This article ran on Intellectual Takeout. The writer's name is Joseph Pearce We all know Aesop’s fable about the Tortoise and the Hare but few of us really believe, in the real world, that slowcoaches like the tortoise have a cat in hell’s chance of beating those in life’s fast lane. Few really believe, with Milton, that “they also serve who only stand and wait”. Those who stand and wait get left behind, stupid. You snooze, you lose. Those of us who believe that time taken is time well spent are in a minority in our frantic and frenetic world. We are an endangered species. It is, therefore, refreshing to discover that even scientists are beginning to agree with us. Take, for … [Read more...]
9 Elephants in the (Class) Room That Should “Unsettle” Us
From the Huffington Post ... At a recent morning workshop for school leaders at a fairly small New England public school district, about an hour into a conversation focused on what they believed about how kids learn best, an assistant superintendent somewhat surprisingly said aloud what many in the room were no doubt feeling. "When I really try to square what I believe about how kids learn and what we practice in our classrooms, it unsettles me," she said. "And it frustrates me." As it should. One of the things I've come to realize in my many discussions with educators from around the globe is that there are a number of practices in our current systems of schooling that … [Read more...]