Michelle Rhee To Resign?!
Read the Washington Post article here.
from Washington Post
Quote of the Day
“For Socrates, loving learning requires a shift in focus. To love to learn is to be more interested in the object than oneself. Rather than focusing on one’s perspective or feelings, one submits to the inquiry and where it leads. It is in this sense to lose oneself in something else– to accept its demands rather than insisting on one’s own command. Learning, like love, requires emptying oneself, surrendering to uncertainty, allowing oneself to be affected, to achieve devotion. A Socratic conversation, like love, remains vulnerable to surprise.” — David Coleman
Are principals the silver bullet? (open thread)
In today’s New York Times, David Brooks said boldly in an interview,
“The thing that divides the great charter schools and great public schools from the mediocre tends to be extraordinary principals. I’m not sure how we get them on a mass basis, but instead of Superman that’s what I’m waiting for.“
At first this may seem to contradict the now commonly held belief that teacher quality is the decisive determinant of student success, but Brooks argues that effective principals have the potential to manage schools in a way that addresses “the core issue: the nature of the relationship between the teacher and the student” and either trains or eliminates bad teachers.
What do you think– can exemplary principals save our schools?
from NY Times "Waiting for Super Principals"
Quote of the Day
“Without evidence, innovation is just another word for ‘fad.’ “–Bill Gates at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s 2008 Forum on Education
Quote of Day (or, Happy National Arts and Humanities Month!)
In an official presidential proclamation on October first, President Obama declared October 2010 “National Arts and Humanities Month.”
“Throughout history,” writes Obama, “the arts and humanities have helped men and women around the globe grapple with the most challenging questions and come to know the most basic truths. In our increasingly interconnected world, the arts play an important role in both shaping the character that defines us and reminding us of our shared humanity. This month, we celebrate our Nation’s arts and humanities, and we recommit to ensuring all Americans can access and experience them.”
Quote of the Day
“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” –Socrates
Quote of the Day
“We are politically a classless society. Our citizenry as a whole is our ruling class. We should, therefore, be an educationally classless society.” — Mortimer J. Adler, The Paideia Proposal: An Educational Manifesto
