I Go to Brainstorm for Great Education Posts

.....and this from Kevin Carey, on merit pay for University professors, is a big part of the reason why. There's a lot in what he's said that could apply to K-12, too.

Read more here, if any.

Science is Freaking Amazing

From the Chronicle of Higher Education ($):

It was a case of invention by necessity.

While in Europe researching the origins of a poem, Timothy L. Stinson, an assistant professor of English at North Carolina State University, became frustrated with the limited methods available for determining where the original text came from and when it was produced.

"And then there was sort of this light bulb," Mr. Stinson recalled. "Wait a minute, they're on animal skin. Why can't we look at DNA?"

Indeed, in the age before paper was widely available and affordable, the written word was recorded on the hides of sheep, goats, and cattle. Shortly after Mr. Stinson had his epiphany, he began putting his idea into practice. Working with his brother, a biologist who has performed DNA extraction and analysis, Mr. Stinson is developing a method of using DNA to determine when and where medieval manuscripts were written. The approach will significantly improve the accuracy of the standard identification process, which typically relies on analysis of the author's handwriting and dialect — approaches that are "notoriously unreliable," Mr. Stinson says.

The old history can quickly become the new history, and that's just a neat thing to see.

Read more here, if any.

A Good Conversation on the Costs of College

Is it unjust that people who don't go to college pay taxes to subsidize the education of those who do? It's an idea that I've been working through since some gentle prompting from frequent commentator JL, and this post at the Chronicle of Higher Education's blog speaks directly to the point.

You could argue that since we have a need for college educated workers, it's right that we pay what we do. On the other hand, we don't need more Humanities majors, which leads to a legitimate argument that the state shouldn't subsidize those who pursue those degrees that don't serve a larger societal purpose. That's a tough line to draw, though.

It relates, too, to an article in the January 9th 2009 Chronicle of Higher Education written by Ron Knecht, a trustee in the Nevada college system. The big finish:

At the same time, however, we in education should embrace the current budget challenges as an opportunity to begin, out of necessity, to do the things we should have been doing all along. We should reorient our efforts, change operational models, lower costs, improve our product, and be more responsive to our changing markets.

We must shed the barnacles that have accumulated on our ships of educational enterprise and become efficient competitors. We should not waste time and opportunity looking backward and pining for how things used to be.

The first big step I've seen out of the Washington college system is the UofW limiting the number of spring enrollees at the Seattle campus; it'll be very interesting indeed to see what the other Universities do to follow suit.

Update: Also on the topic of financial efficiency at the higher ed level, this commentary from William Massy of Stanford is worth a read.

Read more here, if any.

If You Give Me a Test, my Grandma Will Die

Found in the Chronicle of Higher Education Forums:

The Dead Grandmother/Exam Syndrome and the Potential Downfall Of American Society.

Read more here, if any.

I Met a Man Upon the Stair; The MLA Wished He Was Not There

I'm not as up on David Horowitz as I should be. I know that he's a big deal at the University level, that he doesn't think much of academic freedom, and that anyone named in his book probably has a good reason to punch him in the nose. His "war" on academe is long running, reflective of the larger culture wars, and probably quite exemplary of Henry Kissinger's famous quote about the university.

All that said, this article ($) from the Chronicle of Higher Education is absolutely fascinating.

"Are you now proud that you are the only organization to invite Horowitz to speak?" an angry Barbara Foley of Rutgers University at Newark asked. "Did you do your homework" about Mr. Horowitz's blog, FrontPagemag.com? she continued, to audience applause. Grover Furr of Montclair State University and a self-described "victim" of Mr. Horowitz's book The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America, said he objected to Mr. Horowitz's being invited "not because of his views but because he is a liar." Another audience member complained that out of thousands of MLA members, the organization had picked "two FrontPage columnists" for the panel.

"You have to have a modicum of respect for people," Mr. Horowitz responded. "I was in the civil-rights movement before Barbara Foley was even born."

At one point, a member of the audience could be seen giving Mr. Horowitz the finger. Brian Kennelly of California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, who presided over the event, wrote on The Chronicle's Web site that he observed an audience member repeatedly mouthing an obscenity to Mr. Horowitz — behavior he called "troublesome" and "repugnant."

I have every confidence that Obama will fix this, too.

Read more here, if any.

Selling Ad Space: a K-16 Program!

A couple weeks back on Washington Teachers I made a post about a math teacher who was selling ad space on his exams; apparently that works for the mighty University of Montana as well. From the Chronicle of Higher Education:

First it was the long-distance phone calls. Professors in the history department at the University of Montana at Missoula were told this past spring that the university could no longer foot the bill. Then the annual travel budget was slashed to $350 per person — enough to get as far as Lansing, Mich., but just barely, as the department chairman, Richard Drake, puts it.

"I think they would expect us to parachute in to Lansing and then hitchhike to wherever else we needed to go," Mr. Drake says.

Finally came the copy machine. When the toner ran out, the department had to finish the semester without it.

In the midst of this economic mini-crisis, one of the professors, Kyle G. Volk, came up with a bright idea: Get a local business to sponsor a course. After all, advertisements and sponsorships have become commonplace on campuses, so why not in the classroom?

Mr. Volk cut a deal with El Diablo, a locally owned taqueria, to sponsor his course, "The Americans: Conquest to Capitalism." In exchange for $250, Mr. Volk plastered the restaurant's logo on the syllabus, handed out the stickers to the course's 250 students and, on the first day of class, projected its stick-figure devil image, with horns, tail, and pitchfork, on one of the classroom's walls. His plan was to use the sponsorship as seed money for a department newsletter and other projects.

Subscribers can read the whole article at the link above; the upshot is that the university came in and said to cut it out.

I say they should have been applauding the guy. That's pure capitalism, right there, and it was taking some of the burden for running the department off of the taxpayers shoulders. Plus, it was for a place that makes burritos. Hooray for burritos!

Read more here, if any.

Christmas Eve Comedy

Kerry Soper's column in the December 5th Chronicle Review is one of the funniest you'll ever hope to see; check it out here. An exerpt:

If students get so frustrated that they start to leave, I tone things down a bit and reveal the details of my peer-at-the-rear philosophy. That includes doing an imitation of what my old teaching persona might have done, had he been there. After getting a taste of that pedagogical nerd, they seem to chill out a bit.

I lay the ground rules: They have to treat me as an equal, not an authority figure or even a knowledgeable mentor. This includes calling me by my first name (or a cool nickname like "Kerr Dawg" or "Super Soper") and greeting me with some kind of groovester handshake or laid-back fist bump. When that's settled, I throw up my hands, say, "Dudes, the class is yours!," and watch as the magic unfolds.

Eventually some of the more alert students will reluctantly organize themselves into study groups. This is a move in the right direction; they're no longer relying on a self-inflated "professor" to show them the way. But they're still full of predictably boring ideas, and so I do my best to disrupt their discussions with postmodern Socratic methods: walking around making annoying sounds; loudly interjecting Zen-like non sequiturs into their conversations ("he who dealt it, smelt it"); or standing behind someone while mouthing their words and mimicking their posture.

Reminds me of a science teacher I once had.

No postings for a few days. Have a Merry Christmas!

Read more here, if any.

An Important Piece, from the Chronicle of Higher Ed

In the Careers section of the December 5th Chronicle of Higher Education there's a Ms. Mentor column titled "He's Hogging the Course I Want." The gist is that a junior faculty member wants to teach the course that a senior professor has been charging for a decade, poorly in the eyes of the junior professor; what Ms. Mentor says in reply is something with a resonance to the K-12 system as well:

Ms. Mentor thinks she knows why. Professor Swine, not an active scholar, seems to be disqualified from teaching cutting-edge research courses. "Intro to Felicity" may be a course he teaches well and rigorously. He may know where the weakest students will falter, and how to challenge the strongest.

He may also have health worries or private sorrows. Many "senior juniors" — those who publish little after tenure — are caregivers for elderly relatives or special-needs children. In business, employees who frequently miss work because of home responsibilities are fired. In academe, tenured colleagues often quietly but generously make accommodations. Young hotshots sometimes call their nonpublishing elders "unproductive," but more mature souls recognize the varying rhythms of lives and careers. Sometimes guiding the young or sheltering the weak is more valuable than submitting another grant proposal or creating another international symposium.

Given that teaching is a caregiver profession, it shouldn't be a surprise that it's attractive to young parents. Given that teaching is a profession built on relationships, it shouldn't be a surprise when the 50-something 3rd grade teacher isn't called on the carpet when she fails to meet some of her professional "obligations" because she's busy dealing with her mother's cancer.

A program that attracts strivers into the profession, like Teach for America, is a good thing, but it has to be understood that it is what it is--a recruitment tool with a limited scope and strained replicability, where the stars will burn brightly and then burn out. This is why I think that improving teaching begins not with opening the doors wide, but with improving the lot for those who have chosen to make a long term commitment.

Read more here, if any.

Book Title of the Day

Recovering American Catholic Inculturation: John England's Jacksonian Populism and Romanticist Adaptation, by Lou McNeil. The linked website has it on sale for only $122.35; by a copy for your friends today!

Read more here, if any.

You Are Reading the Blog of a Chump

Remember the other day, when I was saying nice things about the presidents of Washington and Washington State Universities for refusing pay raises, or taking a pay cut? Man, what good examples!

Then I got this week's Chronice of Higher Education. Hey, guess which university presidents have the highest base pay in the country?

1. David P. Rosell, Delaware: $2,377,000
   
2. E. Gordon Gee, Ohio State: $775,000
   
3. Mark Emmert, University of Washington: $603,120
   
4. Elson S. Floyd, Washington State University: $600,000

#3 and #4 in the county. Not bad for government work. The pictures gets even rosier when you consider that Emmert is also #3 in the country for deferred compensation; he's got a cool $250,000 still coming to him, eventually.

So that made me go hmmm. Then I turend the page and met this headline:

For a Raise, Try Looking in the Evergreen State

....which goes on to cite the state of Washington as a great, great place to be a university president. There's a defense of the salaries paid, Emmert's especially, as being the price you have to pay to keep talent. I don't disagree.

But when the state is looking at a $5 billion dollar hole big salaries raise eyebrows, and those are big salaries.

Read more here, if any.

Assign Books, and Students Will Read

Great commentary by Nancy Bunge of Michigan State University in the October 17th edition of the Chronicle Review. Rather similar to my paean of the other day regarding the true purpose of the University, Dr. Bunge talks about how she assigns her students tough work and helps them work through it.

Sadly, it's hidden behind the Chronicle's "Pay us!" wall, but if you have a password or can find your way through, it's well worth the read.

Read more here, if any.

"Educational Brutalism"

That's the term coined in this interesting post at the Chronicle Review's blog site, Brainstorm. Written by Stan Katz of Princeton, it's a thoughtful look at how University has evolved from a liberal arts focused, "man of letters" ideal into, increasingly, job preparation and job preparation alone.

When I was going to Eastern Washington U. there was a proposal floated to mandate an additional 4 credit class that would be a sort of synthesis of thought symposium; something related to your discipline, but bringing in other disciplines as well. I loved the capstone class I took--in fact, I expanded out and made the program my minor emphasis--but a lot of folks went nuts at what they perceived as "one more thing" that they had to get done before they could get out and get a job.

What, to your mind, should the function of the University be? Does that function vary based on the school, or is there a purpose that it can be argued every school should aspire to?

Read more here, if any.

Carnival of Email #6: Summer Vacation Edition

Dear daughter had another test with the audiologist this morning which began with a screaming, crying fit. She's had a thing about anyone in the medical profession since her trip to the pediatric opthamologist last January to get her eyes checked for CMV; the pupil dilation and light shining in her eyes didn't go over well at all. I'm hoping she gets over things before too awful long, because she's got a loooong road ahead of her when it comes to doctors.

On with the carnival!

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The Omaha World-Herald highlights an outdoor garden that an area school put together with a grant from Lowe's. There's a bare patch at my school that I think would be perfect for a giant greenhouse, complete with outdoor classroom; if I ever need another big project in life, I might go for it.

Science Daily with some important new research on nutrition:

Adults who had improved nutrition in early childhood may score better on intellectual tests, regardless of the number of years they attended school, according to a new article.

This probably speaks to the importance of school breakfast and lunch programs for children from low-SES families.

In Tennessee they've picked up on Marguerite Roza's research and are up in arms over the fact that more experienced teachers tend to go gravitate towards better schools. They're looking at ideas like "combat pay" to solve the perceived problem; it could be an interesting process to watch.

If you show your ass during your high school graduation, I don't have a lot of pity for you. The "Hey, look at me!" mentality is one that I've never really been able to understand.

The San Francisco Chronicle talks about the importance of expanding the school day for kids who are struggling in the classroom. I think we're not far away from a reckoning when it comes to the structure of the school day and school year; the systemic flaws become more and more pronounced every day.

Teaching the Bible as an elective is OK in Texas after action by their state Board of Education. It's about time; the separation of church and state aside, knowledge of the Bible is a Rosetta Stone for understanding thousands of works of literature, film, TV, etcetera.

In the District, Michelle Rhee is looking at creating more preschool-through-8th grade schools, pointing to a research base that shows pre-8 buildings work better for middle school aged kids. There's competing evidence from Philadelphia, though, that the model Rhee's relying on is flawed. It could be an interesting one to watch.

The Chronicle of Higher Education has started a new blog, VP Watch, where they'll be talking about the search for a good vice-president to go along with Obama and McCain. I'm sad that Jim Webb has recently taken himself out of the running.

Colleges are having a Mexican standoff with Margaret Spellings, the Secretary of Education. She says do this or else; they say that the end is near and make raspberry sounds in her general direction. The thing about lame ducks is that their quacking often goes unnoticed. More here.

Finally, ESchool News has introduced some new sidebar widgets that people can use to spiffy up their blogs. I'm considering adding one over to my sidebar, just for the sake of trying something new.

Thanks for reading!

Read more here, if any.

George Garrett, Maxwell Perkins, and (Open Until Filled)

In the June 13th Chronicle Review Madison Smartt Bell of Goucher College writes a touching rememberance of literary figure George Garrett, who was a mentor to her and passed away last month at 78 years old. A similar column last year in the Careers section introduced me to famed editor Maxwell Perkins, who shaped the writings of a generation.

It made me wonder—who fills that role in the world of teaching?

One of the long-time traits of teachers, and one that persists today to the detriment of the students, is that teachers, in general, are loners when it comes to the classroom. If you don’t believe that, consider this collection of teaching platitudes:

The first year is the toughest, because for the first time it’s just you and them. Sink or swim—if you’re meant to teach, you’ll be successful. Later on in your career you’ll know what you’re doing better than any principal or consultant will, so stick with what works for you. Be especially careful not to buy into the fads that they’ll try to shove at you, because they always go away eventually. Do your job in your room, and the rest of the world will take care of itself.

You, you, you, you, you, with the occasional “they” and “them” thrown in to add a measure of hostility to the proceedings. I think that we’ve made some progress towards breaking down this model via ideas like Professional Learning Communities, and there’s an excellent chance that within a generation collaboration will be the norm instead of the exception.

It’s a question, then, of whom current teachers learn the craft from. In my career there hasn’t been any one person who I would call my guide; my teaching style is my own, developed through trial and error, and through observation of what’s worked for others around me. In that sense, then, I’m a bit of a hodgepodge of traits and styles from all over, which is a direct counterpart to the old academe saw of, “Ah! You’re Professor Smith’s student, so you believe this!”

Who has shaped you the most in your career as a teacher? Is it a fellow teacher, your principal, a professor, a parent? I leave off the kids intentionally, because they are ultimately the ones who drive the instruction, and it’s your knowledge base that decides how you respond to their needs.

When it comes to teaching, who was your teacher?


(For what it's worth, this is the 700th post I've made to I Thought a Think. Thanks for being along for the ride!)

Read more here, if any.

Connectedness

An interesting thought, from the March 14th, 2008 Chronicle Review (Dwelling in Possibilities):

One day I tried an experiment in a class I was teaching on English and American Romanticism. We had been studying Thoreau and talking about his reflections (sour) on the uses of technology for communication. ("We are in great haste," he famously said, "to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.") I asked the group, "How many places were you simultaneously yesterday — at the most?" Suppose you were chatting on your cellphone, partially watching a movie in one corner of the computer screen, instant messaging with three people (a modest number), and glancing occasionally at the text for some other course than ours — grazing, maybe, in Samuelson's Economics rather than diving deep into Thoreau's "Economy" — and then, also, tossing the occasional word to your roommate? Well, that would be seven, seven places at once. Some students — with a little high-spirited hyperbole thrown in, no doubt — got into double digits. Of course it wouldn't take the Dalai Lama or Thoreau to assure them that anyone who is in seven places at once is not anywhere in particular — not present, not here now. Be everywhere now — that's what the current technology invites, and that's what my students aspire to do.

I see a lot of the kids in this. I also see a lot of myself, too.

Consider the classroom, and the usual scene of a child spending time on a worksheet of some sort. That child is there (1) working on the sheet; that child is usually also interested in the work of their neighbor (2), and is guaranteed an occasional visit from the teacher (3) who may ask the student to go into the hallway to read with an adult (4) before we leave the classroom to go to music (5). Consider, too, the typecast we have of the high-striving high school student, who participates in a sport, the band, drama, knowledge bowl, ASB, FBLA, holds down a job, and keeps family commitments as well (A Class Apart by Alex Klein is full of examples of this sort of kid).

But upon thinking about it, this is me, too. I leave my Groupwise email box open all day, and I probably check it a couple of times an hour, whenever I happen to walk by my desk, to see what's new. I keep my classroom door open 90% of the time, and it's quite common for another teacher to walk in to ask a question or get advice. The telephone rings; the intercom pleads. Very rarely am I ever just teaching.

Even at home, the rule applies. I'll be here at the computer blogging, attending to my daughter, having a conversation, and trying to pay some modicum of attention to the television, all at the same time. It's rare for me to not multi-task; even watching TV, I usually have a magazine in my lap.

Digg had a recent article on multi-tasking here that was another thoughtful look at the effect of trying to live in multiple realities at once; a related bit of insight can be found at Zen Habits, here.

Is multi-tasking a problem? Is it your problem? How do you overcome it?

Read more here, if any.

On Aging and Teachers

This made me pause, from the Chronicle Review:

It's expected that athletes will slowly decline in ability as they age. Every athlete accepts that. But not every professor does. It seems more or less forbidden to talk about what happens to academics as they age. There is virtual silence about the kind of age-associated changes that affect teaching, learning, and research. Baby boomers, known for their willingness to talk about everything having to do with themselves, have been open on issues from breast cancer to erectile dysfunction, empty-nest syndrome, and depression — but in academe, no one dares utter the word "old." Is this because we think that the intellect is ageless, and in an era of Botox and Viagra, there should be no excuse for the vagaries of time? Or are we just worried about keeping our jobs?

I’ve only been teaching for 8 years, and won’t see my 30th birthday until later this summer. I still regard myself as a young teacher, even though les enfants terrible fresh out of college might disagree. From that perspective I can’t truly relate to what it’s like being an “old” teacher. There are stereotypes about old teachers, though, that bear examination:

• Old teachers are inflexible. It would be a waste of money to put a Smart Board in Mrs. Sliderule’s classroom, because it would be a substitute for a movie screen instead of the interactive learning tool that it’s meant to be. She’s still teaching out of the old math books, because that’s what feels right to her. And please don’t tell her that there might be a way to get through to Little Johnny—she’s already decided that his bad home life has made it impossible for him to learn, because he hasn’t responded to anything she’s tried.
  
  
• Old teachers are jaded. Mr. Memento has seen it all, usually more than once. He can trace the course of his career through pendulum swings: GESA was big, then it went away, then the WASL made the idea come back with a different name, and now it’s gone again. His career has carried on through 5 principals and 35 school board members, and he’ll outlast the new messiahs as well. His favorite joke: “I teach in the IB program. IB here when you get here, IB here when you’re gone.”
  
  
• Old teachers aren’t energetic. If you want your child in an upbeat, positive classroom where every day is an adventure, you don’t want them with Ms. Tepid. Her fibromyalgia rules her life, and any suggestion that comes her way is apathetically ignored because of the time and effort that would be required. She’s taken Harry Wong to heart and believes that she should end every day with as much energy as she began; she practices this by not using any energy during the day.
  
  
• Old teachers are just in it for the health insurance. Mr. Goiter considered retiring when he turned 60, since he had 38 years in, but when he priced health insurance and compared that to his pension he knew that there was no way he could afford to leave. So he soldiers on, doing just enough. Maybe when he gets old enough for Medicare he’ll call it a career.
  
  
• Old teachers are just biding their time until retirement. Mrs. Entitled worked hard, damn hard, the first 25 years or so, but now she’s earned the right to slow down. She should get the best kids, because that’s appropriate for reasons that are never fully threshed out. Asking her to serve on a committee is OK, but only as long as the money paid for being on that committee is pensionable.

....and I’m sure there are others that I am missing.

As I wrote that I could think of someone who fit every description; I could also think of another veteran teacher (often more than one) who defies the mold. The job may change, but dedication never will, and teachers who care can be successful at any age.

The important piece here is how age relates to tenure. It's long been assumed that anyone who achieves tenure will be able to keep teaching until they don't want to, which is a rub to many who wish to reform education. They may have a point--should two years of success at the beginning guarantee you anything?--but the system is what it is.

Are old teachers a problem?

(for a nice poetry tie-in, Old Teachers by Robert Bly)

Read more here, if any.

Now That’s a Library!

I’ve had a long love affair with libraries. Growing up in small-town Washington we didn’t have a library of our own; the closest was in Centralia, about a 30 minute drive away. My mom would take me there when I was in the primary grades, and later on in high school it was a wonderland. I didn’t have much free time then, but when I did it was usually in the book stacks.

In middle school I had a chance to attend a program at the University of Washington over the summer, and that’s the first look I ever had at a real college library (the Suzzallo Library, pictured above). Later when I was attending Eastern Washington they remodeled their library, and it became the archetype in my mind.

Then I saw pictures of the Old Library at Trinity College in the June 6th edition of The Chronicle Review (Dublin, Decoded), and my mind was blown. I’ve never seen any reason to go to Ireland before, but now I have one—I simply must see that library. Wow.

What’s your favorite library?

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I See Myself in This

“I maintain a blog that would be of interest to only a few dozen people in the world, but none of them read it.”

--“daurousseau”, in the June 6th, 2008 Chronicle Review

Then again, I got a couple of mentions on the most recent Get Free! podcast from the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, so maybe there is an audience.

That would be fun.

Read more here, if any.

Travel!

The May 30th Careers section of the Chronicle of Higher Education has a column by Paula Krebs of Wheaton College on how her academic travel has changed over her career, from happily sleeping on dorm room floors to being invited to conferences at destination resort hotels.

My work with the WEA has given me a chance to do more traveling, though I’ve yet to stay in a resort hotel. In fact, it’s usually a Travelodge or Ramada, almost always with a roommate. It’s worth it for the conferences, which are almost always good; I just wish the soda ($2.50 a bottle is not uncommon!) wasn’t so damned expensive.

The worst hotel I’ve stayed in, oddly enough, was the Sea-Tac Airport Hilton, where you had to pay a daily fee for internet access, a daily fee for parking, the food was ridiculously priced, and the rooms weren’t exactly all that wonderful. I think the Hilton is designed for people traveling on expense accounts who can pay $10 for a rum and coke without batting an eye, but that ain’t me. At all.

What’s your favorite part about traveling for the job? What’s your least favorite part about traveling for the job?

Read more here, if any.

The Most Awesome Interview Answer Ever

From the May 23rd Chronicle of Higher Education Careers section, talking about the search for a tenured professorial position:

Or there was the famous professor’s advisee whose dossier I loved: superb letters, fine scholarship, excellent teaching experience for a doctoral student. We asked her how sh might approach indifferent students. “Oh, they wouldn’t be indifferent to Marxist-feminist-postmodernism,” she said confidently, and was off: “We’d start the African-American history course by establishing that gender makes race.”

“Excuse me,” my colleague interrupted, “I don’t understand what you just said.”

She babbled on happily in code for a while.

“OK,” he persisted, “how are you going to persuade students of this?”

She was ready for us: “Oh, I’d have them read a short journal article, no more than 25 pages, that would make the case; they would be persuaded, and we could move on.” She crossed her arms, satisfied.

It almost seems like a special form of madness that someone like this could think that what they were just describing was teaching.

She didn’t get the job for obvious reasons.

Read more here, if any.