“The kid in the back wants me todefine ‘logic.’ The girl next to him looks bewildered. The boy in front of medutifully takes notes even though he has severe auditory processing issues anddoesn't understand a word I'm saying. Eight kids forgot their essays, but onehas a good excuse because she had another epileptic seizure last night. Theshy, quiet girl next to me hasn't done homework for weeks, ever since she wasjumped by a knife-wielding gangbanger as she walked to school. The boy next toher is … [Read more...]
Lady Gaga’s Foundation – Preventing Bullying Begins With Us
Dr. Richard Weissbourd, a member of the Dearborn Academy Professional Advisory Board, was featured in yesterday's Huff Post commenting on the importance of constructively addressing the problem of bullying.The article's focus moves from simply blaming the bully or inoculating our own children to withstand bullying or harassment. Weissbourd recommends teaching our children to go outside of themselves by finding ways to care for and about each other.Dearborn Academy's Human Dignity Program … [Read more...]
Thinking Outside of the Box of Mainstream Education
IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, is a law that cuts both ways. By mandating that students with special needs be given an appropriate education in the least restrictive environment in which they can succeed, the law recognizes both the desirability of students achieving success within or near the mainstream and the fact that for some students an education outside the mainstream will be more fruitful. Consider, also, the range of emotional functioning and the ability of … [Read more...]
How The Political Climate Is Not Promoting Student-Centered Education
Demonstrated dramatically in the case of an Atlanta school scandal, in which teachers admitted to changing test scores in order to meet the demands of the school superintendent, No Child Left Behind puts the focus in the wrong place. In the words of Dianne Ravitch, former Assistant Secretary of Education under President George H. W. Bush, the “simple minded and singular focus on test scores distorts and degrades the meaning and practice of education.”Well-formulated standards are of great use … [Read more...]
Strategies for Overcoming the Pitfalls of a Traditional Classroom Model
Aclassroom can be lifeless and boring, or even downright dangerous. Students canbe highly disrespectful, uncooperative, unmotivated, threatening, even assaultive. Teachers can be woefully out of touch with even the best ofstudents, so that these students lose their motivation, at least for theduration of this class period. A standard classroom can be a dismal place forall concerned, or a place of excitement and challenge. However, theseenvironments can change.Take thefollowing movie clips … [Read more...]
What Dumbledore and Other Can Teach Us about Positive Examples of Traditional Classroom
Stripped down to essentials, this is the basic image of a classroom with which we areall familiar. At its best, when students are actually listening and learning,and when the teacher is truly enthralled with the subject and the experience,the effect can be magic. We have only to consult our popular culture torecognize what this scene can produce in our imaginations, at least. Think of To Sir with Love, or Stand and Deliver, or even ProfessorDumbledore speaking at Hogwarts. Greatness in teaching … [Read more...]
Using Technology to Drive Student-Centered Education
During a trial in the East Auburn Community School in Auburn, Maine, a group of students were “taught to read and write using an iPad” and “another group of students were taught the ‘old fashioned’ way, using a pen and paper, it was found that in every single literacy test, students using the iPad outperformed those who did not use the iPad by a significant margin” (TabTimes, February 2012).Noting this story is important to the expanded view of student-centered education, especially in the … [Read more...]
Can a Traditional Classroom Be Student-Centered?
The image of a traditional classroom is familiar to anyone with a modern education,and it often defines the limits of what we consider when we think about schooling. In this classic image of education, the teacher is literally front-and-center and what happens largely depends on her or him. Yet, it must be noted that there is nothing inherently student-centered in the organization of a traditional classroom. The focus is on the teacher and on the information to be passed from the teacher to the … [Read more...]
What Maria Montessori Taught Us About Being ‘Student-Centered’
"Scientific observation has established that education is not what the teacher gives; education is a natural process spontaneously carried out by the human individual, and is acquired not by listening to words but by experiences in the environment. The task of the teacher becomes that of preparing a series of motives of cultural activity, spread over a specially prepared environment, and then refraining from obtrusive interference.” - Maria MontessoriThe research statement above from Maria … [Read more...]
Can A Child In India Teach You Something About Learning And Education?
When most of us think about education we assume the presence of at least one teacher and one student. More often, we imagine a teacher and a room full of students, the classic and ubiquitous model with which we are all familiar. Who of us imagines a room with no teacher?One answer to that would be Sugata Mitra, an education researcher from India who has done remarkable work in an unusual line of thinking. Mitra has made it his business to investigate a very difficult question: What can be done … [Read more...]
