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January 24, 2013
October 16, 2012
"The AP classroom is where intellectual curiosity goes to die."
October 15, 2012
![Why AP Classes Are a Scam
Fraudulent schemes come in all shapes and sizes. To work, they typically wear a patina of respectability. That’s the case with Advanced Placement courses, one of the great frauds currently perpetrated on American high-school students.
That’s a pretty strong claim, right? You bet. But why not be straightforward when discussing a scam the scale and audacity of which would raise Bernie Madoff’s eyebrows?
Read more. [Image: albertogp123/Flickr]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mby1e3joKF1qcokc4o1_1280.jpg)
Fraudulent schemes come in all shapes and sizes. To work, they typically wear a patina of respectability. That’s the case with Advanced Placement courses, one of the great frauds currently perpetrated on American high-school students.
That’s a pretty strong claim, right? You bet. But why not be straightforward when discussing a scam the scale and audacity of which would raise Bernie Madoff’s eyebrows?
Read more. [Image: albertogp123/Flickr]
September 24, 2012
![How Liberal Arts Colleges Are Failing America
When are Americans going to wake up and realize that the 60s and 70s-era nostalgia for the “value” of a college degree is just that — nostalgia?
A degree does not guarantee you or your children a good job anymore. In fact, it doesn’t guarantee you a job: last year, 1 out of 2 bachelor’s degree holders under 25 were jobless or unemployed. Since the recession, we’ve lost millions of high- and mid-wage jobs — and replaced a handful of those with lower-wage ones. No wonder some young people are giving up entirely — a 16.8 percent unemployment rate plus soaring student loan debt is more than a little discouraging. Yet old-guard academic leaders are still clinging to the status quo — and loudly insisting that a four-year liberal arts degree is a worthy investment in every young American’s future.
Read more. [Image: Reuters]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mavfgzTmyC1qcokc4o1_1280.jpg)
How Liberal Arts Colleges Are Failing America
When are Americans going to wake up and realize that the 60s and 70s-era nostalgia for the “value” of a college degree is just that — nostalgia?
A degree does not guarantee you or your children a good job anymore. In fact, it doesn’t guarantee you a job: last year, 1 out of 2 bachelor’s degree holders under 25 were jobless or unemployed. Since the recession, we’ve lost millions of high- and mid-wage jobs — and replaced a handful of those with lower-wage ones. No wonder some young people are giving up entirely — a 16.8 percent unemployment rate plus soaring student loan debt is more than a little discouraging. Yet old-guard academic leaders are still clinging to the status quo — and loudly insisting that a four-year liberal arts degree is a worthy investment in every young American’s future.
Read more. [Image: Reuters]
September 5, 2012
![Should Kids Go to Jail for Skipping School?
For their part, education experts welcome the focus on attendance but say fines and threats of jail are the wrong approach for all but exceptional cases. “We’re paying more attention because education is more necessary than ever before,” said Joanna Heilbrunn, senior research and policy analyst at the National Center for School Engagement. “But there is always a reason a kid is not in school, and just fining the family doesn’t do anything. Most families are low income and the barriers stem from income issues.”
Read more. [Image: llike/Shutterstock]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m9vtqiNA7r1qcokc4o1_1280.jpg)
Should Kids Go to Jail for Skipping School?
For their part, education experts welcome the focus on attendance but say fines and threats of jail are the wrong approach for all but exceptional cases. “We’re paying more attention because education is more necessary than ever before,” said Joanna Heilbrunn, senior research and policy analyst at the National Center for School Engagement. “But there is always a reason a kid is not in school, and just fining the family doesn’t do anything. Most families are low income and the barriers stem from income issues.”
Read more. [Image: llike/Shutterstock]
August 10, 2012
"The next morning, the first item on my agenda was a panel discussion about ‘Unschooling as a Life Philosophy.’ I entered the conference room just as the introductions were beginning. There were five women on the panel and between them they had 15 children, three of whom were named after continents."
— Quinn Cummings investigates the radical world of “Radical Unschooling”
August 10, 2012
![School’s Out Forever: Parents Who Don’t Believe in Education
Radically unschooled children are allowed to live each day in freedom, being exactly who and what they are at that moment. They have no bedtime, no mandatory foods, no off-limit words. If your child is tender-headed and shrieks like a parrot when her hair is brushed, the Radical would suggest you not brush her hair. If she prefers to let it mass into a giant dreadlock that collects food and gnats, well, it’s really not your problem, is it? After all, it’s not your hair; it’s hers. The basic operating principle is that you should not treat a child any differently than you would treat another adult, which is to say without guilt, coercion or threats.
Read more. [Image: Lisa James/Shutterstock]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8jwnnGeGx1qcokc4o1_1280.jpg)
School’s Out Forever: Parents Who Don’t Believe in Education
Radically unschooled children are allowed to live each day in freedom, being exactly who and what they are at that moment. They have no bedtime, no mandatory foods, no off-limit words. If your child is tender-headed and shrieks like a parrot when her hair is brushed, the Radical would suggest you not brush her hair. If she prefers to let it mass into a giant dreadlock that collects food and gnats, well, it’s really not your problem, is it? After all, it’s not your hair; it’s hers. The basic operating principle is that you should not treat a child any differently than you would treat another adult, which is to say without guilt, coercion or threats.
Read more. [Image: Lisa James/Shutterstock]
June 27, 2012
![If Colleges Want Federal Funds, They’ll Have to Prove Students Get Jobs
The U.S. Department of Education intends to crack down on postsecondary career programs that can’t demonstrate that enough graduates have found “gainful employment,” a move some for-profit colleges say could cost thousands of students the opportunity for a better future.
Read more. [Image: AP]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6aaeb4nt71qcokc4o1_1280.jpg)
If Colleges Want Federal Funds, They’ll Have to Prove Students Get Jobs
The U.S. Department of Education intends to crack down on postsecondary career programs that can’t demonstrate that enough graduates have found “gainful employment,” a move some for-profit colleges say could cost thousands of students the opportunity for a better future.
Read more. [Image: AP]
June 19, 2012
![Freakonomics Teaches Us the Right Way to Bribe Kids
A brand new study by Steven D. Levitt (of Freakonomics fame), John A. List, Susanne Neckermann, and Sally Sadoff finds that Chicago students in low-performing schools did better on tests when they were promised money or trophies for their good grades. But it wasn’t as simple as writing a bunch of checks and and waiting for the A’s to pour in. How much money and how you present the rewards makes all the differences.
Without instant money and rewards, many students in these Chicago schools had put forth “low effort on the standardized tests that we study,” the authors write. Why didn’t the students care about good grades? It’s all about the timing of our rewards.
Read more. [Image: Reuters]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5vorueZc01qcokc4o1_1280.png)
Freakonomics Teaches Us the Right Way to Bribe Kids
A brand new study by Steven D. Levitt (of Freakonomics fame), John A. List, Susanne Neckermann, and Sally Sadoff finds that Chicago students in low-performing schools did better on tests when they were promised money or trophies for their good grades. But it wasn’t as simple as writing a bunch of checks and and waiting for the A’s to pour in. How much money and how you present the rewards makes all the differences.
Without instant money and rewards, many students in these Chicago schools had put forth “low effort on the standardized tests that we study,” the authors write. Why didn’t the students care about good grades? It’s all about the timing of our rewards.
Read more. [Image: Reuters]
May 18, 2012
![Do Cell Phones Belong in the Classroom?
If you were to drop in on most any American high school these days, what would you see? Cell phones. Lots of them. Virtually all students have one, and it’s typical to see them tapping away or listening to music through their ear buds — not just in the hallways during the five minutes between classes, but also in the classroom, at every opportunity the teacher gives them. […]
Whatever a school’s approach to technology, cell phones seem to be nearly ubiquitous. An April 2010 study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project and the University of Michigan found that in schools that permitted students to have cell phones, 71 percent of students sent or received text messages on their cell phones in class. In the majority of schools — those that allow students to have phones in school but not use them in the classroom - the percentage was almost as high: 65%. Even in schools that ban cell phones entirely, the percentage was still a shocking 58%. […]
So what’s the solution? Do teachers simply need to crack down harder, to impose harsher penalties against extracurricular texting and Internet surfing? Or are the cell phones themselves a symptom of a larger problem?
Read more. [Image: Reuters]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m48iec9tzO1qcokc4o1_1280.jpg)
Do Cell Phones Belong in the Classroom?
If you were to drop in on most any American high school these days, what would you see? Cell phones. Lots of them. Virtually all students have one, and it’s typical to see them tapping away or listening to music through their ear buds — not just in the hallways during the five minutes between classes, but also in the classroom, at every opportunity the teacher gives them. […]
Whatever a school’s approach to technology, cell phones seem to be nearly ubiquitous. An April 2010 study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project and the University of Michigan found that in schools that permitted students to have cell phones, 71 percent of students sent or received text messages on their cell phones in class. In the majority of schools — those that allow students to have phones in school but not use them in the classroom - the percentage was almost as high: 65%. Even in schools that ban cell phones entirely, the percentage was still a shocking 58%. […]
So what’s the solution? Do teachers simply need to crack down harder, to impose harsher penalties against extracurricular texting and Internet surfing? Or are the cell phones themselves a symptom of a larger problem?
Read more. [Image: Reuters]
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