Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Politician Inspiring Youth with His Vision for Ed Reform



Think he did a good job of inspiring students?

10 comments:

  1. Huh. Chris Lehmann's speechless! Why might that be?

    Perhaps because some kids just found out their parents are poor, less happy and are going to die young? Or is it because if they don't choose to join the generation debt of their college peers they will die early, be unhappy, and be poor. Funny thing is Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Ted Turner, and David Geffen who never bothered graduating college seem to be doing mighty fine. Many well known writers also didn't do too bad by not following the politician's advice.William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, George Orwell, J.K. Rowling, J.D. Salinger also never graduated or even bothered looking at colleges. And, lest we forget the U.S. presidents like Truman, Washington, Lincoln and Van Buren who found success without a degree.

    But ya know, this guy has some good ideas, no? Side note - I found this video when doing a search for "boring class." He tells bored students that the solution might possibly be take what they already find to be a boring / irrelevant day and extend the day/year. No wonder the kids all say, No. No. No. But wait, he has another suggestion. Since the kids in some schools are not doing as well as others...just change the teachers.

    Yeah...this guy has all the answers. I guess that's why you're speechless.

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  2. It is VERY INTERESTING to juxtapose this video with the PA teacher who badmouths kids on her blog. Why on earth should kids respect the system? The system doesn't respect them.

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  3. @Lisa Cooley, who is the PA teacher and what is her blog url?

    As far as respect, I think many of us know it's not realistic to expect kids, teachers, or their parents to respect a system that rewards conformity and but never measures creativity or values compassion or encourages initiative.

    As educators the best we can hope for is to provide opportunities for students that enable us to value one another.

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  4. I think it's counterproductive to lay blame on individuals in a system that is dysfunctional. Teachers, students, even administrators. I can say that if my kids were going to be taught by this woman, I'd move to a different district....at the same time, I can't lay blame in her for the fact that she exists in a system that doesn't allow teachers to succeed.

    Pa. teacher strikes nerve with 'lazy whiners' blog

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110216/ap_on_hi_te/us_teacher_suspended_blog

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  5. @Lisa Cooley, wow! Thank you for bringing that story to my attention. I need to find that teacher and tell her to read some John Taylor Gatto, Ivan Illich, or watch War on Kids or Race to Nowhere. Her kids are rebelling. They're trying to start a revolution and a lot of us understand why.

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  6. Did you read the comments? All who commented praised her.

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  7. Why was he laughing at the fact that he was basically telling students, "Since we can't make you better, we'll extend the day and the school year. Then maybe you'll be so miserable you'll drop out and we'll be able to teach the good kids." That's what I heard at least! Wow! I would love for someone to come and talk my students like that! They would rip them a new one! We've started TED lunches at our school and boy are students starting to think about the education system!

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  8. inspiring? more like perspiring ...

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