Arthur Camins has had a fruitful career as a teacher, science educator, and technology expert. He writes here about the kind of education he hopes his grandchildren will have.
He begins:
Persistent inequity and underfunding, especially after decades of emphasis on test-based accountability and privatization, largely unopposed increases in racial and socioeconomic segregation, and four years of leadership by an active opponent of public education bring us to a moment of choice for K-12 public education in the United States: Change or give up on the needs of most of America’s children.
I usually write what I hope are persuasive essays about education policy and other social justice issues. However, the divisiveness of the last election demonstrates that we can’t argue or campaign our way to lasting fundamental change through presidential elections. The change we need begins with building relationships through shared multiracial conversation and struggle.
Today, I offer my hopes for my two grandchildren and the rest of the children with whom they will grow up and live as adults. Maybe these can be conversation starters with others about their own hopes. That is what I think we need to do so that we can work together to push for our hopes for America’s children in the coming years no matter who serves as America’s chief education officer.
I hope they will go to schools where they and their classmates are cared for, known, valued, and respected.
I hope they will experience and learn empathy and respect and that their circleextends across our great diversity to encompass all people.
Please read the rest of the article.
What are your hopes and dreams for your children?
I posted this on another thread, but it resonates with this one as well: It’s an op-ed from George Shultz who turns 100 this month. It’s about TRUST. Nothing like a little history to put things in perspective: CBK
https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?trackId=597c3073ade4e26514d23e47&s=5fd602819d2fda0efb875b70&linknum=4&linktot=80
My hope is what Camins hopes, that students “will learn to make decisions based on evidence, to admit when they are unsure, and change what they think when evidence suggests they are wrong.” In his piece “Teaching: The Front Line in the War over Truth”, Camins says:
“Students can and should develop the habit of mind to search for reliable data, learn how to interpret that data to establish evidence to justify, reject, and revise conclusions. They need to develop the inclination and skills to do so across multiple disciplines. Unless that happens, we cannot hope to reverse the alarming dismissal of evidence in the public arena. This is job one for every teacher.”
I believe this is also “job one” for every blogger. I hope that the next time someone weighs in on reading instruction, they ask themselves the questions Camins poses:
What is my evidence?
What preconceptions influence my thinking?
What evidence challenges my ideas?
Should I change what I think?
Recommended Reading:
Reading in the Brain: The New Science of How We Read, Stanislas Dehaene
The Reading Mind: A Cognitive Approach to Understanding How the Mind Reads, Daniel Willingham
Language at the Speed of Sight: How We Read, Why So Many Can’t, And What Can Be Done About It, Mark Seidenberg
Early Reading Instruction: What Science Really Tells Us About How to Teach Reading, Diane McGuinness
Another great piece from Arthur Camins! He says:
I hope they [his grandchildren] will learn to make decisions based on evidence, to admit when they are unsure, and change what they think when evidence suggests they are wrong.
this
James K. Polk
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