School Survival

I Failed Myself… and All of You by “Argon” John “Get busy, John,” said the teacher. John glared at his test booklet and refused to move. A look of annoyance was beginning to form on the teacher’s face. “John!” she said. “Do your test!” “I don’t want to,” he said. She grimaced. “Well,” she said. […]

by Jerry Mintz (originally posted here) In reference to: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/school-turnaroundsreform/how-billionaire-donors-are-har.html It’s too bad that the school reformers and the billionaire funders have to make every mistake there is to make on their way to, perhaps, finding the real clue to how learning actually works. I think they mean well. Probably they feel a little guilty […]

by Peter Gray In my last post I described some instances of cheating in science; summarized some data about the percentage of scientists who, on anonymous questionnaires, admit to cheating; and ended with the question, "Why do scientists cheat?" Cheating--by publishing fraudulent data--completely destroys the purpose of science, which is to discover truths; so why […]

by KittyKatBlack We always hear, probably daily, about how teenagers or this generation (because no generation before us ever had issues) have this huge sense of entitlement. But what about parents? Those of you who have the more bitchy parentage may have been told that you should be grateful that they're spending and sacrificing so […]

Reflections on education, colonization, and freedom by Mike Jo Brownlee and Carla Bergman In today's society, school is sometimes spoken about as a necessity for a happy life and as an inherent good. The concept of education is thought to be synonymous with learning, and separates those who are knowledgeable from those who are deficient. […]

by Ellen Galinsky Many people know by now that the United States has fallen to 11th in Newsweek's list of the best countries in the world. What is interesting is that the debate about why we are losing our "oomph as a superpower" has focused in part on U.S. education. As always when we are […]

By Matt Miller
August, 5, 2010

What this country needs is a movement to lower the voting age to 10. Hear me out.
Wherever you look, from debt to schools to climate to pensions, the distinctive feature of American public life today is a shocking disregard for the future. Yes, politicians...

by Peter Gray (originally published here) According to the most authoritative recent data, approximately 8% of children in the United States, aged 4 to 17, have been diagnosed as having ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).[1] The same reports note that the disorder is about three times as frequent in boys as it is in girls, […]

by Erica Goldson (originally published here) There is a story of a young, but earnest Zen student who approached his teacher, and asked the Master, "If I work very hard and diligently, how long will it take for me to find Zen? The Master thought about this, then replied, "Ten years . ." The student […]

by Peter Gray (originally published here) Many years ago, as part of my early studies of the Sudbury Valley School, I sat in on a school meeting at which the main agenda item had to do with a complaint made about a new student's clothing. A new teenaged enrollee had been coming to school wearing […]