psychology dector

“We are here today to honor teachers and mentors… who are upholding their responsibility not just to the young people who they teach but to our country by inspiring and educating a new generation in math and science. But we're also here because this responsibility can't be theirs alone. All of us have a role to play in building an education system that is worthy of our children and ready to help us seize the opportunities and meet the challenges of the 21st century. “And under the outstanding leadership of Arne Duncan, we've launched a $4 billion Race to the Top fund, one of the largest investments in education reform in history. Through the Race to the Top, states are competing for funding—and producing the most innovative programs in science and math will be an advantage in this competition, as will allowing scientists and statisticians and engineers to more easily become teachers. We want states and school districts to start being more creative about how they can attrac...

“…there was no joy in his heart. Dreams came to him and restless thoughts…the vessel was not full, his mind was not satisfied, his soul was not at peace, his heart was not content.” from Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse I was at the beginning of my teaching career, and things were not going well. My wife had been in a major car accident, totaling the second car we had purchased with the last of our meager savings. So we were carpooling to work; I dropped her off at her school near downtown Los Angeles before traveling down the 10 freeway to Santa Monica where I taught. The accident happened before school even started, and since that September, I had been hit from behind on the freeway twice, and we were constantly one step ahead of major breakdowns. Financially, we were devastated, living on credit, trying to pay off student loans. My classes were difficult—one group was nearly impossible to control during the last period of the day. I was stressed, broke, and desperate. Paolo was a stude...

Articles referenced in this essay: “School’s Shake-Up Is Embraced by the President” The New York Times 3/6/10 “Building a Better Teacher” The New York Times Magazine 3/7/10 “Math and English Classes Could Be Standardized” Los Angeles Times 3/10/10 “Texas Approves Curriculum Revised by Conservatives” The New York Times 3/12/ 10 “A.J. Duffy: Teachers’ Choice” Los Angeles Times 3/13/ 10 “The Big Idea—It’s Bad Education Policy” Los Angeles Times 3/ 14/10 “Obama Seeks To Overhaul No Child Left Behind” Los Angeles Times 3/14/10 Newsweek (the entire issue) 3/15/10 The Obama administration is intent on renewing George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind legislation, even while many of the architects of that policy rush to refute it and outright distance themselves from it. Educators like Diane Ravitch, one of the proponents of the legislation under Bush, have realized that the last eight years were a disaster for American education. Let’s examine two problem areas. Charter schools were tout...

I am definitely the wrong person to write about fashion, but here goes. I went to Barnes and Noble last week and purchased the R.J. Cutler documentary on the making of the September, 2007 issue of Vogue , quite literally the bible of the fashion industry. Cutler is the award-winning director of the documentary on Bill Clinton’s race to the White House, entitled The War Room . In this new DVD, officially titled The September Issue: Anna Wintour & The Making of Vogue , Cutler followed Wintour and her staff around for eight months, January to August 2007, while they produced, photographed, wrote, and assembled the largest issue in Vogue’s history. As Candy Pratts Price, Executive Fashion Director of Style.com says in the film, September is the real new year in fashion, the time when everything changes. Magazines devoted to fashion often have their largest issues in September when fall fashions, first previewed during Fashion Week in the spring, hit the streets of New York, Milan, L...

It has been quite a week for education in America and California. And it is only Wednesday. On Monday, the story broke in the Los Angeles Daily News that the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is prepared to layoff “nearly 4700…teachers, administrators, counselors and nurses…as they work to close a crippling $640 million budget deficit.” These steep cuts “would virtually eliminate school nurses and librarians, increase all class sizes, including a high of up to 44 students in middle school, and boost counselor loads to 1000 students each,” according to Connie Llanos, a staff writer for the paper. Also included are “1000 janitors and maintenance workers.” Los Angeles schools Superintendent Ramon Cortines said “some layoffs are inevitable, as are cuts to services.” The piece goes on to state that district officials believe the layoffs and cuts “could be avoided if employee unions approve other cost-cutting plans like implementing furloughs or reducing the school year by a we...