Seriously? Grades are worthless? Touchy-feely is better than grades? Authored by Jonathan Turley, It appears that the Harris-Walz campaign to embrace “joy” has taken hold among educators in L.A. The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) voted 4-3 to allow 10 schools to opt out of standardized tests and test preparation beginning in the 2025-26 school year. LAUSD President Jackie Goldberg declared the move was a blow to “corporate America” and would restore the “enjoyment of education.” We have previously discussed how schools have been dropping the use of standardized tests to achieve diversity goals in admissions. That trend continued this month with Cal State dropping … [Read more...]
Addressing the fallacies of Common Core education
Who says that young people don't understand the flaws and fallacies of Common Core and their "standards"? In the following article published at BuPipedream.com Hannah Gulko (a Junior majoring in human development) shares her thoughts and assessment. If we can find more like her maybe we can get some school boards to pay attention and take action...we can only hope. On March 3, 2019, Andrew Foley, development director of Better Days Greece, a non-governmental organization that focuses on providing spaces that promote relief, healing and learning to those displaced during the refugee crisis, spoke at Binghamton University’s TEDx event. Foley discussed the significance of education and … [Read more...]
Pediatrician prescription: More Play!
If you've read out blog articles we've argued for more play time for children. Kindergarten has gotten so structured and demanding that public schools are killing the fun of learning. Lack of recesses in the name of more time in the classroom leads to poorer grades, obesity and more children given medications to treat Attention Deficit Disorder. So we were startled to see the American Academy of Pediatrics come out and say...children need more play time! You can read the full article at: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2018/08/16/peds.2018-2058 Here we offer their abstract: Children need to develop a variety of skill sets to optimize their development and manage … [Read more...]
The Most Schooled Generation in History Is Miserable
From a story at Freedom for Economic Education It’s said that sadness isn’t the opposite of happiness — boredom is. A fully schooled generation has created a generation of bored adult children.With this in mind, is it any surprise that children, adolescents, and young adults today are so unhappy? Is it any surprise that so many turn to extending their schooled lives into structured activities as long as possible? Is it any surprise that when people don’t know what to do, they simply go to graduate school? To understand this mass unhappiness and boredom with life — and the sudden uptick in quarter-life crises — look at where these young people have spent most of their … [Read more...]
A venture capitalist searches for the purpose of school. Here’s what he found
From an article in the Washington Post > > > Ted Dintersmith is a highly successful venture capitalist and father of two who is devoting most of his time, energy and part of of his personal fortune to education-related initiatives that call for a radical remaking of what and how students learn. He organized, funded and produced the documentary “Most Likely To Succeed,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2015. He, along with co-author Tony Wagner, recently released a book titled “Most Likely To Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era.” And he is conducting a 50-state tour to encourage communities all over the country to re-think the … [Read more...]
Is School Creating a Generation of Unhappy People?
We came across this blog post at: Zak Slayback Give it a read and share your thoughts. Do you think he's right? It’s said that pain isn’t the opposite of happiness — boredom is. With this premise in mind, is it any surprise that children, adolescents, and young adults today are so unhappy? Is it any surprise that so many turn to extending their schooled lives into structured activities as long as possible? Is it any surprise that when people don’t know what to do, they simply go to graduate school? To understand this mass unhappiness and boredom with life — and the sudden uptick in quarter-life crises — look at where these young people have spent most of their lives. What … [Read more...]
