The Global Search for Education: South Africa – Future Focus
May28

The Global Search for Education: South Africa – Future Focus

“It is the teacher who shows his/her students through her own behavior, what it means to be compassionate and accepting of others different from themselves, or not. It is the teacher who creates the opportunity for young people to practice democratic thinking and action.” – Dylan Wray Societies with turbulent racial pasts face challenges and opportunities when shaping their country’s future. As we learned from...

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The Global Search for Education: When Little Children Die
Dec17

The Global Search for Education: When Little Children Die

 “Grief will affect all. The trauma of losing a young child never goes away and the grief may be quite protracted, but healing occurs over time.” – Dr. Brian Fallon  When beautiful little children and their brave teachers die in a senseless act of unspeakable violence such as the one at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the nation cries.  The nation prays for relief from its overwhelming grief and from these prayers...

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The Global Search for Education: What to Do About Cheating?
Nov19

The Global Search for Education: What to Do About Cheating?

 “Research shows that students cheat more when they believe that grades and performance are valued in their classrooms and less when they believe that learning, deep understanding and mastery are valued.” — Dr. Denise Pope  Here are five misconceptions about a serious and widespread problem in education today: cheating isn’t a problem at my kid’s school; kids cheat in the same ways today as they did...

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The Global Search for Education: More on Cheating
Oct04

The Global Search for Education: More on Cheating

 “The stories of Bernie Madoff, subprime mortgages and the cheating scandals at Harvard and Stuyvesant High School illustrate that cheating is viral and spreads harm beyond the carrier of the virus.” — Tricia Bertram Gallant  After reading Howard Gardner’s article, Harvard’s Cheating Scandal as a Play in Four Acts, and listening to Dr. Gardner and Dr. Tricia Bertram Gallant on 90.9 WBUR Radio Boston,...

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The Global Search for Education: On Cheating
Sep03

The Global Search for Education: On Cheating

I applaud Dr. Howard Gardner for his op-ed in the Washington Post — “When Ambition Trumps Ethics” — relating to the current alleged and evolving cheating scandal at Harvard University. In a recent interview with Dr. Gardner, we discussed a number of the moral break-downs in our education system, including the problem of cheating (The Global Search for Education: What Is Good?). According to a survey of 24,000...

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The Global Search for Education: Racing to the Top at Four
May01

The Global Search for Education: Racing to the Top at Four

 “We believe that tutoring at such a young age should be done by the parents, not with a hired tutor.”– Michael McCurdy  Put down your teddy bear!  It’s time to take your standardized test. Does it matter that racing to the top threatens to push pre-schoolers into an academic environment too early? Michael McCurdy, the Co-Founder and CEO of TestingMom.com (a children’s tutoring service for...

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