Universal Pride in Kids

Here's a photo from Roger Soder's recent trip to China.  He says it was "taken in a Miao village in
southern China, Guizhou Province."  It is a small restaurant with lots and lots of certificates on the wall.

Soder says, "What are they, I asked. Owner (woman in photo) told me they were all earned by her daughter in school, certificates of excellence. Daughter is now at university, doing well.

What struck me is that all the cultural differences notwithstanding, one common element is the pride we have in our children's work in school.

I asked the owner/mother if I could take her photo with the certificates (only part are shown - they covered the entire wall). Delighted, she

said."

Often we focus on cultural differences when we might benefit more from emphasizing the values we have in common.

What do you think?

Michelli on China and UAE

Nick Michelli of CUNY has been working in China and in the UAE.  Below (and on Soder's commentary page) I have included recent reflections by him:

A year or so ago I wrote an essay on this blog describing my experiences as a visiting professor in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and my visit to universities in Beijing. I very much enjoyed reading Roger Soder’s reporting of his experiences in China and Allan Wood’s comments. I’d like to add a few of my own, some of which will repeat what I said in my earlier essay. I make no claim to being an expert on China and so these are in the category of informed observations, and I only will make a few.


I found extraordinary interest among the faculty and students I worked with in the United States and a hope to understand it better. I was surprised by the openness and friendliness of the people, the beauty of the country, and fascinated by the traditions and history, which meant much more up close than in the abstract. My surprise, I think, came from the gray and unappy picture painted of China during the cold war. The China I found was neither. It was colorful, friendly, and largely happy. I gather that Roger found largely the same. This year I have been working in the United Arab Emirates, primarily with Zayed University in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. I will try to draw some contrasts between this experience and my experience in China.

As to openness and the view of democracy, the fact that East China Normal University published the book I did with David Keiser, Teacher Education for Democracy and Social Justice in Chinese and are using it widely speaks to openness and a desire to understand both democracy and the United States. The economic revolution in the last 20 years in China has brought the Chinese version of capitalism to the forefront. It isn’t surprising that it has led to a greater spread in wealth between classes. I believe that the economic revolution has led to the conflicts among the upper echelon of the government regarding openness. Decisions, as Allan suggests, still are behind closed doors. Some folks I know believe that big and controversial decisions are better off made behind closed doors, even here. Witness the debate over the debt ceiling between the President and Congress, both with an eye on the 2012 elections.

No Blogging Allowed: Soder 3

Roger Soder has posted his third reflections on his recent trip to China.  You will find his remarks on the Roger Soder Commentaries page listed in the right hand column.

Read his reactions to the changes occuring in this land and the ruling parties attempts to control what is happening with the "great firewall."

Return here to share your reactions.

Education & Democracy: Michelli Speaks in China

I have just posted extended remarks on the "essay" page of this blog.  These comments were prepared by Nicholas Michelli and shared with the Centre for Governance and Citizenship in Hong Kong in January of 2011. 

In the essay Michelli includes comments about the purposes of education including the following summary of his views regarding the schools' responsibility of preparing people to participate in a democracy:

"Our view on this public purpose of education is that it is an essential one in a democracy.  To summarize our position, we argue that:

• All new generations must learn the civic and civil aspects of living in a democracy.
• All new generations must learn the concepts of equity and social justice and what it means for them and society.
• Learning to argue and to think critically, while associated mostly with content learning, are essential skills for people living in a democracy.
• Learning to respect others and their ideas and to debate ideas on the basis of reason promotes democratic practice and leads to better decisions

I encourage you to read his essay and share your reactions here.

Soder: China Surprises

Roger Soder provides part two of his reflections on a recent working visit to China.  In this most recent posting he comments on his surprise at the extensive leadership development efforts he found there.

He concludes by raising a question of whether we in the United States should consider creating a deliberate form of leadership development comparable to what China has done.

Read his posting then return here to comment.  Is China doing something that we should emulate?

Two Kinds of Cheating

Scene 1:  Cheating on the schooling provided

Not many years ago I had occasion to make extensive observations of schooling in a large Eastern city.  When I first visited the city, students enrolled in the neighborhood high schools were limited to three or four classes a day with school being dismissed by noon.  Educators said the shortened day was necessary because they could not provide a safe environment for students during lunch.  Meanwhile, the more able students had been siphoned into magnet schools which offered longer days and richer curriculum. In many instances the star teachers had followed their star pupil as the fled the schools for the “left overs.”   It was not uncommon for the school year to be one-third over before a permanent teacher was assigned to a class.  Classes enrolled 25-35 students but it was rare to see more than a dozen in a room on any day and many of them could be observed with their heads on their desks while teachers droned on in front of the classroom or handed their students worksheets they largely ignored. 

Scene 2:  Cheating and testing

Recently there has been much talk about the Atlanta educators who cheated as they processed student tests.  Reportedly some erased incorrect answers and replaced them with correct ones, others seated failing students near capable ones so they could get the correct answers by looking at their tests.  There has been much handwringing and blame-placing concerning this form of cheating.  Not as often mentioned in the other way in which students are cheated by high-stakes tests—their school days are given over to hours of test-prep and the curriculum is reduced to drill on the narrow range of topics covered by the tests.

There is no excuse for scene 1.  The children and the community are both cheated by schools that are this bad.  Scene 2 is disturbing.  The cheating on test scoring and other problems related to testing are bad. 

Still, perhaps the biggest cheating of all is too seldom recognized for what it is.  Many policy makers and education reformers insist on implementing plans that rely heavily on high stakes tests as a key ingredient.  In other words they try to solve problems such as those described in scene 1 by implementing tests that lead to scene 2. 

Doesn’t make sense does it?

Finding Hope with Harry Potter

The Harry Potter Alliance is worth checking out.  The Harry Potter books contain some very insightful and sometimes not so subtle criticisms of common schooling practices.  Now the Alliance appears as a 501(c)3 working to alert the "world to the dangers of global warming, poverty, and genocide."  They invite the young (in particular) to make the "world a safer, more magical place, and [their] voice be heard."

Wouldn't these also be good goals for the schools in a community? 

Soder in China

New comments by Roger Soder posted.  He comments on the most frequently asked questions he was asked during a recent speaking engagement in China.

Check out his comments on the Soder page of this Blog and return here to share your own thoughts about the emphasis in this country on "teaching book."

Tough gets tough

In this Sunday's (July 10) New York Times Paul Tough reminds reformers that they are not being consistent when they try to defend results that are being obtained in schools they praise which prove to be doing poorly when results are examined more closely.

In a follow up online posting he reflects on others comments on the same topic.  See his comments on education reforms two month warning .

Tough's analysis seems more balanced than much of what is passing as intellectual conversation about what needs to be done to improve education. 

Read the two articles and let me know what you think.

Diet and Education

With two others I share efforts to create a blog that matters.  We call ourselves the “blundering bloggers.”  Recently one of them who writes a travel blog discovered that by writing about diets, she gets a big jump in readers.  The other, who blogs about life after retirement decided she would test the power of the topic and while she wrote a fascinating piece didn’t get a similar boost in readers.

While we were giving her a bad time for her blatant effort to attract readers, we found that we were not the only ones aware of the possible attraction of writing about dieting.

In the July 9, 2011 Seattle Times Father Patrick Howell, SJ reflected on his efforts to diet and related them to the notion of a spiritual nutritionist.  He said, in part:

“… the main feature of the [weight] reduction is quite painfully simple: consultation with a nutritionist, grapefruit for breakfast, lots of greens and lots of fruit for lunch and dinner, and no desserts or snacks. Some physical exercise…”

He continued “We hope our own spiritual life is not boring and pedestrian, but from time to time, it does take some effort to get in shape and to be more receptive to God and to the sacred which embraces us every day.

A spiritual "nutritionist" can help…..” and says that Prayer in the morning sets the agenda for the day. I hate to compare prayer to grapefruit, but there are some analogies.”

Ok – if those writing about travel, retirement, and religion can find ways to link their thought to dieting, surely there is a useful way to relate dieting to critical issues of the community and education.  (Something that I hope is more significant than another piece about how obese our youth are – a subject that, given the weight problems of many adults, I find too many of us are hypocritical about.)

Do any of you reading this Blog have some suggestions?  What analogy to dieting would help us understand how we can improve education?

Who is influential

John Merrow is being criticized for asking who the most influential person is regarding education instead of dealing with the important issues of the day.  His current blog continues the discussion with particular attention to the clash between Ravitch and Brooks.  Merrow's remarks and the comments of those responding to him capture the key issues others say he is not addressing.

Elders Learning

A community concerned about education ensures that its older citizens are continuing to learn.  As a new member of a very active senior citizen residence with a motto of "life is bigger here" I am impressed by the many learning activities available and the deliberate efforts made to ensure interaction between the residents and youth.

As I begin this new experience one question that crosses my mind is whether professional educators have been so focused on schooling and the learning of the young that they have paid too little attention to life-long learning. 

I am aware of one professor in a school of education who was chided for spending too much time with some senior citizen activities and I wonder if there are examples of positive contributions being made by professionals to sustaining learning among the elderly.

Anyone have information on this?