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The problem with problems
A quick thought about the disconnect between how we prepare kids for work and how work actually operates:In school, problems almost always are clearly defined, confined to a single discipline, and have...
View ArticleIs getting an MFA worth the debt?
Allen Cochran of Cincinnati sent me an email the other day in which he asked an interesting question. Here’s what he wrote:“I applied to and was accepted to the The Ohio State University’s graduate...
View ArticleShould stats trump calc?
Harvey Mudd College math professor, and self-proclaimed mathemagician, Arthur Benjamin thinks so. He explains his reasoning in this fairly convincing three-minute talk.P.S. Let the record show that I...
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Is a painting worth a thousand books?
While I’m absolutely, positively in favor of colleges that assign their incoming freshman class one book to read, I’m intrigued by what the University of Pennsylvania is doing this year.As Real Clear...
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Dennis Brutus (1924 – 2009)
About a quarter of a century ago — when I was a young, impressionable Northwestern student wondering what I wanted to do with my life — I signed up for an upper-level seminar called “Writing Poetry.”...
View ArticleQuote of the day: The real reason China is laughing at the US
The new edition of Newsweek reports: “In China there has been widespread education reform to extinguish the drill-and-kill teaching style. Instead, Chinese schools are also adopting a problem-based...
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What a high school algebra teacher can teach us about innovation
Chances are that you’ve seen the handiwork of Karl Fisch. Along with Scott McLeod, he created the legendary Shift Happens videos, which have now been viewed online roughly four gazillion times. But...
View ArticleInterview exchange of the day
From Deborah Solomon’s New York Times Magazine interview with superstar physicist Brian Greene . . . SOLOMON: Do you think SAT scores define intelligence? GREENE: No. They define the capacity to answer...
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Does giving teachers bonuses improve student performance?
One of the hottest ideas in education policy these days is tying teacher pay to student performance on standardized tests. The theory is that offering up cash bonuses will prompt unmotivated and...
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What your business can learn from a 6th grade classroom
Josh Stumpenhorst, a teacher in the suburbs of Chicago, wrote to share his experience trying implement a FedEx Day, one of the stickiest ideas in the Motivation 3.0 repertoire, in his 6th grade...
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Why do we care about some things and not others?
Joe F. is a high school teacher in New York who emailed recently with a pair of interesting questions. In fact, they were so intriguing that I asked Joe if I could present them to Pink Blog readers for...
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The future of education . . . 100 years ago
The intrepid Maria Popova — BTW, if you’re not subscribing to her newsletter or following her on Twitter, you should — points to a really interesting item in How to Be a Retronaut. The Retronaut blog,...
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Warning: 1 in 5 teenagers will experiment with art
The College for Creative Studies, the excellent art and design school in Detroit, has launched one of the smartest ad campaigns I’ve seen this year. The objective: Get students (and parents) to...
View ArticleEight brief points about “merit pay” for teachers
In today’s Washington Post is another story about “merit pay” for teachers. But this one, by national education correspondent Lyndsey Layton, spends some space on my own thoughts on the topic. For...
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How to predict a student’s SAT score: Look at the parents’ tax return
This weekend, triggered by a few readers who disagreed with my assertion that socioeconomic status is a huge driver of educational attainment and performance, I decided to respond the way any nerd...
View ArticleThis might be the best 11 minutes you’ll spend today.
Seth flags this short film about this amazing project. Watch it. Seriously. P.S. Seth also has some interesting thoughts on what this film tells us about the book industry. The post This might be the...
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Friday on Office Hours: Why do some kids succeed and others fail?
That’s the question at the center of a fascinating new book by New York Times Magazine and This American Life contributor Paul Tough. It’s called How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden...
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Does the “school cliff” matter more than the fiscal cliff?
For all the yammering about the fiscal cliff, another cliff might present a more perilous danger — what the folks at Gallup call the “school cliff.” Never heard of that one? Take a look at chart below...
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