Information on Education

Books

The book about the Harlem Children's Zone
The two or three books I read about TFA
- lesson: it's really hard to make a big change in a person's behavior if you only have partial control over their environment

2013 - How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character
http://www.amazon.com/How-Children-Succ ... 2E4JF6B03Z

Quote:

Q. A lot of your reporting for this book was in low-income neighborhoods. Overall, what did you learn about kids growing up in poverty?

A. A lot of what we think we know about the effect of poverty on a child’s development is just plain wrong. It’s certainly indisputable that growing up in poverty is really hard on children. But the conventional wisdom is that the big problem for low-income kids is that they don’t get enough cognitive stimulation early on. In fact, what seems to have more of an effect is the chaotic environments that many low-income kids grow up in and the often stressful relationships they have with the adults around them. That makes a huge difference in how children’s brains develop, and scientists are now able to trace a direct route from those early negative experiences to later problems in school, health, and behavior. [Nathan - I think it's all the accumulated habits that people learn while being in that environment.]

The problem is that science isn’t yet reflected in the way we run our schools and operate our social safety net. And that’s a big part of why so many low-income kids don’t do well in school. We now know better than ever what kind of help they need to succeed in school. But very few schools are equipped to deliver that help.

Q. Many readers were first exposed to your reporting on character through your article in the New York Times Magazine in September 2011, which was titled "What If the Secret to Success Is Failure?" How does failure help us succeed?

A. That’s an idea that I think was best expressed by Dominic Randolph, the head of theRiverdale Country School, an exclusive private school in the Bronx where they’re now doing some interesting experiments with teaching character. Here’s how he put it: "The idea of building grit and building self-control is that you get that through failure. And in most highly academic environments in the United States, no one fails anything."

That idea resonated with a lot of readers. I don’t think it’s quite true that failure itself helps us succeed. In fact, repeated failures can be quite devastating to a child’s development. What I think is important on the road to success is learning to deal with failure, to manage adversity. That’s a skill that parents can certainly help their children develop--but so can teachers and coaches and mentors and neighbors and lots of other people.

Q. How did writing this book affect you as a parent?

A. My wife and I became parents for the first time just as I started reporting this book, and our son Ellington is now three. Those are crucial years in a child’s development, and I spent a lot of them reading papers on the infant brain and studies on attachment and trauma and stress hormones, trying not to get too overwhelmed.

In the end, though, this research had a surprising effect: it made me more relaxed as a parent. When Ellington was born, I was very much caught up in the idea of childhood as a race--the faster a child develops skills, the better he does on tests, the better he’ll do in life. Having done this reporting, I’m less concerned about my son’s reading and counting ability. Don’t get me wrong, I still want him to know that stuff. But I think he’ll get there in time. What I’m more concerned about is his character--or whatever the right synonym is for character when you’re talking about a three-year-old. I want him to be able to get over disappointments, to calm himself down, to keep working at a puzzle even when it’s frustrating, to be good at sharing, to feel loved and confident and full of a sense of belonging. Most important, I want him to be able to deal with failure.

Articles

2008.12 - Psychological Science in the Public Interest - Learning Styles: Concepts and Evidence
http://psi.sagepub.com/content/9/3/105.abstract

2010.09 - Change Magazine - The Myth of Learning Styles
http://www.changemag.org/Archives/Back% ... -full.html

2014.02.13 - TimesHigherEducation.co.uk - Germany’s great tuition fees U-turn
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/f ... ullarticle

2012.04.13 - KQED - Do Students Really Have Different Learning Styles?
http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/04 ... ng-styles/

2013.09 - New York (Magazine) - In Conversation: Michael Bloomberg

Interviewer: On schools, given the issues involved, and the importance of the teachers union, was it bound to be contentious and hostile?
Bloomberg: I don’t blame everything on the union. The union’s job is not to educate the kids, it’s not to improve the school system; it’s to get the best working conditions, fewest hours, and the most money for its members. They will fight and die to prevent their members from ever being evaluated and pushed out of the job if the results aren’t there.

2013.12.30 - The Washington Post - Peter Thiel’s Graph of the Year
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/won ... -the-year/
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6989624

2014.04.01 - VICE - Expelled From Every Other School: Last Chance High (Episode 1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-B_kmAebbQ

http://www.quora.com/Genius-and-Geniuse ... er-in-life

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/05 ... dical-care

2014.03.12 - Bill Gates @ The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/live/events/ ... 2014/2014/
~20:00 - Bill Gates talks about education in the US. There's a lot of really good information.
- Textbook makers have a big influence on the government.
- He points out that US is one of only two countries(?) that doesn't have a single national standard.
- Other countries focus on teaching kids a few things really, really well instead of teaching a lot of different things.
- He points out that the SAT tests on a lot of things that many high school students don't learn in school.

Example of having a school abroad that teaches people who hope to work in the US:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/educa ... chool.html
- I'm thinking about doing this with Skinner: have another country where I have the school to keep down costs and not have to deal with regulation.

2014.07.28 - MIT - Institute-wide Task Force on the Future of MIT Education
The report itself: http://web.mit.edu/future-report/TaskFo ... July28.pdf
Article about the report: http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/ ... es-instead
HackerNews discussion about the article/report: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8220500

2014.08.06 - Slate - Smash the System? The dangerous plan to make college cheaper by busting “the college cartel.”

2014.08.12 - OutDoor Magazine - We Don't Need No Education (re: unschooling)
http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-ad ... -Wild.html

2014.08.13 - Slate - Why Students Prefer to Learn From a Machine

2014.08.15 - Slate - (re: Minerva) This For-Profit College Wants to Compete With the Ivies. And It’s a Brilliant Business Idea.

2014.08.16 - NYTimes Op-Ed by a UC Berkeley Prof - Teaching Is Not a Business
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/17/opini ... iness.html

2014.08.18 - NYTimes - The Challenges of ‘Higher-Education Emergencies’
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/18/world ... ncies.html

2014.08.18 - Wired - New Minecraft Mod Teaches You Code as You Play
http://www.wired.com/2014/08/learntomod/

2014.08.30 - NYTimes - With Intensive Swim Lessons, a Man Attacks His Fear of Water
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/30/nyreg ... .html?_r=1
- distract people to keep them from getting scared. Mystery/Style said the same thing.
- "Difficult cases, you need to push them."

2014.09.04 - The Atlantic - The Future of College?
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/arc ... ge/375071/
- Talks about Minerva
- IMO Minerva is way off the mark, still thinking in the old way: one professor per 10 students, charging huge amounts of money up front, etc.

2014.09.29 - Substance.com - Most People With Addiction Simply Grow Out of It: Why Is This Widely Denied?
http://www.substance.com/most-people-wi ... ied/13017/

2014.11.02 - NYT - A Natural Fix for ADHD
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/02/opini ... -adhd.html
- it has some info to think about if you're going to be trying to create a better method of education

2014.12.05 - BBC - The Australian pupils who learn via webcam
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30191416

2015.06.16 - NYT - The Rise of Student Debt for Those Who Get Degrees
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/upsho ... 0002&abg=0

Quote:

The share of B.A. recipients who borrowed for college rose to 70 percent in 2012 from 65 percent in 2004. Further, the share borrowing relatively large amounts rose sharply. Just 2 percent of the class of 2004 borrowed more than $40,000, but that rose to 8 percent for the class of 2008 and 18 percent for the class of 2012.

The increase is particularly sharp at for-profit colleges. The share of students borrowing over $40,000 rose to 48 percent in 2012 from 4 percent in 2004. Students graduating from public colleges borrow the least, with 12 percent of 2012 graduates borrowing more than $40,000, compared with 20 percent at private, nonprofit colleges.

These borrowing numbers for B.A. recipients, though higher than those of dropouts, still do not resemble the six-figure debts we hear about in the news media. To find those, we have to look to graduate students. Of the $1.2 trillion in outstanding student-loan debt, 40 percent is borrowing for graduate school. Borrowing is highest among law and medical graduates; their median debt (combined undergraduate and graduate) is $141,000 and $162,000, respectively, for 2012 graduates.

Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Is_Power_Program

2008.11 - What Do We Know About the Outcomes of KIPP Schools?
http://www.greatlakescenter.org/docs/Po ... g_Kipp.pdf

2009 - Book - Work Hard. Be Nice. (re: KIPP)
http://www.amazon.com/Work-Hard-Be-Nice ... 1565125169

Quote:

KIPP schools incorporate what Feinberg and Levin learned from America's best, most charismatic teachers: lessons need to be lively; school days need to be longer (the KIPP day is nine and a half hours); the completion of homework has to be sacrosanct (KIPP teachers are available by telephone day and night). Chants, songs, and slogans such as "Work hard, be nice" energize the program.

Teach For America (TFA)

2003 - Book - One Day, All Children.
http://www.amazon.com/One-Day-All-Child ... 3K7EP270C7

2012 - Book - A Chance to Make History
http://www.amazon.com/Chance-Make-Histo ... y_b_text_y

Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ)

2008 - Book - Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada's Quest to Change Harlem and America
http://www.amazon.com/Whatever-It-Takes ... 3K7EP270C7