Bill Gates shares with us his summer reading list.
What? Nothing about education? He is our national education czar but apparently doesn’t like to read about education.
Please readers: suggest your favorite titles. Let’s create a summer reading list for Bill Gates to educate him about education.
Here is a start:
Anthony Cody, The Educator and the Oligarch: Bill Gates and the Cult of Measurement
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’ll believe he read those books when I see his test scores on the contents …
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Biddle & Berliner: The Manufactured Crisis
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How about some books on compassion, empathy, poverty, homelessness, loss, hopelessness…for a start?
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An informative (and poignant) book on poverty in Baltimore is “The Long Shadow: Family Background, Disadvantaged Urban Youth, and the Transition to Adulthood” by Karl Alexander from Johns Hopkins.
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He needs to read More Than a Score, edited by Jesse Hagopian. That book is life changing!
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I second the suggestion of the owner of this blog.
From the linked article:
[start]
“How Not to be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking,” by Jordan Ellenberg
“The book’s larger point is that, as Ellenberg writes, ‘to do mathematics is to be, at once, touched by fire and bound by reason’ — and that there are ways in which we’re all doing math, all the time.”
[end]
I suggest Mr. Gates read chapter 22 of Mr. Cody’s book.
It’s called “”Bill Gates and the Cult of Measurement: Efficiency Without Excellence.”
Maybe, just maybe, after reading this [and it’s not hundreds and hundreds of pages long] he might actually learn that the numbers & stats & data that he uses for $tudent $ucce$$ produce “Efficiency Without Excellence.”
Or not. Perhaps he prefers to not disturb his reading time, whilst he’s wrapped up in his Happy Thoughts, with realities that contradict his rheealities.
I end with a simple observation. Note that he freely indulges in (what for him) is free wide-ranging reading on a variety of topics in order (one way to look at it) to deal with world-wide education and health and other priorities of the Gates Foundation (not to mention simply indulging in the joy of reading)—but ferociously pushes an agenda that tries to deny the very same experience in school for the vast majority of OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN.
Words. Deeds. Grand Canyon Gap.
😎
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Although technically not a book how about Noel Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577/700
Let me get you started Billy by offering this summary:
Brief outline of Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” and some comments of mine.
1. A description of a quality can only be partially quantified. Quantity is almost always a very small aspect of quality. It is illogical to judge/assess a whole category only by a part of the whole. The assessment is, by definition, lacking in the sense that “assessments are always of multidimensional qualities. To quantify them as unidimensional quantities (numbers or grades) is to perpetuate a fundamental logical error” (per Wilson). The teaching and learning process falls in the logical realm of aesthetics/qualities of human interactions. In attempting to quantify educational standards and standardized testing the descriptive information about said interactions is inadequate, insufficient and inferior to the point of invalidity and unacceptability.
2. A major epistemological mistake is that we attach, with great importance, the “score” of the student, not only onto the student but also, by extension, the teacher, school and district. Any description of a testing event is only a description of an interaction, that of the student and the testing device at a given time and place. The only correct logical thing that we can attempt to do is to describe that interaction (how accurately or not is a whole other story). That description cannot, by logical thought, be “assigned/attached” to the student as it cannot be a description of the student but the interaction. And this error is probably one of the most egregious “errors” that occur with standardized testing (and even the “grading” of students by a teacher).
3. Wilson identifies four “frames of reference” each with distinct assumptions (epistemological basis) about the assessment process from which the “assessor” views the interactions of the teaching and learning process: the Judge (think college professor who “knows” the students capabilities and grades them accordingly), the General Frame-think standardized testing that claims to have a “scientific” basis, the Specific Frame-think of learning by objective like computer based learning, getting a correct answer before moving on to the next screen, and the Responsive Frame-think of an apprenticeship in a trade or a medical residency program where the learner interacts with the “teacher” with constant feedback. Each category has its own sources of error and more error in the process is caused when the assessor confuses and conflates the categories.
4. Wilson elucidates the notion of “error”: “Error is predicated on a notion of perfection; to allocate error is to imply what is without error; to know error it is necessary to determine what is true. And what is true is determined by what we define as true, theoretically by the assumptions of our epistemology, practically by the events and non-events, the discourses and silences, the world of surfaces and their interactions and interpretations; in short, the practices that permeate the field. . . Error is the uncertainty dimension of the statement; error is the band within which chaos reigns, in which anything can happen. Error comprises all of those eventful circumstances which make the assessment statement less than perfectly precise, the measure less than perfectly accurate, the rank order less than perfectly stable, the standard and its measurement less than absolute, and the communication of its truth less than impeccable.”
In other words all the logical errors involved in the process render any conclusions invalid.
5. The test makers/psychometricians, through all sorts of mathematical machinations attempt to “prove” that these tests (based on standards) are valid-errorless or supposedly at least with minimal error [they aren’t]. Wilson turns the concept of validity on its head and focuses on just how invalid the machinations and the test and results are. He is an advocate for the test taker not the test maker. In doing so he identifies thirteen sources of “error”, any one of which renders the test making/giving/disseminating of results invalid. And a basic logical premise is that once something is shown to be invalid it is just that, invalid, and no amount of “fudging” by the psychometricians/test makers can alleviate that invalidity.
6. Having shown the invalidity, and therefore the unreliability, of the whole process Wilson concludes, rightly so, that any result/information gleaned from the process is “vain and illusory”. In other words start with an invalidity, end with an invalidity (except by sheer chance every once in a while, like a blind and anosmic squirrel who finds the occasional acorn, a result may be “true”) or to put in more mundane terms crap in-crap out.
7. And so what does this all mean? I’ll let Wilson have the second to last word: “So what does a test measure in our world? It measures what the person with the power to pay for the test says it measures. And the person who sets the test will name the test what the person who pays for the test wants the test to be named.”
In other words it attempts to measure “’something’ and we can specify some of the ‘errors’ in that ‘something’ but still don’t know [precisely] what the ‘something’ is.” The whole process harms many students as the social rewards for some are not available to others who “don’t make the grade (sic)” Should American public education have the function of sorting and separating students so that some may receive greater benefits than others, especially considering that the sorting and separating devices, educational standards and standardized testing, are so flawed not only in concept but in execution?
My answer is NO!!!!!
One final note with Wilson channeling Foucault and his concept of subjectivization:
“So the mark [grade/test score] becomes part of the story about yourself and with sufficient repetitions becomes true: true because those who know, those in authority, say it is true; true because the society in which you live legitimates this authority; true because your cultural habitus makes it difficult for you to perceive, conceive and integrate those aspects of your experience that contradict the story; true because in acting out your story, which now includes the mark and its meaning, the social truth that created it is confirmed; true because if your mark is high you are consistently rewarded, so that your voice becomes a voice of authority in the power-knowledge discourses that reproduce the structure that helped to produce you; true because if your mark is low your voice becomes muted and confirms your lower position in the social hierarchy; true finally because that success or failure confirms that mark that implicitly predicted the now self-evident consequences. And so the circle is complete.”
In other words students “internalize” what those “marks” (grades/test scores) mean, and since the vast majority of the students have not developed the mental skills to counteract what the “authorities” say, they accept as “natural and normal” that “story/description” of them. Although paradoxical in a sense, the “I’m an “A” student” is almost as harmful as “I’m an ‘F’ student” in hindering students becoming independent, critical and free thinkers. And having independent, critical and free thinkers is a threat to the current socio-economic structure of society.
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Ya’all knew that had to be coming!
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I disagree…I think that “How Not to be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking” relates directly to education – at least math education.
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Gates could read Blum’s “I love Learning; I Hate School.” (2016)
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Why would anyone with arrogance and hubris of Gates choose to read about education? His mind is a closed circuit, and he is convinced he has all the answers. He does not seek to learn about education; he seeks to dominate and shape policy based on his own personal set of assumptions and biases. With his unlimited resources, he can use public education like a tinker toy and our children like rats in a maze.
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Modesty nearly forbids my mentioning Berliner &.Glass, 50 Myths and Lies That Threaten America’s Public Schools.
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That’s okay Gene, I’ll do it for you. I will be re-reading it this summer, I will send my copy on.
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How about reading “The Hurried Child” by David Elkins, “The Hundred Languages of Children”, Anything by Jean Piaget and Alfie Kohn…..or does Bill Gates really care about kids?
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Bill “White Rabbit” Gates has pulled us all down the rabbit hole AND through the looking glass. Strange lands where mystical thought leaders spew nonsense about schools, teachers, parents and children; subjects they know nothing of. Strange lands where basketball players, philosophers, and telegenic ski bums are given powers that far exceed their knowledge and abilities. Strange lands where logic, social justice, and the truth are all on a permanent holiday.
So Bill just might want to re-read these two wonderful and apparently inspirational novels. Here’s to hoping he stays within the four corners.
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note not one piece of fiction for billy boy… no wonder he has no compassion or empathy… ought to read A Tale of Two Cities or 1984 for a glimpse of possibilities (I know they aren’t books on education!)
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I’m surprised he is not advocating close reading of operation manuals and bits of legislation. Isn’t that what the reformers prefer on the tests? That, and bits of stupidity about hares and pineapples?
Does anyone remember where he was inserted as an essay, about how great, wealthy, and philanthropic he is?
Interesting reading: https://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/bill-gates-damage-control-via-student-test-prep-questions/
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Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday?
Ego Check: Why Executive Hubris is Wrecking Companies and Careers and How to Avoid the Trap by Mathew Hayward
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Ego Check: Why Executive Hubris is Wrecking Companies and Careers and How to Avoid the Trap
by Mathew Hayward
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My copy of War and Peace is 1,386 pages, through many of which I have slogged. Please, Bill Gates, read War and Peace 192 times. Read War and Peace, eat, read War and Peace, sleep. Stop doing everything else and just do that. Seriously, stop doing everything else you do.
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“Stop everything else you do” Yes, but first stop running public education into the ground and calling yourself a philanthropist…let’s stop that one first.
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Can we stop calling Bill Gates a philanthropist already?!
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Kirstie, what about malanthropist?
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What’s wrong with calling BG a philanthropist? Philanthropy means, use your money to make sure things happen your way.
A similar word is success: it means, you made a lot of money.
So there’s nothing wrong with calling BG a successful philanthropist. We know exactly what it means.
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My inspiration.
Gilbert Highet, The Art of Teaching.
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I’M in the Principal’s Seat, Now What? by Allan R. Bonilla, Ed.D (Miami-Dade Principal of the Year)
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Why Don’t Students Like School by Daniel Willingham.
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The human side off school change- Robert Evans
Sent from my iPhone
>
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Andre Comte-Sponville’s “A Small Treatise on the Great Virtues”.
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He should read this piece about the privatized education system in Chile.
It’s not even book-length so it won’t take him all summer 🙂
http://www.bostonreview.net/world/%E2%80%9Cno-profit%E2%80%9D
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Anything by Susan Ohanian. Start here:
This:
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‘Twas the Day of Teacher Ratings
‘Twas the day of teacher ratings and all through the school
Every teacher was serving the Danielson rule.
The checklists were marked by the leader with care,
In hopes that Fed funds soon would be there.
The students were nestled all snug with computers,
Dreaming of Close Reading or maybe of Hooters.
And Bill Gates with his money, and I with my debts
Had just settled our brains from a long winter’s fret,
When out in the hall there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my desk to see the matter.
Away to the door I flew like a flash,
What I saw caused an eruption of rash.
There to my wondering eyes did appear
Teacher expectation checklists ready to smear
In the hands of a manager trained by Broad
So I knew in a moment I should follow the Code.
More rapid than eagles the checkmarks they come,
We all whistle and shout and teach them til numb:
“Now, Non Fiction and Close Reading galore!
On, Creative Thinking!” More! More! More!
To the top of College and Career Readiness Skills,
We dig in deep for more and more swill.
So in the classroom the biz-whiz flunky did stand
With his bag full of rubrics and Common Core canned–
And then, in a twinkling, I think of the money
The pawing and gnawing from Bill Gates chummies.
The PTA is bought; NAACP and El Raza too
Not to mention that US DOE.
@usedgov on Twitter, aptly named
Their practice is to teachers defame.
And I know that Hillary
Will add to the pillory.
Inside the classroom the corporate stooge stays his ground,
With lots of unreal goals to spread around.
He’s dressed all in hubris from his head to his toe,
And brooks no dissent from the Common Core show.
With that bundle of rules tight in his hand
I feel like I’m already deep in quicksand.
His eyes–how they goggled! His lips, how stern
His checklist as friendly as a tax return!
The glare of his eye and the twist of his head
Soon let me know I had lots to dread.
He had a broad face with a determined glare
I knew my lesson hadn’t a prayer.
He spoke not a word but went straight to his work,
He filled in the rubric like a well-oiled clerk.
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
Let me know my teaching career was foreclosed.
He sprang to the hallway, to his team gave a whistle,
One more Core foe up for dismissal.
And I heard him exclaim, ere he walked out of sight–
“God bless Bill Gates, who stands for what’s right!”
— Susan Ohanian
March 24, 2016
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Bill Gates our “national education czar”, good one!
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Savage Inequalities – Children in America’s Schools or The Shame of the Nation – The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America or anything by Jonathan Kozol.
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“Measuring Up” by Daniel Koretz
“Unequal Childhoods” by Annette Lareau
Anything by Jonothan Kozol
“The Mismeasurement of Man” by SJ Gould
“Public Housing and School Choice in a Gentrified City” by Molly Makris
“Ghetto Schooling” by Jean Anyon
“Making the Grades” by Todd Farley
“The Teacher Wars” by Dana Goldstein
“This Is Not a Test” by Jose Vilson
“Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon” by Yong Zhao
“Improbable Scholars” by David Kirp
And, of course, “Reign of Error” & “The Death and Life of the Great American School System” by you-know-who
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Awesome list, Jersey! It was an honor to hear you speak at Rutgers, although I was too shy to introduce myself.
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Jersey Jazzman:
Much appreciate your blog. Much appreciate your list of suggested readings.
I have read most of the list. Just my very personal opinion: I would suggest for those new to the ed debates and unsure about how to evaluate the claims & counter-claims of those for and against the uses/misuses/abuses of standardized testing that they start with:
1), Todd Farley, MAKING THE GRADES, followed by
2), Daniel Koretz, MEASURING UP. Then on to—
Forgive the presumption, but I would add Banesh Hoffman’s slim contribution (1962 original, 1964 reedition, 2003 republication) THE TYRANNY OF TESTING. Not only are his explanations very well expressed in non-technical jargon but they highlight the fact that the same problems plaguing standardized testing today are over half a century old (at least) and the promised fixes have NEVER happened.
One of the most memorable and prescient sections is at the beginning of the last third of his slim paperback (pp. 143-144):
[start]
A person who uses statistics does not thereby automatically become a scientist, any more than a person who uses a stethoscope automatically becomes a doctor. Nor is an activity necessary scientific just because statistics are used in it.
The most important thing to understand about reliance on statistics in a field such as testing is the such reliance warps perspective. The person who holds that subjective judgment and opinion are suspect and decides that only statistics can provide the objectivity and relative certainty that he seeks, begins by unconsciously ignoring, and ends by consciously deriding, whatever can not be given a numerical measure or label. His sense of values becomes distorted. He comes to believe that whatever is non-numerical is inconsequential. He can not serve two masters. If he worships statistics he will simplify, fractionalize, distort, and cheapen in order to force things into a numerical mold.
The multiple-choice tester who meets criticisms by merely citing test statistics shows either his contempt for the intelligence of his readers or else his personal lack of concern for the non-numerical aspects of testing, importantly among them the deleterious effects his test procedures have on education.
[end]
Again, many thanks for all you do.
😎
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Oh, Danielle, please don’t say such a thing! It still blows me away whenever I meet anyone who likes the blog.
Please promise me the next time we’re in the same room you will come up and say “hi”! It would be my honor.
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KTA, Tyranny of Testing is now on MY summer reading list! 😉
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JAZZMAN, Carole King, first two verses:
“Lift me, won’t you lift me above the old routine
Make it nice, play it clean, Jazzman
When the Jazzman’s testifyin’
A faithless man believes
He can sing you into paradise
Or bring you to your knees
It’s a gospel kind of feelin’
A touch of Georgia slide
A song of pure revival
And a style that’s sanctified”
Keep testifyin’, Jersey Jazzman.
😎
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The Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools (New York: Knopf, 2013)
The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education (New York: Basic Books, 2010)
Schneider, Mercedes K. Common Core Dilemma: Who Owns Our Schools? Teachers College, 2015.
Mercedes K. Schneider Coming June 24, 2016 School Choice: The End of Public Education? Teachers College Press
Berliner &.Glass, 50 Myths and Lies That Threaten America’s Public Schools.
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Diane,
You state “What? Nothing about education? He is our national education czar but apparently doesn’t like to read about education.”
“tsar |zär(t)sär| (also czar or tzar)
noun
1 an emperor of Russia before 1917: Tsar Nicholas II.
• a South Slav ruler in former times, especially one reigning over Serbia in the 14th century.
2 (often czar) [ usu. with adj. or noun modifier ] a person appointed by government to advise on and coordinate policy in a particular area: America’s new drug czar.
DERIVATIVES
tsardom |ˈzärdəmˈtsärdəm| noun.
tsarism |ˈzärˌizəmˈtsäˌrizəm| noun.
tsarist |ˈzärəstˈtsärəst| noun & adjective
ORIGIN
from Russian tsar’, representing Latin Caesar.”
Bill Gates does not fit the definition because
a) he is not an emperor of Russia or a Slav ruler.
b) he was not appointed by the government to advise or coordinate policy a particular area.
c) he doesn’t read about education – are you certain?
Your statement fails the simple test of “Is it true?”
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In the United States, the informal political term “czar” or “tsar” is employed in media and popular usage to refer to high-level officials who oversee a particular policy. There have never been any U.S. government offices with the title “czar”, but various governmental officials have sometimes been referred to by the nickname “czar” rather than their actual title.
The earliest known use of the term for a U.S. government official was in the administration of Franklin Roosevelt (1933–1945), during which eleven unique positions (or twelve if one were to count “Economic Czar” and “Economic Czar of World War II” as separate) were so described. The term was revived, mostly by the press, to describe officials in the Nixon and Ford administrations and continues today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._executive_branch_czars
Raj
I hereby anoint you Czar of the Stupid
Plenty for you to oversee in Rheeformland!
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After all of the postings done here showing the connections between Gates and the USDOE I don’t think it is a stretch to affirm that he has been appointed (or annointed in neoliberal billionaire worship?) as an advisor and policy coordinator re: education. Poor literal sockpuppet Raj!
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RageAgainstTheTetsocracy
I see now that the “Knights in Rusty Armor” have come to the rescue of the “Unfair Maiden.”
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Raj’s bizˈzärəst comment comment yet. Funny, but also kind of sad. Bill Gates is not really an official czar, Raj. You’re right. Still, I do not recommend reading the dictionary, unless you need to look up the definition of figurative language.
Me, I read Dr. Seuss. (Kidding.) I do not like Monsanto’s green eggs and ham. Oh, Raj, you might need to look up sarcasm too.
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Czar of the Stupid,
The only one needing rescue around here is YOU. From your own boneheaded views.
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Is Raj jealous of Diane? Why would he frequent this blog, which obviously (at least to the rest of us) is dedicated to people against educational reform?
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Raj, you forget the colloquial use as the appointed leader of departments of government and given advisory roles with limited accountability. These people are assumed to have expertise and wisdom, thus they are given power. Bill Gates deserves no power over policy, his corporation has habitually behaved in a criminal fashion and he should, in my opinion, serve the time for the corporation since they are people.
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I have no trouble living up, or down, to my moniker of “KrazyTA.”
But with regards to the fit of same, I humbly acknowledge myself bested, with a 98% chance of “satisfactory” [thank you, Mr. Bill Gates!], by Non Sequitur Jr.
The King is Dead! Long Live the King!
😎
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To avoid czarist misinterpretations, I would like to edit my above comment:
Replace “the fit of same” with “the fit of a moniker.”
It’s the least I can do for one of the only sane people that visits this blog…
😎
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Raj comes here to Diane’s place, calls her a liar and implies she is deliberately obtuse and then whines that the other guests defend her, calling us ‘rusty-armored knights.’ And he ignored the part of his own quote that proved Diane’s characterization correct.
Pathetic.
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Anthony Cody destroys the lie from Duncan that Gates doesn’t influence education policy here:
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/living-in-dialogue/2014/01/duncan_bill_gates_has_no_.html
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http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/bill-gates-microsoft-policy-washington-103136
“The man who just 15 years ago couldn’t be bothered interacting with Congress has learned to leverage his fortune to drive huge change in U.S. education policy. Now, he’s broadening his focus to take on agricultural policy, immigration reform and even clean energy. Just this week, his foundation pledged financial support for a $25 million fund to provide college scholarships for undocumented immigrants. On the global stage, meanwhile, Gates has sharply criticized the powerful livestock industry as he talks up his vision for solving world hunger by promoting vegetarian diets.”
https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/11/29/announcing-mission-innovation
Raj, calling Raj. . . . crickets.
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Anf finally, Gates himself on “the nuisance of democracy” in a video entitled “If I Were Education Czar.”
Raj? Oh Raj? Comment?
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And Raj, your statement calling Diane a maiden is simply untrue. She has a grandson, you know. Retraction?
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Raj,
You quibble.
Bill Bennett was czar of the war on drugs.
Many people have been dubbed the czar of a problem when they are in control of lots of power and/or money.
Perhaps you are unfamiliar with idiomatic use of language in the US.
Did you see a book on his list that was directly about education policy? I didn’t. Perhaps you can explain my error.
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“The Best and the Brightest” by David Halberstam. Amazing and shocking to see the parallels between our Vietnam policy in the 1950s and 1960s and Education Reform policy of the past fifteen years.
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A compendium of SomeDamPoet’s poetry!
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Thanks for the note of confidence, but I’m not sure I want Gates reading that.
You don’t want the Evil Eye of Sauron focusing on you.
“The Dark Lord was suddenly aware of him [Frodo], the Eye piercing all shadows… Its wrath blazed like a sudden flame and its fear was like a great black smoke, for it knew its deadly peril, the thread upon which hung its doom… [I]ts thought was now bent with all its overwhelming force upon the Mountain…”
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“The Evil Eye of Gates”
The Evil Eye of Gates
Is piercing in its gaze
Determining our fates
And numbering our days
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I found a few books he can read!
“Meddling: On the Virtue of Leaving Others Alone”
“How to Hide: A Practical Guide to Vanishing and Taking Your Assets With You”
After he runs away and leaves us all alone, he can begin to repent by reading Dr Seuss books:
“How the Grinch Stole Christmas” -Dr Seuss
Lesson: Have a heart
“The Lorax” -Dr Seuss
Lesson: Don’t be greedy
“Green Eggs and Ham” – Dr Seuss
Lesson: Consider and appreciate other peoples’ advice
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lol.
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Between the world and me
Sent from my iPhone
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“Boys Adrift” by Dr. Leonard Sax, wherein the effect of computers on the development of young men is discussed at length. Not pretty.
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Hmmm. Any women writers?
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Reign of Error.
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Does the gender of the author make a difference?
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Indeed. On the other hand, the Slow Professor book I recommended and somewhat described earlier was written by two women. Hopefully, it won’t take off their accomplishments that they live in Canada and at least one of them is British, originally.
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My Rx: He reads anything by Jonothan Kozol and then only fiction or moving biographies and autobiographies. Immersion in these genres might help him begin to learn real empathy and humility. Hmmm…. Ecology of a Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray; What is the What by Dave Eggers; Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, We Die Alone by David Howarth; March by Geraldine Brooks; Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks; Les Miserables by Victor Hugo; Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte; Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; Old Yeller by Fred Gipson, Black Boy by Richard Wright; Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, and I’ll stop now.
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Actually, i read one of Gates’ suggestions LAST summer after I fell out of tree and was forced to loaf around for a good part of July….the science fiction novel Seveneves -the book that clocked in at 880 pages.
Gates says the book “pushes you to think big and long-term”. Actually, it pushed me to get the hell off the hammock and start doing something in the real world, immediately, even though it was a struggle.
Which is probably what Gates ought to do….visit actual public school classrooms and talk to everyday teachers and students. My God, the last thing we need is for Gates to “think big” again. Next thing you know I’ll be getting relentless pop-ups telling me my computer needs Windows 11.
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“. . . what Gates ought to do….visit actual public school classrooms and talk to everyday teachers and students.”
No, no, no, no, no!! said in a teacher’s exasperated voice.
He needs to stay the hell away from any public school. I don’t care what he does with private and/or religious schools that’s their call. But we shouldn’t be inviting the fox into the hen house.
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“He needs to stay the hell away from any public school.”
I almost agreed with you, but then I thought that he may have his kids enroll in a no-excuse, “public” charter school, and he’d have to listen every night as they describe their experience.
“How was math class today, my sweet little girl, Billy-Jean?”
“The most boring ever, dad: we had to sit in front of the computer and solve 40 problems, using the same stupid formula. The only fun we had was when first the software then the computer broke down. Worse, I now have to solve 30 more of these problems after dinner. If I am lucky, I’ll finish by midnight.”
“But this is Friday, and I wanted to go and see the newest Batman movie with you.”
“Dad, I have to use the weekend, as always, to get ready for all the tests on Monday. Otherwise I won’t be college-ready in 6 years.”
“Can’t you just skip one Monday, and we spend a weekend snorkeling in the Pacific? I’ll write a note…”
“But daaaad! No excuuuuses, remember? Yesterday I already had to kneel in the Corner of Sins and Shames for asking Julie during lunch if she wanted my apple. For skipping Monday, I’d have to spend next weekend in the school’s solitary cell.”
“Ok, then, I’ll go upstairs to sleep. Don’t stay up past midnight.”
“Don’t be sad, dad. It’s all be worth it: I’ll be successful in a mere 10 years.”
“I’ll be dead by then.”
“Don’t give me the guilt trip, dad. Instead, take these 75 index cards, and help me with the math definitions. I almost forgot, but I also need to know them by Monday.”
“Nah, I’d rather go to the kitchen and drink the remaining bottle of Baileys with your mother.”
“Then at least you guys should make me a gallon of coffee so that I can stay awake.”
“OK, Honey, we can do that for you.”
“Don’t forget: lots of sugar and whipped cream.”
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Here’s a short (barely 100 pages) book that would make B. G. think over the very fundamentals of his whole educational worldview and in particular his “class size doesn’t matter” statement, his push of online education and his individualized learning program via computers.
On teaching, section 2, “Pedagogy and Pleasure” is a must read, imo. It’s not just stating what teachers has always known as obvious (but which has been challenged by the billionaires’ gang), but it also cites supporting research.
Let me quote some from the book, giving the most important conclusion at the end in bold face. While the concrete setting is a university, it’s clear that the observations are even more relevant when teaching younger people.
First, on being brave enough to dare to talk about the pleasure of teaching and learning in the “hard working” corporate culture. I very much think, this is how we need to start framing our view of education.
It seems obvious that when one teaches well, one enjoys it, but perhaps the reverse is actually more accurate: that when one enjoys teaching, one does it well. The current emphasis on “evidence-based practices” and “processes to measure impact” in teaching and learning entirely overlooks pleasure (Queen’s Teaching and Learning Action Plan, 2014, 7); yet it may be the case that pleasure – experienced by the instructor and the students – is the most important predictor of “learning outcomes.”
Pleasure is, as the Slow Food movement has made clear, inimical to the corporate world. While other radical political movements, as Geoff Andrews points out, neglected or even eschewed pleasure, Slow Food is “Politics in Search of Pleasure” (3). In a world which, in George Ritzer’s words, is increasingly homogenized, “in which virtually anywhere one turns one finds very familiar forms of nothing,” we need, as he puts it, “something” which is “locally conceived and rich in distinctive context” (Ritzer qtd. in Andrews 36). Our search for the distinctive pleasures of teaching and learning will take up Amanda Burrell and Michael Coe’s challenge that “before ‘live’ lectures are abandoned in favour of remote class streaming, it is timely to examine what happens in a ‘live’ lecture when academics and students occupy the same space at the same time”(“Be Quiet and Stand Still” 3170). The obvious difference between face-to-face and remote learning is the proximity of bodies and the transmission of emotions that inevitably follows. We focus here on live classes and on the politics of pleasure because both are obstructionist in the corporate university..”
On the the relationship between intelligence and emotions
In light of the corporate university’s penchant for everything quantifiable, one might expect to find widespread acceptance of a fixed and measurable “intelligence quotient,” or IQ. On the contrary, the last decades have seen growing awareness that intelligence is embodied and therefore is dependent on context and emotions. David Brooks explains in “The Waning of I.Q.” that investigations of the brain show that “far from being a cold engine for processing information, neural connections are shaped by emotion” (par. 8). Annie Murphy Paul summarizes research showing that the concept of a fixed and measurable IQ is an outdated myth. Instead, intelligence depends on circumstances: “Situational intelligence … is the only kind of intelligence there is – because we are always doing our thinking in a particular situation, with a particular brain in a particular body” (par. 6). Learning does not and cannot take place in some transcendent brain.
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Examining student evaluations demonstrates the pervasiveness of emotions in the classroom. Words such as “inspiring,” “stimulating,” “engaging and thought-provoking” all express affect, so that “thinking and caring” about a topic – as one student put it – are frequently linked in a single phrase. Students, it seems, make no distinction between how they felt in a course and how they thought; their emotions – whether positive or negative – were integral to how they learned.
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Previous analyses suggest that: “Joy, for instance, broadens by creating the urge to play, push the limits, and be creative … Interest, a phenomenologically distinct positive emotion, broadens by creating the urge to explore, take in new information and experiences, and expand the self in the process” (220). ”
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positive emotions broaden the scopes of attention and cognition, enabling flexible and creative thinking.
My final quote is about the existence of literal chemistry between teacher and students.
A 2004 “manifesto” on “affective learning” by ten experts at MIT Media Lab acknowledges that “affective functions and cognitive ones are inextricably integrated with one another” (Picard et al. 253) to such an extent that “a slight positive mood does not just make you feel a little better but also induces a different kind of thinking, characterised by a tendency toward greater creativity and flexibility in problem solving, as well as more efficiency and thoroughness in decision making” (254). The computer scientists at MIT quote M.R. Lepper and R.W. Chabay’s point that “expert human tutors … devote at least as much time and attention to the achievement of affective and emotional goals in tutoring” as they do to the “cognitive and informational” goals that are typical of computer learning (255).
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Teresa Brennan’s The Transmission of Affect shows that we don’t necessarily see what someone is feeling: we are more likely to smell it. Brennan argues convincingly that emotions are conveyed through pheromones (we’ve long accepted this about sexual attraction), so that affect is “literally in the air” and flows from person to person through olfaction. Perhaps the media lab should be working on a scratch-and-sniff delivery. The airborne chemicals that we take in actually alter our mood through our blood: “environment … changes human endocrinology, not the other way around” (73). Science has neglected this olfactory means of transmitting emotion because it challenges Western beliefs that we are separate and bounded individuals whose emotions are contained in our own skins:
‘The idea of self-containment is tied to the belief that cognition, more than emotion, determines agency, and it is not surprising that as the one (self-containment) comes to dominate in the history of ideas, so does the other (cognition).’ (62–3)
Our emphasis on cognition in the West, then, results from our individualistic philosophies.
The idea of self-containment is tied to the belief that cognition, more than emotion, determines agency, and it is not surprising that as the one (self-containment) comes to dominate in the history of ideas, so does the other (cognition). (62–3)
Our emphasis on cognition in the West, then, results from our individualistic philosophies.
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Although Brennan does not address issues of pedagogy, her new paradigm for the transmission of affect has significant implications for distance and blended learning. The emphasis on sight in learning technologies reinforces a mind/body split along with a subject/object dichotomy (ironically, self-monitoring devices would make the learner into her own object).
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In other words, much more happens in a live classroom than an exchange of ideas or even of observable patterns of emotional responses. If learning were purely or even predominantly cognitive, then computers would be adequate and there would be no point in gathering people together in a room. But affects are social, “are there first, before we are” (65). The affective environment influences the nature of cognition: “affects may, at least in some instances, find thoughts that suit them, not the other way around” (7).
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” I very much think, this is how we need to start framing our view of education.”
Namely, both teaching and learning need to be pleasurable (could use the word “fun”, but it doesn’t cover the essence well enough). We all are much better motivated by anything that is pleasurable. Anything that takes away from the pleasure of teaching and learning need to be expelled.
If we are looking for eliminating ranking of students based on grades and test scores, seeking ways to make learning pleasurable is the way to go.
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Excellent post Máté!
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This is a good piece on how much money the Gates Foundation is pouring into new charter schools:
http://ssir.org/articles/entry/private_financing_for_public_education
The disturbing part isn’t even “the Gates Foundation” – it’s how politicians are following their lead and setting up whole new sources of public funding to open new charter schools.
“As the Gates Foundation demonstrated the potential of credit enhancements to unlock the capital markets for these effective CMOs, others followed suit. Texas created its own bond guaranty program—the Texas Permanent School Fund—financed by oil and gas receipts. That fund, valued at more than $17 billion in 2013, has opened up nearly $1 billion in financing to Texas charter networks. That model is being adopted in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, Utah, and Washington, D.C.”
So if you live in one of the listed states, the Gates Foundation is now directing where public funds are invested- not in public school facilities, but in charter school facilities.
Bill Gates has too much power and it’s absolutely shameful that our elected representatives have allowed him to buy this much clout and influence.
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Diane, rich people are better people than average people.
That’s why we all have to follow their directives on public education- they’re better people and that’s obvious- if they weren’t better people they wouldn’t have so much money.
Why would we listen to some loser assistant principal in Iowa or Kansas when there are wealthy people we could be listening to? If the assistant principal had as much money as Bill Gates the principal could run public education- it’s based on merit and accumulated wealth is the measure.
You just buy it.
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Has a single ed reformer in government or the private sector ever publicly criticized a Gates ed initiative?
Everything he has done over 20 years is 100% successful?
Give me a break. They’re captured. They’re too scared to criticize The Great Man and it would hurt their career prospects if they did, so they don’t. He bought all of them.
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make it stick – The Science of Successful Learning
Why Don’t Students Like School: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom.
Not necessarily for Bill Gates. Any reformer worth their salt can take correct, researched based information, try to mass produce it, and create unintended negative consequences.
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The Handbook of Research on Teaching, 4th Edition
The Handbook of Research on Teaching, 3rd Edition
The Handbook of Research on Teaching, 2nd Edition
The Handbook of Research on Teaching
Handbook of Research on Teacher Education, 3rd Edition
Handbook of Research on Teacher Education, 2nd Edition
Handbook of Research on Teacher Education
The Thank You Book, by Mo Willems (who understands more about children than Bill Gates can possibly imagine)
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“36 Children” by Herbert Kohl
“Why Kids Don’t Like School and What Teachers Can Do” by Daniel Willingham (as above, with Ms. Wunderlich)
Just to name two.
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I have a suggestion for public school advocates- read ed reformer lobbying groups.
This is Fordham Ohio and this is how they describe themselves:
“A national and Ohio-based think tank that advocates for education reform and advancing educational excellence.”
Except you won’t find anything about public schools other than screeds about testing.
It’s charters, vouchers and testing. It’s the same for all of them.
It isn’t *technically true* that ed reform is “anti” public schools. Public schools simply don’t exist in the echo chamber, other than as data collection centers.
You’ll wonder less about why public schools are doing so poorly under ed reformers when you realize these are the people who get special access to lawmakers. It isn’t that they’re OPPOSED to our schools- it’s that our schools are omitted.
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Hooray for Diffendoofer Day, by Dr Suess, with help from Jack Prelutsky and Lane Smith. Ted, that genius, saw it was coming!
Oh, and Teaching with Love and Logic by JIm Fay and David Funk
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Bravehearts: Whistle-blowing in the age of Snowden by Mark Hertsgaard.
The real face of data collection.
Not in My Neighborhood: How Bigotry Shaped a Great American City by Antero Pietila
Another “it seemed like a good idea at the time” disaster story
Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Shiff
A long view on wielding power.
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Don’t be this guy.
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Jonathon Kozol- Savage Inequalities; Diane Ravitch- Reign of Error; Jesse Hagopian- More Than a Score
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Reblogged this on Mister Journalism: "Reading, Sharing, Discussing, Learning".
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Bill Gates should read Robert Fulghum’s “All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten”
..because Bill really needs to learn that stuff.
Maybe if he had, he would have been “college ready” and not dropped out.
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“in The Absence of the Sacred,” by Jerry Mander
http://www.scottlondon.com/reviews/mander.html
“Conservatives Without Conscience,” by John Dean.
http://www.peoplesworld.org/conservatives-without-conscience-an-insider-views-the-gop-s-ominous-politics/
“Lies & the Lying Liars Who Tell tThem,” by Al Franken
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/oct/11/highereducation.news1
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“How to Stop Shedding Skin”. Leave the scales to subject content.
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This comment thread is a terrific reading list!
I’d just like to say, though, that I don’t give two cents what Bill Gates is reading, but if someone ever published Noam Chomsky’s list of books to read, THAT would be a curriculum worth studying.
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He should definitely read this new book, Policy Patrons: http://www.amazon.com/Policy-Patrons-Philanthropy-Educational-Innovations/dp/1612509126?ie=UTF8&keywords=policy%20patrons&qid=1460754845&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1 Lots of inside info on Gates and how they think about education and what they should change.
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Hey Bill, start with “Fahrenheit 451.” We’re already there to some degree, but let’s all play Montag and wise the hell up, eh?
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