Fight Student Debt’s Infographic

According to this Washington Post article dated an hour or so ago, it looks like Senate leaders have come to an agreement about freezing the interest rates on student loans.

While this is better than the rates increasing as threatened, as you can see from this infographic, something is going to have to give.

The current system is clearly unsustainable. Continue reading →

Lots here to think about and discuss…

The Trichordist

Recently Emily White, an intern at NPR All Songs Considered and GM of what appears to be her college radio station, wrote a post on the NPR blog in which she acknowledged that while she had 11,000 songs in her music library, she’s only paid for 15 CDs in her life. Our intention is not to embarrass or shame her. We believe young people like Emily White who are fully engaged in the music scene are the artist’s biggest allies. We also believe–for reasons we’ll get into–that she has been been badly misinformed by the Free Culture movement. We only ask the opportunity to present a countervailing viewpoint.

Emily:

My intention here is not to shame you or embarrass you. I believe you are already on the side of musicians and artists and you are just grappling with how to do the right thing. I applaud your courage in admitting…

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Ideas on How To ReInvent School from Seth Godin’s “Stop Stealing Dreams”

” Learning is not done to you. Learning is something you choose to do.

Seth Godin’s “Stop Stealing Dreams”–a manifesto about education

Ever since it came out in March, I’ve been meaning to blog about Seth Godin’s manifesto on education, Stop Stealing Dreams.

But I’ve been too busy teaching. And learning how to be a better teacher to write about why it is so important to read that I gave a copy of the following highlights to my spring classes, and I’m assigning it to my summer classes!

It’s a quick read and you can download it for free. Or you can just read the following excerpts and tuck his ideas away for a later perusal…

If you’re more the video type, check out this TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson: “Do schools kill creativity?”

From section 16:

What is school for?

Here’s a hint: learning is not done to you. Learning is something you choose to do.

Continue reading →

Sir Ken Robinson: Changing Educational Paradigms

After a brief break, it is time for summer school. I am teaching two sections of English at Ventura College, one from 10:30-1:20 and the second from 1:30-4:20.

We’re starting out thinking about education, about learning and literacy. We’ll be discussing Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and Seth Godin’s “Stop Stealing Dreams.”

And I’ll probably show this video on changing educational paradigms by Sir Ken Robinson.

I loves how he describes one of my favorite topics in pedagogy: aesthetic and anaesthetic education–learning that enlivens versus learning that deadens.