Teacherken on Linda Darling-Hammond’s New Book
Based on what I've read in other works by Darling-Hammond and after beginning the new book, I deeply agree with Teacherken's positive review, and share his wish that all education reformers read this book. Most especially I appreciate Darling-Hammond's experienced voice, pairing a meaningful vision of good education for all students with the research and pragmatic suggestions that can lead to real change. I hope that, coming from such a high profile educator, this book can help make the case that we must move in a very different direction if we are to engage young people in their own learning and give all students the opportunity to become empowered and creative learners.
(Just imagine if in addition to asking Darling-Hammond to be an education advisor to his campaign, President Obama had asked her to be the Secretary of Education!)
Here are a couple selections from Teacherken's blogpost.
Check out the full post here, and read other excellent education posts by Teacherken.
And consider commenting or blogging on Daily Kos and other public forums. If we are to create a driving momentum for change, we need more voices out there calling for a greater link between education and our democratic values!
Posted in Education PolicyDemEd in Real LifePhilosophy of EducationSocial Justice on Jan 25, 2010 - 10:22 AM
I've followed Teacherken's writings on education for a couple of years now. Teacherken (Kenneth J. Bernstein, a teacher in the DC metro area) is one of the most outspoken voices advocating for more personalized and democratic education, writing on the popular Daily Kos blog. In a post written this past weekend, he reviews educator and author Linda Darling-Hammond's new book, The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future, a great book I just picked up last week. As Teacherken explains, Darling-Hammond provides us with a strong argument to significantly change the direction of education in this country away from more tests and standardization and towards greater equity in funding, better support and development for teachers, and more meaningful assessments.Based on what I've read in other works by Darling-Hammond and after beginning the new book, I deeply agree with Teacherken's positive review, and share his wish that all education reformers read this book. Most especially I appreciate Darling-Hammond's experienced voice, pairing a meaningful vision of good education for all students with the research and pragmatic suggestions that can lead to real change. I hope that, coming from such a high profile educator, this book can help make the case that we must move in a very different direction if we are to engage young people in their own learning and give all students the opportunity to become empowered and creative learners.
(Just imagine if in addition to asking Darling-Hammond to be an education advisor to his campaign, President Obama had asked her to be the Secretary of Education!)
Here are a couple selections from Teacherken's blogpost.
"What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon it destroys our democracy."
The words were penned by John Dewey for his 1900 work The School and Society. You will encounter them as a epigraph to the 9th and final chapter of an important new work on education. The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future is a comprehensive work by Linda Darling-Hammond that examines a wide range of materials that will help the reader understand the real issues in education in an America that is increasingly diverse in its student population. As James Banks notes in his introduction, we face a crisis, one which Darling-Hammond documents while telling us what will happen if we fail to act and the specific actions we can take to achieve educational equity and create "a more democratic and just society." . . .
Darling-Hammond not only analyzes what is wrong in the U.S., she also looks at examples of successes in individual states that have attempted reform. She also provides useful information about what nations to whom we seem to compare very unfavorably do differently to achieve their success. Thus she will provide examples of a state in trouble - California - as well as two states that have made major commitments to better use of their resources - North Carolina and Connecticut. She provides detailed analyses of three successful national approaches, those of Finland, Singapore, and South Korea. From her explorations of different settings, here and abroad, and also from her deep and extensive knowledge of relevant professional literature, Darling-Hammond offers a series of suggestions of what we can do differently, those things on which we should focus.
Check out the full post here, and read other excellent education posts by Teacherken.
And consider commenting or blogging on Daily Kos and other public forums. If we are to create a driving momentum for change, we need more voices out there calling for a greater link between education and our democratic values!
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books,
education reform,
global education,
social justice,
john dewey,
linda darling-hammond,
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comments
It’s exciting to see democratic education ideas reaching the mainstream. From what I’ve read about her, Linda Darling-Hammond has played a large role in making this happen.
I’m so curious about what Darling-Hammond found about models of education in different parts of the world. The U.S. could do a lot better as far as modeling what other countries do well instead of just competing with them. I hope the administration will look at outcomes like happiness, autonomy, and critical thinking in addition to straight achievement and hours spent in the classroom. For example, Japan may have high achievement, but it has high rates of suicide as well.
Kudos to Teacherken for being an outspoken advocate for democratic education in a mainstream forum!
on Jan 30, 2010 - 02:00 PM