William Sellers
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Did responding to this idea matter at all?
I looked over the actual Joel Klein interview sections and did not see that any of the questions we took time to post were ever asked of Mr. Klein.Perhaps the reason only two of us responded was that everyone else already knew it was pointless to respond? Perhaps Big Think was not impressed with the questions.Perhaps the questions were rolled up generically (diluted?) in the 18 questions which gave 18 idea/responses from Mr. Klein.No matter which, I am disappointed. It still seems that Big Think solicited my time and energy for nothing (or close to it.) Read More
September 3, 2008
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- What is your definition of "education"?- How can you tell a good education from a bad education?- What responsibility does a student bear in education?- Are there differences in learning for skill and knowledge? How do you handle these? - Is a school supposed to enforce an education? Or provide good opportunities for students to educate themselves? Or a mix of both? - When paperwork requirements become too large, assistants are often employed to take some of the burden so more important work can be done. Should teachers get secretaries? (Or pools of them.) Read More
July 15, 2008
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Re: No Child Left Behind Act- For it or against it?
Its hard to be for or against it based only on its name and some vague feelings from what I've heard about it.I am against allowing legislation to be named the way it has in recent history. It becomes very hard for politicians to justify being against "No Child Left Behind" to our current press when all they may be against is "poorly written, likely to fail, or otherwise bad legislation". The meaning of legislation should never be allowed to be boiled down to a title. We can't rely on the title to understand the content of a bill or law. Bills and laws should perhaps only be numbere… Read More
March 21, 2008
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My 10-year old daughter asked, "Does the word 'politics' come from 'poly', which means 'many', and 'ticks' which means [parasites]?". Read More
January 25, 2008
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First mistake: not defining "education"
Here's the definition we came up with in our house. We've worked on this for a while with some educators (all high-school or lower grades; no college educators.) "Education is the process anyone uses to improve skills, knowledge or attitudes in themselves with the help of others." "Others" includes teachers as well as authors of published works such as books, articles, films, audio programs or other means of communication. This implies a few things often left out of conversations about education: - there is more to be learned than simple facts (knowledge). Skills, for example, … Read More
January 8, 2008
