"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power." - Thomas Jefferson 1820

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Sunday, March 25, 2012

Creativity, Common Core, Racial Diversity (or Guilt). The Sunday Education Weekly Reader 03.25.12

Welcome to the Sunday Education Weekly Reader for 3.25.12.  This week's visual soundbites from Twitter:

  •  I didn't make the connection of "collaboration" this tweeter took away from the article.  I find it fascinating the creative genius in all students could very well be squashed by a common curriculum, common timetable for learning, and shared experiences.  What do you think after reading?...VERY GOOD article...Creativity, Critical Thinking and Collaboration key for 21st Century...How to Be Creative via


  • Will focusing on the increasing non-fiction requirement of Common Core allow indoctrination of a particular viewpoint?  "Their teacher, Sarah Brown Wessling (the 2010 National Teacher of the Year), let them choose books about those real-world topics as part of a unit on truth. Students are dissecting the sources, statistics, and anecdotes the authors use to make their arguments in books like Branded by Alissa Quart and Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich....I'm relying on different kinds of strategies and a lot more explicit teaching," she said. "We spend a lot of time talking about attributes of nonfiction, like how to read an interview. Or how to tell the difference between fact and opinion."  Read readers' opinions on Amazon about Nickel and Dimed and the questions raised about Ehrenreich's writing....is it truly factual or imbued with her own biases?  Will teachers teach students how to learn to separate the writer's voice between fact and editorializing?  Will teachers be able to conquer their own biases in this exercise?  ....Because of its emphasis in common-core , millions of teachers faced w/ increasing their use of nonfiction:


  • "We achieve more when we stop grouping people, stop guilting teachers, and start treating students as the unique individual learners that they are.  Stop with the constant focus on our differences."....Quote from the blog "The Activist Next Door"....embedded in the tweeted article....Pacific Educational Group: Radicalism for Kids, on the Taxpayers' Dime  

  

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