The Global Search for Education: How to Support Your Education System
“70% of the variation in student achievement is accounted for by factors outside of the control of schools.” — Charles Ungerleider Professor Charles Ungerleider tells me he wrote his book, Failing Our Kids — How we are Ruining Our Public Schools (McClelland & Stewart, 2004), after he completed a term as Deputy Minister of Education for British Columbia. For 40 years he had observed the Canadian...
For the Children
Brooke Jackman Foundation 10th Anniversary Read-a-thon is at the World Financial Center Photo courtesy of Brooke Jackman Foundation. September 13, 2001 In the playroom outside the doctor’s office, my six-year-old son was maneuvering a toy airplane through Lego constructed twin towers. The doctor explained his stomach pains were a symptom of post traumatic stress. In the midst of the insanity, I had failed to notice the...
The Global Search for Education: What Do We Value Most?
“We need to focus on the kind of human beings we want to have and the kind of society in which we want to live” — Howard Gardner photo courtesy of Harvard University. What do the 81.5 million students in this country believe their families value most? Money? Success? Happiness? Knowledge? Power? Celebrity? Truth? A Healthy Planet? Good Work? Engaged Citizens? A Cultured Society? What should the 81.5 million...
The Global Search for Education: More Arts Please
More Arts Please Sir Photo Courtesy of Beechwood Sacred Heart School UK. “To lose our culture is to lose our memory.” More Leonardo da Vincis, more Martha Grahams, more Ludwig Van Beethovens, more Luciano Pavarottis, more Marlon Brandos, more Antoni Gaudis, more Coco Chanels, more Bob Dylans, more Zhang Xiaogangs, more William Shakespeares, more Julia Margaret Camerons, more Gustav Vigelands, more Andrew Lloyd...
The Global Search for Education: More Focus on Change
Early Steps to School Success, Save the Children US Programs photo: Rick D’Elia “I saw crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children alike.” — President Barack Obama, 2008 Change is painful. Change takes time. Change is trial and error, but isn’t change ultimately brought about by leadership which has the ability to rally all the policy makers around the...
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