Important Note:
Opinions are fun. My friends tell me I am someone with lots of opinions and that's fine since I don't get mad at others when they disagree with me. In this same spirit I am interested in hearing yours views as long as you are able to share your views without boiling over. I look forward to hearing from you. I tend to write in the form of short essays most of the time, but contributions do not need to be in this same format or size. Some of the content here will date itself pretty quickly, other content may be virtually timeless, this is for the reader to judge.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8
Politically correct math
Posted at: Mar/10/2021 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Education, Watching America,
It’s 2021 and the era of deflecting blame. When something is not going well we blame government intervention, or the lack of government protections, or a host of other groups and entities. If there is disparity in outcome, it must be discrimination and racism. Apparently this mindset has now been applied as a rationalization for success and failure at math education. This is exemplified by the .....read more…
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Why some movements work and others wilt
Posted at: Sep/30/2013 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Education, People, Perspectives,
Creating change is never easy. Change is also one of the great contradictions of humanity. As individuals we thrive on stability; knowing that what worked yesterday will work well again today and tomorrow. Despite this individual lust for stability, as a mass we continually push for things to be different. On the largest scale the changes we seek are often considered movements or revolutions. .....read more…
The Creativity Crisis
Posted at: Aug/08/2010 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Education, Perspectives,
How Creative Are You? For years America has bragged about its creativity. We have produced everything from the automatic coffee maker to the Ronco food chopper, and a million products in between. These products have created new industries, phenomenal wealth, and untold numbers of jobs. Along the way we have replaced radios with televisions and televisions with flat screen entertainment systems.....read more…
Are video games really a learning tool?
Posted at: Jul/19/2010 : Posted by: mel
Video games have a bad reputation. Many parents (including myself) have feared for years that their kids were spending too much time zoning out with the PlayStation, Xbox, Game Cube, etc. Having grown up without these same distractions I was sure for many years that my boys needed to be catching frogs like I did rather than playing “Frogger”. After watching my boys for a number of years I am begin.....read more…
A strange shift of priorities
Posted at: Jul/11/2010 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Education, Society,
I am going to venture into education again. I know, it would seem like this subject has been talked to death. I have definitely written on the subject previously. This time my concern will be more sociological in nature. In California which is where I live, as with many states the primary source of school funding is from property taxes. When revenues fall class sizes grow and viable resourc.....read more…
Are we behind in Science & Math Education?
Posted at: Feb/22/2010 : Posted by: mel
President Obama recently kicked off an “Educate to Innovate” campaign to help boost US students from middle-of-the-pack mediocrity internationally in science and math achievement to the head of the class over the next decade. The good news is that this initiative included $260 million in partnerships involving the federal government, companies, foundations, nonprofits, and science and engineering.....read more…
What’s wrong with Zero-Tolerance in public schools?
Posted at: Feb/08/2010 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Behavior, Education, Society,
Before I start to rant, I should begin with some background. Zero-Tolerance policies began sweeping the country in 1994 after Congress required states to adopt laws that guaranteed one-year expulsions for any student who brought a firearm to school. By tying federal funding to compliance with the Congressional mandate, all 50 states rapidly adopted similar laws. Public policy towards childr.....read more…
The Challenge of Public Education
Posted at: Oct/26/2009 : Posted by: mel
I have wanted to build an essay on this subject for quite a while, but I have struggled with what direction my theme would take. It has finally dawned on me that this is in itself metaphoric of the issues facing public education. There are so many different internal and external pressures being applied to education that there is no longer any possibility of a simple understanding or a simple solut.....read more…
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