COE Exchange

Archive for September, 2009

I had planned a trip back to this summer after various queries to friends and family about mostly safety, as well as how radical change had been over the past seven years. I was eager to recharge my batteries with a dip into my recollections of authentic conversations and genuine people. In an email, Professor Davis directed my attention to a New York Times article on South African education.1 This unexpected development forced me to journey back to South Africa rather unexpectedly. Having just read ’s comment that, “Nostalgia, at least in the light, is an attempt to exercise sovereignty…

Last week , like many Presidents before him, spoke directly to students in Arlington, Virginia about the importance of taking a personal responsibility in their own education.  This is a positive and important message that millions of school children will never hear because apparently it was censored by many school districts across America.  These schools’ chosen form of censorship varies from district to district, but they all have the same goal: to make access to the speech in school challenging or impossible.  Many schools are requiring teachers to send home permission slips before they can show the speech in order that…

Given the furor over the Obama speech to America’s students and the inquiries I have gotten surrounding it, I decided to pen a few words about this and to make a suggestion.  Here goes: First, years ago a philosopher named wrote a book call “Laws of Form” in which the opening line is “Draw a line.” What he meant is that knowing must begin with a distinction. This is not a unique idea, as and and other developmental theorists have echoed similar notions. Sadly, however, human knowing often ends there as well; that is, with a simple dichotomy. The world…

The new $900,000 Math Science Education Central (MSEC) facility will become a reality this year. MSEC is an extension of the College’s award winning E. Desmond Lee Technology and Learning Center. This will be a model space for education students to learn best practices in PreK-12 science, mathematics and technology education. A collaborative effort — with resources coming from the , , , Chancellor Tom George, the College of Education, and the — the space will feature state-of-the-art equipment, labs, resources and technologies that foster creative, inquiry-based teaching and learning in science and mathematics.