Quia is a website that allows you to access teacher-created quizzes and learning games in more than a hundred subject areas. You can track scores and student progress and create and publish your own quizzes, too. The site offers a 30-day free trial, after which you can subscribe for $49 a year. This is a great resource for visual and interactive learning. Quizzes can take the form of Jeopardy (called Challenge Board), Who Wants to be a Millionaire (called Rags to Riches), Hangman, Matching, Battleship, Concentration, word searches and more.
Also, according to Yahoo News, Teachers Are Selling Study Guides Online.
"For all those teachers who take work home at night, creating lessons they hope kids will like, the reward is a good day in class. Now there could be another payoff: cash. Teachers are selling their original lectures, course outlines and study guides to other teachers through a new Web site launched by New York entrepreneur Paul Edelman.
The site, teacherspayteachers.com, aims to be an eBay for educators. For a $29.95 yearly fee, sellers can post their work and set their prices. Buyers rate the products." Click the link above for the rest of the article.
homeschooling
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Writing and Handwriting Are Not the Same Skill
Picture a 9-year-old boy--he loves books, but hates writing. Picture him at the kitchen table with his head nearly resting on a piece of lined paper. Under his curled arm, he has written a single sentence, and now he can't think of anything else to say. Anything other than, "I hate writing. Why do we have to do this?", that is.
Now picture him at my kitchen table, because I'm talking about Xavier.
Xavier is stuck on sentence two, not because he has nothing else to say, not because he doesn't really understand the assignment but because he lost his train of thought when he shifted from the creative process of working with ideas to the physical process of working with a pencil. We call them both "writing" but they're completely different skills.
Handwriting requires hand-eye coordination and fine motor prowess, like catching a tennis ball. Reading and true writing requires you to understand language, draw inferences and follow a story or an argument to its logical conclusion--brain work. Try reading a complex story or persuasive essay while bouncing a tennis ball. Could you do it? Were you truly doing both at the same time or just switching quickly from intellectual mode to physical and back? Do you remember what you read? I know I couldn't.
Enter Neo, a small, portable, inexpensive mini-word processor that many school districts are now supplying to their elementary students for note-taking and essay writing. Neo can even administer and grade teacher-downloaded tests.
The Neo is produced by AlphaSmart, which began producing portable keyboards in schools for dysgraphic and other special ed kids. But why not every child? They're learning keyboarding at school, most type faster than they write. A product such as the Neo ensures that their ideas come across legibly and spelled correctly, so the kids can concentrate on those higher-level thinking skills we're supposed to be teaching. At least typing gives you a fighting chance to keep up with a brain that's moving faster than your pencil can go.
"But they'll never learn to spell if they use spell-check!" "They'll never learn to write properly if all they do is type!" Not so. Even the best spell-checker will substitute "hear" for "here". (I had one that kept wanting to substitute "drachma" for drama.) So knowing your homonyms and homophones will still be an essential skill. And spell-check is no help at all for replacing missing words.
As for learning proper handwriting, it is true handwriting improves with practice, up to a point. DH used to have perfect handwriting, until he started writing out prescriptions and signing his name hundreds of times a day. Now his seventeen-letter name is down to seven and even my scribbled signature is more legible than his.
So when you're confronted with a kid who "hates writing," probe a little more. Do they easily dictate more complex ideas than you ever see on the page? Is his (it's nearly always a boy who says this) primary complaint that it "takes to long"? Does he have any keyboarding skills? (Stopping to hunt and peck is just as disruptive as stopping to draw the letters.) If the answer to these questions is no, some more teaching about story structure or developing an argument may be in order. But if the answer is yes, for goodness sake, give the kid a keyboard and leave the fine motor work for gym class.
handwriting
Now picture him at my kitchen table, because I'm talking about Xavier.
Xavier is stuck on sentence two, not because he has nothing else to say, not because he doesn't really understand the assignment but because he lost his train of thought when he shifted from the creative process of working with ideas to the physical process of working with a pencil. We call them both "writing" but they're completely different skills.
Handwriting requires hand-eye coordination and fine motor prowess, like catching a tennis ball. Reading and true writing requires you to understand language, draw inferences and follow a story or an argument to its logical conclusion--brain work. Try reading a complex story or persuasive essay while bouncing a tennis ball. Could you do it? Were you truly doing both at the same time or just switching quickly from intellectual mode to physical and back? Do you remember what you read? I know I couldn't.
Enter Neo, a small, portable, inexpensive mini-word processor that many school districts are now supplying to their elementary students for note-taking and essay writing. Neo can even administer and grade teacher-downloaded tests.
The Neo is produced by AlphaSmart, which began producing portable keyboards in schools for dysgraphic and other special ed kids. But why not every child? They're learning keyboarding at school, most type faster than they write. A product such as the Neo ensures that their ideas come across legibly and spelled correctly, so the kids can concentrate on those higher-level thinking skills we're supposed to be teaching. At least typing gives you a fighting chance to keep up with a brain that's moving faster than your pencil can go.
"But they'll never learn to spell if they use spell-check!" "They'll never learn to write properly if all they do is type!" Not so. Even the best spell-checker will substitute "hear" for "here". (I had one that kept wanting to substitute "drachma" for drama.) So knowing your homonyms and homophones will still be an essential skill. And spell-check is no help at all for replacing missing words.
As for learning proper handwriting, it is true handwriting improves with practice, up to a point. DH used to have perfect handwriting, until he started writing out prescriptions and signing his name hundreds of times a day. Now his seventeen-letter name is down to seven and even my scribbled signature is more legible than his.
So when you're confronted with a kid who "hates writing," probe a little more. Do they easily dictate more complex ideas than you ever see on the page? Is his (it's nearly always a boy who says this) primary complaint that it "takes to long"? Does he have any keyboarding skills? (Stopping to hunt and peck is just as disruptive as stopping to draw the letters.) If the answer to these questions is no, some more teaching about story structure or developing an argument may be in order. But if the answer is yes, for goodness sake, give the kid a keyboard and leave the fine motor work for gym class.
handwriting
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Sounds like Publicly Funded Homeschooling to Me
And that's a good thing! It's hard to argue with a 95% graduation rate and everyone of those graduates going to college! Denver Public Schools might quibble about how seniors do on their state test, but if the kids are getting into college despite their scores, perhaps that casts doubt on the efficacy or necessity of the test, hm?
Meet the Met: A School Success Story
homeschooling
Meet the Met: A School Success Story
homeschooling
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Are Those Alarm Bells Ringing, or Is it Just Me?
Apparently, it's just me. With Wolfie's report card (he made the B Honor Roll for the year. Yay, Wolfie!), we got a report comparing his standardized reading test scores from last year and this year. His score dropped 5 percentage points. The report states that: "Growth in grades 4 through 8 averages about 4 DRP units per year, so you should be pleased with your progress if your growth was 4 DRP units or more." His "growth" was -3!
I don't know, maybe I'm just a pushy parent, but I think negative growth is worth a call home. Maybe even an action plan? Granted, his instructional level of comprehension is still above college freshman, even with the backward slide, but still. Shouldn't he at least be holding steady?
The only conclusion I can draw is that middle school is making him dumber, either actively or passively by boring him out of his tree and breaking his spirit such that he just didn't care how he did on this test. Either way, I'm glad he's not going back there in the fall.
I don't know, maybe I'm just a pushy parent, but I think negative growth is worth a call home. Maybe even an action plan? Granted, his instructional level of comprehension is still above college freshman, even with the backward slide, but still. Shouldn't he at least be holding steady?
The only conclusion I can draw is that middle school is making him dumber, either actively or passively by boring him out of his tree and breaking his spirit such that he just didn't care how he did on this test. Either way, I'm glad he's not going back there in the fall.
What Guys Read, Part II (And Girls, too!)
No reading list for elementary school kids is complete without Terry Deary's Horrible Histories, Horrible Science, Dead Famous (biographies), Murderous Maths, Wild Lives, The Knowledge, Twisted Tales and Horrible Geography series. Around 100 in all, each approximately 200 pg paperback explores a single subject in all its grisy, squishy, exciting glory, with funny illustrations and light, irreverent prose. They're pitched at age 8 and up but entertaining enough for older kids and accessible for anyone reading chapter books. I should mention the books are well-researched, in the "You can't make this stuff up" vein. The Cut-Throat Celts, for example, includes quotes from Roman historians and so could qualify as educational reading. ;-)
I'd brought home the Cut-Throat Celts and the Blitzed Brits from my last trip to London, and handed one to Xavier yesterday to see if he'd like to get some more. (Always looking for something Xavier will read.) He got to the second page before chortling, "Oh, yeah!" Celtic history's not his thing, even with the human sacrifice left in, but he picked out several Horrible Science and The Knowledge books.
For a complete list of titles, consult Hoagies. These books are published in England, but some can be found on Amazon and quite a number on ebay. Watch out for shipping charges from the UK--they'll significantly increase the price of the book, particularly since the dollar is so weak against the pound right now. One ebay seller offered a book for a penny but shipping was $14. Amazon.UK wanted $12.85 to ship one book, plus an additional $5.50 shipping per additional book in the order. Since the books themselves only cost $9, not to mention being quite thin and paperback, I didn't think this was much of a deal.
What Guys Read
I'd brought home the Cut-Throat Celts and the Blitzed Brits from my last trip to London, and handed one to Xavier yesterday to see if he'd like to get some more. (Always looking for something Xavier will read.) He got to the second page before chortling, "Oh, yeah!" Celtic history's not his thing, even with the human sacrifice left in, but he picked out several Horrible Science and The Knowledge books.
For a complete list of titles, consult Hoagies. These books are published in England, but some can be found on Amazon and quite a number on ebay. Watch out for shipping charges from the UK--they'll significantly increase the price of the book, particularly since the dollar is so weak against the pound right now. One ebay seller offered a book for a penny but shipping was $14. Amazon.UK wanted $12.85 to ship one book, plus an additional $5.50 shipping per additional book in the order. Since the books themselves only cost $9, not to mention being quite thin and paperback, I didn't think this was much of a deal.
What Guys Read
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Fun (and...shhh...educational) Site for Kids
I found this awesome site this morning. ExploreLearning.com has over 300 "gizmos"--interactive, web-based games/simulations--that teach concepts in middle and high school math and science. It's particularly well-suited to visual and kinesthetic learners and works equally well for homeschool/after-schoolers/individual learners and class learning via computer/media lab.
ExploreLearning has already correlated their gizmos with major textbooks and state curriculum standards, so homeschoolers who are worried about keeping up with the public schools can be sure they're covering everything they need to. Just click on your state, the standards are copied word-for-word with the list of appropriate gizmos just beneath. The gizmos all come with five or so assessment questions at the end of the activity and reports the score to the student and to anyone designated as teacher, so you can keep track of how much your child is doing and comprehending easily.
Xavier and I played around with the Chicken Genetics gizmo and had lots of fun. You get five minutes to play without registering, which isn't quite enough time to complete an assessment. ExploreLearning does offer a free 30-day trial subscription, after that there is a subscription system available. I plan to use this to extend the boys learning come fall. Too many textbooks makes Jack a dull boy. :D
ExploreLearning has already correlated their gizmos with major textbooks and state curriculum standards, so homeschoolers who are worried about keeping up with the public schools can be sure they're covering everything they need to. Just click on your state, the standards are copied word-for-word with the list of appropriate gizmos just beneath. The gizmos all come with five or so assessment questions at the end of the activity and reports the score to the student and to anyone designated as teacher, so you can keep track of how much your child is doing and comprehending easily.
Xavier and I played around with the Chicken Genetics gizmo and had lots of fun. You get five minutes to play without registering, which isn't quite enough time to complete an assessment. ExploreLearning does offer a free 30-day trial subscription, after that there is a subscription system available. I plan to use this to extend the boys learning come fall. Too many textbooks makes Jack a dull boy. :D
Unschooling through the Sudbury Valley School
From Education: Class Dismissed in Psychology Today:
"Summary: It's every modern parent's worst nightmare—a school where kids can play all day. But no one takes the easy way out, and graduates seem to have a head start on the information age. Welcome to Sudbury Valley.
"I've learned a lot about how my mind works by paying attention to how I unicycle," Ben declared in preparation for high school graduation. And from the time he was 12, Ben paid attention to nothing so much as unicycling. When students elsewhere were puzzling over, say, the periodic table, Ben, along with a handful of schoolmates, was mostly struggling up and racing down New England mountainsides, dodging rocks, mud and other obstacles. His "frantic fights to maintain balance" demanded both deep focus and moment-to-moment planning. But they gave him something missing from most classrooms today—a passion for pursuing challenges and inhaling the skills and information (to say nothing of the confidence) to master life's complexities.
At Sudbury Valley School, there's no other way to learn. The 38-year-old day facility in Framingham, Massachusetts is founded on what comes down to a belief about human nature—that children have an innate curiosity to learn and a drive to become effective, independent human beings, no matter how many times they try and fail. And it's the job of adults to expose them to models and information, answer questions—then get out of the way without trampling motivation. There are no classrooms per se, although students can request instruction on any subject or talk to any staffer any time about an interest. There aren't even grades. From overnight hiking trips to economics classes to weekly school meetings at which all matters—including my visit—are discussed and voted on by students and staff, all activities are age-mixed." ...
(Click the link above for the rest of the article.)
"Summary: It's every modern parent's worst nightmare—a school where kids can play all day. But no one takes the easy way out, and graduates seem to have a head start on the information age. Welcome to Sudbury Valley.
"I've learned a lot about how my mind works by paying attention to how I unicycle," Ben declared in preparation for high school graduation. And from the time he was 12, Ben paid attention to nothing so much as unicycling. When students elsewhere were puzzling over, say, the periodic table, Ben, along with a handful of schoolmates, was mostly struggling up and racing down New England mountainsides, dodging rocks, mud and other obstacles. His "frantic fights to maintain balance" demanded both deep focus and moment-to-moment planning. But they gave him something missing from most classrooms today—a passion for pursuing challenges and inhaling the skills and information (to say nothing of the confidence) to master life's complexities.
At Sudbury Valley School, there's no other way to learn. The 38-year-old day facility in Framingham, Massachusetts is founded on what comes down to a belief about human nature—that children have an innate curiosity to learn and a drive to become effective, independent human beings, no matter how many times they try and fail. And it's the job of adults to expose them to models and information, answer questions—then get out of the way without trampling motivation. There are no classrooms per se, although students can request instruction on any subject or talk to any staffer any time about an interest. There aren't even grades. From overnight hiking trips to economics classes to weekly school meetings at which all matters—including my visit—are discussed and voted on by students and staff, all activities are age-mixed." ...
(Click the link above for the rest of the article.)
Why Study German?
Among other things, it might make you a champion speller! Check out this San Francisco Chronicle article by Dan Hamilton, Dean of Waldsee, the German language camp at Concordia Language Villages: Oh, the weltschmerz of it all!
Monday, June 19, 2006
For the Little Chemist in Your Life
The American Chemical Society has a cool website called Chemistry.org which offers activities (both experiments and crafts), interviews with working chemists (in a Flat Stanley kind of way) and other information in a elementary school kid-friendly format.
For older kids, the ACS offers a magazine called ChemMatters, "Demystifying everyday chemistry for high school students and teachers for over 23 years." The site offers free teacher's guides in Word or PDF format. You can also get the last 20 years worth of magazines on CD for $25! The April 2006 issue features the following stories: (click the link for a pdf sample version including "oil and water don't mix," "The dog at my homework," "Biomimicry," and the links page):
"In the April 2006 Issue...
Question From the Classroom
why do water and oil not mix?
ChemSumer 4
The Dog Ate My Homework and Other Gut-Wrenching Tales
Midge, a fun-loving dalmation has a taste for paper. When she eats $180 in cash and checks, can it be recovered?
Sneeze and Wheeze 7
Learning how allergic reactions occur is often the key to living with and controlling the misery they create.
Bling Zinger ... The Lead Content of Jewelry 11
Could your jewelry make you sick? For one small child, the answer is yes.
GreenChem
Biomimcry — Where Chemistry Lessons Come Naturally 15
From spiders to beetles to mussels, some chemists turn to nature for inspiration.
Nanomotors 18
Some synthetic and others natural, these tiny motors are similar to the motors in your favorite household appliances.
Chem.matters.links 20"
I went ahead and ordered a year's subscription for Xavier--at $14 it's hard to beat the price--and hopefully it will allow him to "keep his scientific knowledge balanced" while he's studying astronomy this year. LOL Now I've got to go read my sample issue...
ALSO, for the more experienced chemistry student, there's a cool experiment in Popular Science where you can make nylon fiber in your own home!
For older kids, the ACS offers a magazine called ChemMatters, "Demystifying everyday chemistry for high school students and teachers for over 23 years." The site offers free teacher's guides in Word or PDF format. You can also get the last 20 years worth of magazines on CD for $25! The April 2006 issue features the following stories: (click the link for a pdf sample version including "oil and water don't mix," "The dog at my homework," "Biomimicry," and the links page):
"In the April 2006 Issue...
Question From the Classroom
why do water and oil not mix?
ChemSumer 4
The Dog Ate My Homework and Other Gut-Wrenching Tales
Midge, a fun-loving dalmation has a taste for paper. When she eats $180 in cash and checks, can it be recovered?
Sneeze and Wheeze 7
Learning how allergic reactions occur is often the key to living with and controlling the misery they create.
Bling Zinger ... The Lead Content of Jewelry 11
Could your jewelry make you sick? For one small child, the answer is yes.
GreenChem
Biomimcry — Where Chemistry Lessons Come Naturally 15
From spiders to beetles to mussels, some chemists turn to nature for inspiration.
Nanomotors 18
Some synthetic and others natural, these tiny motors are similar to the motors in your favorite household appliances.
Chem.matters.links 20"
I went ahead and ordered a year's subscription for Xavier--at $14 it's hard to beat the price--and hopefully it will allow him to "keep his scientific knowledge balanced" while he's studying astronomy this year. LOL Now I've got to go read my sample issue...
ALSO, for the more experienced chemistry student, there's a cool experiment in Popular Science where you can make nylon fiber in your own home!
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Way Cool Robot Kits for Boys and Girls!
...PicoCricket Kit... Provides a High-Tech Spin on Crafts
By Michel Marriott
THE NEW YORK TIMES
At first blush, the PicoCricket Kit resembles a plastic box of arts and crafts supplies, crammed with colored felt, pipe cleaners, cotton and Styrofoam balls.
But this is a craft kit for the digital age. It includes electronic sensors, motors, sound boxes, connecting cables and a palm-size, battery-powered, programmable computer.
By combining the traditional materials with high-tech ones, children as young as 9 can invent interactive jewelry, fanciful creatures that dance, musical sculptures and more, said Mitchel Resnick, an assistant professor of learning research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab.
Resnick, whose work with children and learning at the Media Lab helped the Lego Group create its highly successful Mindstorms robotic construction kits in 1998, said he wanted to produce something in which the emphasis was not on the building of mechanical objects.
Instead, he said he was more interested in encouraging the creation of something artistic, and delivering a technology and programming language that would let young people take more control of how their creations would behave.
“The hope is to get people started with simple projects and let their imaginations run wild,” Resnick said. “I do think young people are very quick to dive in and experiment.” The PicoCricket Kits, he said, “are designed to encourage that sort of experimentation.”
One of the PicoCricket guides, for instance, instructs users on how to turn a birthday cake made mostly of felt, cardboard and drinking straws into an ingeniously interactive one, a cake that can be programmed to shut off the lights in its electrical candles when someone blows on them.
With a few adjustments in the cake’s programming, its artificial candles will even flicker before they go out. With more programming tweaks, the cake can play birthday tunes or be joined with another homemade contraption that will toss confetti into the air.
The $250 kit is the first effort of the Playful Invention Co., or PICO, a Montreal-based company of which Resnick is a co-founder; Lego is a financial backer. (The kit will be available next month from www.picocricket.com, where orders are now being accepted.)
Besides all the parts, the kit includes building guides printed on double-sided placemats, but little more in terms of instructions.
Its central tool is PicoBlocks software, a point-and-click, drop-and-drag programming language. It appears like colored puzzle pieces that can be arranged and combined on a computer screen (PC and Mac) with a mouse. Stringing the labeled pieces together into interlocking sequences can create simple or complex commands.
A USB “beamer,” which is plugged into the computer, transmits the commands to the PicoCricket computer through a series of flashing lights. Motors and sensors are plugged into the PicoCricket, which then performs according to the programming stored in its solid-state memory.
The PicoCricket’s core technology, Resnick said, dates from the 1980s, when MIT and Lego were developing the programmable Lego brick, which led to Mindstorms.
“Putting kids in control is what’s so important to us,” Resnick said, noting that girls as well as boys are drawn to the kit’s creative engineering, according to MIT’s research and workshops globally.
Other developers, too, are producing more open-ended building kits aimed at letting young people create and program their own computerized designs.
The Vex Robotics Design System, developed last year by Innovation First and RadioShack, was created to spur young people to have fun while being inventive. Along the way, many are given hands-on lessons in how mathematics, physics and computer programming can be useful and practical, said Joel Carter, vice president for marketing at Innovation First, a robotics company in Greenville, Texas.
Vex robot kits include instructions, but they encourage young people — generally high school age and older — to tackle problems. “Talk to the average high school students, they are a lot smarter,” Carter said. “They like open-ended problems, and a lot like to take the tools that are available to solve open-ended problems.”
The Vex starter kit, which costs $300, includes more than 500 parts, enough to build remote-controlled robots as well as programmable ones, Carter noted. Programming, he said, is written in easyC, a graphical variant on the C language used by professional programmers.
“It is a cool tool that works with Vex,” he said of easyC, which works on Windows-based personal computers. “It makes Vex accessible and demystifies programming. Relatively young kids can program robots to get them to do what they want them to.”
The programming is transferred to the robot’s microprocessor by way of a serial cable plugged into the computer.
VexLabs systems, which offers more than 20 accessories (including the easyC programming kit, sold separately for $99), have recently been acquired by Innovation First (www.vexlabs.com). This means, Carter said, that the robotics kits will not be sold exclusively in RadioShack stores, but also through other channels.
He also noted that Carnegie Mellon University had developed a curriculum that uses Vex robotics to teach math and sciences.
David Greenbaum, owner of Robot Village, a robotics store and workshop on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, said the attraction of young people to robotics was only natural.
“These are such exciting times for kids when they can see robots all around them doing things like exploring the oceans and outer space, and helping the sick and elderly in hospitals,” he said. “They want to be a part of that. Learning robotics technology skills gives them a big advantage in unlocking their future possibilities.”
Homemade robots have become such a hot topic lately that Mark Frauenfelder, editor in chief of Make magazine, said much of the magazine’s latest issue was devoted to guiding readers in building their own. (Click here for Make's review of PicoCricket.)
“One thing that really made a big difference is the kits,” Frauenfelder said about the rising popularity in designing, building and programming personal creations. “They have whetted people’s appetites. They see them online, other people home-brewing these really cool robots.”
One robot featured in Make is a “soccer-bot” made from a Lego Mindstorms kit that can be programmed to chase a ping-pong ball and bump it into a goal.
Caleb Chung and Bob Christopher, the co-founders of Ugobe, a robotic technology company in Emeryville, Calif., said they were developing an infant robotic dinosaur, Pleo, that they say will behave so believably that it will invite a relationship as much as play. (Chung was co-inventor of the Furby, the interactive plush toy.)
This story was published on Friday, June 9, 2006.
Volume 126, Number 27
This article originally appeared in The Tech, issue 27 volume 126. It may be freely distributed electronically as long as it includes this notice but cannot be reprinted without the express written permission of The Tech. Write to archive@the-tech.mit.edu for additional details.
By Michel Marriott
THE NEW YORK TIMES
At first blush, the PicoCricket Kit resembles a plastic box of arts and crafts supplies, crammed with colored felt, pipe cleaners, cotton and Styrofoam balls.
But this is a craft kit for the digital age. It includes electronic sensors, motors, sound boxes, connecting cables and a palm-size, battery-powered, programmable computer.
By combining the traditional materials with high-tech ones, children as young as 9 can invent interactive jewelry, fanciful creatures that dance, musical sculptures and more, said Mitchel Resnick, an assistant professor of learning research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab.
Resnick, whose work with children and learning at the Media Lab helped the Lego Group create its highly successful Mindstorms robotic construction kits in 1998, said he wanted to produce something in which the emphasis was not on the building of mechanical objects.
Instead, he said he was more interested in encouraging the creation of something artistic, and delivering a technology and programming language that would let young people take more control of how their creations would behave.
“The hope is to get people started with simple projects and let their imaginations run wild,” Resnick said. “I do think young people are very quick to dive in and experiment.” The PicoCricket Kits, he said, “are designed to encourage that sort of experimentation.”
One of the PicoCricket guides, for instance, instructs users on how to turn a birthday cake made mostly of felt, cardboard and drinking straws into an ingeniously interactive one, a cake that can be programmed to shut off the lights in its electrical candles when someone blows on them.
With a few adjustments in the cake’s programming, its artificial candles will even flicker before they go out. With more programming tweaks, the cake can play birthday tunes or be joined with another homemade contraption that will toss confetti into the air.
The $250 kit is the first effort of the Playful Invention Co., or PICO, a Montreal-based company of which Resnick is a co-founder; Lego is a financial backer. (The kit will be available next month from www.picocricket.com, where orders are now being accepted.)
Besides all the parts, the kit includes building guides printed on double-sided placemats, but little more in terms of instructions.
Its central tool is PicoBlocks software, a point-and-click, drop-and-drag programming language. It appears like colored puzzle pieces that can be arranged and combined on a computer screen (PC and Mac) with a mouse. Stringing the labeled pieces together into interlocking sequences can create simple or complex commands.
A USB “beamer,” which is plugged into the computer, transmits the commands to the PicoCricket computer through a series of flashing lights. Motors and sensors are plugged into the PicoCricket, which then performs according to the programming stored in its solid-state memory.
The PicoCricket’s core technology, Resnick said, dates from the 1980s, when MIT and Lego were developing the programmable Lego brick, which led to Mindstorms.
“Putting kids in control is what’s so important to us,” Resnick said, noting that girls as well as boys are drawn to the kit’s creative engineering, according to MIT’s research and workshops globally.
Other developers, too, are producing more open-ended building kits aimed at letting young people create and program their own computerized designs.
The Vex Robotics Design System, developed last year by Innovation First and RadioShack, was created to spur young people to have fun while being inventive. Along the way, many are given hands-on lessons in how mathematics, physics and computer programming can be useful and practical, said Joel Carter, vice president for marketing at Innovation First, a robotics company in Greenville, Texas.
Vex robot kits include instructions, but they encourage young people — generally high school age and older — to tackle problems. “Talk to the average high school students, they are a lot smarter,” Carter said. “They like open-ended problems, and a lot like to take the tools that are available to solve open-ended problems.”
The Vex starter kit, which costs $300, includes more than 500 parts, enough to build remote-controlled robots as well as programmable ones, Carter noted. Programming, he said, is written in easyC, a graphical variant on the C language used by professional programmers.
“It is a cool tool that works with Vex,” he said of easyC, which works on Windows-based personal computers. “It makes Vex accessible and demystifies programming. Relatively young kids can program robots to get them to do what they want them to.”
The programming is transferred to the robot’s microprocessor by way of a serial cable plugged into the computer.
VexLabs systems, which offers more than 20 accessories (including the easyC programming kit, sold separately for $99), have recently been acquired by Innovation First (www.vexlabs.com). This means, Carter said, that the robotics kits will not be sold exclusively in RadioShack stores, but also through other channels.
He also noted that Carnegie Mellon University had developed a curriculum that uses Vex robotics to teach math and sciences.
David Greenbaum, owner of Robot Village, a robotics store and workshop on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, said the attraction of young people to robotics was only natural.
“These are such exciting times for kids when they can see robots all around them doing things like exploring the oceans and outer space, and helping the sick and elderly in hospitals,” he said. “They want to be a part of that. Learning robotics technology skills gives them a big advantage in unlocking their future possibilities.”
Homemade robots have become such a hot topic lately that Mark Frauenfelder, editor in chief of Make magazine, said much of the magazine’s latest issue was devoted to guiding readers in building their own. (Click here for Make's review of PicoCricket.)
“One thing that really made a big difference is the kits,” Frauenfelder said about the rising popularity in designing, building and programming personal creations. “They have whetted people’s appetites. They see them online, other people home-brewing these really cool robots.”
One robot featured in Make is a “soccer-bot” made from a Lego Mindstorms kit that can be programmed to chase a ping-pong ball and bump it into a goal.
Caleb Chung and Bob Christopher, the co-founders of Ugobe, a robotic technology company in Emeryville, Calif., said they were developing an infant robotic dinosaur, Pleo, that they say will behave so believably that it will invite a relationship as much as play. (Chung was co-inventor of the Furby, the interactive plush toy.)
This story was published on Friday, June 9, 2006.
Volume 126, Number 27
This article originally appeared in The Tech, issue 27 volume 126. It may be freely distributed electronically as long as it includes this notice but cannot be reprinted without the express written permission of The Tech. Write to archive@the-tech.mit.edu for additional details.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Conceiving the Brightest Baby
What ever happened to the Repository for Germinal Choice? Also known as the Genius Sperm Bank, it was the idea of one Robert Klark Graham of San Diego to collect and provide sperm from Nobel Prize Winners and other certified geniuses to raise the level of intelligence in the gene pool, generally. See today's "Where are they now?" story on the BBC by clicking the link above.
Current thinking in the field says that the genetic components of intelligence are passed down through the mother's side alone. Of course, Graham couldn't have known this back in the 70s. It was a nice try, though.
Current thinking in the field says that the genetic components of intelligence are passed down through the mother's side alone. Of course, Graham couldn't have known this back in the 70s. It was a nice try, though.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Who Else Skipped Grades?
Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr . graduated from high school at 15.
James Watson , Nobel Prize winner in medicine, skipped grades.
Nobel physicist Charles Townes skipped grades.
Retired Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor graduated high school at 16.
Author/activist W.E.B. DuBois graduated from high school at 16.
Poet T.S. Eliot finished Harvard in three years.
SOURCE: Templeton National Report on Acceleration, University of Iowa, quoted in a sidebar in the Washington Post
James Watson , Nobel Prize winner in medicine, skipped grades.
Nobel physicist Charles Townes skipped grades.
Retired Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor graduated high school at 16.
Author/activist W.E.B. DuBois graduated from high school at 16.
Poet T.S. Eliot finished Harvard in three years.
SOURCE: Templeton National Report on Acceleration, University of Iowa, quoted in a sidebar in the Washington Post
Skipping is Good says Washington Post
Fast Learners Benefit From Skipping Grades, Report Concludes
Tuesday, June 13, 2006; Page A08
Few educators these days want to go back to the early 19th century, when often the only opportunities for learning were one-room schoolhouses or, if you were rich, private tutors. But a report from the University of Iowa says at least those students had no age and grade rules to hold them back.
What was lost in the 20th century was "an appreciation for individual differences," scholars Nicholas Colangelo, Susan G. Assouline and Miraca U.M. Gross conclude in the report, "A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America's Brightest Students." Now, the report says, "America's school system keeps bright students in line by forcing them to learn in a lock-step manner with their classmates."
The report is part of a national effort to move gifted-education programs away from keeping students in the same grades and giving them extra, enriched classes and projects. It is better, the report says, to let third-graders capable of fifth-grade work go to fifth grade. Or break out of the grade system altogether.
Some programs that serve children of all abilities, like the Montessori method for elementary schools, resist organizing grades by age and let all students choose what to learn. The acceleration advocates would prefer a case-by-case approach, letting each child reach the appropriate level, even if it means 10-year-olds in high school.
The Iowa report contradicts the widespread belief that skipping grades or heading for college at age 15 risks social trauma and psychological harm. Accelerated students are often more comfortable with students at higher levels of learning and seek out older students when denied a chance to skip grades, the report says.
James Kulik, director of the office of evaluations and examinations at the University of Michigan, said, "No other arrangement for gifted children works as well as acceleration." But many school administrators, influenced by claims that low-achieving students are hurt by tracking systems that confine them to lower-level classes, have resisted grade-skipping, Kulik said.
UCLA professor Jeannie Oakes, a leading opponent of tracking, said she agreed with the Iowa report's case-by-case approach. If a sixth-grader understands advanced mathematical concepts, she said, "the solution is to send that child to high school," not to put the child in a class with other bright sixth-graders and just call it accelerated, even if it isn't.
Tuesday, June 13, 2006; Page A08
Few educators these days want to go back to the early 19th century, when often the only opportunities for learning were one-room schoolhouses or, if you were rich, private tutors. But a report from the University of Iowa says at least those students had no age and grade rules to hold them back.
What was lost in the 20th century was "an appreciation for individual differences," scholars Nicholas Colangelo, Susan G. Assouline and Miraca U.M. Gross conclude in the report, "A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America's Brightest Students." Now, the report says, "America's school system keeps bright students in line by forcing them to learn in a lock-step manner with their classmates."
The report is part of a national effort to move gifted-education programs away from keeping students in the same grades and giving them extra, enriched classes and projects. It is better, the report says, to let third-graders capable of fifth-grade work go to fifth grade. Or break out of the grade system altogether.
Some programs that serve children of all abilities, like the Montessori method for elementary schools, resist organizing grades by age and let all students choose what to learn. The acceleration advocates would prefer a case-by-case approach, letting each child reach the appropriate level, even if it means 10-year-olds in high school.
The Iowa report contradicts the widespread belief that skipping grades or heading for college at age 15 risks social trauma and psychological harm. Accelerated students are often more comfortable with students at higher levels of learning and seek out older students when denied a chance to skip grades, the report says.
James Kulik, director of the office of evaluations and examinations at the University of Michigan, said, "No other arrangement for gifted children works as well as acceleration." But many school administrators, influenced by claims that low-achieving students are hurt by tracking systems that confine them to lower-level classes, have resisted grade-skipping, Kulik said.
UCLA professor Jeannie Oakes, a leading opponent of tracking, said she agreed with the Iowa report's case-by-case approach. If a sixth-grader understands advanced mathematical concepts, she said, "the solution is to send that child to high school," not to put the child in a class with other bright sixth-graders and just call it accelerated, even if it isn't.
A Public Homeschool Model in Santa Cruz
From the WashingtonPost.com:
Learning When, Where and How They Choose, by Valerie Strauss:
"Kaely Costanza is a ninth-grader who likes to sleep late in the mornings, rarely takes tests and attends class when she feels like it.
Yet the 14-year-old is considered by teachers to be a fine student.
Kaely is enrolled in the Santa Cruz City Public School District's Alternative Family Education home-study school. AFE allows home-schooled students from kindergarten through 12th grade to follow an individual education plan with help from their school system.
AFE students do not spend all day at home working independently; they might instead attend some classes at the school or at a nearby community college, lead teacher Ward Smith said.
AFE, and other programs like it, are an outgrowth of the home-schooling movement, which has grown in recent years as families opt out of public schools.
Administrators call the program, which began about 15 years ago, a win-win situation. It allows families to take a major role in their child's education while the school system retains the student. AFE is, in fact, the only school in the district that has not experienced declining enrollment, Smith said.
Students taking this alternative route -- 200 are currently enrolled in AFE -- are assigned a consultant teacher who helps the family write an educational contract that allows state requirements to be fulfilled while offering maximum flexibility in reaching that goal.
The kids participate in field trips, dramatic productions and other activities. "We can be very creative," Smith said.
Kaely said she wound up in AFE after kindergarten because her older sister was pushed in public school to read and write before she was ready.
One big bonus of AFE for Kaely is that she doesn't have to take tests -- which she said make her nervous -- although she knows she must pass the same high school graduation test as other students in the Santa Cruz school system to get her diploma."
More information about the AFE can be found here:
"Students in the Alternative Family Education School are considered enrolled in the Santa Cruz City School District. Each family, with the credentialed consultant teacher, determines the pace, methods, and the materials used for their child's educational program derived from the District's curriculum guidelines and state frameworks. Each student's learning goals are outlined in a contract signed by all parties involved. Student, family, and consulting teacher meet at least monthly to evaluate progress, set learning goals, plan activities, and to discuss resources and special interest courses offered by AFE. AFE provides students the opportunity to pursue an education of their own design, at their own pace. AFE also challenges each student to excel in areas of special interest, provides alternatives for students to achieve competency in basic skills, and creates a bridge between the traditional school and the community. AFE was created out of, or influenced by, a movement in education based on a homeschool model, with family involvement as key to the learning process. AFE families see the world, their community, and the people in it as their classroom."
Learning When, Where and How They Choose, by Valerie Strauss:
"Kaely Costanza is a ninth-grader who likes to sleep late in the mornings, rarely takes tests and attends class when she feels like it.
Yet the 14-year-old is considered by teachers to be a fine student.
Kaely is enrolled in the Santa Cruz City Public School District's Alternative Family Education home-study school. AFE allows home-schooled students from kindergarten through 12th grade to follow an individual education plan with help from their school system.
AFE students do not spend all day at home working independently; they might instead attend some classes at the school or at a nearby community college, lead teacher Ward Smith said.
AFE, and other programs like it, are an outgrowth of the home-schooling movement, which has grown in recent years as families opt out of public schools.
Administrators call the program, which began about 15 years ago, a win-win situation. It allows families to take a major role in their child's education while the school system retains the student. AFE is, in fact, the only school in the district that has not experienced declining enrollment, Smith said.
Students taking this alternative route -- 200 are currently enrolled in AFE -- are assigned a consultant teacher who helps the family write an educational contract that allows state requirements to be fulfilled while offering maximum flexibility in reaching that goal.
The kids participate in field trips, dramatic productions and other activities. "We can be very creative," Smith said.
Kaely said she wound up in AFE after kindergarten because her older sister was pushed in public school to read and write before she was ready.
One big bonus of AFE for Kaely is that she doesn't have to take tests -- which she said make her nervous -- although she knows she must pass the same high school graduation test as other students in the Santa Cruz school system to get her diploma."
More information about the AFE can be found here:
"Students in the Alternative Family Education School are considered enrolled in the Santa Cruz City School District. Each family, with the credentialed consultant teacher, determines the pace, methods, and the materials used for their child's educational program derived from the District's curriculum guidelines and state frameworks. Each student's learning goals are outlined in a contract signed by all parties involved. Student, family, and consulting teacher meet at least monthly to evaluate progress, set learning goals, plan activities, and to discuss resources and special interest courses offered by AFE. AFE provides students the opportunity to pursue an education of their own design, at their own pace. AFE also challenges each student to excel in areas of special interest, provides alternatives for students to achieve competency in basic skills, and creates a bridge between the traditional school and the community. AFE was created out of, or influenced by, a movement in education based on a homeschool model, with family involvement as key to the learning process. AFE families see the world, their community, and the people in it as their classroom."
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Deep Thoughts by Klaus
If knowledge is power
and power corrupts
does that mean that studying will make you evil?
and power corrupts
does that mean that studying will make you evil?
Last Day of School!!
Here's a problem with virtual school--or maybe it's just too-autonomous teenagers: my public-schooled boys' last day of school is today. Klaus wanted to finish first, so he stayed up all night taking his last unit test and final test in Geometry. Clearly he was thinking about being done and not about doing well as he ended up with 70% on each. I'm not sure that's even a C-. Mind you these are open book tests and he had until September to finish them. I could just kill him. >:|
Otoh, Wolfie finished his last quarter of public with a 3.5 GPA--enough to qualify him for the summer science camp he wanted to go to. And he didn't fail anything--Hurrah!! Way to go, Wolfie!! I guess we can unground him now.
Otoh, Wolfie finished his last quarter of public with a 3.5 GPA--enough to qualify him for the summer science camp he wanted to go to. And he didn't fail anything--Hurrah!! Way to go, Wolfie!! I guess we can unground him now.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Norman RIP
Well, we found Norman today. Some of you may remember that Stormin' Norman the Fiddler Crab ran away the second week in January. We looked and looked and couldn't find him...until today. He had made it to the far side of the room, behind the dog's crate, right in front of the door out to the porch. The door we don't use, which is why we didn't find him until now. We plan a burial at sea with the following eulogy:
Norman, you were a really cool pet. It was fun to watch you hide in your little pirate ship and storm the beach on the far side of the tank. We're sorry we didn't realize you were now big enough to climb out of your tank. And we're glad the dog didn't eat you after all. Rest in peace.
Norman, you were a really cool pet. It was fun to watch you hide in your little pirate ship and storm the beach on the far side of the tank. We're sorry we didn't realize you were now big enough to climb out of your tank. And we're glad the dog didn't eat you after all. Rest in peace.
Can Schools Change Intelligence?
An article from the June 2, 2006 Wall Street Journal: Do School Systems
Aggravate Differences In Natural Ability? I've reproduced the article below with my comments, because there were so many rebuttals to make. The author's point, or at least her position, seems to be that schools should be able to make everyone equally intelligent.
"In our mobile societies, few of this month's graduating high-school seniors have been with the same classmates for 12 years. But if you know such students, think back to the pupils who, at 5 years old, were pint-size math whizzes and spelling champs. Now match those memories with the seniors at the top of their class. You'll likely find a near-perfect match.
That raises some disturbing questions. Why doesn't 12 years of schooling raise the performance of kids who start out behind? Can you really tell which toddler is destined for Caltech?"
This is the first of a number of wrong-headed questions in this article. Schooling does raise the performance of kids--all of them are performing better academically as high school seniors than they did as kindergarteners, even if they started out behind. Achievement (performance/product-what you know) is not the same as intelligence (process-what you are capable of learning).
"For as long as there has been a science of intelligence (roughly a century), prevailing opinion has held that children's mental abilities are highly malleable, or "unstable." Cognition might improve when the brain reaches a developmental milestone, or when a child is bitten by the reading bug or suddenly masters logical thinking and problem solving.
Some kids do bloom late, intellectually. Others start out fine but then, inexplicably, fall behind."
"Inexplicably." Gifted underachievers, anyone? Schools are very good at producing those.
"But according to new studies, for the most part people's mental abilities relative to others change very little from childhood through adulthood. Relative intelligence seems as resistant to change as relative nose sizes.
One of the more striking findings comes from the longest follow-up study ever conducted in this field. On June 1, 1932, Scotland had all children born in 1921 and attending school -- 87,498 11-year-olds -- take a 75-question test on analogies, reading, arithmetic and the like. The goal was to determine the distribution of intellectual ability. In 1998, scientists at the Universities of Edinburgh and Aberdeen tracked down 101 of those students, then 77 years old, and administered the same test.
The correlation between scores 66 years apart was a striking .73. (A correlation of 1 would mean no change in rankings; a correlation of .73 is very high.) There is "remarkable stability in individual differences in human intelligence" from childhood to old age, the scientists concluded in a 2000 paper.
In the U.S., two long-running studies also show the durability of relative intelligence. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, launched in 1998, tested 22,782 children entering kindergarten. As in the Scottish study, individual differences in mental ability were clear and persistent. In math and reading, when the children were sorted into three groups by ability, ranking stayed mostly the same from kindergarten to the end of the first and third grades. Some gaps actually widened.
The National Education Longitudinal Study tested 24,599 eighth-graders on several subjects, including math and reading comprehension, in 1988 and again two and four years later. "There was a very high correlation between the scores in eighth grade and in 12th grade," says Thomas Hoffer of the National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago. Again, rankings hardly budged."
So clearly the science says that intelligence is stable over time and should be at the same distribution at age 18 as it is at age 5. But we're getting into trouble again:
"[Hoffer] suspects that the way schools are organized explains some of that. Eighth-graders who show aptitude in math or language are tracked into challenging courses. That increases the gap between them and their lower-performing peers. "It's not that [relative student performance] can't change, but that standard practices in schools work against it," says Mr. Hoffer."
Most schools abolished tracking in the 1980-90s "positive self-esteem" movement, so I doubt that had anything to do with Mr. Hoffer's study. And again, we're confusing achievement with intelligence. There is no exacerbation here. The distribution is virtually unchanged. To me this means that, while it has a slightly positive effect on achievement, school has little effect, positive or negative, on intelligence. And author Begley confirms that explanation:
"Now there is evidence that cognitive ability, or intelligence, is set before kids sit up. Developmental psychologist Marc Bornstein of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and colleagues followed children for four years, starting in infancy with 564 four-month olds. Babies' ability to process information can be tested in a so-called habituation test. They look at a black-on-white pattern until their attention wanes and they look away, or habituate. Later, they're shown the pattern again. How quickly they sense they've seen the image long enough, or have seen it before, is a measure of how quickly, accurately and completely they pick up, assimilate and recall information.
The scientists evaluated the children again at six months, 18 months, 24 months and 49 months. In every case, performance mirrored the relative rankings on the infant test, Dr. Bornstein and colleagues reported this year in the journal Psychological Science"
Fine, intelligence is set at birth and remains consistent over time. Couldn't have offered much more proof of that theory than you already have. Unless you're trying to massage the data to come up with a more-PC interpretation. Such as:
"Such stability, he says, "can entice" scientists to conclude that inborn, inherent, even genetic factors determine adult intelligence. But he believes crediting nature alone would be wrong.
For one thing, these tests don't measure creativity, gumption, character or other ingredients of success. For another, there are many cases of kids catching up, as when Mexican immigrant children in the U.S. start out with math skills well below their U.S.-born white peers but then catch up, says education researcher Sean Reardon of Stanford University. And as those familiar with management training and military training show, it's possible to turn even the most unpromising candidates into leaders."
Clearly, intelligence does not predict achievement/success. The parent of any underachieving gifted child can tell you this is true. Just as many studies as support the idea of set intelligence tell us that it's the bright-but-not-gifted high achievers with strong emotional intelligence that most consistently achieve success, as it is defined by our culture. (For an overview, click here.) These facts do not contradict the theory of set intelligence.
"That leaves the question of how current education practices (and, perhaps, parenting practices) tend to lock in early cognitive differences among children, and whether those practices can be changed in a way that unlocks every child's intellectual potential."
Argh! According to your own review of the research, intelligence is something we are born with. It does not change. And if you really can "unlock every child's intellectual potential," guess what? Everyone will perform at a higher level but there will still be a distribution of achievement and intelligence! The only way for everyone in a given high school graduating class to achieve equally is to actively dumb down the students in the top half of the class and concentrate on improving performance in the bottom half. "Actively dumb down?" you say. "That's absurd!" It is, but as the research shows, even if we do nothing with these high performing kids, they'll still end up at the top of the class. All else being equal, intelligence will not be equal. And there is nothing the schools, or the social scientists, can do about that.
Aggravate Differences In Natural Ability? I've reproduced the article below with my comments, because there were so many rebuttals to make. The author's point, or at least her position, seems to be that schools should be able to make everyone equally intelligent.
"In our mobile societies, few of this month's graduating high-school seniors have been with the same classmates for 12 years. But if you know such students, think back to the pupils who, at 5 years old, were pint-size math whizzes and spelling champs. Now match those memories with the seniors at the top of their class. You'll likely find a near-perfect match.
That raises some disturbing questions. Why doesn't 12 years of schooling raise the performance of kids who start out behind? Can you really tell which toddler is destined for Caltech?"
This is the first of a number of wrong-headed questions in this article. Schooling does raise the performance of kids--all of them are performing better academically as high school seniors than they did as kindergarteners, even if they started out behind. Achievement (performance/product-what you know) is not the same as intelligence (process-what you are capable of learning).
"For as long as there has been a science of intelligence (roughly a century), prevailing opinion has held that children's mental abilities are highly malleable, or "unstable." Cognition might improve when the brain reaches a developmental milestone, or when a child is bitten by the reading bug or suddenly masters logical thinking and problem solving.
Some kids do bloom late, intellectually. Others start out fine but then, inexplicably, fall behind."
"Inexplicably." Gifted underachievers, anyone? Schools are very good at producing those.
"But according to new studies, for the most part people's mental abilities relative to others change very little from childhood through adulthood. Relative intelligence seems as resistant to change as relative nose sizes.
One of the more striking findings comes from the longest follow-up study ever conducted in this field. On June 1, 1932, Scotland had all children born in 1921 and attending school -- 87,498 11-year-olds -- take a 75-question test on analogies, reading, arithmetic and the like. The goal was to determine the distribution of intellectual ability. In 1998, scientists at the Universities of Edinburgh and Aberdeen tracked down 101 of those students, then 77 years old, and administered the same test.
The correlation between scores 66 years apart was a striking .73. (A correlation of 1 would mean no change in rankings; a correlation of .73 is very high.) There is "remarkable stability in individual differences in human intelligence" from childhood to old age, the scientists concluded in a 2000 paper.
In the U.S., two long-running studies also show the durability of relative intelligence. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, launched in 1998, tested 22,782 children entering kindergarten. As in the Scottish study, individual differences in mental ability were clear and persistent. In math and reading, when the children were sorted into three groups by ability, ranking stayed mostly the same from kindergarten to the end of the first and third grades. Some gaps actually widened.
The National Education Longitudinal Study tested 24,599 eighth-graders on several subjects, including math and reading comprehension, in 1988 and again two and four years later. "There was a very high correlation between the scores in eighth grade and in 12th grade," says Thomas Hoffer of the National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago. Again, rankings hardly budged."
So clearly the science says that intelligence is stable over time and should be at the same distribution at age 18 as it is at age 5. But we're getting into trouble again:
"[Hoffer] suspects that the way schools are organized explains some of that. Eighth-graders who show aptitude in math or language are tracked into challenging courses. That increases the gap between them and their lower-performing peers. "It's not that [relative student performance] can't change, but that standard practices in schools work against it," says Mr. Hoffer."
Most schools abolished tracking in the 1980-90s "positive self-esteem" movement, so I doubt that had anything to do with Mr. Hoffer's study. And again, we're confusing achievement with intelligence. There is no exacerbation here. The distribution is virtually unchanged. To me this means that, while it has a slightly positive effect on achievement, school has little effect, positive or negative, on intelligence. And author Begley confirms that explanation:
"Now there is evidence that cognitive ability, or intelligence, is set before kids sit up. Developmental psychologist Marc Bornstein of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and colleagues followed children for four years, starting in infancy with 564 four-month olds. Babies' ability to process information can be tested in a so-called habituation test. They look at a black-on-white pattern until their attention wanes and they look away, or habituate. Later, they're shown the pattern again. How quickly they sense they've seen the image long enough, or have seen it before, is a measure of how quickly, accurately and completely they pick up, assimilate and recall information.
The scientists evaluated the children again at six months, 18 months, 24 months and 49 months. In every case, performance mirrored the relative rankings on the infant test, Dr. Bornstein and colleagues reported this year in the journal Psychological Science"
Fine, intelligence is set at birth and remains consistent over time. Couldn't have offered much more proof of that theory than you already have. Unless you're trying to massage the data to come up with a more-PC interpretation. Such as:
"Such stability, he says, "can entice" scientists to conclude that inborn, inherent, even genetic factors determine adult intelligence. But he believes crediting nature alone would be wrong.
For one thing, these tests don't measure creativity, gumption, character or other ingredients of success. For another, there are many cases of kids catching up, as when Mexican immigrant children in the U.S. start out with math skills well below their U.S.-born white peers but then catch up, says education researcher Sean Reardon of Stanford University. And as those familiar with management training and military training show, it's possible to turn even the most unpromising candidates into leaders."
Clearly, intelligence does not predict achievement/success. The parent of any underachieving gifted child can tell you this is true. Just as many studies as support the idea of set intelligence tell us that it's the bright-but-not-gifted high achievers with strong emotional intelligence that most consistently achieve success, as it is defined by our culture. (For an overview, click here.) These facts do not contradict the theory of set intelligence.
"That leaves the question of how current education practices (and, perhaps, parenting practices) tend to lock in early cognitive differences among children, and whether those practices can be changed in a way that unlocks every child's intellectual potential."
Argh! According to your own review of the research, intelligence is something we are born with. It does not change. And if you really can "unlock every child's intellectual potential," guess what? Everyone will perform at a higher level but there will still be a distribution of achievement and intelligence! The only way for everyone in a given high school graduating class to achieve equally is to actively dumb down the students in the top half of the class and concentrate on improving performance in the bottom half. "Actively dumb down?" you say. "That's absurd!" It is, but as the research shows, even if we do nothing with these high performing kids, they'll still end up at the top of the class. All else being equal, intelligence will not be equal. And there is nothing the schools, or the social scientists, can do about that.
Monday, June 05, 2006
Props to Xavier!
I just wanted to give a shout-out to Xavier today. He set himself three goals for this school year: to do enough Safety Patrol duties to go on the water park trip and to go to Washington D.C., and to earn the President's Education Award for maintaining a 3.5 GPA or above throughout 4th and 5th grade. He didn't get to go to D.C. but he did go on the water park trip and today he was given the President's Education Award. Way to go, Xavier! :D
Is Homework Necessary?
Fabulous article from the BBC, May 25, 2005 (okay, I'm a little slow):
Schools Try Abolishing Homework
"...Malsis School, an independent prep school in North Yorkshire, adopted such a policy two years ago.
The government regards homework as essential
Its head teacher, Christopher Lush, said: "This is not a question of banning homework as deciding it was inappropriate.
"At the end of a long, busy school day it's not necessary that children should be forced to sit down and do homework or prep.
"Being an independent school, parents and children would vote with their feet if they believed their children were being short-changed academically. This is far from being the case."
Instead of homework, the school, which has a significant boarding community, uses evenings to offer children an array of clubs and activities." ...
Unfortunately not all British schools agree. Click the link above to read the whole article.
Schools Try Abolishing Homework
"...Malsis School, an independent prep school in North Yorkshire, adopted such a policy two years ago.
The government regards homework as essential
Its head teacher, Christopher Lush, said: "This is not a question of banning homework as deciding it was inappropriate.
"At the end of a long, busy school day it's not necessary that children should be forced to sit down and do homework or prep.
"Being an independent school, parents and children would vote with their feet if they believed their children were being short-changed academically. This is far from being the case."
Instead of homework, the school, which has a significant boarding community, uses evenings to offer children an array of clubs and activities." ...
Unfortunately not all British schools agree. Click the link above to read the whole article.
Don't Want to Homeschool Yourself? Hire a Teacher!
Interesting article in today's NYT on The Gilded Age of Home Schooling:
"In what is an elite tweak on home schooling — and a throwback to the gilded days of education by governess or tutor — growing numbers of families are choosing the ultimate in private school: hiring teachers to educate their children in their own homes.
Unlike the more familiar home-schoolers of recent years, these families are not trying to get more religion into their children's lives, or escape what some consider the tyranny of the government's hand in schools. In fact, many say they have no argument with ordinary education — it just does not fit their lifestyles."
"In what is an elite tweak on home schooling — and a throwback to the gilded days of education by governess or tutor — growing numbers of families are choosing the ultimate in private school: hiring teachers to educate their children in their own homes.
Unlike the more familiar home-schoolers of recent years, these families are not trying to get more religion into their children's lives, or escape what some consider the tyranny of the government's hand in schools. In fact, many say they have no argument with ordinary education — it just does not fit their lifestyles."
Friday, June 02, 2006
Did You Bet on the Bee?
Congratulations to Katherine Close, winner of this year's Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee! What I found most interesting was that off-shore gaming companies were actually offering odds on whether the winner would be a boy or a girl or would wear glasses!
From the Houston Chronicle:
"Noble said his company thought "long and hard" before including the bee on its Web site. He decided against posting odds on individual competitors because of their ages, despite queries from some of the children's hometown newspapers.
"We didn't want to go there," Noble said. "Obviously, it's a very sensitive subject."
Thank God for small favors! And no, she does not wear glasses.
From the Houston Chronicle:
"Noble said his company thought "long and hard" before including the bee on its Web site. He decided against posting odds on individual competitors because of their ages, despite queries from some of the children's hometown newspapers.
"We didn't want to go there," Noble said. "Obviously, it's a very sensitive subject."
Thank God for small favors! And no, she does not wear glasses.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Apparently, I'm a Criminal
At least, I would be in Texas, according to Wired Magazine's aptly named article, Don't Try This At Home.
"In the meantime, more than 30 states have passed laws to restrict sales of chemicals and lab equipment associated with meth production, which has resulted in a decline in domestic meth labs, but makes things daunting for an amateur chemist shopping for supplies. It is illegal in Texas, for example, to buy such basic labware as Erlenmeyer flasks or three-necked beakers without first registering with the state’s Department of Public Safety to declare that they will not be used to make drugs. Among the chemicals the Portland, Oregon, police department lists online as “commonly associated with meth labs” are such scientifically useful compounds as liquid iodine, isopropyl alcohol, sulfuric acid, and hydrogen peroxide, along with chemistry glassware and pH strips. Similar lists appear on hundreds of Web sites."
My name is Princess Mom and I own test tubes. And a couple nice Pyrex beakers. And pH strips. And I have rubbing alcohol and peroxide in my dining room, in the "Cabinet of Science!" Am I trying to make meth? No, I'm trying to make scientists.
Wired's article has really opened my eyes to the huge problem of science illiteracy in this country. The Consumer Products Safety Commission is putting people in jail for owning one of the common chemicals used to make illegal fireworks: powdered aluminum, potassium perchlorate or sulfur.
"Popular Science columnist Theodore Gray, who is one of United Nuclear’s regular customers, uses potassium perchlorate to demonstrate the abundance of energy stored in sugar and fat. He chops up Snickers bars, sprinkles in the snowy crystals, and ignites the mixture, which bursts into a tower of flame – the same rapid exothermic reaction that propels model rockets skyward. “Why is it that I can walk into Wal-Mart and buy boxes of bullets and black powder, but I can’t buy potassium perchlorate to do science because it can also be used to make explosives?” he asks. “How many people are injured each year doing extreme sports or playing high school football? But mention mixing up chemicals in your home lab, and people have a much lower index of acceptable risk.”
I think this is fear of the unknown: people understand football but they [meaning the people behind these laws] clearly don't understand science. That, and the fact that the government and insurance companies have convinced the majority of the country we should never do anything unless we are sure it is absolutely safe. I am not alone in this opinion.
"To Bill Nye, the “Science Guy” who hosted an Emmy award-winning series on PBS in the 1990s, unreasonable fears about chemicals and home experimentation reflect a distrust of scientific expertise taking hold in society at large. “People who want to make meth will find ways to do it that don’t require an Erlenmeyer flask. But raising a generation of people who are technically incompetent is a recipe for disaster.”
I understand that meth is a huge problem. Even in my smallish town you can't go to the movies without seeing before and after photos of meth users. But finger-printing me because I want to buy one bottle of Dimetapp for my son's allergies (This actually happened!), and legislating against "practicing science without a PhD" is not going to solve the meth problem. It will, however, keep America from ever again becoming leader in the world of science.
"In the meantime, more than 30 states have passed laws to restrict sales of chemicals and lab equipment associated with meth production, which has resulted in a decline in domestic meth labs, but makes things daunting for an amateur chemist shopping for supplies. It is illegal in Texas, for example, to buy such basic labware as Erlenmeyer flasks or three-necked beakers without first registering with the state’s Department of Public Safety to declare that they will not be used to make drugs. Among the chemicals the Portland, Oregon, police department lists online as “commonly associated with meth labs” are such scientifically useful compounds as liquid iodine, isopropyl alcohol, sulfuric acid, and hydrogen peroxide, along with chemistry glassware and pH strips. Similar lists appear on hundreds of Web sites."
My name is Princess Mom and I own test tubes. And a couple nice Pyrex beakers. And pH strips. And I have rubbing alcohol and peroxide in my dining room, in the "Cabinet of Science!" Am I trying to make meth? No, I'm trying to make scientists.
Wired's article has really opened my eyes to the huge problem of science illiteracy in this country. The Consumer Products Safety Commission is putting people in jail for owning one of the common chemicals used to make illegal fireworks: powdered aluminum, potassium perchlorate or sulfur.
"Popular Science columnist Theodore Gray, who is one of United Nuclear’s regular customers, uses potassium perchlorate to demonstrate the abundance of energy stored in sugar and fat. He chops up Snickers bars, sprinkles in the snowy crystals, and ignites the mixture, which bursts into a tower of flame – the same rapid exothermic reaction that propels model rockets skyward. “Why is it that I can walk into Wal-Mart and buy boxes of bullets and black powder, but I can’t buy potassium perchlorate to do science because it can also be used to make explosives?” he asks. “How many people are injured each year doing extreme sports or playing high school football? But mention mixing up chemicals in your home lab, and people have a much lower index of acceptable risk.”
I think this is fear of the unknown: people understand football but they [meaning the people behind these laws] clearly don't understand science. That, and the fact that the government and insurance companies have convinced the majority of the country we should never do anything unless we are sure it is absolutely safe. I am not alone in this opinion.
"To Bill Nye, the “Science Guy” who hosted an Emmy award-winning series on PBS in the 1990s, unreasonable fears about chemicals and home experimentation reflect a distrust of scientific expertise taking hold in society at large. “People who want to make meth will find ways to do it that don’t require an Erlenmeyer flask. But raising a generation of people who are technically incompetent is a recipe for disaster.”
I understand that meth is a huge problem. Even in my smallish town you can't go to the movies without seeing before and after photos of meth users. But finger-printing me because I want to buy one bottle of Dimetapp for my son's allergies (This actually happened!), and legislating against "practicing science without a PhD" is not going to solve the meth problem. It will, however, keep America from ever again becoming leader in the world of science.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
What Guys Read
Xavier doesn't like to read. Actually, that's not true. He does like to read, but only certain kinds of books. Books he can't define but he knows them when he sees them. Lately he's been reading The Outernet series by Steve Barlow and Steve Skidmore. From the first book in the series, Friend or Foe:
"When Jack's new laptop reveals itself to be a link to the "Outernet," an intergalactic communication device, his world turns upside down as he becomes involved with space travel, extraterrestrials, and an intergalactic war."
He's liking these books enough that he's reading them completely on his own and writing his required monthly book reports on them, completely on his own, which is pretty impressive, considering how much drama we had to go through before he found this series.
It's often hard to find boy-friendly books. I've come to realize that most of the books I've loved, I've loved because they spoke to me as a girl. There is definite gender bias in the young adult book market. Obviously a 12-year-old guy isn't going to want to read The Princess Diaries, but once he's done with Harry Potter, what's left?
Jon Scieszka, who really understands what guys like Xavier like to read, has put together a website called, appropriately enough, Guys Read.com, where you can find lists of books broken down by age (young, middle or older guys) or search for books you've liked to find recommendations for others that may appeal. He's also edited an anthology called Guys Write for Guys Read, which wasn't Xavier's cup of tea but might appeal to your guy.
Alternatively, you will never go wrong with one of Scieszka's own books. If you haven't found him yet, you should.
"When Jack's new laptop reveals itself to be a link to the "Outernet," an intergalactic communication device, his world turns upside down as he becomes involved with space travel, extraterrestrials, and an intergalactic war."
He's liking these books enough that he's reading them completely on his own and writing his required monthly book reports on them, completely on his own, which is pretty impressive, considering how much drama we had to go through before he found this series.
It's often hard to find boy-friendly books. I've come to realize that most of the books I've loved, I've loved because they spoke to me as a girl. There is definite gender bias in the young adult book market. Obviously a 12-year-old guy isn't going to want to read The Princess Diaries, but once he's done with Harry Potter, what's left?
Jon Scieszka, who really understands what guys like Xavier like to read, has put together a website called, appropriately enough, Guys Read.com, where you can find lists of books broken down by age (young, middle or older guys) or search for books you've liked to find recommendations for others that may appeal. He's also edited an anthology called Guys Write for Guys Read, which wasn't Xavier's cup of tea but might appeal to your guy.
Alternatively, you will never go wrong with one of Scieszka's own books. If you haven't found him yet, you should.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Some Fun Science Websites
SodaConstructor allows you to create and modify objects using "joints", "springs" and "muscles" and then animate them to see how they move.
Rader's BIOLOGY4KIDS offers basic information on biology in a colorful, accessible format. The same people host Rader's CHEM4KIDS, Rader's GEOGRAPHY4KIDS which also offers Earth Science, and Rader's Numbernut.com, a math games site. Numbernut is a new site, so some of the content may not be online yet.
More formal than the other sites, Project Logged On is a science curriculum designed by the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. It offers project-based curricula for middle and high school students. For example, "The sixth grade case-based curriculum offers an in-depth look at the scientific inquiry method. Each of four cases is devoted to one or two aspects of the scientific method. Cases are open-ended and based on questioning urban legends. Students are provided an opportunity to experience the scientific method first-hand through inquiry exercises, data collection and analysis, and experimental design. The curriculum challenges students to question, hypothesize, and explore the process of arriving at possible conclusions. Students will become proficient in the various steps of the scientific method and hence, become confident in implementing them in new situations." The curricula appear to be free but I haven't delved really deeply into this one yet.
Rader's BIOLOGY4KIDS offers basic information on biology in a colorful, accessible format. The same people host Rader's CHEM4KIDS, Rader's GEOGRAPHY4KIDS which also offers Earth Science, and Rader's Numbernut.com, a math games site. Numbernut is a new site, so some of the content may not be online yet.
More formal than the other sites, Project Logged On is a science curriculum designed by the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. It offers project-based curricula for middle and high school students. For example, "The sixth grade case-based curriculum offers an in-depth look at the scientific inquiry method. Each of four cases is devoted to one or two aspects of the scientific method. Cases are open-ended and based on questioning urban legends. Students are provided an opportunity to experience the scientific method first-hand through inquiry exercises, data collection and analysis, and experimental design. The curriculum challenges students to question, hypothesize, and explore the process of arriving at possible conclusions. Students will become proficient in the various steps of the scientific method and hence, become confident in implementing them in new situations." The curricula appear to be free but I haven't delved really deeply into this one yet.
Da Vinci Exhibit in Chicago
If you happen to be visiting the Windy City this summer, mosey over to the Museum of Science and Industry and check out their new exhibit Leonardo Da Vinci: Man, Inventor, Genius. From the New York Times review, May 30, 2006 (read more by clicking the link above):
"This show is almost the inverse of the world of "The Da Vinci Code." A code implies something secret, available only to the initiate, a hidden world in which nothing is what it seems. Focusing on the machines and inventions sketched out in Leonardo's notebooks, the exhibition shows his almost ecstatic efforts to discern and disclose the world's workings and to master its principles, leaving nothing about them secret and hidden. This is a display of decodings.
Pull away the veil of flesh — as Leonardo often did in his dissections of human and animal corpses — and you see his vision of divinity made manifest. Muscle and bone and joint are nature's versions of gears and pulleys and levers. And Leonardo, with the pride of a secondary deity, never ceased combining and recombining these elemental ingredients into machines that still astonish in their simplicity and power. These are the rudimentary skeletons of his introspective Madonnas."
There's an interactive exhibit called "Leonardo's Workshop" where you can play with some of his invention. The exhibit also features a touch screen wall that walks you through a totally groovy interactive Da Vinci game. The game, by Leonardo3, will be available on Cd-ROM in June for those not fortunate enough to visit Chicago. No info on what the CD will cost, but the game itself Leonardo Da Vinci/Inside the Castle Laboratory looks awesome!
The exhibit closes September 4.
"This show is almost the inverse of the world of "The Da Vinci Code." A code implies something secret, available only to the initiate, a hidden world in which nothing is what it seems. Focusing on the machines and inventions sketched out in Leonardo's notebooks, the exhibition shows his almost ecstatic efforts to discern and disclose the world's workings and to master its principles, leaving nothing about them secret and hidden. This is a display of decodings.
Pull away the veil of flesh — as Leonardo often did in his dissections of human and animal corpses — and you see his vision of divinity made manifest. Muscle and bone and joint are nature's versions of gears and pulleys and levers. And Leonardo, with the pride of a secondary deity, never ceased combining and recombining these elemental ingredients into machines that still astonish in their simplicity and power. These are the rudimentary skeletons of his introspective Madonnas."
There's an interactive exhibit called "Leonardo's Workshop" where you can play with some of his invention. The exhibit also features a touch screen wall that walks you through a totally groovy interactive Da Vinci game. The game, by Leonardo3, will be available on Cd-ROM in June for those not fortunate enough to visit Chicago. No info on what the CD will cost, but the game itself Leonardo Da Vinci/Inside the Castle Laboratory looks awesome!
The exhibit closes September 4.
Monday, May 29, 2006
Gifted Education = Segregation? (Part III)
A response to Pierre Tristam's ridiculous essay equating gifted education and segregation by Cindy Lovell Oliver, a professor who specializes in gifted education and English as a second language at Stetson University in the Department of Teacher Education. She holds a doctorate from the University of Iowa. She recommends ."A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America's Brightest Students" (available online at www.nationdeceived.org).
Educating Gifted Students from the May 27, 2006 Daytona Beach News-Journal Online
... "First, let's look at the criterion of IQ. An IQ of at least 130 is typically required for gifted identification. (About 2 percent of the population would be included.) For those who believe that students with an IQ of 130 (or higher) do not require special educational considerations, please bear in mind that this is two standard deviations above the average IQ of 100. Few would argue that students scoring two standard deviations below the average, or those with an IQ of 70 (or lower), require special educational considerations. Why does it seem politically incorrect when special consideration is given at the high end?
Secondly, Tristam's question, "What message are we sending our children, and society at large, when segregation is held up not only as a defining factor of an educational program, but as a desirable, even admirable one as well?" merits a thorough response.
Yes, what message are we sending? Let's begin with the world's most famous (and powerful) C student. President Bush, as he has every year since taking office, recently requested no funding for the Javits Program. Congress passed the Jacob Javits Gifted and Talented Student Education Act in 1988 to ensure America's brightest would be provided with curriculum commensurate with their ability.
President Bush's message to gifted students: No support from me! Find yourself a rich daddy like I did! His message to the rest of the country: Don't look to me to waste taxpayer dollars on those snotty smart kids. I've got better places to waste taxpayer dollars.
And what about Tristam's charge of segregation? In junior high school I auditioned for chorus. I was named an "alternate" and could sing only if a real chorus member got sick. Others didn't even make that cut. In band, I met with even more elitism. (My clarinet squeaked.) And football? Well, now I'm just being facetious. Segregation is a serious charge, but one that I, too, once accepted." ...
"Asking a child to be on page 50 because "that's where we are today" is a real problem to the child who has not yet made it to page 17. It is equally frustrating to the child who has finished reading the book. Speed limits belong on the highways, not in the classroom."
Educating Gifted Students from the May 27, 2006 Daytona Beach News-Journal Online
... "First, let's look at the criterion of IQ. An IQ of at least 130 is typically required for gifted identification. (About 2 percent of the population would be included.) For those who believe that students with an IQ of 130 (or higher) do not require special educational considerations, please bear in mind that this is two standard deviations above the average IQ of 100. Few would argue that students scoring two standard deviations below the average, or those with an IQ of 70 (or lower), require special educational considerations. Why does it seem politically incorrect when special consideration is given at the high end?
Secondly, Tristam's question, "What message are we sending our children, and society at large, when segregation is held up not only as a defining factor of an educational program, but as a desirable, even admirable one as well?" merits a thorough response.
Yes, what message are we sending? Let's begin with the world's most famous (and powerful) C student. President Bush, as he has every year since taking office, recently requested no funding for the Javits Program. Congress passed the Jacob Javits Gifted and Talented Student Education Act in 1988 to ensure America's brightest would be provided with curriculum commensurate with their ability.
President Bush's message to gifted students: No support from me! Find yourself a rich daddy like I did! His message to the rest of the country: Don't look to me to waste taxpayer dollars on those snotty smart kids. I've got better places to waste taxpayer dollars.
And what about Tristam's charge of segregation? In junior high school I auditioned for chorus. I was named an "alternate" and could sing only if a real chorus member got sick. Others didn't even make that cut. In band, I met with even more elitism. (My clarinet squeaked.) And football? Well, now I'm just being facetious. Segregation is a serious charge, but one that I, too, once accepted." ...
"Asking a child to be on page 50 because "that's where we are today" is a real problem to the child who has not yet made it to page 17. It is equally frustrating to the child who has finished reading the book. Speed limits belong on the highways, not in the classroom."
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Some Thoughts on Executive Function
Executive function is the ability to make decisions, specifically to come up with solutions to problems, plan a response, carry out the response and then evaluate that response. This capability closes follows the development of the prefrontal cortex and governs the ability to organize one's self and one's environment, to plan for the future and to control one's impulses. When there is a disorder of executive function, children (generally it's children as their prefrontal lobe is still immature) frequently lose things, even particularly precious things. They can't organize their room, their desk or their locker. Keeping track of homework in middle school, for example, is a disaster. Fortunately, most people outgrow these issues by the time their brain matures in their early '20s.
Dr. Philip David Zelazo, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, has written a six-part series about Executive Function, its orders and disorders.
"How do we learn to think? How does an easily distracted baby become an adult who can evaluate a problem, make a plan to solve it, and carry out the plan? Executive function – the conscious control of what we think and do – takes years to develop fully and affects many different facets of children’s mental development, from their understanding of other people’s points of view to their ability to focus on a task. If executive function goes awry, it may result in disorders such as autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
In this series, Dr. Philip Zelazo takes an in-depth look at how executive function develops in infancy, childhood, and adolescence; disorders of executive function; and how to foster its development."
For more info, click here.
Dr. Philip David Zelazo, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, has written a six-part series about Executive Function, its orders and disorders.
"How do we learn to think? How does an easily distracted baby become an adult who can evaluate a problem, make a plan to solve it, and carry out the plan? Executive function – the conscious control of what we think and do – takes years to develop fully and affects many different facets of children’s mental development, from their understanding of other people’s points of view to their ability to focus on a task. If executive function goes awry, it may result in disorders such as autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
In this series, Dr. Philip Zelazo takes an in-depth look at how executive function develops in infancy, childhood, and adolescence; disorders of executive function; and how to foster its development."
For more info, click here.
Monday, May 22, 2006
Gifted and ADHD
More from LD Online: Gifted Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
I found the following paragraph particularly insightful:
"As a group, ADHD children tend to lag two to three years behind their age peers in social and emotional maturity. Gifted ADHD children are no exception. This finding has important implications for educational placement. As a group, gifted children without ADHD tend to be more similar in their cognitive, social, and emotional development to children two to four years older than children their own age. When placed with other high ability children without the disorder, ADHD children may find the advanced maturity of their classmates a challenge they are ill prepared for. Also, gifted children without the disorder may have little patience for the social and emotional immaturity of the gifted ADHD student in their midst. This is not to say that gifted ADHD students should not be placed with other gifted students. The research is clear that lack of intellectual challenge and little access to others with similar interests, ability, and drive are often risk factors for gifted children, contributing to social or emotional problems."
I found the following paragraph particularly insightful:
"As a group, ADHD children tend to lag two to three years behind their age peers in social and emotional maturity. Gifted ADHD children are no exception. This finding has important implications for educational placement. As a group, gifted children without ADHD tend to be more similar in their cognitive, social, and emotional development to children two to four years older than children their own age. When placed with other high ability children without the disorder, ADHD children may find the advanced maturity of their classmates a challenge they are ill prepared for. Also, gifted children without the disorder may have little patience for the social and emotional immaturity of the gifted ADHD student in their midst. This is not to say that gifted ADHD students should not be placed with other gifted students. The research is clear that lack of intellectual challenge and little access to others with similar interests, ability, and drive are often risk factors for gifted children, contributing to social or emotional problems."
Homeschooling: Great Idea or Big Mistake?
This article from LD Online discussed making the jump to homeschooling kids with LDs and/or ADD/ADHD in particular, but it's also a great overview of the pros and cons of homeschooling in general, including characteristics of successful and unsuccessful parent/teachers.
3 Million Gifted Kids in the US according to NAGC
The National Association for Gifted Children "estimates that there are approximately 3 million academically gifted children in grades K-12 in the U.S - approximately 6% of the student population. No federal agency or organization collects these student statistics; the number is generated based on an estimate that dates back to the 1972 Marland Report to Congress, which estimated that 5-7% of school children are "capable of high performance" and in need of "services or activities not normally provided by the school."
See more and the answers to other questions on the NAGC's FAQ sheet.
See more and the answers to other questions on the NAGC's FAQ sheet.
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Heterogeneous classrooms: They still don't get it
In the April 17 article The heterogeneous debate: Some say best students get short shrift, Madison (WI) School Board President Carol Carstensen is quoted as saying,
""Good teachers can challenge students across a pretty broad spectrum," [she] said, adding that training and support for teachers is essential. "The thing that I think is so critical is that the diversity in the classroom in and of itself creates an academic challenge and fosters creativity among all kids."
How exactly does diversity offer academic challenge for the students? Certainly it's a challenge to the teachers, having to interpret the curriculum appropriately for students in up to 12 different levels of ability and achievement. But for the students? Is a child who is struggling with the material, say 9th grade biology, really going to debate a child who learned this all at the age of 8? Certainly not. He's going to sit there and wait for the other child to give him the answer, and then he's going to write it down on his worksheet. And what has he learned? That he should not try to learn things himself, but rather wait until a "smart person" tells him what to think.
You may think my assessment of the situation is rather harsh. I wish it was. Look at how the media is shaping the debate on immigration. They holler racism against Mexicans and millions of Spanish speakers rally in the streets. Is the immigration debate only about Mexican immigrants? Should it be? The 9/11 hijackers got into this country through the Canadian border, not through Mexico. An intellectually rigorous mind would be saying, "Wait, what about immigrants from countries other than Mexico? How do the current bills affect illegals from Poland, China or India?"
My point here is not to argue about immigration reform. It's that too many people swallow whole the stories the media gives them, carefully written at not more than a fourth-grade level, mind you. Fifteen minutes listening to talk radio with show you callers are well-versed with the party line--whether that's from a conservative point of view or a liberal one--but they can't explain why they hold the opinions that they do.
My theory is that the heterogeneous classroom is to blame. Okay, the public school system is to blame. We're bred from kindergarten to swallow whole whatever the teacher says. No questions are allowed, unless they're on the preprinted list of discussion questions in the teacher's manual. But the hetergeneous classroom is compounding the problem. The kids who know the answers answer the questions (unless they've given up completely and gone to sleep). The kids who are struggling know that if they just wait long enough, someone will tell them the answer, so why bother figuring it out for themselves?
I had a boy in my Webelos den last year, John, a fifth grader who was good at other things we did in Scouts, but couldn't read. Not only couldn't he read, he didn't even try. We were discussing, during a hike, what other activities the park offered (or something like that). Once we reached the parking lot, there was a sign answering our question.
I pointed to the sign and said, "Well, there you go."
John's immediate response was, "What does it say?"
Me, going into teacher-mode, "It's talking about park activities."
John: "Oh."
Xavier then read the sign to him without prompting. I know I wanted to help John take a stab at reading the sign but he'd already given up and gone on to "when are we leaving?"
John and Xavier both knew what the situation demanded: John would wait until someone like Xavier did the academic work for him. They did not learn this in a homogeneous classroom, in Cub Scouts or at my house. In fact, research has proven that motivation inproves for students of all abilities when they are placed in a homogeneous classroom, vs. a heterogeneous one. Imagine John having an opportunity to be the best in his class at science or math instead of always being relegated to the stupid part of the classroom because of that one kid who always knows the answer. Imagine that one kid in a class of other gifted students, suddenly realizing he's not God's gift to to the fifth grade because Joe, Suzy and Sally are faster or know more than he does! Homogeneous classes, aka ability grouping, is a win-win situation. Now if only the school boards would figure this out.
""Good teachers can challenge students across a pretty broad spectrum," [she] said, adding that training and support for teachers is essential. "The thing that I think is so critical is that the diversity in the classroom in and of itself creates an academic challenge and fosters creativity among all kids."
How exactly does diversity offer academic challenge for the students? Certainly it's a challenge to the teachers, having to interpret the curriculum appropriately for students in up to 12 different levels of ability and achievement. But for the students? Is a child who is struggling with the material, say 9th grade biology, really going to debate a child who learned this all at the age of 8? Certainly not. He's going to sit there and wait for the other child to give him the answer, and then he's going to write it down on his worksheet. And what has he learned? That he should not try to learn things himself, but rather wait until a "smart person" tells him what to think.
You may think my assessment of the situation is rather harsh. I wish it was. Look at how the media is shaping the debate on immigration. They holler racism against Mexicans and millions of Spanish speakers rally in the streets. Is the immigration debate only about Mexican immigrants? Should it be? The 9/11 hijackers got into this country through the Canadian border, not through Mexico. An intellectually rigorous mind would be saying, "Wait, what about immigrants from countries other than Mexico? How do the current bills affect illegals from Poland, China or India?"
My point here is not to argue about immigration reform. It's that too many people swallow whole the stories the media gives them, carefully written at not more than a fourth-grade level, mind you. Fifteen minutes listening to talk radio with show you callers are well-versed with the party line--whether that's from a conservative point of view or a liberal one--but they can't explain why they hold the opinions that they do.
My theory is that the heterogeneous classroom is to blame. Okay, the public school system is to blame. We're bred from kindergarten to swallow whole whatever the teacher says. No questions are allowed, unless they're on the preprinted list of discussion questions in the teacher's manual. But the hetergeneous classroom is compounding the problem. The kids who know the answers answer the questions (unless they've given up completely and gone to sleep). The kids who are struggling know that if they just wait long enough, someone will tell them the answer, so why bother figuring it out for themselves?
I had a boy in my Webelos den last year, John, a fifth grader who was good at other things we did in Scouts, but couldn't read. Not only couldn't he read, he didn't even try. We were discussing, during a hike, what other activities the park offered (or something like that). Once we reached the parking lot, there was a sign answering our question.
I pointed to the sign and said, "Well, there you go."
John's immediate response was, "What does it say?"
Me, going into teacher-mode, "It's talking about park activities."
John: "Oh."
Xavier then read the sign to him without prompting. I know I wanted to help John take a stab at reading the sign but he'd already given up and gone on to "when are we leaving?"
John and Xavier both knew what the situation demanded: John would wait until someone like Xavier did the academic work for him. They did not learn this in a homogeneous classroom, in Cub Scouts or at my house. In fact, research has proven that motivation inproves for students of all abilities when they are placed in a homogeneous classroom, vs. a heterogeneous one. Imagine John having an opportunity to be the best in his class at science or math instead of always being relegated to the stupid part of the classroom because of that one kid who always knows the answer. Imagine that one kid in a class of other gifted students, suddenly realizing he's not God's gift to to the fifth grade because Joe, Suzy and Sally are faster or know more than he does! Homogeneous classes, aka ability grouping, is a win-win situation. Now if only the school boards would figure this out.
In a Class by Themselves, at Stanford
Good article on homeschoolers at Stanford from the Stanford alumni magazine, December 2000.
The Molecularium--Fun for the science kid in your family
From their press release:
"The Molecularium™ family of products and educational tools brings the
nanoscale cartooniverse to life in any situation. On our Website, zoom
into the molecular level, build molecules, and transform states of
matter in the Nanolab of our interactive Kid’s Site. The experiments,
activities and songs included in our Teacher's Resource Guide (available in
the Parent/Teacher section) are free and fun for your home, classroom
or museum."
Xavier has played the Nanolab game and pronounced it "really fun!"
"The Molecularium™ family of products and educational tools brings the
nanoscale cartooniverse to life in any situation. On our Website, zoom
into the molecular level, build molecules, and transform states of
matter in the Nanolab of our interactive Kid’s Site. The experiments,
activities and songs included in our Teacher's Resource Guide (available in
the Parent/Teacher section) are free and fun for your home, classroom
or museum."
Xavier has played the Nanolab game and pronounced it "really fun!"
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Some More Thoughts about ADD and the Gifted
A couple excellent articles I've found (on Hoagies) in recent days:
I've talked to many parents who insist that all or at least most children who have been identified as ADD are actually gifted. This is somewhat of an urban myth, according to Felice Kaufmann, et al. in Attention Deficit Disorders and Gifted Students: What Do We Really Know?
"In recent years, several authors (Baum, Olenchak, & Owen, 1998; Cramond, 1995; Freed & Parsons, 1997; Lind, 1993; Tucker & Hafenstein, 1997; Webb & Latimer, 1993) have expressed concern that giftedness is often misconstrued as ADHD and that the diagnosis of ADHD among the gifted population has run amok. We acknowledge for the purposes of this discussion that there are cases of mistaken diagnosis, although as of this writing, we have found no empirical data in the medical, educational, or psychological literature to substantiate the extent of this concern.
The lack of scientific data heightens our dismay over the wave of skepticism that appears to prevail about the existence of ADHD in gifted children. Specifically, we are concerned that the question "ADHD or gifted?" dismisses the possibility that the two conditions may coexist. Prudent attempts to avoid over-diagnosis must be balanced against a child's need for evaluation and treatment in the context of inevitable uncertainty when medical diagnoses are invoked."
ADD does share characteristics with what I'll call the Gifted and Bored Syndrome (high IQ 6yo can't sit still in first grade because he already knows the material) and with visual-spatial thinkers. (Scroll down to the list of characteristics) Maybe it's more likely to occur with these left-brainers. But it is its own entity and can seriously interfere with a gifted child's ability to cope with school, as we found out when Klaus was in 6th grade and just couldn't compensate for his ADD anymore.
There's a fabulous article called Blinks: A Phenomenon of Distractibility in Attention Deficit Disorder by James Reisinger, who lists his credentials as "MBA, CLU, CFP, ADD." He writes:
"A blink occurs as the ADDers attention involuntarily shifts focus from what is relevant to something irrelevant. This shift from a 'local" situation (such as talking, reading, or working) to some other internal mental content (e.g., a thought, picture memory, or plan) blocks the local information. ...
These gaps in the intake of local information are often erroneously mistaken as memory problems. Teachers are taught that material gets lost between the instruction and the doing, or between the brain and the pencil. True for a defect, but not for a deficit (attention type). It does not get lost, it gets missed or absorbed. The material may get worked into the thoughts in the "blink" and consumed there. After leaping back to the current event, the ADDer may have a moment of disorientation. Many times a thought about the "local" situation that triggered the blink was carried away and "used" in the blink and is unavailable upon return."
Blinks offers an excellent look inside the mind of someone with ADD and explains what the attention blips look like and how they affect people with this syndrome. And it certainly resonates with a lot of frustrations I had during my time in school!
I've talked to many parents who insist that all or at least most children who have been identified as ADD are actually gifted. This is somewhat of an urban myth, according to Felice Kaufmann, et al. in Attention Deficit Disorders and Gifted Students: What Do We Really Know?
"In recent years, several authors (Baum, Olenchak, & Owen, 1998; Cramond, 1995; Freed & Parsons, 1997; Lind, 1993; Tucker & Hafenstein, 1997; Webb & Latimer, 1993) have expressed concern that giftedness is often misconstrued as ADHD and that the diagnosis of ADHD among the gifted population has run amok. We acknowledge for the purposes of this discussion that there are cases of mistaken diagnosis, although as of this writing, we have found no empirical data in the medical, educational, or psychological literature to substantiate the extent of this concern.
The lack of scientific data heightens our dismay over the wave of skepticism that appears to prevail about the existence of ADHD in gifted children. Specifically, we are concerned that the question "ADHD or gifted?" dismisses the possibility that the two conditions may coexist. Prudent attempts to avoid over-diagnosis must be balanced against a child's need for evaluation and treatment in the context of inevitable uncertainty when medical diagnoses are invoked."
ADD does share characteristics with what I'll call the Gifted and Bored Syndrome (high IQ 6yo can't sit still in first grade because he already knows the material) and with visual-spatial thinkers. (Scroll down to the list of characteristics) Maybe it's more likely to occur with these left-brainers. But it is its own entity and can seriously interfere with a gifted child's ability to cope with school, as we found out when Klaus was in 6th grade and just couldn't compensate for his ADD anymore.
There's a fabulous article called Blinks: A Phenomenon of Distractibility in Attention Deficit Disorder by James Reisinger, who lists his credentials as "MBA, CLU, CFP, ADD." He writes:
"A blink occurs as the ADDers attention involuntarily shifts focus from what is relevant to something irrelevant. This shift from a 'local" situation (such as talking, reading, or working) to some other internal mental content (e.g., a thought, picture memory, or plan) blocks the local information. ...
These gaps in the intake of local information are often erroneously mistaken as memory problems. Teachers are taught that material gets lost between the instruction and the doing, or between the brain and the pencil. True for a defect, but not for a deficit (attention type). It does not get lost, it gets missed or absorbed. The material may get worked into the thoughts in the "blink" and consumed there. After leaping back to the current event, the ADDer may have a moment of disorientation. Many times a thought about the "local" situation that triggered the blink was carried away and "used" in the blink and is unavailable upon return."
Blinks offers an excellent look inside the mind of someone with ADD and explains what the attention blips look like and how they affect people with this syndrome. And it certainly resonates with a lot of frustrations I had during my time in school!
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Free NIH Science Curriculum Units (part II)
I promised I'd let you know how the NIH science units looked when they arrived. The "Chemicals, the Environment and You" unit arrived today, complete with pre-drilled pages and cardstock insert for the front cover, back cover and spine of a three-ring binder. Very professional looking. Also included a CD-ROM with animations and video clips to support the lesson.
The first 24 pages is all "teacher stuff," explaining the curriculum, the teaching methods, how it's standards-based and conforms to the National Science Education Standards. The actual lessons are pretty idiot-proof and walks you step-by-step through the activity, lists the discussion questions (and answers!). At the back are reproducible worksheets, data sheets for experiments and hand-outs.
These units are designed to be used in a public school classroom--one instruction is to prepare a specific prop and then "hide it behind your desk"--and as such may be a little elementary for a gifted middle school child. (The "suggested timeline" says you should take two whole weeks to cover six lessons!) But the after- or homeschooler could certainly pick and choose the interesting activities from the various lessons and still come out the smarter at the other end. And the approach should certainly reassure parents who aren't confident in their ability to teach middle-school lessons or who are concerned that their child is not learning what they're supposed to be learning.
I'm still waiting on the "Scientific Method" unit but I'm going to recommend these to anyone who might be interested. Plus you can't beat the price. Your tax dollars at work. :D
The first 24 pages is all "teacher stuff," explaining the curriculum, the teaching methods, how it's standards-based and conforms to the National Science Education Standards. The actual lessons are pretty idiot-proof and walks you step-by-step through the activity, lists the discussion questions (and answers!). At the back are reproducible worksheets, data sheets for experiments and hand-outs.
These units are designed to be used in a public school classroom--one instruction is to prepare a specific prop and then "hide it behind your desk"--and as such may be a little elementary for a gifted middle school child. (The "suggested timeline" says you should take two whole weeks to cover six lessons!) But the after- or homeschooler could certainly pick and choose the interesting activities from the various lessons and still come out the smarter at the other end. And the approach should certainly reassure parents who aren't confident in their ability to teach middle-school lessons or who are concerned that their child is not learning what they're supposed to be learning.
I'm still waiting on the "Scientific Method" unit but I'm going to recommend these to anyone who might be interested. Plus you can't beat the price. Your tax dollars at work. :D
Harriet the Habitual Runaway
From the NEWS FROM MY HOUSE Department:
I believe I've mentioned before that I have two pet fiddler crabs, Ozzie and Harriet, who share a five-gallon aquarium with a couple ghost shrimp. Ozzie doesn't do much but stand on the rocks and wave his big claw around (and we're all impressed over here, let me tell you!). Harriet's been much more active since the beginning.
When we got back from our San Francisco trip in March, Harriet was nowhere to be seen. Not such a big deal, since when she molts I frequently don't see her for several days. However, they hadn't been fed in a week and everyone else in the tank was fighting over the food I dropped in--still no Harriet. DH insists she couldn't have gotten out of the tank--you'll remember this refrain from last winter when Norman, my previous crab, ran away--until later that evening, we see something brown skitter across the rug in front of the fireplace. Guess who?
Yes, indeed! Harriet had managed, probably that same day, to climb out of the tank through the hole in the lid where the air hose and heater cord come through. Somehow she got from the top of the five-foot-tall games cabinet to the floor and then all the way across the room to the fireplace. I can only assume she was planning to climb up the chimney and escape the house completely! LOL
So DH scooped her up and put her back in the tank and I blocked up the hole in the aquarium lid with some tape, although I didn't seal it because DH insisted it would be too hard to clean the tank if the lid were taped down. Harriet was a little cranky for a day or two after her adventure, but then seemed fine.
A week later, she's over by the fireplace again. She couldn't have been gone more than an hour because that's how long the dog was out of the house. Apparently the unsealed tape flap opened right up for her like a little crab door. We put her back again and sealed the hole completely. And a good thing, too. She behaved herself about six weeks until she molted again and twice now I've caught her hanging upsidedown from the tape at the top of the tank. Naughty, naughty crab!
From this we have learned three things: DH is not an expert on crab behavior, the dog must have eaten poor Norman, and Harriet is a crafty little bugger!
I believe I've mentioned before that I have two pet fiddler crabs, Ozzie and Harriet, who share a five-gallon aquarium with a couple ghost shrimp. Ozzie doesn't do much but stand on the rocks and wave his big claw around (and we're all impressed over here, let me tell you!). Harriet's been much more active since the beginning.
When we got back from our San Francisco trip in March, Harriet was nowhere to be seen. Not such a big deal, since when she molts I frequently don't see her for several days. However, they hadn't been fed in a week and everyone else in the tank was fighting over the food I dropped in--still no Harriet. DH insists she couldn't have gotten out of the tank--you'll remember this refrain from last winter when Norman, my previous crab, ran away--until later that evening, we see something brown skitter across the rug in front of the fireplace. Guess who?
Yes, indeed! Harriet had managed, probably that same day, to climb out of the tank through the hole in the lid where the air hose and heater cord come through. Somehow she got from the top of the five-foot-tall games cabinet to the floor and then all the way across the room to the fireplace. I can only assume she was planning to climb up the chimney and escape the house completely! LOL
So DH scooped her up and put her back in the tank and I blocked up the hole in the aquarium lid with some tape, although I didn't seal it because DH insisted it would be too hard to clean the tank if the lid were taped down. Harriet was a little cranky for a day or two after her adventure, but then seemed fine.
A week later, she's over by the fireplace again. She couldn't have been gone more than an hour because that's how long the dog was out of the house. Apparently the unsealed tape flap opened right up for her like a little crab door. We put her back again and sealed the hole completely. And a good thing, too. She behaved herself about six weeks until she molted again and twice now I've caught her hanging upsidedown from the tape at the top of the tank. Naughty, naughty crab!
From this we have learned three things: DH is not an expert on crab behavior, the dog must have eaten poor Norman, and Harriet is a crafty little bugger!
Monday, May 15, 2006
Schooling for the Free Agent Economy
Fabulous article about the links between entrepreneurship and homeschooling by Daniel H. Pink. This is from Reason Online, October 2001 and reads in part:
"So when we step into the typical school today, we're stepping into the past -- a place whose architect is Frederick Winslow Taylor and whose tenant is the Organization Man. The one American institution that has least accommodated itself to the free agent economy is the one Americans claim they value most. But it's hard to imagine that this arrangement can last much longer -- a One Size Fits All education system cranking out workers for a My Size Fits Me economy. Maybe the answer to the riddle I posed at the beginning is that we're succeeding in spite of our education system. But how long can that continue? And imagine how we'd prosper if we began educating our children more like we earn our livings. Nearly 20 years ago, a landmark government report, A Nation at Risk, declared that American education was "being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity." That may no longer be true. Instead, American schools are awash in a rising tide of irrelevance."
Everyone should read this article!
"So when we step into the typical school today, we're stepping into the past -- a place whose architect is Frederick Winslow Taylor and whose tenant is the Organization Man. The one American institution that has least accommodated itself to the free agent economy is the one Americans claim they value most. But it's hard to imagine that this arrangement can last much longer -- a One Size Fits All education system cranking out workers for a My Size Fits Me economy. Maybe the answer to the riddle I posed at the beginning is that we're succeeding in spite of our education system. But how long can that continue? And imagine how we'd prosper if we began educating our children more like we earn our livings. Nearly 20 years ago, a landmark government report, A Nation at Risk, declared that American education was "being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity." That may no longer be true. Instead, American schools are awash in a rising tide of irrelevance."
Everyone should read this article!
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Gifted Education = Segregation? (Part II)
Got an answer from Pierre Tristam, the author of the Daytona Beach News-Journal article As schools isolate 'gifted' students they abet society's resegregation
"Dear Ms. Scherrer,
I agree in large part with the direction of your reasoning, but applying it justly, then wouldn't it be logical to seek "special" education for a much larger variety of categories--not just special, "middle" and gifted? It's the fragmentation that goes against the nature of what we're about, not the need for specified (as opposed to segregated) education. Too many readers are getting hung up on the word "segregated" because of its cicil rights connotation. I'm using the word from a larger perspective. Many thanks for the letter, which will be posted at the web site, along with many fascinating responses no matter which side the writers are on. (Some rude ones too, but I appreciate your courtesy)."
My response:
"Dear Mr. Tristam,
Thank you for taking the time to answer my letter. You wrote:
"but applying [my argument] justly, then wouldn't it be logical to seek "special" education for a much larger variety of categories--not just special, "middle" and gifted?"
Actually, yes. As a former teacher and current parent of three boys with varying degrees of giftedness, I feel that the way for learning to blossom for all students is to cut the educational process down to two--the student and the teacher--eliminating the class entirely. (In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I'm now a homeschooler.)
To be clear, I'm talking only about learning about ideas: reading, mathematics, science, critical thinking and writing. The best way to learn about other people is by spending time with them. Unfortunately, I believe the public school system is organized primarily around the need for efficient teaching, not efficient learning, so very little learning of either kind actually goes on.
I understand that the thrust of your article was meant to be adding high achievers to existing gifted education programs. But when you spend two paragraphs discussing Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois and the trend toward re-segregation in society in general, isn't it disingenuous to claim your readers are erroneously hung up on the civil rights connotation of the word "segregation"? "
I doubt I'll get a second response from him, but I couldn't just let that smug comment about his readers slide. If he does write me back, I will publicly applaud him.
"Dear Ms. Scherrer,
I agree in large part with the direction of your reasoning, but applying it justly, then wouldn't it be logical to seek "special" education for a much larger variety of categories--not just special, "middle" and gifted? It's the fragmentation that goes against the nature of what we're about, not the need for specified (as opposed to segregated) education. Too many readers are getting hung up on the word "segregated" because of its cicil rights connotation. I'm using the word from a larger perspective. Many thanks for the letter, which will be posted at the web site, along with many fascinating responses no matter which side the writers are on. (Some rude ones too, but I appreciate your courtesy)."
My response:
"Dear Mr. Tristam,
Thank you for taking the time to answer my letter. You wrote:
"but applying [my argument] justly, then wouldn't it be logical to seek "special" education for a much larger variety of categories--not just special, "middle" and gifted?"
Actually, yes. As a former teacher and current parent of three boys with varying degrees of giftedness, I feel that the way for learning to blossom for all students is to cut the educational process down to two--the student and the teacher--eliminating the class entirely. (In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that I'm now a homeschooler.)
To be clear, I'm talking only about learning about ideas: reading, mathematics, science, critical thinking and writing. The best way to learn about other people is by spending time with them. Unfortunately, I believe the public school system is organized primarily around the need for efficient teaching, not efficient learning, so very little learning of either kind actually goes on.
I understand that the thrust of your article was meant to be adding high achievers to existing gifted education programs. But when you spend two paragraphs discussing Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois and the trend toward re-segregation in society in general, isn't it disingenuous to claim your readers are erroneously hung up on the civil rights connotation of the word "segregation"? "
I doubt I'll get a second response from him, but I couldn't just let that smug comment about his readers slide. If he does write me back, I will publicly applaud him.
Unschooling Article from the Arizona Republic
Generally favorable article with no GOTCHA at the end--Yay!
'Unschoolers' let interests dictate homeschool studies
... "At a time when schools are fixated more than ever on standardized tests and accountability, more parents are turning to alternatives, saying their kids need less structure and stress."...
For more info about unschooling, click on the link to Sandra Dodd's site in the right hand column.
'Unschoolers' let interests dictate homeschool studies
... "At a time when schools are fixated more than ever on standardized tests and accountability, more parents are turning to alternatives, saying their kids need less structure and stress."...
For more info about unschooling, click on the link to Sandra Dodd's site in the right hand column.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Gifted Education = Segregation?
In his essay in today's Daytona Beach News-Journal Online, writer Pierre Tristam argues that:
To hear the proponents of gifted education as primarily a separate but superior enterprise for the chosen suggests that the gifted somehow stand apart not only intellectually but socially. The presumption is that standing apart economically eventually will be their due. Mixing with their lessers, even if they're high achievers, would spoil them. It's segregation by other means, and toward ends not nearly as honorable as DuBois' for his Talented Tenth.
My response in an email to Mr. Tristam:
"Dear Mr. Tristam,
Separating gifted children from a heterogeneous classroom is an advantage, not only for the gifted
children but for children of all ability levels. A 1985 study by James and Chen-Lin Kulik found that "students in an ability group setting--*regardless of track*--were substantially more motivated toward subject areas than were students who were not grouped." (Quoted in Rogers, Karen, _Re-Forming Gifted Education_, p.214.)
This makes sense empirically as well. Imagine yourself in a heterogeneous, or "desegregated," classroom. There's always that one child with his hand up in the air everytime the teacher asks a question. No one else gets a chance to puzzle through the answer and actually learn something because he tells them the answer. He's first, best and brightest with all the
answers. The kids all know it, call him "teacher's pet" and "egghead" and shun him or outright bully him for it. Children segregate themselves socially and the more children who are different, the easier it is for them to do that, perpetuating the cycle.
He has two choices: he can reject his classmates and assume he's just naturally first, best and brightest at everything, or he can sit on his answering hand and laugh at bathroom humor on the playground just like everyone else, even while he knows he'll always be different, and alone.
Now imagine he's in a segregated, gifted classroom. There are a couple kids in that class who are smarter than he is. Suddenly he has to work to keep up with a much faster curriculum. His motivation to learn increases and at the same time, he has an opportunity to find a friend his age who also really like dissecting worms or reading Oliver Twist. He's not alone, and his previous classmates, also now in a class of homogeneous ability, finally have the chance to answer questions and participate in discussions that aren't esoteric to the point of boredom. They're also not under pressure to ostracize the child who is different, so don't continue the cycle of bullying behavior.
Gifted education has nothing to do with "deserving the best education" more than others or a "presumption [of] standing apart economically." What the parents of gifted students want is the same thing that parents of special education students get: instruction at their child's level of ability and a chance for them to find friends with similar interests; kids who get their jokes. Every child deserves that, not matter what their ability.
Sincerely,"
To hear the proponents of gifted education as primarily a separate but superior enterprise for the chosen suggests that the gifted somehow stand apart not only intellectually but socially. The presumption is that standing apart economically eventually will be their due. Mixing with their lessers, even if they're high achievers, would spoil them. It's segregation by other means, and toward ends not nearly as honorable as DuBois' for his Talented Tenth.
My response in an email to Mr. Tristam:
"Dear Mr. Tristam,
Separating gifted children from a heterogeneous classroom is an advantage, not only for the gifted
children but for children of all ability levels. A 1985 study by James and Chen-Lin Kulik found that "students in an ability group setting--*regardless of track*--were substantially more motivated toward subject areas than were students who were not grouped." (Quoted in Rogers, Karen, _Re-Forming Gifted Education_, p.214.)
This makes sense empirically as well. Imagine yourself in a heterogeneous, or "desegregated," classroom. There's always that one child with his hand up in the air everytime the teacher asks a question. No one else gets a chance to puzzle through the answer and actually learn something because he tells them the answer. He's first, best and brightest with all the
answers. The kids all know it, call him "teacher's pet" and "egghead" and shun him or outright bully him for it. Children segregate themselves socially and the more children who are different, the easier it is for them to do that, perpetuating the cycle.
He has two choices: he can reject his classmates and assume he's just naturally first, best and brightest at everything, or he can sit on his answering hand and laugh at bathroom humor on the playground just like everyone else, even while he knows he'll always be different, and alone.
Now imagine he's in a segregated, gifted classroom. There are a couple kids in that class who are smarter than he is. Suddenly he has to work to keep up with a much faster curriculum. His motivation to learn increases and at the same time, he has an opportunity to find a friend his age who also really like dissecting worms or reading Oliver Twist. He's not alone, and his previous classmates, also now in a class of homogeneous ability, finally have the chance to answer questions and participate in discussions that aren't esoteric to the point of boredom. They're also not under pressure to ostracize the child who is different, so don't continue the cycle of bullying behavior.
Gifted education has nothing to do with "deserving the best education" more than others or a "presumption [of] standing apart economically." What the parents of gifted students want is the same thing that parents of special education students get: instruction at their child's level of ability and a chance for them to find friends with similar interests; kids who get their jokes. Every child deserves that, not matter what their ability.
Sincerely,"
Monday, May 08, 2006
Looking for Something to Do this Summer?
Our summer is pretty much taken up with summer band/orchestra and various camps (Xavier is spending three weeks at three different camps over the course of the summer. Yikes!) But if your kids are likely to be hanging around bored and need some intellectual stimulation, check out the Ten Terrific Weeks series from Usborne Books at Home. Subjects include:
Preschool/Lower Elementary
Adventures of Fairy Princesses
Adventures of the Human Body – sample week available on website
NEW Adventures at Apple Tree Farm
NEW Adventures at Sea
Upper Elementary
Adventures in Ancient Egypt
NEW Adventures Around the World
Adventures in the Arts
Adventures in Creativity
Adventures of the Human Body
Adventures of Knighthood – sample week available on website
Adventures in Literature
Adventures in Space
The curriculum alone costs $6.95. Complete sets with assignments, projects, etc. run between $50 and $75 dollars. I haven't used these myself--we're in need of some serious de-schooling--but they might be a nice bridge from one grade level to the next (if you're doing the school/grade level thing) or for homeschoolers who want to keep up skills but slow the pace down for the summer. I like Usborne books because they're visually interesting (lots of pictures) and they have internet links for more information. Click the Ten Terrific Weeks link to learn about the kits or the Usborne books link to purchase.
Preschool/Lower Elementary
Adventures of Fairy Princesses
Adventures of the Human Body – sample week available on website
NEW Adventures at Apple Tree Farm
NEW Adventures at Sea
Upper Elementary
Adventures in Ancient Egypt
NEW Adventures Around the World
Adventures in the Arts
Adventures in Creativity
Adventures of the Human Body
Adventures of Knighthood – sample week available on website
Adventures in Literature
Adventures in Space
The curriculum alone costs $6.95. Complete sets with assignments, projects, etc. run between $50 and $75 dollars. I haven't used these myself--we're in need of some serious de-schooling--but they might be a nice bridge from one grade level to the next (if you're doing the school/grade level thing) or for homeschoolers who want to keep up skills but slow the pace down for the summer. I like Usborne books because they're visually interesting (lots of pictures) and they have internet links for more information. Click the Ten Terrific Weeks link to learn about the kits or the Usborne books link to purchase.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Gifted Charter School to Open in San Diego
The new school will be the first charter in the Encinitas Union School District and the only gifted charter school in California. From the San Diego Union-Tribune:
"The proposal calls for a school that would offer a Gifted and Talented Education program in every subject and grade. State and local officials said they don't know of any other charter schools in the state focused solely on a GATE program for elementary children. ...
TIP Academy would admit children who haven't been identified as GATE or who live outside Encinitas, as required by law."
The idea, according to a previous article previous article, 46 Questions Posed for Charter School for Gifted, is to delve into that grey area where kids will be identified as gifted on one measure, say an out-of-level test, but not necessarily through classroom grades or behavior, which can be tainted by teacher opinion.
"...The school would break from narrow measurement tools that many traditional public schools use to determine whether a child is gifted, such as the Raven, a gifted program entrance exam. The school would take into account tests, but would also consider grades, teacher evaluations, reasoning skills, class interaction, writing samples, even poetry.
“You can have a gifted kid who doesn't know how to read, or you can have a kid who is autistic and gifted, or at-risk and gifted,” [Charter petitioner Deborah Hazelton] said."
With three "borderline" (at least according to our district) boys myself, I think this is a great idea, as long as that's really the idea. What worries me is that pernicious "all kids are gifted" philosophy, which does a great disservice to the truly academically gifted. This quote from the school board president does not allay my fears:
"School board President Shannon Kuder said she loves the school's concept.
“I like the idea of teaching kids like they're all brilliant because I think the cream rises to the top,” she said. “I think kids are amazing human beings, and I think they'll rise to their expectations.”
Kids in public schools can rise to high expectations because currently the classroom expectations are so low. Something like 60% of kids in your average, heterogeneous classroom are working below their ability because teachers are teaching to the bottom third of the class. But truly gifted kids are still going to learn, in some cases, 3 times faster than those bright hard-workers who are also working below their ability now.
I hope the TIP Academy really wants to concentrate resources on the gifted. But if I lived in San Diego, I don't think I'd apply until I see their theory actually put into practice.
"The proposal calls for a school that would offer a Gifted and Talented Education program in every subject and grade. State and local officials said they don't know of any other charter schools in the state focused solely on a GATE program for elementary children. ...
TIP Academy would admit children who haven't been identified as GATE or who live outside Encinitas, as required by law."
The idea, according to a previous article previous article, 46 Questions Posed for Charter School for Gifted, is to delve into that grey area where kids will be identified as gifted on one measure, say an out-of-level test, but not necessarily through classroom grades or behavior, which can be tainted by teacher opinion.
"...The school would break from narrow measurement tools that many traditional public schools use to determine whether a child is gifted, such as the Raven, a gifted program entrance exam. The school would take into account tests, but would also consider grades, teacher evaluations, reasoning skills, class interaction, writing samples, even poetry.
“You can have a gifted kid who doesn't know how to read, or you can have a kid who is autistic and gifted, or at-risk and gifted,” [Charter petitioner Deborah Hazelton] said."
With three "borderline" (at least according to our district) boys myself, I think this is a great idea, as long as that's really the idea. What worries me is that pernicious "all kids are gifted" philosophy, which does a great disservice to the truly academically gifted. This quote from the school board president does not allay my fears:
"School board President Shannon Kuder said she loves the school's concept.
“I like the idea of teaching kids like they're all brilliant because I think the cream rises to the top,” she said. “I think kids are amazing human beings, and I think they'll rise to their expectations.”
Kids in public schools can rise to high expectations because currently the classroom expectations are so low. Something like 60% of kids in your average, heterogeneous classroom are working below their ability because teachers are teaching to the bottom third of the class. But truly gifted kids are still going to learn, in some cases, 3 times faster than those bright hard-workers who are also working below their ability now.
I hope the TIP Academy really wants to concentrate resources on the gifted. But if I lived in San Diego, I don't think I'd apply until I see their theory actually put into practice.
Why More PE isn't the Answer
In her excellent article in USA Today, Time to Revamp PE, author Laura Vanderkam (a co-author of Genius Denied, check out her blog Gifted Exchange) argues that part of the obesity crisis in America is people being turned off of exercise by gym class. She writes:
"I want to blow the whistle on this [mandatory gym class] movement. Gym class didn't make me fit. For me, fitness came when I finally found an activity I loved and did it on my own terms — watching TV on the treadmill some days, running outside others. Gym class, by contrast, taught me that exercise was no fun. Many people feel that way. One Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association survey found more inactive adults said gym class turned them off to future exercise than made it appealing."
You can count me in that group. I nearly set a school record for longest time in the mile run (or in my case, walk). In my defense, about a quarter of the course was up a 20% grade (we had to run around the school). I mean good heavens! By the time I graduated, I could run up eight flights of stairs in two minutes to get to class, but it was all those stairs, not gym class, that made me fit.
Vanderkam suggests creating more individual sport activities in gym: "swing dance, yoga, martials arts, whatever." I know the two years I took ballet instead of gym were the happiest years of my PE life. Who wouldn't rather take Karate, aerobics or weightlifting than the gym-class-only, team sports-oriented "survey" courses offered today. (Dodgeball, anyone?) Besides, no one gets "picked last" in aerobics. Sounds like a win-win to me.
"I want to blow the whistle on this [mandatory gym class] movement. Gym class didn't make me fit. For me, fitness came when I finally found an activity I loved and did it on my own terms — watching TV on the treadmill some days, running outside others. Gym class, by contrast, taught me that exercise was no fun. Many people feel that way. One Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association survey found more inactive adults said gym class turned them off to future exercise than made it appealing."
You can count me in that group. I nearly set a school record for longest time in the mile run (or in my case, walk). In my defense, about a quarter of the course was up a 20% grade (we had to run around the school). I mean good heavens! By the time I graduated, I could run up eight flights of stairs in two minutes to get to class, but it was all those stairs, not gym class, that made me fit.
Vanderkam suggests creating more individual sport activities in gym: "swing dance, yoga, martials arts, whatever." I know the two years I took ballet instead of gym were the happiest years of my PE life. Who wouldn't rather take Karate, aerobics or weightlifting than the gym-class-only, team sports-oriented "survey" courses offered today. (Dodgeball, anyone?) Besides, no one gets "picked last" in aerobics. Sounds like a win-win to me.
Attention Future Architects and DIY Junkies!
Google has a free program called Google Sketchup that allows you to model objects in three dimensions. From their website:
"SketchUp is a simple but powerful tool for quickly and easily creating, viewing and modifying your 3D ideas.
Click on a shape and push or pull it to create your desired 3D geometry.
Experiment with color and texture directly on your model.
Real-time shadow casting lets you see exactly where the sun falls as you model.
Select from thousands of pre-drawn components to save time drawing."
Sweet, huh? Particularly the shadow casting. I don't know how that could be helpful, unless you want to know if the new gazebo will shade the rose garden for too much to the day, but it's totally cool that it can be done.
I haven't tried it myself since the Mac version is "coming soon," but I heard lots of great things, so you can be sure we'll have a go as soon as we can. If anyone has a chance to give it a try, let me know how it works!
"SketchUp is a simple but powerful tool for quickly and easily creating, viewing and modifying your 3D ideas.
Sweet, huh? Particularly the shadow casting. I don't know how that could be helpful, unless you want to know if the new gazebo will shade the rose garden for too much to the day, but it's totally cool that it can be done.
I haven't tried it myself since the Mac version is "coming soon," but I heard lots of great things, so you can be sure we'll have a go as soon as we can. If anyone has a chance to give it a try, let me know how it works!
Monday, May 01, 2006
NCLB: Here's a Radical Idea!
What if the government gave a test and nobody came? Teachers in England are so fed up with their version of No Child Left Behind that, according to BBC News, "schools could disrupt pupil tests across England by asking parents to send their children in late, head teachers say."
"[Mick] Brookes [General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers] told the NAHT's annual conference in Harrogate that he wanted to persuade ministers to change the system without resorting to industrial action.
He added: "But I think we have permission from that conference to take action. Our members are sick to the back teeth of this constant downward pressure.
"They are giving me permission to push back."
Would this work in the US? I don't know. According to Mr. Brookes, "If less than two-thirds of pupils did tests, results would be invalid." I'm not sure if this would hold true for the NCLB tests or not. It would be worth finding out...
"[Mick] Brookes [General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers] told the NAHT's annual conference in Harrogate that he wanted to persuade ministers to change the system without resorting to industrial action.
He added: "But I think we have permission from that conference to take action. Our members are sick to the back teeth of this constant downward pressure.
"They are giving me permission to push back."
Would this work in the US? I don't know. According to Mr. Brookes, "If less than two-thirds of pupils did tests, results would be invalid." I'm not sure if this would hold true for the NCLB tests or not. It would be worth finding out...
The Point is Moot
Fabulous game for logophiles, vocabulary mavens and others (including homeschoolers and students looking forward to the SATs), Moot, billed as The World's Toughest Language Game, is Sudoku or Trivial Pursuit for those who read the dictionary for fun. The game is for multiples of two players (we usually play as one parent/one child teams). You advance your token around a cribbage-type board by rolling the 12-sided die and answered vocabulary questions at one of four difficulties. The question difficulty depends on what number you roll: 1-3 red; 4-6 green, 7-9 yellow, 10-12 blue.
Some sample questions, picked at random from the stacks and stacks of cards:
Q. Red (easy): If your toes are in a coma, are they comatose? (Get it? Coma-toes?)
A. Yes
Q. Green (hard): Which could be healthy: lasciviousness or prurience?
A. Lasciviousness: To be lustful is to be lascivious, whereas to have an unhealthy obsession with sex is to be prurient.
Q. Yellow (harder): What cooking term means "to soak in seawater" in Latin?
A. Marinate: The word marinate derives from the Latin mare, sea; it denotes "the soaking of meat or fish to enhance flavour." (Spelling variation due to the game being Canadian.)
Q. Blue (nearly impossible): What word was coined to describe the easy-going pace of pilgrims riding to Thomas Becket's tomb?
A. Canter: The word canter was coined by contracting the phrase Canterbury pace, the easy-going pace of the pilgrims riding to the tomb of St. Thomas A' Becket in Canterbury.
Loads of brain-stretching fun (and lots of smacks to the head when you hear the answers)! You can order the game or look at more questions by clicking on the link above.
Some sample questions, picked at random from the stacks and stacks of cards:
Q. Red (easy): If your toes are in a coma, are they comatose? (Get it? Coma-toes?)
A. Yes
Q. Green (hard): Which could be healthy: lasciviousness or prurience?
A. Lasciviousness: To be lustful is to be lascivious, whereas to have an unhealthy obsession with sex is to be prurient.
Q. Yellow (harder): What cooking term means "to soak in seawater" in Latin?
A. Marinate: The word marinate derives from the Latin mare, sea; it denotes "the soaking of meat or fish to enhance flavour." (Spelling variation due to the game being Canadian.)
Q. Blue (nearly impossible): What word was coined to describe the easy-going pace of pilgrims riding to Thomas Becket's tomb?
A. Canter: The word canter was coined by contracting the phrase Canterbury pace, the easy-going pace of the pilgrims riding to the tomb of St. Thomas A' Becket in Canterbury.
Loads of brain-stretching fun (and lots of smacks to the head when you hear the answers)! You can order the game or look at more questions by clicking on the link above.
Inquiry Teaching: What is the Question?
Excellent (though old) article on The Art of Questioning in the classroom from the Exploratorium's website. Author Dennis Wolf says:
"Classroom questions are often disingenuous. Some are rhetorical: "Are we ready to begin now?" Others are mere information checks-a teacher knows the answer and wants to know if students do, too. Missing from many classrooms are what might be considered true questions, either requests for new information that belongs uniquely to the person being questioned or initiations of mutual inquiry (Bly 1986, Cook-Gumperz 1982)."
This article is mainly for teachers and other educators, but holds keys for homeschoolers and for parents of gifted kids who know there is something wrong with the classroom environment but can't quite put their finger on it. All kids, gifted kids in particular, need teachers who ask questions and then listen to and build on the answers. Too many times a teacher will ask a fact-based question: "Who was George Washington?" A: "The Father of our Country" or "Our First President" while the gifted kids in the room are thinking, "Yes, but why? Why him? Why not John Adams or Thomas Jefferson? What makes him so special?" Those questions are never discussed, particularly in the elementary classroom, and if the gifted child brings them up, the teacher says, "I don't know" and goes on to the next question on her list.
Teachers congratulate themselves for admitting they don't know something. (True, I used to be one. We were taught that "I don't know" is a good answer.) But it doesn't take most gifted kids long to realize that "I don't know" means "I don't care" and "Shut up." So does, "Why don't you look it up?", by the way, because despite the suggestion, the student can't get out of her seat to look it up right then (because they're in the middle of a class discussion!), and if she does find out later and brings that knowledge back with her, she gets looked at like a freak by the teacher. (But I'm not bitter, and that's a good thing. LOL)
Why do we need to ask better questions?
"Being asked and learning to pose strong questions might offer students a deeply held, internal blueprint for inquiry -apart from the prods and supports of questions from without. That blueprint would have many of the qualities that teachers' best questions do: range, arc, authenticity. But if the sum is greater than the parts, there might be an additional quality-call it a capacity for question finding (Getzels and Csikszentmihalyi 1976). Question finding is the ability to go to a poem, a painting, a piece of music-or a document, a mathematical description, a science experiment-and locate a novel direction for investigation. This ability is difficult to teach directly, yet it may be one of the most important byproducts of learning in an educational climate in which the questions asked are varied, worth pursuit, authentic, and humanely posed."
For gifted children, the ability to question is innate; ask anyone with a gifted four-year-old who never stops talking. It is just as important that our responses to their questions be more than "Uh-huh," and "I don't know," (at least when humanly possible). A simple change from "Why don't you look it up?" to "Why don't we look it up?" can make all the difference in the world. That's the answer. ;-)
"Classroom questions are often disingenuous. Some are rhetorical: "Are we ready to begin now?" Others are mere information checks-a teacher knows the answer and wants to know if students do, too. Missing from many classrooms are what might be considered true questions, either requests for new information that belongs uniquely to the person being questioned or initiations of mutual inquiry (Bly 1986, Cook-Gumperz 1982)."
This article is mainly for teachers and other educators, but holds keys for homeschoolers and for parents of gifted kids who know there is something wrong with the classroom environment but can't quite put their finger on it. All kids, gifted kids in particular, need teachers who ask questions and then listen to and build on the answers. Too many times a teacher will ask a fact-based question: "Who was George Washington?" A: "The Father of our Country" or "Our First President" while the gifted kids in the room are thinking, "Yes, but why? Why him? Why not John Adams or Thomas Jefferson? What makes him so special?" Those questions are never discussed, particularly in the elementary classroom, and if the gifted child brings them up, the teacher says, "I don't know" and goes on to the next question on her list.
Teachers congratulate themselves for admitting they don't know something. (True, I used to be one. We were taught that "I don't know" is a good answer.) But it doesn't take most gifted kids long to realize that "I don't know" means "I don't care" and "Shut up." So does, "Why don't you look it up?", by the way, because despite the suggestion, the student can't get out of her seat to look it up right then (because they're in the middle of a class discussion!), and if she does find out later and brings that knowledge back with her, she gets looked at like a freak by the teacher. (But I'm not bitter, and that's a good thing. LOL)
Why do we need to ask better questions?
"Being asked and learning to pose strong questions might offer students a deeply held, internal blueprint for inquiry -apart from the prods and supports of questions from without. That blueprint would have many of the qualities that teachers' best questions do: range, arc, authenticity. But if the sum is greater than the parts, there might be an additional quality-call it a capacity for question finding (Getzels and Csikszentmihalyi 1976). Question finding is the ability to go to a poem, a painting, a piece of music-or a document, a mathematical description, a science experiment-and locate a novel direction for investigation. This ability is difficult to teach directly, yet it may be one of the most important byproducts of learning in an educational climate in which the questions asked are varied, worth pursuit, authentic, and humanely posed."
For gifted children, the ability to question is innate; ask anyone with a gifted four-year-old who never stops talking. It is just as important that our responses to their questions be more than "Uh-huh," and "I don't know," (at least when humanly possible). A simple change from "Why don't you look it up?" to "Why don't we look it up?" can make all the difference in the world. That's the answer. ;-)
Another Volley in the Penmanship Wars
In the April 24 Christian Science Monitor: Practice Makes Perfect Penmanship, writer Monica Bhide asks the question: "In this age of computers, does a six-year-old really need good handwriting?" She says yes. I say no. Unfortunately, her essay supports my position, not hers.
Let's look at some examples. She extolls the virtues of penmanship that she learned from her father, who made her sit at the diningroom table every summer morning for two years, copying articles out of the newspaper. (I have no problem with this method of handwriting instruction, by the way.) She wants her son to also learn good handwriting because "He loves to make up and write out stories, but he writes so fast that his lovely stories don't look lovely - or legible." I would like to submit that writing stories is its own art-form and the story is his ultimate goal. I don't know about Bhide, but my first drafts are anything but legible, even when I compose on the keyboard!
Hold that thought.
She goes on immediately to say, "Growing up, I had no choice - practicing good handwriting was as important as learning addition or subtraction."
Hold that thought, too.
She praises her father's beautiful handwriting.
"His handwriting was exquisite - like calligraphy without any special pens. I have saved letters he has written me, and somewhere in my heart I resent e-mail, which he now uses, because it has dashed the possibility of future handwritten notes from him."
Wait a minute. She saves his letters and resents his emails, not because of what he writes to her but because they are beautiful. Doesn't that mean handwriting is an art-form, rather than a method of communication?
Another example: "I still have good handwriting. It sounds strange to say in this day and age. Friends ask me to help address their envelopes and even help with their scrapbooks. I am a writer, and pride myself on my handwriting. I want my son to have the same pleasure." ...
"He then turns to me and says, "Mama, I never see you write on paper. You are always typing on your computer. Why do I need good handwriting on paper if all I am going to do when I grow up is type on a computer?""
Okay, she prides herself on her handwriting. Wonderful! It gives her great pleasure. Fabulous! She only uses it to address other people's envelopes, not in her day-to-day life. Art Form!
Great skill at landscape painting is also a reward in itself, but it is not a skill anyone but an artist would use in their daily work. When Bhide's son is writing his wonderful stories, the words are a means to an end, not the end in itself as she expects them to be. He is working, as she does, not practicing an art form. Nor should be be forced to be a visual artist at the same time he's trying to work with words.
Which leaves us with the only argument that rings true throughout the whole article: She had no choice but to develop beautiful handwriting. This is the same argument that underlies fraternity hazing rituals, 36-hour shifts for medical interns, and public school for that matter. "I had to do it, so why shouldn't you?" Is this a proper basis for education? Wouldn't it be better for him to learn to admire his mother's penmanship hobby and want to learn to do it, too, instead of ramming it down his throat so he hates it?
She ends the article by comparing teaching penmanship to learning to tell time with an analog clock or learning to tie shoelaces instead of using velcro shoes. She could just as well compare it to learning to drive a standard transmission instead of an automatic. There was a transitional time when it was necessary to learn to drive both kinds of transmission "just in case you had to drive a stick in an emergency." Now you'd be hard-pressed to find a stick-shift, even in an emergency.
We are in just such a transition from handwriting to keyboarding for the vast majority of our communications. Yes, Bhide's son will probably find a time when he has to write a note in an emergency. But when it's just as easy to text the note to someone, when even medical charts have gone digital, that time is passing fast. Soon, handwriting will be the province of the professional and the hobbyist, much like standard transmission is the province of the race car driver and the gear head.
handwriting
Let's look at some examples. She extolls the virtues of penmanship that she learned from her father, who made her sit at the diningroom table every summer morning for two years, copying articles out of the newspaper. (I have no problem with this method of handwriting instruction, by the way.) She wants her son to also learn good handwriting because "He loves to make up and write out stories, but he writes so fast that his lovely stories don't look lovely - or legible." I would like to submit that writing stories is its own art-form and the story is his ultimate goal. I don't know about Bhide, but my first drafts are anything but legible, even when I compose on the keyboard!
Hold that thought.
She goes on immediately to say, "Growing up, I had no choice - practicing good handwriting was as important as learning addition or subtraction."
Hold that thought, too.
She praises her father's beautiful handwriting.
"His handwriting was exquisite - like calligraphy without any special pens. I have saved letters he has written me, and somewhere in my heart I resent e-mail, which he now uses, because it has dashed the possibility of future handwritten notes from him."
Wait a minute. She saves his letters and resents his emails, not because of what he writes to her but because they are beautiful. Doesn't that mean handwriting is an art-form, rather than a method of communication?
Another example: "I still have good handwriting. It sounds strange to say in this day and age. Friends ask me to help address their envelopes and even help with their scrapbooks. I am a writer, and pride myself on my handwriting. I want my son to have the same pleasure." ...
"He then turns to me and says, "Mama, I never see you write on paper. You are always typing on your computer. Why do I need good handwriting on paper if all I am going to do when I grow up is type on a computer?""
Okay, she prides herself on her handwriting. Wonderful! It gives her great pleasure. Fabulous! She only uses it to address other people's envelopes, not in her day-to-day life. Art Form!
Great skill at landscape painting is also a reward in itself, but it is not a skill anyone but an artist would use in their daily work. When Bhide's son is writing his wonderful stories, the words are a means to an end, not the end in itself as she expects them to be. He is working, as she does, not practicing an art form. Nor should be be forced to be a visual artist at the same time he's trying to work with words.
Which leaves us with the only argument that rings true throughout the whole article: She had no choice but to develop beautiful handwriting. This is the same argument that underlies fraternity hazing rituals, 36-hour shifts for medical interns, and public school for that matter. "I had to do it, so why shouldn't you?" Is this a proper basis for education? Wouldn't it be better for him to learn to admire his mother's penmanship hobby and want to learn to do it, too, instead of ramming it down his throat so he hates it?
She ends the article by comparing teaching penmanship to learning to tell time with an analog clock or learning to tie shoelaces instead of using velcro shoes. She could just as well compare it to learning to drive a standard transmission instead of an automatic. There was a transitional time when it was necessary to learn to drive both kinds of transmission "just in case you had to drive a stick in an emergency." Now you'd be hard-pressed to find a stick-shift, even in an emergency.
We are in just such a transition from handwriting to keyboarding for the vast majority of our communications. Yes, Bhide's son will probably find a time when he has to write a note in an emergency. But when it's just as easy to text the note to someone, when even medical charts have gone digital, that time is passing fast. Soon, handwriting will be the province of the professional and the hobbyist, much like standard transmission is the province of the race car driver and the gear head.
handwriting
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)