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August 31, 2006
Better Blogs Than Mine
A conversation with good friend and colleague Kurt Stemhagen today turned me on to The Wall -- a blog maintained by several other philosophers of education who comment on current educational policy.
That blog led me to Sherman Dorn's site. Dr. Dorn is a professor at the University of Central Florida has has a very well thought out, organized blog/website that's pretty thought-provoking.
Both of these sites make me feel bad about writing about Steve Perry.
I can do better.
Posted by Nakia at 02:58 PM | Comments (4)
August 30, 2006
SAT scores drop
The new version of the SAT apparently means lower scores: SAT Scores Drop.
Fewer people are taking it. Fewer people are taking it multiple times. The format has changed so test prep and word of mouth has yet to catch up with the new test. The test itself is longer. All of these things probably combine to explain the score drop.
More people take the ACT and the average score increases.
Perhaps this will open up the conversation about the function of the SAT/ACT. Do they really do what they claim to do? Are they necessary?
Posted by Nakia at 12:12 PM | Comments (2)
August 29, 2006
Google Calendar
I've been taking a look at Google Calendar for my organizing needs. Now I use Outlook for calendar stuff, and it syncs with my Palm/phone. The good thing about Google is that it can be public, so other people can see when I've got stuff going on. But do I want that? Do I want everyone to know when I have meetings or will be out of town?
I'm also wondering if there is some way I can use the invitations feature to allow my students to schedule appointments.
Posted by Nakia at 11:43 AM | Comments (0)
Emailing the Professor
As a professor in a college of education, my job has aspects that are directly vocational -- help to prepare teachers who will be successful. As someone who teaches philosophy (among other things), that aspect often gets pushed to the background, as I strive to give my students conceptual frameworks and other information that does not seem to be immediately applicable to classroom use. I'm fine with that and I try to be as honest as possible with my students about the content of my course and its perceived practicality.
Here's something, however, that has immediate use and will help students be successful in the world of teaching or any other professional situation:
I welcome emails and enjoy communication with students. Constructing emails that are professional and quickly and accuately get to the point is a skill that students need to develop. I'm trying to help my students develop it. So send me emails, but treat them appropriately.
OK?THX.BYE!
Posted by Nakia at 09:34 AM | Comments (3)
August 24, 2006
Charter Schools Test Scores Slightly Behind
I picked up a USA Today at my dad's hotel yesterday and saw an interesting article. A new report shows that fourth grade students at charter schools score slightly lower than those at traditional publics schools on a battery of standardized tests. Apparently, charter schools are not a magic bullet to educational success.
One of the things that struck me about the USA today article was Jeanne Allen's remarks about how the report underestimates the number of poor students in charter schools. Her remarks imply that the schools are not doing as well because they primarily serve poor students. Ironically, this is what public school advocates have been saying since, well, forever.
Combine this with the article I spoke about a few months ago, which showed that private school students score slightly lower than public school students on standardized measures when SES is controlled for, and we see increasing evidence (as if more was needed), that SES is what must be overcome in order for schools and their students to succede.
The full report can be accessed here.
Posted by Nakia at 12:07 PM | Comments (1)
August 22, 2006
Smooth -- Like the surface of the MOON!
I had this great entry planned for today about the rhythms of academic life, about how one is reborn every year in late August. I was going to carry this theme forward and use it to kick off the semester and reinvigorate the blog.
Then I got to school and realized the textbooks for my course had been messed up, which prompted an emergency rewrite of the syllabus on the day classes began. That consumed my morning.
Then Sarah and I went and bought a car on my lunch break. That ate up my mid-day.
Then I come back and find out that the textbook snafu was not my fault and new textbooks are being ordered, which makes my syllabus revisions from this morning optional at best and detrimental at worst. Too late to change things now, so I am using the new textbook I didn't really order. I think I like it better anyway.
Class starts in an hour. I am looking forward to it. Hopefully, nothing else will ex or im plode!
Posted by Nakia at 02:27 PM | Comments (4)
August 07, 2006
Cars and NoDa
'Twas a pretty good weekend around the Pope house. Seems like we did a lot of shopping, but that makes sense. It was Tex Free weekend here in South Carolina, as school starts back Wednesday. Plus, we have a little extra money since I got paid for my summer school class and my course development work. Whoo-hoo!
Friday, Sarah and I went into Charlotte to look at cars. He Civic is on its last legs. Although the engine runs fine, it's got 176,000 miles on it. It has a crack in the rear seal, so it occasionally drips oil. The speedometer has started acting up recently, shooting up to 120 mph when we're cruising at 30 and occasionally not working at all. The passenger side window will roll down with the driver control, but not back up. And the AC doesn't work, which has been pretty brutal these past few weeks. There's no way Sarah can show houses in it. To fix all that stuff will probably cost more than the 1993 vehicle is worth.
So Friday we checked out Carmax. I was very pleased with the friendly older gentlemen that showed us around. He genuinely listened to our parameters and didn't pressure us at all. Sarah and I decided we want a Subaru Outback or Forrester. It looks like we can get one with less than 50,000 miles for around our budget of $15,000. Although Carmax didn't have on on Friday, our need is not urgent, so we can wait until one becomes available.
After our Carmax excursion, we headed to the NoDa district of Charlotte for dinner and to check out this singer/songwriter guy Sarah had heard of. NoDa is kinda like Charlotte's Greenwitch Village. There are some funky restraunts and galleries in a former warehouse district. Granted, it's only three blocks or so (as opposed to the Village) and nowhere near as funky. But there is a similar vibe and, if you stand on North Davidson and look south, the Bank of America towers are nicely framed, which reminds me of how you could stand at the corner of Washington Square Park and look down West Broadway at the World Trade Center. Well, you used to be able to, anyway.
Sarah and I ate at the Mellow Mushroom (which recently opened, I think. I don't remember it there the last time we were up in NoDa), then walked down to Dolce Vita, a cool wine bar. (But, boy, do they need a new website!). Sarah had done some deliveries there for Pasta and Provisions, had heard Daniel Lambert there, and met some cool people. Daniel was playing again, so we went to check him out. He was really good, with songs that sounded Texan more than anything else. Sarah chatted with some of the folks we had met before while I chilled out the comfy couch. I was pretty tired, so we bailed about 10:30 and headed back to Rock Hill. 'Twas a fun Friday.
Posted by Nakia at 09:02 AM | Comments (0)
August 03, 2006
Individualism Old and New (and even newer?)
I've been revisiting Dewey's Indivdiualism Old and New this week as I continue work on the on-line class and some related research projects. This work was an important part of my MA thesis; I'm rereading it in order to further explore Dewey's ideas about community and individuality.
I'm struggling with the piece a bit, honestly. The work is an attempt to describe the present conditions of American society (Dewey wrote IOaN in 1930, as a series of essays for the New Republic), and to argue that a new individuality was needed that could deal with the emerging conditions of industrialization and interrconnectivity such industrial change brought about. This new individualism involves "a type of individual whose pattern of thought and desire is enduringly marked by consensus with others, and in whom sociability is one with cooperation in all regular human associations." (84)
Is Dewey just saying we need to think of the consequences of our actions in the social realm before acting? That we necessarily live with others and cooperation ought to be the norm? This does not seem all that radical to me, unless one takes it to political and economic levels. He offers political and economic suggestions that sound socialist, though he explicity denies he is advocating a standard socialist position. When he talks of cooperative ownership and decries the fact that those who engage in the work of production have little say in the direction of their activities, he sounds like Marx. he is clearly worried that the "Old-school" indivdiualism of the frontier is being maintained by those in power in order to keep everyone's energy focused on production and consumption for profit, instead of figuring out ways for different sorts of people to live together and still pursue their own projects as individuals.
But maybe that's the real question Dewey is wrestling with -- how can the liberal goal of multiple versions and pursuits of the good life withstand the corporate America he sees emerging. He asks this question almost directly at the beginning of chapter seven: "Can a material, industrial civilization be converted into a distinctive agency for liberating the mind and refining the emotions of all who take part in it?" (100) Clearly, a material industrialization is a good way to make certain people wealthy. Those people have a vested interest in keeping the conversations of the good life on a strictly monetary level; as long as everyone is producing and consuming, they make out okay. But Dewey is interested in individuality as possibility, possibility that can only be explored and achieved in cooporation with others (since that is what our society has become). Dewey, as always, is interested in individual growth. Now, however, such growth always takes place within and because of a social world. Socialism cannot guarantee that: "It is impossible to develop integrated (1) individuality by any all embracing system or program." (121). Integrated individuality can only emerge as we choose and deal with situations according to our ideals, ends, and anticipated outcomes thus related. This is an indivdiual task carried out in the natural world, which for us human beings is a social world.
Dewey thus becomes a existential naturalist. We are integrated into a world not, as other existentialists would argue intrinsically hostile or compeltely devoid of value (we are not born into a world alone, we are born into a social world). Yet the world is in flux and we must make meaning forourselves and the world with our choices. We need a social system that recognizes and promotes this ability.
Dewey ends with two marvelous quotes:
"We who are also parst of the moving present, create ourselves as we create an unknown future." (123)
"To gain an integrated individuality, each of us needs to cultivate his own garden. But there is no fence about this garden: it is no sharply marked off enclosure. Our garden is the world." (122-123)
Wow. So in the voicing of my difficulties with the piece, I kinda figured it out. Unless, well, I didn't. In which case I hope someone calls me on it. Now I just need to figure out how it relates to on-line education and I'll be set!
Dewey, John. (1984). Individualism old and new. In John Dewey: The Later Works, Volume 5: 1929-1930, edited by Jo Ann Boydston. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press. 41-123.
Posted by Nakia at 12:09 PM | Comments (0)