psychology dector

Nikhil Goyal is a writer of prodigious talents, all of which are on display in his book, Schools On Trial:  How Freedom and Creativity Can Fix Our Educational Malpractice (Doubleday, 2016). His thesis is clear:   take students and allow them to study what they want to study at their own pace.   No tests, assignments, homework, or grades.   All work is project-based.   If this is done correctly, students become life-long learners and will naturally gravitate to a program of study that is both self-directed and incredibly rich, mainly because they decide for themselves what avenues to pursue.   In Goyal’s view, one recently formed by his time in compulsory education, a traditional classroom with desks in a row, regular structured assignments and grades, lectures and discussions, and programmed courses of study all meld together to stultify students and actually turn them away from learning. What he advocates has been done before, and he makes this clear in h...

From: http://www.tustin.k12.ca.us/cms/lib02/CA01001904/Centricity/Domain/1831/ccss.jpg It is, admittedly, a hyperbolic title. If you are looking for answers to Iran’s nuclear development, the war in Afghanistan, or what exactly happened to Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, you won’t find them here. This post deals with the growing controversy over Common Core Standards , the voluminous and quite frankly confusing bureaucratic boondoggle supported by the Obama administration and Bill Gates, that allegedly will impose benchmarks equaling a national standard of achievement in American schools.   Republicans, especially the Tea Party nut jobs, hate Common Core because they fear the federal government is taking over classrooms and forcing teachers to teach—gulp!— liberal ideas .   However, there are Republicans, and Democrats who liked the standards and even voted for them initially.   Now that people realize Common Core will cost states billions to implement, everybody has be...

Put away the pomp and circumstance.   Pack the gown in mothballs.   Hang the tassel from the rearview mirror, all the better to see the past for what it is:   the past. When the end comes, we move on, we go forward, we leave everything behind, the awkwardness, the disappointments, the loneliness.   We instead remember the good times, the moments shared, the triumphs savored, and the times we will never, ever forget.    I got the opportunity to observe such an occasion at the end of this very long graduation season at my wife’s Catholic elementary school where she teaches.   In the days leading up to the big graduation event a few days from now, there are a number of last celebrations.   One of these is the traditional eighth grade dance held last Friday night.   The ritual involves parents and teachers kicking off the dance with students, and then going away, leaving the seventh grade parents to serve food and chaperone.   It is a gift...