3 days ago: Watching what other teachers are doing requires that the failing teacher care about the students more than themselves. As a former chairman of the Common Council's Education Committee, I don't see how such a voluntary system would be effective. It would still leave failing teachers in place. Considering that I helped to acquire more money to improve the education system, we got very little results for the increased expense. Especially when the education budget represented just over 50% of the entire city budget. As a result, I no longer see money as the solution when cities that had spent less had better results. Rewarding a failing teacher with higher pay didn't work despite the incentives for self-improvement. In a northeast city of over 79,000, we raised teacher pay to be competitive with other industries; and had to make adjustments to other areas of the school and city budgets in order to accommodate teacher salary increases, and got little increase in student performance. The reality of the situation is that we have to improve the system we have. Scrapping it and starting anew does not guarantee the new system will work any better than what we have now. Just look at the dismal the results of the new math. The top-down focus of No Child Left Behind was a failure despite the $5 billion spent on it. And, consider all the other attempts to increase school performance that left us way behind schools in other countries. So, if Bill Gates is stunned there is so little teacher feed back, then It is time for some serious peer review at the local school level.
4 days ago: Applying the ClassroomCam solely to teacher self-improvement would apply it only to teachers who desire to get better. It would not apply to those who are failing teachers who don't seem to care. It is this failing teacher who needs the ClassroomCam the most, despite their resistance, and your making it a self-improvement tool punishes the failing student in order to protect the failing teacher's rights. But, what about the rights of the failing student like me? And, what about everyone else who are forced to pay for the social ills of a poorly educated child as a result of the failing teacher?
4 days ago: The ClassCam is an interesting idea. However, placing a camera in the classroom only occasionally for evaluation purposes would be like having the principle sit in class. Teachers would know they need to perform well on that day. So the only way the ClassCam concept would work is to make it like a security camera that is always there. This way a panel of educators can monitor a series of random classroom activity and see how well the teacher is effective, and which students in the class are not, without either the teacher or the student knowing they are being evaluated. And, it would provide a security factor as well so that when a teacher wrongly accuses a student of theft and hits the student, like what was done to me as a student, there is a record of the event to protect both the student and the teacher. Or, in cases of mass shootings provide police with live feed of what is going on in the classroom at the time.
However, doing so has a negative constitutional aspect to it. Those on the far right would be quick to claim the ClassCam is an invasion of privacy by an overbearing government. So the only way for ClassCams to be utilized is to make it part of the teacher's contract that they would have to agree with in order to be employed by the school system.
May 11 2013: I like Ken's analogy that the student is only dormant and will grow when the proper conditions are put in place. Particularly when it comes to dealing with students from broken, abusive, dysfunctional, or economically restrained families. The student's potential is always there if the teacher can identify what element will encourage the curiosity necessary to begin to learn in each student. The problem I see, as a one of those students who fell between the cracks, is that I, as the student, did not identify if there was any attention to identify who I was, and what curiosity factor would ignite a child who dealt with more social ills daily than a child from a stable and well off family. Especially since with, an Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving profile, I may not have known I had the special traits that would much later in life make me a successful graphics and marketing manager without a college degree.
May 5 2013: You obviously never played one of the trilogy adventure games and observed how your kids interact with them. One of my sons had a language impaired learning disability, and I observed how his playing video games enabled him to overcome his disability. In time he was mainstreamed into normal classes, and went to college as a mainstreamed student at a college that had a learning disabled program. At one point I observed how it enabled him to write a 60-page run on sentence about a movie he was writing on his own on his PC. It was creative, with multiple plots and characters and was interesting to read. I showed it to his teachers and demanded that they place him in a creative writing class. They recommended against it. I insisted. He got a B average in the class and went on to attend a four year college in creative writing. Now an adult, he has spent the last few years researching and writing a book that he hopes to publish.
May 4 2013: RE: "Kids don't learn from people they don't like."
Absolutely! However, you don't have to be a teacher to be an educator. You can be a parent, a brother or sister, a friend, a neighbor, a stranger who is good at something you want to know, or even a web site. So, to be an effective educator you need to be an effective communicator and have a positive relationship with the student, such as a friendship, or at least mutual respect for who each party is. Without it no one is listening to what the educator has to teach no matter how good a teacher the educator is. Or, how interesting the subject.
Consider this, one of the reasons video games are so addictive to kids is that: 1) they have a respect for their young user no matter what the education, intellect level or race of the user is. 2) They challenge the user to reach higher levels of achievement and reward them when they do so. 3) The game is steadfast in its rules, does not listen to rages or rebellion, and forces the student to either abide by the rules or find the determination to experiment with alternative ways of getting around the limitations. 4) Video games don't talk down to their user and provide online groups where users can share their experiences, be a part of a group with shared interests, and learn from one another. 5) The game is an event, a shared experience, that gave them a thrilling or pleasant challenging activity the user wants to repeat over and over.
Apr 21 2013: How appropriate Joshua's talk appears on the weekend of the Boston Marathon Manhunt. There is much for all Americans to learn from Joshua's experience, injuries, remorse, anger, rehabilitation, determination and realization. Especially the victims of the bombings, because the terrorists most likely see themselves as the victims and could care less about the harm they did to others. It would be very helpful if Joshua visited the Boston Marathon victims in the coming weeks. He would be an inspiration for them that would speed their recovery.
Apr 6 2013: October 5, 1787, the "Centinel" published the following statement about the proposed Constitution:
"The senate, the great efficient body in this plan of government, is constituted on the most unequal principles. The smallest state in the union has equal weight with the great states of Virginia Massachusetts, or Pennsylvania. The Senate, besides its legislative functions, has a very considerable share in the Executive; none of the principal appointments to office can be made without its advice and consent. The term and mode of its appointment, will lead to permanency; the members are chosen for six years, the mode is under the control of Congress, and as there is no exclusion by rotation, they may be continued for life, which, from their extensive means of influence, would follow of course. The President, who would be a mere pageant of state, unless he coincides with the views of the Senate, would either become the head of the aristocratic junto in that body, or its minion, besides, their influence being the most predominant, could the best secure his re-election to office. And from his power of granting pardons, he might skreen from punishment the most treasonable attempts on liberties of the people, when instigated by the Senate.
From this investigation into the organization of this government, it appears that it is devoid of all responsibility or accountability to the great body of the people, and that so far from being a regular balanced government, it would be in practice a permanent ARISTOCRACY."
So, who are the people this government would represent?
According to Article IV of the Articles of the Confederation, non-free inhabitants, paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice were not citizens. A huge part of the population. Article X of the Constitution basically grandfathered it by not including any wording on voting rights or citizenship. It was Madison's "Great Compromise" that would give our government to a plutonomy & stalemate Congress in 2009.
Mar 16 2013: Conservative Barry Goldwater would immediately associate your comment with his quote in his book "With No Apologies," where the corporate desire for a one wold government as a result of the chaos created by its involvement in the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission. Barry Goldwater stated on page 231:
"Does it not seem strange to you that these men just happened to be CFR and just happened to be on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, that absolutely controls the money and interest rates of this great country without benefit of Congress? A privately owned organization, the Federal Reserve, which has absolutely nothing to do with the United States of America!"
Mar 8 2013: Your answer about throwing the baby out with the bath water ignores the fact that here has been a fundamental change in what was considered your Alfred Smith type traditional capitalism. Now, one has to question whether the hired management, who rig the business for bigger short-term compensation for themselves and their management team, have more control over the business than do the stockholders who own it and get stuck holding the losses when management's short-term efforts turn south. And when it does, management walks away with wealthy golden parachutes and leave everyone else to suffer for the greed of short-term profits.
I can speak from experience as both a former GOP common councilman, who was elected during the Reagan administration, and as a retired marketing communications manager/art director for some of the leading corporations in their industries. The unwanted influence by business that I experienced as a common councilman ran counter to my efforts as a marketing manager for companies that benefited from government spending. So I experienced both sides of the scenario. Business intervening in government is good only within limits. All this intervention in government by business, either by socially based businesses, or by conservative and military based businesses, create such competition for government funds and regulations that benefit them, that we have reached a point where all this competition has stalemated congress. Many of our regulating agencies, like the SEC, are no longer effective at their basic function because of the intervention of the very businesses they are supposed to regulate. The financial crash of 2008 is a perfect example of this.
I am not saying to throw captialism out, but rather to get back to the fundamentals that made it great. However, the question was, is it sustainable. The answer is, will it destroy itself in its evolution?
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A comment on Talk: Bill Gates: Teachers need real feedback
A comment on Talk: Bill Gates: Teachers need real feedback
A comment on Talk: Bill Gates: Teachers need real feedback
However, doing so has a negative constitutional aspect to it. Those on the far right would be quick to claim the ClassCam is an invasion of privacy by an overbearing government. So the only way for ClassCams to be utilized is to make it part of the teacher's contract that they would have to agree with in order to be employed by the school system.
A comment on Talk: Ken Robinson: How to escape education's death valley
A reply on Talk: Rita Pierson: Every kid needs a champion
A comment on Talk: Rita Pierson: Every kid needs a champion
Absolutely! However, you don't have to be a teacher to be an educator. You can be a parent, a brother or sister, a friend, a neighbor, a stranger who is good at something you want to know, or even a web site. So, to be an effective educator you need to be an effective communicator and have a positive relationship with the student, such as a friendship, or at least mutual respect for who each party is. Without it no one is listening to what the educator has to teach no matter how good a teacher the educator is. Or, how interesting the subject.
Consider this, one of the reasons video games are so addictive to kids is that: 1) they have a respect for their young user no matter what the education, intellect level or race of the user is. 2) They challenge the user to reach higher levels of achievement and reward them when they do so. 3) The game is steadfast in its rules, does not listen to rages or rebellion, and forces the student to either abide by the rules or find the determination to experiment with alternative ways of getting around the limitations. 4) Video games don't talk down to their user and provide online groups where users can share their experiences, be a part of a group with shared interests, and learn from one another. 5) The game is an event, a shared experience, that gave them a thrilling or pleasant challenging activity the user wants to repeat over and over.
A comment on Talk: Joshua Prager: In search of the man who broke my neck
A comment on Talk: Lawrence Lessig: We the People, and the Republic we must reclaim
"The senate, the great efficient body in this plan of government, is constituted on the most unequal principles. The smallest state in the union has equal weight with the great states of Virginia Massachusetts, or Pennsylvania. The Senate, besides its legislative functions, has a very considerable share in the Executive; none of the principal appointments to office can be made without its advice and consent. The term and mode of its appointment, will lead to permanency; the members are chosen for six years, the mode is under the control of Congress, and as there is no exclusion by rotation, they may be continued for life, which, from their extensive means of influence, would follow of course. The President, who would be a mere pageant of state, unless he coincides with the views of the Senate, would either become the head of the aristocratic junto in that body, or its minion, besides, their influence being the most predominant, could the best secure his re-election to office. And from his power of granting pardons, he might skreen from punishment the most treasonable attempts on liberties of the people, when instigated by the Senate.
From this investigation into the organization of this government, it appears that it is devoid of all responsibility or accountability to the great body of the people, and that so far from being a regular balanced government, it would be in practice a permanent ARISTOCRACY."
So, who are the people this government would represent?
According to Article IV of the Articles of the Confederation, non-free inhabitants, paupers, vagabonds, and fugitives from justice were not citizens. A huge part of the population. Article X of the Constitution basically grandfathered it by not including any wording on voting rights or citizenship. It was Madison's "Great Compromise" that would give our government to a plutonomy & stalemate Congress in 2009.
A reply on Conversation: How many days we can run the economy without productivity?
"Does it not seem strange to you that these men just happened to be CFR and just happened to be on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, that absolutely controls the money and interest rates of this great country without benefit of Congress? A privately owned organization, the Federal Reserve, which has absolutely nothing to do with the United States of America!"
A reply on Conversation: Is capitalism sustainable?
I can speak from experience as both a former GOP common councilman, who was elected during the Reagan administration, and as a retired marketing communications manager/art director for some of the leading corporations in their industries. The unwanted influence by business that I experienced as a common councilman ran counter to my efforts as a marketing manager for companies that benefited from government spending. So I experienced both sides of the scenario. Business intervening in government is good only within limits. All this intervention in government by business, either by socially based businesses, or by conservative and military based businesses, create such competition for government funds and regulations that benefit them, that we have reached a point where all this competition has stalemated congress. Many of our regulating agencies, like the SEC, are no longer effective at their basic function because of the intervention of the very businesses they are supposed to regulate. The financial crash of 2008 is a perfect example of this.
I am not saying to throw captialism out, but rather to get back to the fundamentals that made it great. However, the question was, is it sustainable. The answer is, will it destroy itself in its evolution?