The Purpose of Education

From an essay written by Martin Luther king, Jr for his college newspaper in 1947:

"At this point I often wonder whether or not education is fulfilling its purpose. A great majority of the so-called educated people do not think logically and scientifically. Even the press, the classroom, the platform, and the pulpit in many instances do not give us objective and unbiased truths. To save man from the morass of propaganda, in my opinion, is one of the chief aims of education. Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the true from the false, the real from the unreal, and the facts from the fiction. The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals."

Critical Thinking: "Nigger" Edition

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Mark Twain Controversy
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

Thank you, Larry Wilmore!  Best defense of Huckleberry Finn, ever!  Whenever I hear about this controversy my mind flashes to that scene in "The Hobart Shakespearians" where the class is reading the scene in Huckleberry Finn, in which Huck decides he will go to hell to save his friend Jim.  Every fifth grader in that class in openly weeping.  And there are people that think kids can't handle it?  Whatever.  It's essential.

The Hobart Shakespearians

Dragon*Con 2010

I shook hands with James Randi!  That was probably my highlight for the whole weekend.  He is also known as James "The Amazing" Randi, the magician.  He is probably the most influential skeptical activist ever and is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF).  It was truly an honor.

I also shook hands and chatted with Joe Nickell, a leading paranormal investigator for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.  He likes to joke that he's been in "more haunted houses than Casper" but of course has yet to find any compelling evidence for ghosts.  He's the nicest guy ever.

I met  Daniel Loxton and got him to sign my Evolution book. He's the editor of Junior Skeptic Magazine and does most of the writing and illustrating.  Ok, maybe he's the nicest guy ever.

I also interacted with George Hrab, got a hug from the amazing Kylie Sturgess of PodBlack Cat blog, Skeptic Zone and Token Skeptic fame and Rebecca Watson, among other awesome Skepchicks.

And I can't say enough good things about the Atlanta Skeptics who run this thing.  All volunteer and all amazing.

I sat in on another fun episode of the Australian Mystery Investigators.  This is great for getting ideas on just how exactly to teach critical thinking to younger kids.  Show them cool stuff and ask thoughtful questions.  Richard Saunders kept asking, "How could I test this?"  "Can we all be tricked?"  "So does that prove anything?"  A great show and great interactions for the kids.  The covered optical illusions, dowsing, psychic abilities, and even a bit of consumer protection with their Fabulous Amazing Kinetic Electricity device.  Adults need to see this too!

The highlight talk for me was "I Very Much Doubt That!" a talk from James Randi.  The ballroom was packed.  I don't think anyone knew what a huge draw Randi would be.  He got a standing ovation just walking into the room.  He just sat and talked and answered questions but he tells them so well and is so inspiring.  He reported doing well after his chemotherapy due, he winked, to "a little thing called modern medical science."  He discussed the particulars of his famous $1 million dollar challenge if evidence can be found for paranormal abilities.  At another talk he was involved in, the moderator asked the audience of skeptics to raise their hand if they would be happy if he had to give the money away--if compelling scientific evidence could be found for some paranormal ability.  All hands went up.

I also attended the talk "Spotlight on Adam Savage" which was one hour with the Mythbuster in a wide-raging, funny, insightful, and intelligent talk.  He said they had no idea that the show would be embraced by kids and teachers and that he's glad they didn't because if they were shooting for that audience they probably would have messed up.  Now there's a commercial free version on cable due to the STEM initiatives to get kids interested in science.  It's called Head Rush and is hosted by Kari Byron.

Another fun one was "How to Raise a Mad Scientist" put on by the National Science Center's Fort Discovery folks.  They did a number of explosive and fun science experiments you can do with kids using around-the-house or very cheap stuff.  Awesome.

I went to the Astronomy Cast Live! podcast and heard all about the funding issues at NASA.  I wish there was a way that the federal government could only be in charge of funding, but not how the money is spent.  Then we wouldn't have the change in administration whiplash we have to suffer every four to eight years.  Of course, I wish the same thing about education!  Just give us the money and let us figure out how to spend it.  Leave the politicians out of it.

A surprisingly moving discussion was the "Raising Skeptical Geeks" panel.  The panel included Jamie Ian Swiss, Daniel Loxton, Adam Savage, Barabra Dresher and more.  It also included Will Philips' mother.  He's the 10-year-old who decided to quit standing for the pledge in his classroom in Arkansas because until gay people can marry, he decided, then "we don't have liberty and justice for all."  There were some great comments on bullying and then she told her story.  He's now being home schooled because not only the kids but the teacher's and administrators were awful to him and his family for "all the gay stuff."  Nice.

The last big panel I just had to see was "Skepticism in Education."  It was moderated by JREF president D. J. Grothe and included Matt Lowry (The Skeptical Teacher), Daniel Loxton (Jr. Skeptic), Dr. Pamela Gay (Astronomy Cast), Barbara Drescher (ICBS Everywhere), Kylie Sturgess, (PodBlack Cat) and Michael Blanford (Director of Educational Programs at the JREF).  Matt and Kylie get extra points for mentioning the great work of school librarians!  Some of the main points they discussed will not be a surprise to anyone interested in teaching real critical thinking.  They talked of teaching students to use multiple lines of evidence.  They talked of there being more than one way to an answer.  They talked of letting students follow their enthusiasm and mess with things to see what they can come up with, that, as Drescher put it, "The natural world is discoverable."  My two favorite quotes:  "Kids dig monsters!" from Loxton and "I like to ask my students what is a unit of chi?" from Lowry.

A great, thoughtful and inspiring round of discussions.  Check out their sites for more.

Astronomy Cast

James Randi Educational Foundation

Joe Nickell

Junior Skeptic Magazine

Mystery Investigators

National Science Center

PodBlack Cat

Skepchicks

The Skeptic Zone

Skeptrack 2010

Token Skeptic

Critical Thinking Sunday: 2012 Edition

Neil de Grasse Tyson debunks the silly 2012 doomsday myth in a provocative video from the World Science Convention.  And he does it well.

"As an educator,it's my duty to empower you to think so that you can go forth and think accurate thoughts about how the world is put together inoculating you against the charlatans out there who'll exploit your ignorance on anything they possibly can."

Graduation: Words of Wisdom (like being a geek AND a nerd)

Yesterday was graduation but I couldn't afford the cost or the time for the drive.  It's ok, I walked for my high school diploma and my bachlor's degree in English and American Literature from New College of Florida and my Master's degree in Early Childhood Education from Georgia State University.  I think the University of Georgia will forgive me for missing out on my Specialist in Education in, well, I'm not sure what the degree is in.  They changed the name.  We call it School Library Media but the piece of paper will either say Educational Psychology & Instructional Technology or it might say Learning, Design & Technology.

I don't really care.  I have a job as a librarian where I can commence to follow Dr. Kakalios' advice to become both a geek and a nerd!  Below are links to his convocation and some of the best graduation commencement speeches I've seen.  I know I've probably liked to them all individually as I've come across them, but it's nice to have them all in one place.  Dr. K's is short--less than 8 minutes.  The rest are longer: 15-20 or so.

So bookmark this page and check them out when you get time or need the inspiration.

Thanks!

James Kakalios, "You must be simultaneously a geek and a nerd," U. of Minn. Convocation, 2009

Robert Krulwich, "Tell Me A Story," California Institute of Technology, 2008

J. K. Rowling, "The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination," Harvard, 2008

Margaret Edson at Smith College, 2008

Steve Jobs at Stanford, 2005

(image cc flickr)

School as Reality-Free Zone

This essay showed up in my local paper this morning: 2 limit txtN, jst taK awy ph. (English Translation: To limit texting, just take away phone).

Here is the comment I posted:

"I think it would be far more interesting and useful to use the phones for instant polling, backchannel responses, and finding other ways to embrace and teach ethical use of a technology they are clearly excited about than to simply try to remove them. Why should school be a reality-free zone? Think of the phones as an opportunity in information technology teaching and ethical use. Plato made the same disparaging remarks about new-fangled book printing technology thinking it would lead to the inability of students to remember anything or to be indoctrinated with dangerous ideas. Perhaps in the not-too-distant future we will look as absurd for wanting to try to ban a ubiquitous communication tool in our schools."

Is National Standardization the Answer?

One Classroom, From Sea to Shining Sea Susan Jacoby

"The real question is whether anything, in the current polarized political climate, can be done about educational disparities that are inseparable from our fragmented system of public schooling. I can imagine at least three baby steps that would pave the way for success."

The Texas Textbook Hubbub Steven Novella

"The Texas BoE is a depressing spectacle – they represent the absolute worst example of abusing authority to promote a personal ideology, betraying the public trust to promote instead high educational standards. But perhaps the spectacle can be put to good use, focusing attention on the broader problem of the quality of education in the US and potential solutions. We need better and more uniform standards, and better textbooks."

Texas: Just Secede Already

The Enlightenment Goes Dark Carl Zimmer

The War On Facts onegoodmove

Dear Other 49 States,

There's an easy fix to this problem. Don't buy textbooks. I mean I could hardly teach from a history textbook with a straight face after reading Lies My Teacher Told Me anyway. And think of the savings! We could use the books in the library instead and have a much more interesting discussion. Remember, our job is to teach student how to think, not what to believe. That's the main thing those yahoos on the Texas BOE have forgotten.

Image created by Dr. Phil Plait, back when this same group of yahoos were trying to mess with evolution.

*update: Dr. Plait has his own reaction to the Texas BOE, with updated graphic!

Not that You Needed MORE Reasons to Avoid AR

But here are 18 Reasons Not to Use AR (via Mark Pennington at the TeacherLibrarian Ning).

Last week I posted on some questionable practices regarding the shelving of AR books in school libraries. I didn't even say that many bad things about the program itself, other than to point out some compelling evidence that it's not really effective. Even Jim Trelease, who had a relatively balanced view of the program in his Read-Aloud Handbook now sees "more negatives than positives" and collects some damning evidence as well.

I got a lot of comments for that post, so here's some more meat to chew on.

The original article by Mr. Pennington has much more description, so do check it out, bookmark it, and share it around. Some of the arguments are stronger than others, but you can see that in these economically tight times, the expense of AR is hardly justified when the benefits are questionable, so many questions remain, and solid evidence of effectiveness is lacking.

Here's the basic list:

Book Selection

1. Using AR tends to limit reading selection to it's own books.

2. Using AR tends to limit reading selection to a narrow band of readability.

3. Using AR tends to discriminate against small publishing companies and unpopular authors.

4. Using AR tends to encourage some students to read books that most teachers and parents would consider inappropriate for certain age levels.

Reader Response

5. Using AR tends to induce a student mindset that "reading is a chore," and "a job that has to be done."

6. Using AR tends to replace the intrinsic rewards of reading with extrinsic rewards.

7. Using AR tends to foster student and/or teacher competitiveness, which can push students to read books at their frustration reading level or create problems among students.

8. Using AR tends to turn off some students to independent reading.

9. Using AR tends to turn some students into cheaters.

AR is Reductive

10. Using AR tends to supplant portions of established reading programs.

11. AR tends to train students to accumulate facts and trivia as they read in order to answer the multiple choice recall questions.

12. Using AR tends to take up significant instructional time.

13. Using AR tends to reduce the amount of time that teacher spend doing read-alouds and teaching class novels.

14. Using AR tend to make reading into an isolated academic task.

15. Using AR tends to drain resources that could certainly be used for other educational priorities.

16. Using AR tends to minimize the teaching and instructional practice in diagnostically-based reading strategies.

17. Using AR tends to limit differentiated instruction.

Research Base

18. Although a plethora of research studies involving AR are cited on the Renaissance Learning website, the research base is questionable at best.

Thanks, Mr. Pennington, for more ammo!

Is Not Public Education and Too Big and Too Important to Fail?

I usually avoid the "HuffPo," but Stephen Krashen forwarded this in his newsletter this morning and it's a good analysis of this "Race to the Top" nonsense by Chris Prevatt:

"The RTTT initiative provides $4.5 billion nationally for qualifying states. California may be eligible for up to $700 million. Based on projected estimates, for many districts this would mean eligibility to receive one-time funds equaling about 1-2% of the average operating budget over the next two to four years. So while the RTTT has been 'sold' as a major game-changing investment or "bailout" of public schools, local school districts know better.

So while Wall Street was given hundreds of billions of dollars with little to no conditions, schools are offered a fraction of the Wall Street monies with restrictive and costly mandates. Is not public education too big and too important to fail?"

There's much more so go over and give it a look-see.

Oh, and to get rid of all the nonsense, you should really install Readability. It has made my online browsing life much easier on the eyes.

Some Mayors Get It

Read the letter "Wrong Way Race" by Richmond mayor Gayle McLaughlin commending Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums.

The absolute last thing we need right now is more standards and tests.

Roundup of Awesome Stuff

My Wonderful World is a fantastic site put out by National Geographic to give us parents and teachers better geography resources. Pass it on.

The Book Whisperer has a post on a great use on a Ning in a classroom. Ironically, Ning.com is blocked in my district. Oh, well. Maybe you can try it.

Awful Library Books was on TV recently and now I have another fun blog to follow.

I also just discovered The Moth podcast. Perfect for my commute. Now I have another podcast I can't get enough of!

Distraction Devices?

Doug Johnson would like to know: "How do we deal with the distractive qualities of technology in schools?" Go to his post and answer him if you've got a good one. I'm sure it depends on if it's elementary, middle, high, or college and beyond. Different ages and technologies would lend themselves to different distractions. I've noticed this is true even without technology.

There's also the worry that the internet and all this texting and chatting and tweeting are all cutting us off from the real live, face to face people and groups in front of us. We're old to "get a first life."

But check out this great nine minute video from TED talks. It's sociologist Stephana Broadbent on how technology actually enables intimacy rather than putting us in our own little bubbles.

Now I know this isn't the same as the school distraction issue, but I think if we were a bit more open to allowing the technological chips fall where they may, we might find it's not as bad as we think it will be. I'm sure there are students using their cellphones to buy or sell drugs or whatever. however, I don't think banning cellphones is the answer. Maybe banning that kid's cell phone. But I'm also sure s/he is clever enough to use another. You may be shocked to know that I was aware of the occasional drug purchase at my own high school back in the days before cell phones and pagers. It didn't seem to be a problem to the truly motivated.

Going to graduate school for me (this time around) has been an interesting experience. This is the first time I've sat through classes in which everyone had their laptops out. Some professors apparently ban this practice. But tell me, if everyone in the class has no laptop or cell or anything other than a paper and a pencil to take notes with, how can you tell they're still not tuning you out? I know I did. I don't need a laptop with twenty-eight tabs open on my browser to zone out when you start to drone on.

It's not a competition either. I hear that one a lot too. "We have to compete with_____" (video games, texting, social networks, etc.) No. Like Ms. Broadbent points out., most of the people are probably going to quickly check on someone in their immediate circle and get back to the business of class. Like I said, this is new to me as well. I was surprised to see someone in one of my classes checking the score of a college ballgame during class last year. Then I thought, hey, s/he's more likely to pay attention now that that itch of curiosity has been scratched.

What do you think?

(image cc wikimedia)

The What Day Is It Roundup...

Teacher furlough days, a random holiday and a sinus infection and lots of grad work have left me keeping odd hours and not really knowing or caring what time or day it is. I'm too loopy to post anything if substance of my own, so here are some random links for you to think about.

Rich guy dislikes poor people, wants local kids to "lose sleep over plan to shut library"

(via boingboing)

Nothing to Fear but the Flu Itself
Dr. Paul Offit is always right.

The Uneducated American
"Education made America great. Neglect of education can reverse the process."

And finally, this is just jaw-droppingly amazing:

The Berlin Reunion

It looks like something illustrated by Shaun Tan, no?

How to Teach a Sense of Wonder

From a wonderful Independent interview with professor Richard Dawkins:

He has a clear sense of his debt to a series of inspiring mentors. An old headmaster at his school, called Sanderson, had been enormously enthusiastic about natural history. "And his spirit lived on there. My old biology teacher Ioan Thomas had come to the school specifically because of it. There was one time he came into class and asked: 'What animal feeds on hydra?' We didn't know. He went right around the whole class asking. Everybody was guessing, and then, finally, we said, 'Sir, Sir, what animal does?' And he waited and waited, and then he said, 'I don't know. And I don't think Mr Coulson does either.' He burst into the next room, got Mr Coulson and dragged him out by the arm, and he didn't know either! It was a wonderful lesson, I never forgot it and neither did anyone else: it's OK to not know the answer."

(image cc flickr)

Eugenie C. Scott, Ph.D.

One of the best moments of my Dragon*Con experience was wandering over to the wing of the Hilto where the scientific/skeptical tables were set up and browsing all the wonderful books and such. I noticed that one of my favorite organizations, the National Center for Science Education had a table set up and who was sitting there passing out flyers and patiently answering questions? Eugenie Scott herself!

This would be akin to walking up to the Star Trek table and having William Shatner be manning the booth. Or going up to the Star Wars table and having Harrison Ford sitting there. Or...ok, enough with the nerd references. You get the idea. It was shockingly cool.

I actually chatted with her for some time and signed up for the mailing list. It's amazing work they do there, and it must be amazingly hard. Somehow she keeps on fighting the good fight when having to go up against the most utter nonsense you'll ever want to hear. She's written books too, people! And edited this classic.

Such intelligence, friendliness and poise. I look to her as a role model of education. A true teacher ninja.

Do check out their site and support the teaching of science in our classroms.

Awesome Australians!

One of the best parts about the science and skeptical conference track at Dragon*Con this year was the presence of some fantastic educators from Australia. I've gone on and on about the Podblack Cat blog before and and some of the great resources she shares. She was joined by Richard Saunders and Dr. Rachel Dunlop and others from The Skeptic Zone (which also has educational resources).

These guys are amazing, friendly, fun and so nice. One of the highlights of the conference was seeing Richard and Dr. Rachel do a show for the kids which included magic and science to get them using their critical thinking skills. I thanked Richard for this performance later and he kindly said, "Nick whatever you wish for your classroom." Oh, no worries, I will!

They traveled for 24 hours straight and were completely knackered from jet lag, yet couldn't have been more engaged or pleasant the entire weekend. This is how important it is for all of them to spread the word about the importance of teaching critical thinking and a love for science.

I am in awe.

(Oh, and in addition to the podcast, they have a blog as well.

Dr. Phil Plait, Superhero of Science

I'm not one to believe in superpowers, but Phil Plait, astronomer, educator and author of the Bad Astronomy blog almost makes me believe. He has one of the more popular blogs ever, he publishes great books like Bad Astronomy and Death From the Skies! He has a family, and he's president of the James Randi Educational Foundation. Not only that, but I would swear if I didn't know better that he was present at every single science or skeptical panel discussion at Dragon*Com and did a solo dramatic reading from his most recent book.

The guy is amazing. I learned so much from him. I share his infectious enthusiasm, but I watched him carefully because he handles even the doofiest questions with style and panache. He seems to totally not mind explaining the same things over and over and over again because he knows that while he's repeated it at three other talks, maybe this is your first time hearing it and he wants you to get it.

He doesn't say "You're wrong" or even "You're mistaken." He says, "That turns out not to be the case." I love that.

He's passionate, but not dogmatic (which is something he just posted about--the guy can't be stopped!) and his passion shines through. But he tempers the passion with a striving for polite discourse. When he sees a passionate, but angry and dogmatic argument, even if the person is right, he asks, "Who is this helping?" He's firm, but nice about it. He loves the subtitle Wil Wheaton uses on his own blog.

As he said at one panel, "We don't need more warriors, we need more diplomats."

Don't Be Afraid To Ask Questions

"Don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals."

--democratically-elected President Obama

Now that wasn't so bad, was it?

"He's a teacher! He's a teacher!"

Oh man oh man has Dragon*Con been cool this year. I'll post more about it later, obviously, But I had to mention one amazing moment. Now remember, I'm going mostly for the skeptical and science tracks because along with reading, I'm a big critical thinking ninja. When I went over to one of the Skeptic tables, mostly to introduce myself to Kylie and as soon as I said the words "I'm a teacher..." it was like an alarm sounded and the three people behind the table started rushing about, stuffing a tote full of free educational critical thinking information, shouting the quote above.

Is it sad that I was so surprised to have people excited about my profession? I just can't remember anything like that happening before.

It was a great day yesterday. I met and talked with some amazing scientists and educators and learned a ton about how to get the critical thinking message across to kids and other people. And it was fun. I think that's the key...