In honor of back to school week, we're taking a second look at education policy, with an assessment of the No Child Left Behind Act by Diane Ravitch over a decade after it was passed in 2001, and a look at the marketization of American public schools by Dissent magazine's Joanne Barkan. Max Miller asks, "What is intelligence?" and Yann Martel teaches a skill that even 21st century students still need to master: writing.
What's the Big Idea? As the K-12 school year starts up again in full force, it's worth asking ...
What makes some brains smarter than others? Are intelligent people better at storing and retrieving memories? Or perhaps their neurons have more connections allowing them to creatively combine dissimilar ideas?
There’s no formula to writing. The key thing is simply to read, says the novelist. "The best teacher is a cheap, little Penguin classic."
The line of battle for the future of public education is clear. The first side has money, powerful political connections, and an infrastructure of nonprofit organizations with paid staff. The other side has this: the ability to become a true grassroots movement.