Youth & Education
Critical Thinking and the Next Generation
Wed, 07/01/2009 - 09:19 — Dave CulverThe students of today become the voters and community leaders of tomorrow, and for our way of life to survive, they must be able to ask hard questions and see through wiggly answers.
Joann Knuth, Minnesota 2020
The key to the success of the next generation will be their ability to think critically. Education expert Mike Schmoker makes a compelling and convincing argument for serious literacy commitment in our schools in which critical reading, writing and discussion skills will become cornerstones of effective teaching and learning.
Schmoker writes that a serious literacy commitment, also called authentic literature, is not just for children who can already read or for gifted students. It is for all students, including students experiencing learning difficulties and second language learners.
Research shows that reading is a process of using prior knowledge along with clues from the text to construct meaning. Effective or expert readers have purposes for their reading and adjust their reading for each reading task. Strategic readers use a variety of skills as they build meaning. Readers develop the use of strategies and skills by reading and writing and being given the support they need to grow in these processes.
Related:
Stop Bullying! Pass the Safe Schools Improvement Act
Thu, 06/25/2009 - 08:05 — Dave CulverCongress has been distressingly slow in making good on promises to push for equal and fair treatment of LGBT people. The Safe Schools Improvement Act would send a powerful message that Congress is serious about making schools safe for all students. Tell Congress to put an end to the silent suffering and to stop student bullying. Please, sign GLSEN's petition to pass the Safe Schools Improvement Act today.
Eliza Byard, GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network)
Just this spring, in the span of two weeks, two 11-year-old middle school students - Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover of Springfield, MA and Jaheem Herrera of DeKalb County, GA - hanged themselves after enduring non-stop bullying at school, including relentless anti-gay taunts.
That's why I'm writing to you today with an urgent message from GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network). GLSEN is the leading organization working to make schools safe for all students regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.
The heartbreaking stories of Carl and Jaheem are a chilling reminder to all of us that we need to stand up and take action to prevent the perpetuation of soul crushing anti-LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) behavior that is claiming young lives.
Today, you can do just that in a simple, but powerful way. Sign GLSEN's petition to Congress demanding passage of the Safe Schools Improvement Act.
Tell Congress: Stop Bullying! Pass the Safe Schools Improvement Act (H.R. 2262) Now.
Teaching to Student's, Not Industry's, Needs
Tue, 06/23/2009 - 15:58 — Dave CulverHow pressures from No Child Left Behind and standardized testing have sapped the exploration and creativity out of teaching.
Rebecca Bauer, English Teacher, St. Paul Central High School, in Minnesota 2020
Margaret Virum taught in the Minneapolis Public Schools nearly 50 years. She has been listed among the most prestigious alumni from the University of Minnesota's College of Education and received many honors for her innovative teaching before her death one year ago.
After becoming a teacher 16 years ago, I wrote Miss Virum a letter telling her how much it had meant to me to be a first and second grader in her class and the many ways in which her teaching had not only influenced me as a reader, writer and future teacher, but also how her classroom was a safe haven from a home that had often been in turmoil during those years. I recalled for her the many memories I had of her creative projects and the ways she blended experiential learning and individualized instruction so that each student had an opportunity to feel valued and visible in her classroom.
I was honored by Miss Virum's request to use portions of that letter in a speech before the University of Minnesota Alumni Association, and honored again when I was recently asked by that institution to be a contributor to a writing project remembering her work in education.
Budget crisis forces deep cuts at CA schools
Mon, 06/22/2009 - 16:43 — Dave Culver"California used to lead the nation in education," U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said during a recent visit to San Francisco. "Honestly, I think California has lost its way, and I think the long-term consequences of that are very troubling."
Terence Chea, Associated Press
California's historic budget crisis threatens to devastate a public education system that was once considered a national model but now ranks near the bottom in school funding and academic achievement.
Deep budget cuts are forcing California school districts to lay off thousands of teachers, expand class sizes, close schools, eliminate bus service, cancel summer school programs, and possibly shorten the academic year.
Related:
Governor Pawlenty Accelerates Race to the Bottom, Nora Ferrell, Minnesota 2020
- Higher education, public safety, community services, public education—all of these critical programs are on the chopping block.
- Statements on the governor's overall service cuts, education cuts, and LGA cuts from John Van Hecke, John Fitzgerald, and Jeff Van Wychen
A teen book burns at the stake
Tue, 06/16/2009 - 15:13 — Dave CulverA Christian group hopes to set fire to library copies of Francesca Lia Block's novel about a gay boy coming of age.
Laura Miller, Salon.com
Left, Francesca Lia Block, right, "Baby Be-Bop." Author photo by Nicholas Sage
Francesca Lia Block, an award-winning author of young-adult books (the "Weetzie Bat" series among them), has known for a while now that one of her novels, "Baby Be-Bop" is at the center of a controversy in West Bend, Wis.
A few days ago, she found out that it might be burned at the stake. "Baby Be-Bop" is on a list of titles that a local group calling itself the West Bend Citizens for Safe Libraries objects to seeing in the public library. In February, the group asked the library's board to remove a page of recommended titles about gay and lesbian issues for young people (including "Baby Be-Bop") from the library's Web site. Then they demanded that the books be moved from the youth section of the library and placed with the adult collection, "to protect children from accessing them without their parents' knowledge and supervision."
"My publisher brushed it off at first," Block said, "but now it's starting to look really serious." When the board refused to immediately comply with the requests of West Bend Citizens for Safe Libraries, the town's common council voted not to renew the contracts of four recalcitrant board members. A second group, West Bend Parents for Free Speech, formed to oppose the plan to segregate the books.