Tags / 39 quotes from 8 sources
#education
# Is a PhD the path to a grad job? Ask the waitress with several degrees
A PhD turned waitress
So, here I sit, a disgruntled graduate of the system. A PhD turned waitress. A waste of taxpayer money, of my own time and that of the people who taught me. I write this as a means to speak out, as I refuse to be another cog in the wheel that turns according to a code of silence.
Adesso basta (Simone Perotti)
La scuola non insegna a vivere
A scuola dovremmo già ragionare su quel che avverrà. Per tutta la vita saremo costretti ad affannarci per trovare un lavoro, fare soldi, garantirci le cose che ci servono e ci piacciono. Dovremo cercare il giusto work-life balance tentando di non farci fregare il posto di…
Insegnare significa insegnare a pensare
Molti professori credono che insegnare voglia dire trasmettere dei contenuti. Ma questo non basta: insegnare significa innanzitutto (insegnare a) pensare».
A scuola si dovrebbe parlare di libertà
A scuola si dovrebbe parlare soprattutto del concetto chiave della vita del singolo: la libertà. Quel difficile percorso che può portarci a vivere in un modo molto simile a come vogliamo, sconfiggendo i draghi sputafuoco dei condizionamenti, i limiti imposti dal sistema…
Brain Rules for Baby (John Medina)
Inquisitiveness, the innovator's DNA
What traits separate creative, visionary people who consistently conjure up financially successful ideas from less imaginative, managerial types who carry them out? Two business researchers explored that simple question. They conducted a whopping six-year study with more than…
Executive function predicts success better than IQ
Welcome to the interesting world of impulse control. It is part of a suite of behaviors under the collective term “executive function.” Executive function controls planning, foresight, problem solving, and goal setting. It engages many parts of the brain, including a short-term…
The brain learns in order to survive
First, I need to correct a misconception. Many well-meaning moms and dads think their child’s brain is interested in learning. That is not accurate. The brain is not interested in learning. The brain is interested in surviving. Every ability in our intellectual tool kit was…
The decline of open-ended play
This kind of open-ended play was fertilizing their brains with the behavioral equivalent of Miracle-Gro. That sentence might seem strange. Open-ended play? Not “open-ended purchase of electronic educational toys”? Not French lessons, followed by hours of militant drilling?…
Mature dramatic play and Tools of the Mind
The type of play is called mature dramatic play, or MDP. To get the benefits in those bullet points, MDP has to be engaged in many hours a day. This has been codified into a school program called Tools of the Mind, one of the few programs of its type that has been studied in…
Inside a Tools of the Mind classroom
Most Tools of the Mind classrooms look like the equivalent of a late-Christmas-morning living room. Legos are scattered everywhere. Sandboxes are sprinkled around the room. There are jigsaw puzzles to figure out. Blocks with which to build entire new worlds. Clothes for…
Praising a child for being smart backfires
How can you get that kind of effort from your child? Surprisingly, it’s how you praise him. What you praise defines what your child perceives success to be. Here is where parents make a common mistake—one that often creates the saddest sight a teacher can behold: a bright child…
Lo Spirito del Giappone (Leonardo Vittorio Arena)
L'esame di ammissione alla scuola materna
Per ottenere prestazioni eccellenti, ci si prepara sin dall’infanzia. Nella società giapponese tutto è concatenato: l’iscrizione alla università prestigiosa dipende dalla frequentazione della scuola superiore prestigiosa, e così via. Persino l’esame di ammissione alla scuola…
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Stephen R. Covey)
No true mastery without daily effort
You sometimes get by, perhaps even get good grades, but if you don’t pay the price day in and day out, you never achieve true mastery of the subjects you study or develop an educated mind.
Getting by in artificial social systems
In the short run, in an artificial social system such as school, you may be able to get by if you learn how to manipulate the man-made rules, to “play the game.” In most one-shot or short-lived human interactions, you can use the Personality Ethic to get by and to make…
Admitting ignorance is the first step to learning
If you don’t let a teacher know at what level you are—by asking a question, or revealing your ignorance—you will not learn or grow. You cannot pretend for long, for you will eventually be found out. Admission of ignorance is often the first step in our education. Thoreau…
Read as if you had to teach it
Second, I would suggest that you shift your paradigm of your own involvement in this material from the role of learner to that of teacher. Take an inside-out approach, and read with the purpose in mind of sharing or discussing what you learn with someone else within 48 hours…
The Acid Diaries (Christopher Gray)
Overcompensation had made me a fool
All my life I had flaunted being a public school dropout, but now I saw that there was part of me that had wanted to go to university and to have lived a successful academic life. It was as though I had to think all the things about my life I had never allowed myself to think…
The Book Of Dead Philosophers (critchley, Simon)
Dewey: philosophy as the general theory of education
Dewey sees education as the dynamic and continuous development of democratic life, what he called ‘reconstruction’, and rightly believed that society cannot transform itself without paying scrupulous attention to pedagogy. Dewey saw learning as more important than knowing and…
Theories of Childhood, Second Edition (Carol Garhart Mooney)
Dewey's Laboratory School and progressive education
Dewey’s Laboratory School established the University of Chicago as the center of thought on progressive education, the movement toward more democratic and child-centered education. Progressive education was a reaction to the rigid, more formal style of traditional education…
Don't bemoan the good old days
In 1899 John Dewey gave a talk to the parents of children in his school. The parents were worried about the changing times. On the edge of the industrial age, these parents of one hundred years ago were old enough to remember the “agricultural era” in the United States. They…
Change brings new opportunities
What Dewey was trying to get his parent group to understand was that change brings new problems but also new opportunities. He urged parents to think of new ways they could all find to help children learn to be socially responsible people, without trying to cling to times gone…
Children learn by doing
Dewey played a central role in the development of—and is most associated with—the progressive education movement in the United States. In Europe, Maria Montessori and Jean Piaget were spreading the same message. These early theorists all agreed that children learn from doing…
Children's interests drive the curriculum
“The child’s own instincts and powers furnish the material and give the starting-point for all education” (6). According to Dewey, children’s interests form the basis for curriculum planning. He believed that the interests and background of each child and group must be…
Education is living, not preparation for it
“I believe that education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living” (8). Dewey believed that education is part of life. He believed that as long as people are alive, they are learning, and education should address what the person needs to know…
Progressive teaching demands more planning, not less
Dewey was concerned that many teachers of his time were claiming to be part of progressive education merely because they departed from more traditional approaches. He recognized the danger in moving away from one direction without clearly understanding the new direction one…
Mis-educative experiences
Dewey avoided the either/or discussions so common to educational philosophy. He believed that the real issue is not a matter of new versus old approaches to education but rather what conditions make any experience worthy of being called “educational.” Dewey insisted that…
Dewey's criteria for an educational experience
Dewey thought that rather than saying, “The children will enjoy this,” teachers need to ask the following questions when they plan activities for children: How does this expand on what these children already know? How will this activity help this child grow? What skills are…
A project that leaves children curious
This story is an example of what Dewey would call an educational experience. The teacher observed and asked questions to find out what the children already knew. She set up experiences for them to discover things they didn’t already know. She used her knowledge of child…
Dewey and going green
John Dewey supported parents at a time when the United States was transitioning from an agricultural to an industrial age. Had someone mentioned “going green” to Dewey, he would have thought we were referencing learning activities for children about color. But as we ponder his…
Becoming John Dewey (reference)
Dalton, Thomas C. 2002. Becoming John Dewey: Dilemmas of a Philosopher and Naturalist. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Montessori's child-sized classrooms
Montessori created a school environment to make up for the impoverished conditions of many of the children’s homes. She determined that to be comfortable, young children need furnishings their own size and tools that fit their small hands. Because such things were not available…
Children learn best through the senses
She believed children learn best through sensory experiences. She thought that the teacher has a responsibility to provide wonderful sights, textures, sounds, and smells for children. She also believed that part of sensory experience for children is having tools and utensils…
Teach little, observe much
Montessori teachers, on the other hand, are trained to teach little and observe much. Teachers, of course, must plan activities and have materials on hand to support the children’s interests, as suggested by Dewey’s ideas in chapter 1. However, it is important to recognize the…
Careful observation as Montessori's method
Since Montessori trained as a doctor, she brought the skills of a scientist to the classroom. When she turned her energies toward the education of young children, it seemed only natural to use her scientific skills. She believed that if you are going to teach, you need to know…
Toddler rooms built for choosing
According to Erikson, toddlers need to experience the independence of being able to make some choices for themselves. Toddler programs can support their independence by arranging for self-selection of activities and materials. Rooms should include low shelves for equipment…
Construction is superior to instruction
While others of his time argued that learning is either intrinsic (coming from the child) or extrinsic (imposed by the environment or taught by adults), Piaget thought that neither position by itself explains learning. Rather, he thought that children’s interactions with their…
Reggio Emilia brings Vygotsky back
More recently, many early childhood educators in the United States and other countries have turned their attention to the preschools in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Discussion of the educational theories implemented there has brought about a new focus on Vygotsky’s work. Vygotsky’s…
Vygotsky versus Piaget on stretching children
Curriculum planning is perhaps the area most affected by Vygotsky’s theory. Unlike Piaget, who thought children’s cognitive learning was more internal than interactive, Vygotsky believed that interaction had a huge impact on cognitive development. Until Vygotsky’s work became…
Self-regulation beats early academics
There is growing evidence today that suggests that a preschool-age child’s ability to apply cognitive control, also called executive function, is a better predictor of later school success than any academic learning acquired during the preschool years. Executive function…