Tag: Education

Contributing to the Masses

Mirroring a post by my other half, and the consistent message from the conference I’m attending, we all need to consider what we are contributing to the masses.

Today I did something really exciting.  I participated in an abstract exchange for the UCEA conference (a bunch of educational leaders and researchers, new scholars and seasoned sages).  My dissertation topic (perceptions of students with disabilities regarding their reasons for persisting in higher education) is exciting to me; however, is it exciting to other people?  My advisors and colleagues, sure. But other scholars?

Each participant in the abstract exchange had 3 minutes to address his or her abstract.  There were 10 of us, so we pushed 2 round tables together and went around the table in turn.  How was my topic received? Everyone said they enjoyed it on the feedback cards.  A few people caught me after to chat about my topic and I even received several business cards asking me to send my completed paper.  Why did this happen?  Was my topic good? Well, I suppose.  But why did I get such a reaction out of my audience? Passion.  I am very passionate about my topic and what I do.

I know there are many people out there who are passionate about what they do, inspired by something they read, or even just curious about something they have experienced.  It is so very important to contribute and to not stop contributing.  How else are we going to move forward as a society?  We are all very intelligent beings.  We each have something to contribute to the vast collective of knowledge.  It is vast, but not all knowing – so much left to uncover!

So many of us are armchair critics.  It’s easier to gripe about what others have or have not done than to do ourselves.  Go forth. Blog. Edit Wikipedia. Make a solid review on Amazon. Just contribute!

Focus on Education

Last week I read this Op-Ed piece Arne Duncan wrote for the Washington Post.  This morning during my commute, I was delighted to hear the upcoming Diane Rehm Show would focus on education discussion for the first hour of the program, and the guest list included Arne Duncan.  The topics included early start of high school, ranking of colleges and their rising cost, early childhood education, and education law.

My comments concerning the discussion are swayed by my firm beliefs regarding a right to education for all and education can benefit all people.

Early Start/Late Start High School
Research has shown starting later gives way to better minds, but where do activities, homework and after school jobs fit into a high school student’s life?  Perhaps start later, and offer sports earlier.  Jump start minds with some zero hour sports!  This is a time to mesh research about exercise and education.  Also, the bus debate will always make staggering the start and release times of schools necessary as long as we make busses the priority.  I think everyone would benefit from school starting no earlier than 8:30 or 9 am.  Being functional at 7 am is a feat for many of us – young, teen and adult.

College Cost and Ranking
The U.S. News and World Report College Rankings are a little swayed.  All of the information depends on how the colleges report it.  What is that joke about violent criminals and white bread? Statistics can be manufactured to show what is meant to show.  For argument’s sake, questions asked to the colleges are potentially interpreted differently by the individuals answering the questions.

The quote about community colleges having a low graduation rate frustrated me for several reasons.  First, some people go to community college with intentions of taking a few classes, but not completing a degree.  Second, some people attend community college with the intent of transferring to another college to complete their degree.  Finally, some people attend community college to test the water to see if they like college.  If not, that is not a fault of their own or the community college.  We should not be focused on production of graduates, but on providing a service to the community served.

Cost is a very passionate topic of mine.  I feel strongly that college is a right and all people should be able to go to college if they so choose.  Some people do fine without higher education, but even if their career does not require a higher degree, the student development in college can lead to a well rounded individual in society.  There should not be a person willing to attend where cost is the prohibiting factor.  No, perhaps not everyone could attend a private school, where costs are also outrageous, but attend some form of higher education regardless of economic class.

Early Childhood Education
Research has shown access to early childhood education can impact the success of students.  A point during the show  focused on assessment of teachers who are teaching students with and without early childhood education, and how students without early childhood education could negatively impact their evaluations.  Perhaps we need to move into a system that looks at growth of a student educationally over the year, instead of the whole population reaching certain standardized test goals.

Perhaps also focus government financial support for children receiving daycare assistance on facilities that provide a meaningful early childhood curriculum.

Education Law and Standardized Testing
At curriculum night for Kari’s school, one of the teachers mentioned the standardized tests were changed this year and the curriculum would be changing slightly to address that change. I remember filling in bubbles after bubbles on standardized tests when I was little.  This portion of the school year was dreadfully dull and I imagine so for other children.  There has to be another answer besides a standardized test philosophy.

Will we as a society figure this out? I hope so.

Law School: Reduction under Debate

In this article, President Obama calls for cutting a year of law school.  I have to agree for two large reasons:  cost savings and experience.

Most of the students in law school graduated with at least some student loan debt.  Some students graduated with quite a bit.  Many students I saw in my office had over $100,000 in students loans.  All of the graduate level student loans are unsubsidized, meaning interest accumulates from the point of disbursement, even if the student is in school and unable to pay.

If students graduate and take an entry level legal job, most are not, especially in this economy, making over $50,000 annually. The final year of law school is mostly in externships and internships, which are unpaid and the students have to pay tuition for these externships and internships.  If only we could make it so students graduate after 2 years of classroom instruction, and use the traditionally reserved third year for externships, internships and Bar exam preparation.  This way, if these experiences are still unpaid (which should be changing soon with all unpaid externships and internships under debate), the students are not paying outrageously to gain experience.

Sure, there is the student loan repayment plan for students working with non-profits to have their loans forgiven after 10 years of service, but many individuals now change employers as opportunity strikes.  I personally would hate to miss an amazing employment opportunity because I need to stay with a certain type of non-profit to get my loans forgiven.  Employment to this generation is not just about salary, but impact one can have on the whole of society.

How impactful could these students be without the added stress of an additional year of student loans? Would the Bar exam preparation be less a trial of determination and more a trial of knowledge? How many more students could actually follow their intended career path of non-profit legal work with potentially $60,000 less on their student loan bill?

A Scholar’s Struggle

Tomorrow starts another semester.  In preparation for the oncoming hours of study and various activities related to my dissertation, I decided to clean out the email and finally read the backlogged copies of scholarly news I ignored over holiday.

I opened the most recent one: Inside Higher Ed:  Parents, Tuition and Grades / Academe Reacts to Aaron Swartz’s Suicide – January 14, 2013

I just stared.  That is the extent of it.  Just staring at my laptop.  One thing I have learned along the road to becoming educated is that the more aware I am, the angrier I am.  Hence the adage: ignorance is bliss.  This man died because he was smarter than people could see.  They misunderstood the message in his work and threatened his freedom because they simply did not understand.  Information is not to be coveted, but to be shared.  That was the whole point – the whole point of his activism!

We just lost an intelligent ally.  He made the leaps in thought his prosecutors apparently could not make.  They were blinded by the laws designed to prosecute malicious Internet criminals, not thinkers. Aaron did not want the gain for himself.  He was promoting awareness and open distribution of knowledge.

His activism has been always something I have loved to see in action.  And now I don’t get to see the next chapter.  It is now a book with missing pages.  Someone can write another ending, but it will still be missing something.

I am saddened by this.  Aaron’s death. The way institutions for education treat creative thinkers. The way our democracy responds to freedom differently when on the Internet. And finally how education is still very limited to the elite few.

For these reasons, and perhaps for many more I will discover later, I am making a decision today to provide PDFs (or whatever the future evolution) of my publications, current and future, openly to anyone who would like copies.  My research is not for myself.  It is done for the masses.  I just ask for credit where credit is due.

By coveting our knowledge, we will stunt our growth as a people.  The movement of several higher education institutions and other groups to offer free courses excites me.  It excites me beyond belief.  I love learning and always have and to have everyone be able to learn as I – no, even better than I have – is absolutely encouraging.

For more information about Aaron, see the wikipedia page about him.  Also, while there, consider writing an article or editing one.  Contribute to the collective.  (See also Cognitive Surplus, or at the moment, the skim NYT review for a brief overview).

Also see:
Coursera
edX Course Listings
Khan Academy

The Gifts of Gifted

As I am writing this, I am exhausted.  Not only this morning did I help at my daughter’s school for their holiday party where I had to keep up with 15 six to seven year-olds, but I had to keep up with my own kiddo.  For those who don’t know, Kari is what most term “gifted” in the education system.  The kids had about seven crafts to do.  With each craft, Kari would become frustrated if it didn’t look just as she wanted and would begin to cry.  I tried to field the tears so the other moms didn’t have to juggle her tantrum and help the other kids at the station as well.  After each instance, I would approach her, tell her, “I think it looks great.  If you spend too much time making this craft and trying to make it exactly how you see it in your head, you will not have time to do all of the crafts.” I would then walk away. She would stop crying and move on.  At the end, I was very proud of her.  She did not get to make one craft because she ran out of time.  She looked like she was going to cry, so I told her about my warnings and maybe she could be allowed to make one later if she finished her schoolwork.  She changed her expression and agreed that was a good plan!

Chris and I were both “gifted” in school, but it is rather different dealing with it from the other side.  And, frankly, she’s a mix of how we were in school so we have to combine forces to understand.  She won’t do school work she knows and has to be bribed to do so, because “what’s the point?!” This is very Chris. She wants everything to be just so and will cry if not perfect.  This is so me. And, in some cases, it takes the two of us to logic it out against her.  We try very hard as parents to not say, “because I said so!”

Many people don’t understand why I suck in a breath before I tell people she’s gifted.  They think gifted is great and parenting a smart kid should be a cinch.  Yes, gifted is great, but like any other child, they have their challenges and that is hard to explain to people who think gifted equals easy.  It’s like trying to parent a child with super logic skills and intense emotions.  It’s hard having such intense feelings for such a small kiddo.

What many don’t know unless you are an educator or a parent of a gifted child yourself is that the giftedness applies to more than just school work. Many days it is a challenge to keep up with them.

Concentration
Sure, they hear you, but they might reason that what you’re saying isn’t a priority for them right now and continue on with their project. Also, just because they are in deep concentration doesn’t mean they cannot hear you.  They are like little absorbant sponges sucking up all the stimuli around their environment.

Logic
For Kari, the everyday challenges we battle involve her fixation, perfectionism and reasoning.  Getting her to brush her teeth isn’t just, “Kari, go brush your teeth please”, rather, “Kari, go brush your teeth right now. We need to XYZ and we can do ABC later. Go now please.”  Otherwise, she’ll reason in her noggin she can do XYZ later because it’s not what she is fixated on right now.

Perfectionism
Like with anything, most of us want to do our best.  With gifted kiddos, it is this perfectionism that drives them to frustration and it can be very hard to talk them down off the ledge of a tantrum.  Kari’s frustration with her perceived inability to do the activity perfectly drives her concentration further.  This is often where my patience is tested!

Vivid Imagination
Daydreaming is a great activity, but it sure can be disruptive if something else should be occurring at that point in time.  All of these ideas and thoughts inside can be very distracting, and sometimes gifted kids need their daydreaming or introspective time.  Many gifted

Fairness, Rules and When Injustice Happens
Gifted kids often understand the rules, why they are important and they fail to have patients for when the rules are broken.  Kari is a stickler for the rules.  She would constantly correct other kids.  It wasn’t until I had a conversation with her about when she corrects the kids at school she is doing three things:  being what the other kids might see as bossy, depriving the other kids from a learning experience and not following the rules herself.  Once I laid it out for her like that, she stopped her outbursts of frustration.  She will still come home and vent her frustrations about how the kids didn’t listen and it affected the class’ day.

There are emotional challenges too.  This is where Living with Intensity Living with Intensity was particularly helpful for me to help me go back in time to recall those feelings.  It can be frustrating for gifted children as they are dealing with all of these ideas in their head, their tendency toward fairness and rules, and then their logic when working out social issues with other kids.  They also sometimes have conflicts with listening to the adult or their logic.

 

 

 

Communication is Key

Communication is key.

How often have we all heard that phrase?

Now let that phrase marinate.

Why is communication so key?  Communication is so important in our lives we even have a word for the times when communication goes awry.  Few of us master communication, and definitely not with everyone.  Why? Communication is always a transaction.  Verbal. Nonverbal. Always receiving.  Always responding.

I talk. You listen.

You talk. I listen.

Right?

One would hope.  In written word, this seems rational; however, once we get so fixated on what we are trying to say, we forget to listen.  I talk. You talk. No listen.

In reality, it’s not all about me.  And it’s not all about you.

One thing I have experienced in my role as a student recently is the propensity of everyone to talk in the classroom.  I left the classroom last night with my head reeling with questions not about the class topic, but human behavior.  We were to work on a group project.  After twenty of the thirty minutes assigned, two of the six were not budging.  They allowed their personal opinions to get in the way of the research and trends.  In the remaining 10 minutes, we debated, but came up with a good idea to present.  Someone presented, but only presented their opinions and pieces of the project they liked.  I was dashed that our project was not presented.  Especially when we all had good ideas.

Everyone is so concerned with being heard. It seems as though instead of listening actively, we are all so busy thinking about our response while the other person is talking, thus not actively listening or reflecting. We will only be intelligent as a society if we act like a society.  Collective knowledge benefits the whole community.

Collaboration is amazing.  It happens when communication is at least roughly effective.  Groups of people connect over common ideas, issues, etc. and create something.  Their minds come together to create!  Amazing!

Why are we all so hung up on our own ideas? Why are our experiences more important than those of others?

Apple Media Seminar for Education

Currently, I am attending the Apple Media Seminar for Education. The content is good. I’m ready for the budget to be created at my campus to do some cool things – basically, I would like a Macbook, a Snowflake and endless space on the server for some amazing content. It currently isn’t in my job description, but I think I’m ready to make the move back into nerdery. I love financial aid, but I feel I am gravitating toward technology. I left technology when I started school and took a financial aid position in 2004, then just never looked back. I wonder if I am just going through the motions and resisting what I really want to do. Maybe I’m not resisting. Maybe I haven’t found a job description to fit me just yet.

Kids are Under a Ton of Bricks Because…

College Consultants

While doing a service learning project at Roosevelt High School last fall, I heard about the strangest thing: a college coach. What did he do for this family? He helped their girls get into their schools. Got great aid packages. Hired ACT coaches for them. Seems a bit odd to me still.

Even though I am going through some of the college crunch now trying to get my youngest sister in-law into school, file the forms, etc. I’ve been doing this for students for about five years now. For what? My salary. My satisfaction. Their education. I understand orchestrating all of these services and knowing the ‘ins and outs’ can be difficult, especially for first generation college students. High schools and colleges offer many of these services for free! Seek and find. Make some phone calls. Maybe these consultants are great, but I don’t see the value in their extra cost.