As the print's been getting smaller;

And it wasn't very long ago I know that I was taller.

Though my hair has turned gray and my skin no longer fits,

On the inside, I'm the same old me,

It's the outside's changed a bit.

But, on a positive note...

I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today,

Life does go on, and it will be a better tomorrow.

I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person

by the way s/he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.

I've learned that regardless of your relationship with

Your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your "life".

I've learned that life sometimes give you a second chance.

I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt

on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back.

I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decisions.

I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one.

I've learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone.

People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.

I've learned that I still have a lot to learn.

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Be open to learning in this New Year. And be open to seeing problems in new ways. You may then arrive at new solutions, with no longer the need for re-solutions.

Reading at Risk

2010-12-18T06:12:00.000-05:00

Chances are that you aren't reading this. Of course, there could be lots of reasons why but I won't touch any of them - except one; that fewer people are reading today than was the case almost thirty years ago. At least this is what was reported in an extensive study conducted by the Census Bureau back in 2002 (at the request of the National Endowment in the Arts), and the findings - mixed with anecdotal observations - seem to be even more relevant in soon-to-be 2011. So, if you devote time each day to reading, you're in a club whose membership is dwindling each passing year.

Here are the ten significant findings:

The percentage of adult Americans reading literature has dropped dramatically over the past 20 years -now 30 - with less than half of the adult American population reading literature.
The decline in literacy reading parallels a decline in total book reading.
The rate of decline in literary reading is accelerating - meaning that the percentage of adults who aren't reading is declining faster than in previous decades.
Women read more literature than men do, but literary reading by both groups is declining at significant rates.
Literary reading is declining among whites, African-americans, and Hispanics.
Literary reading is declining among all education levels (the higher the level of education, the higher the reading rate - but it's still declining).
Literary reading is declining among all age groups.
The steepest decline in literary reading is in the youngest age groups.
The decline in literary reading foreshadows an erosion in cultural and civic participation.
The decline in reading correlates with increased participation in a variety of electronic media, including the Internet, video games, and portable digital devices.

This is telling data - if you've made it this far in the post. It does not bode well for the future of American democracy if there is a positive correlation between reading rate and voter participation rate - which there is. But some also feel that it's innacurate data because it doesn't take into account the various forms of literacy that have emerged in this age of technology. For instance, they claim that individuals need to cultivate a digital literacy that is more visual (video) than the reading literacy addressed in the above report. Given the various ways in which information is now presented, it calls into question how one actually defines "reading" these days.

No doubt, we're deluged with information from every which way. And we're challenged in our efforts to manage this information, to sort through and make sense of it. Keep it short. Keep it simple. Where is the Spark Note version?

We were told back in 2002 by the Commission on Adolescent Literacy of the International Reading Association that teenagers entering the 21st century would be reading and writing more than at any other time in human history. What do you think? If teenagers are modeling their behavior after the adults described in the above report (see http://eosguidance.blogspot.com/ ), then it may be easy to read the tell-tale signs.

Survey Says Students and Parents Are to Blame for Dropout Rates

2010-12-11T09:55:00.000-05:00

There has been no shortage of criticism unleashed about (or upon) public schools in recent years, with the latest vitriol wrapped in a movie called "Waiting for Superman ". So, it may appear like old news when word arrives that Stanford University united with the Associated Press recently to conduct yet another survey about what's wrong with schools. Except what is new(s) about this is that the results of the survey point the accusing finger at a different target. In this case the subject of the survey was higher education and not K-12 schools, and it addressed the issue of low graduation rates for those students who matriculate after high school graduation to four-year public institutions. With this data, it now seems like no one has been spared on the battle front. Continue reading to see why.

Let's first frame this research. The AP-Stanford University poll was conducted during the last week of September, it involved interviews on land line and cell phones with 1001 adults across the nation, and it has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points. It was made possible by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

So, what did the survey say? See the bullets below:

seventy (70) percent of respondents said that students should shoulder much of the blame (either a great deal or a lot of it) for low graduation rates, while 45 percent felt that way about parents.
between a quarter and a third placed the blame with college administrators, professors, teachers, unions, state education officials, and federal education officials.
not to leave out politics, 70 percent of Republicans and 68 percent of Democrats (an anomaly, of course, in that there is agreement here) fault students for low graduation rates. Republicans were also more likely (ever so slightly) than Democrats to cast blame on federal officials.
fifty-seven percent of minorities blame parents while 40 percent of whites do.
minorities are also more likely to blame professors and teachers, with 40 percent of the former doing so and just 29 percent of the latter.
interestingly, when asked about the quality of schools, public four-year institutions received the highest grades, with 74 percent saying they were excellent or good. Not far behind, though, were nonprofit private colleges (71 percent), two-year public colleges (69 percent), and private-for-profit colleges (66 percent). Fifty-seven percent of respondents gave high marks to private for-profit trade schools.

The report indicated that just over half of first-year students who entered college in 2003-04 had NOT earned a degree or certificate within six years, and this is slightly worse than what was found in 1995-96. According to the Census Bureau, about 4 in 10 adults between the ages of 25 and 64 have a two-year college degree or more.

This survey addressed the relationship between education and the economy as well. Eighty-percent agreed that the country's system of education has a major impact upon the health of its economy and they also agreed that the economy would improve if all Americans had at least a two-year degree.

So, the verdict here is convincing - the better the education that students experience (and degrees earned), the stronger will the US economy be. It certainly appears that money spent on education is seen as an investment and not an expense. And it would appear, too, that the perceived failure of schools to graduate students - at least in higher education - is the fault of students who attend and their parents as well.

But is that what the public really believes? And is anyone growing tired of this blame game?

How Accurate Is This 20/20 Vision?

2010-12-05T18:35:00.001-05:00

So, in the short life this blog has had thus far (almost a month old), there have been four posts (this counts five) and over 1350 page views, the latter a pleasant surprise, but the written response of participants in what is designed to be a public discussion has been sparse. Still, blog life will go on with the hope that more voices will be heard in this space. And this post is a continuation on the theme of education in the 21st century.

In a recently published book entitled 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times, authors Bernie Trilling and Charles Fadel (Co-Chairs of the Standards, Assessment, and Professional Development Committee of the Partnership for 21st Century Schools) offer up suggestions for schools in a world that has clearly seen fundamental change. This shift has been so dramatic in the past few decades that "the roles of learning and education in day-to-day living have also changed forever." Skills like critical thinking and problem-solving that have been highly valued for years may be even more relevant today, but the authors contend that what has changed in this 21st century is the manner in which these precious skills are learned and practiced in everyday life. Some new skills (not even imagined several years ago), like digital literacy, are also required in order to compete successfully in a global world that - with expanding technology - grows smaller (and moves faster) with each passing day.

Trilling and Fadel begin early on to construct their argument - that schools must adapt to this fundamental shift in the roles of learning and education in everday life - by posing four questions, imagining that the reader has a child, grandchild, nephew, niece, or friend (you get the idea) who has just entered kindergarten this year. Here are the questions:

1) What will the world be like twenty years or so from now when your child has left school and is out in the real world? (I think of what life was like even ten years ago, when email first entered our lives, and never did I ever imagine I'd be writing in this medium. Words like "blogging", "emailing", and "google it" are now common words in our language, and "text" - once used often to refer to books - has obviously assumed a much different meaning in the con-text of what kids "read" today).

2) What skills will your child need to be successful in this world you have imagined twenty years from now? (There are things we know that we know, things we think we know but don't, things we think we don't know but really do - "oh yeah, I know that" - things we know we don't know, and there are things we don't even know we don't know. It's this last point that I think of when contemplating question #2).

3) This next question involves the reader's personal experience when Trilling and Fadel ask the reader to think about their "own personal peak experiences" in life. What were the conditions that made your high-performance learning experiences so powerful?

4) Taking into consideration your answers to the first three questions, consider this last one - What would learning be like if it were designed around your answers to the first three questions? The authors wonder if your answer would be "more in tune with the demands of our times and the needs of today's students."

Seriously, take a few minutes to reflect upon these questions. It's clear the world has changed in fundamental ways, and a vision of the college in 2020 that reflects this change was offered in a previous blog post. It's also clear that we need 20/20 vision as we look ahead to predict what more will change in our lives. What would your answers look like? Would you be willing to share them? This isn't a multiple choice test? And there isn't one right answer. Rather, there are many. Trilling and Fadel offer their answers in the book.

What are yours?

What Does A High School Education Mean?

2010-12-01T10:00:00.007-05:00

Piles of data collected in recent years show the value of education in terms of income earned, healthy habits observed, civic involvement, and participation in a democratic process (meaning that more education translates into more likely to vote, and - while we're at it - likely to earn more money, lead healthier lives, and more likely to volunteer.). If schools function to prepare students for productive work and citizenship, then they are - as long as students continue to climb higher up Mount Formal Education (while avoiding a landslide of debt that buries many long into their adult lives). So, we can safely conclude that a relationship exists between higher education and higher income, etc. (see http://chronicle.com/article/Education-Pays-but-How-Much-/124552/?sid=pm&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en), but what does it really mean to be an educated human being? And what should we expect a high school graduate to know at graduation in 2011?

Both questions tend to be politically charged because the answers reflect value judgments that often clash among competing constituencies/interest groups. What does it mean to be an educated person? What is it that they know that earns them this status? What skills do they possess (dare I say "have in hand" to suggest hands-on skills?)? Is this "knowledge" different today than it may have been two decades ago? Well, colleges can't seem to agree. Even a cursory review of graduation requirements at three schools, never mind the three thousand or so more out there, will reveal pretty significant differences. St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland (and Santa Fe, New Mexico), a highly respected (in academia) but little known (in the public) college, requires all students to complete the exact same curriculum - reading the same books and taking the same courses. The school promotes itself as the ideal liberal arts institution and assigns students many of the "Great Books" chosen by a panel of faculty members and students (changed periodically). The University of Chicago is a bit to the right of St. John's College but still offers little flexibility in its core curriculum. Brown University in Providence, RI, on the other hand, is the yogi master in higher education. The school offers total flexibility, giving students the freedom to choose ANY courses they wish as long as the credits bend in a way that match the number of credits prescribed for a degree. And all the other schools fall somewhere along the continuum that begins with St. John's College at one point and ends with Brown at the other. So, is it a stretch to say that one school produces more educated graduates than another? Or is there more than one way to scale the "Mountain"?

And what about high schools? What should students really know when their date of manufacture is stamped at graduation? The CT State Department of Education (CSDE) provides broad requirements (which are supposedly about to change in a few years) for high schools in the state to follow, but local school districts usually add their own ingredients to the mix. Even within high schools there are differences in department requirements - some are more specific than others. Take EOSHS, for example. Four credits in math are required, but there isn't any specific math course required of all students. In science, there is - but just one and that's Biology. Otherwise, students are required to earn two more credits besides Biology to meet graduation requirements. Four credits in English are mandated, and these courses are relatively fixed at each grade level (and course level), although the CSDE doesn't dictate the content that must be offered in any of these courses for credit. The Social Studies Dept. defines its requirements even more specifically - all students must complete Politics (required by the CSDE), Geography, U. S. History (also required by the CSDE), and World Civilizations. So, there's quite a difference even among departments within a school in terms of deciding what students should know once they reach that stage in life. Imagine what it's like "out there" across the country? It's little wonder why many colleges still adhere to the SAT requirement in order to evaluate readiness for success in higher education (for those who now make it optional, there are other reasons for this than simply thinking they agree that the test is flawed - one major reason is that it drives up applications)? However flawed the test may be, it's at least a measure that may be applied to all students (who choose to take it) regardless of the schools they attend or even courses of studies they take within their respective schools.

There are all sorts of discussions about common assessments and a common curriculum that should be set in place for all high schools throughout the country to follow. Good luck on this. It's a political football in Texas alone as the State Board of Education there scrimmages over the content that should be included in textbooks. This "gridiron" battle is producing nothing more than gridlock as the opposing parties play out the partisan politics seen too often in Congress. Crafting a national curriculum will prove to be all the more challenging. Even colleges are arguing about this as the federal government is putting pressure on them to put in place some kind of assessment that measures growth over the duration of a college experience (click on the link to learn more about the Collegiate Learning Assessment - http://www.collegiatelearningassessment.org/). All that exists now to measure the "value" of colleges are SAT scores, acceptance rates, and yield rates on those accepted - all measures of entering students and not of those graduating from the colleges.

Finally, it seems that high schools and higher schools (colleges) don't agree on what a student should know at the point of one's high school graduation. Of the seventy percent of high school graduates who go on to some form of higher education, less than half actually complete a four-year degree. And many take more than four years to do it. For those who opt for (or have no choice but to go to) community colleges, about forty percent don't meet the benchmarks on placement tests and are placed in remedial courses that cost lots of money but are worth nothing in terms of college credits. For the vast majority of these students, college ends before they ever get past the next remedial course required. Let's acknowledge that a four-year degree is not for every high school graduate - nor should it have to be. But some form of higher education should be, especially in a changing economy that's beginning to take on an hour-glass shape, one in which there will be plenty of jobs available that require professional degrees and plenty that we'll always need - plumbers, electricians, automotive technicians - and that will still require certification and requisite skills as evidenced by performance on entrance exams into certification programs.

So, what should students know after four years in high school? What should they be able to do, no matter what direction they take in "life after high school"? Are the requirements that have been in place for so many years now still pertinent in the 21st century? Is the mode of instruction appropriate as well? Twenty-first century skills - what are they, really? Will the high school of 2016 prepare students for the college of 2020? And, more importantly, will they prepare students for successful entry into adulthood, even though we may not even know what kinds of jobs will be needed in a world that is changing so rapidly?

What do you think?

A Vision: The College of 2020

2010-11-20T10:32:00.006-05:00

The Chronicle of Higher Education Research Services recently released a report that provides a vision of what colleges will look like in the year 2020. The report is based upon reviews of research and data on trends in higher education, interviews with experts who are sculpting the future paradigm of colleges, and the results of a panel of college admissions personnel that was selected by the Chronicle Research Services. The defining questions asked were 1) What is college? and 2) Why should I go? The answers reflect a significant shift in the way students envision higher education and how they will wish to pursue a degree.

The following points appeared in the Executive Summary:

The traditional model of college is changing, as demonstrated by the proliferation of colleges (particularly for-profit colleges), hybrid class schedules with night and weekend meetings, and, most significantly, online learning.
Students' convenience is the future (more students will attend classes online, study part-time, take courses from multiple universities, seek three-year degree programs, and low-cost options).
These changes, and the pressure they will put on colleges to adapt, are coming at a particularly acute time (the hour glass-shaped economy of the future will require a college degree as a means of entry and/or advancement in higher-paying, career-oriented professions).
Colleges that have resisted putting some of their courses online will almost certainly have to expand their online programs quickly.
The conversion to more convenience for students will multiply over the next decade.
Colleges will need to offer these options in addition to the face-to-face instruction.
Students now going to elementary school are going to expect more connectivity and creativity from colleges.
Today's high school students see their educational futures built almost entirely around technology.

Below are three quotes extracted from the report:

"The students of 2020 will demand an education on their terms and will be seeking a technology-based customized approach. The bottom line is that they will want it all: a plethora of learning options that they can mix and match to play to their strengths."

"The Internet has made most information available to everyone, and faculty members must take that into consideration when teaching. There is very little that students cannot find on their own if they are inspired to do so. And many of them will be surfing the Net in class. The faculty member, therefore, may become less an oracle and more an organizer and guide, someone who adds perspective and context, finds the best articles and research, and sweeps away misconceptions and bad information."

"Good teaching will always be at the core of a good university, but for most colleges, higher education will become a more retail-based industry than it ever has been. The students of the future will demand it. Many colleges have a long way to go before they can fulfill that demand."

This, according to the report, is what the 21st century college will look like. Students (and their parents) will be seeking more affordable options, recognizing the value of higher education while opting for the best value as a return on their investment. If this is so, and high schools are charged with preparing students for success in higher education, then will high schools have to change as well in order to adapt to this paradigm shift at the college level? And is this what it means when reference is made to developing 21st century skills? Will standards be compromised if they are adapted to meet the needs/demands of students? Or will any change in standards simply reflect more compatibility with life in the 21st century? Is there a more cost effective way of conducting the business of education - of providing an enriching learning experience? And if these changes are made, will they reduce the role that teachers presently play in the process (oracle) or, instead, change the role to fit a new model (guide an organizer)? What do you think?

An article appearing in the New York Time (11/21/10) entitled "Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distractions" may provide a perspective on the challenges that these new forms of technology pose. A link to the article is below.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/technology/21brain.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a2

Hot Button Topic - 21st Century Skills

2010-11-14T09:47:00.001-05:00

What's getting much of the attention these days is the focus upon 21st century skill sets that students must arguably acquire in order to have a reasonable chance of being productive citizens in the new global economy. It's, no doubt, a hot-button topic. A simple "Google Search" of the words - 21st century skills - returned 8,500,000 hits in 0.15 seconds. Okay. So what's causing the heat?

Well, it's about lots of things, and it all doesn't match up in coordinated fashion. The one constant in the conversation about 21st century skills, though, is the relative importance of the web and its place in formal (academic) learning. More and more types of people of all sorts of ages are spending more and more time connecting to the web. On-line courses, on-line banking, on-line shopping, social networking, and open source content -they're everywhere, and can be easily accessed from anywhere, too . Clearly, the temperature is rising on this hot-button issue as it relates to its place in teaching and learning.

Will Richardson, a 20-year veteran of classroom teaching and author of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (2010), made this observation in his Preface - "...we live in a world where the following condition still exists: a growing majority of students are immersed in social networks and technologies outside of school, and most have no adults in their lives who are teaching them how to use those connections to learn. Our collective inability to recognize a 'tectonic shift' in the way we learn stems, I believe, from one fundamental fact - not enough of us have experienced that shift ourselves. These shifts will not come under the guise of 'twenty-first century skills' reforms which are actually nineteenth-century skills being remarketed for a new day. They will only come when enough educators fully understand the open connections, open conversations, open content, and open learning that come as a part of a community of learners who are invested in their own passions."

For some of you, the aforementioned may be a radical view. For others, it may be right on. Is it time for a major paradigm shift in education? Or does it simply mean some minor tinkering with the present model? Maybe you feel that nothing at all needs to be done. It "ain't broke, so don't fix it." Maybe technology is driving way beyond the speed limit and educators need to apply the brakes.

Whatever you may be feeling about this, it's likely you're feeling something. Will the rising heat bring about a climate change in public schools? I encourage you to watch the video below (far left, literally, although it may be considered far left in other ways as well) that addresses this issue. The presentation is very visual. Take a few minutes - about 11, to be more precise -to view it. And then take a few more minutes to share your thoughts. Put them out there and give others a chance to read them. You may encourage others to respond. And this could perhaps be a place where a community of learners is formed.

Why do a blog?

2010-11-09T08:24:00.003-05:00

I've been in this profession of education for so long that I can be considered a veteran of mimeograph copying machines. Back when I first started, I would wait my turn in the "workroom" where this machine was located and then affix my carbon to the roller and start cranking out copies. Today, and a few decades later, I can now crank out material in so many other ways. A weblog is just one of these ways.

Our Guidance Department at EOSHS has been gradually making a shift to electronic communication, trying to straddle that line of demarcation that separates "high tech" from "high touch". There is certainly enough debate out there about the relative merits of online communication - it's too impersonal, too anonymous vs. it's very personal and wholly accountable. Like it or not, our students are living and breathing in this electronic world. Adults, knowingly or otherwise, are, too. So, we (educators) need to reach out in ways that connect us to students - and parents - and where they can be found. And we need to make more information available to everyone in our school community that can be accessed whenever and wherever one may be. This weblog is one more effort among many that we're trying in Guidance in order to achieve the aforementioned. It is not, I wish to emphasize, a replacement for the one-to-one, face-to-face meetings that remain an integral part of what we do. Instead, this is a complement to the personal approach and, perhaps, even an enhancement of it.

But why a weblog, you might ask? Well, here's why. Weblogs offer the opportunity for on-going conversations. Unlike an eboard or a pdf file, a weblog provides a chance for readers to respond, for dialog, and for others to participate in the conversation. It can become an open forum on matters that invite discussion. It can also quite simply be another way to convey information.

This is an experiment. Initially, we'll introduce one topic per week and assess from there. I invite you to join. Comments will be posted by those who wish to register (anyone can do this by following the link on this page). Respect, with malice towards none, will be the guiding rule for posts. In addition, links that I consider useful and interesting will be added at the bottom of the page. I encourage suggestions to make this experiment work.

Let me know your questions. It's time to start cranking.